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Browsing Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays by Subject ""REACTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN LIFE" A CASE STUDY OF THE AKANS OF GHANA"

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    REACTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN LIFE" A CASE STUDY OF THE AKANS OF GHANA
    (Tangaza University College, 2005) BENI, ALPHONSUS
    Traditionally, the African has a way of resolving life problems quite different from counseling in the western world. Pastoral counseling as practiced in the West is a new discipline in Africa." In this work, I intend to localise my research work on the Akan people of Ghana. Counseling in the view of the West, "is a professional service provided by a competent counselor, psychologist, or other mental health specialist that is intended to promote individual adaptability to changing life demands by helping clients develop or enhance a variety of personal-social, coping, and decision-making skills, or by helping clients to alter dysfunctional or undesired patterns of living."2 A more precis definition is given by Emmy M. Gichinga, which I think best fit the Akan understanding of counseling. "Basically counseling is a relationship. In this relationship, one person helps another to understand and solve their problems. So it has a Goal — it is a Helping Relationship."3 To understand the Akan people and how they react to problems in their lives, one need to have knowledge of the relationship of the individual to his own clan, tribe and family. It is indeed very difficult for a non-African to grasp the importance of the extended family system. Having knowledge of the symbolic Language, rituals and myths that is part of the Akan culture is necessary to understanding the experience of the Akan. Pastoral Counseling in Ghana, as in any part of the African continent, needs to be integrated within the context of the worldview of the culture of the people. To I Wicks & Estadt, Pastoral Counseling in a Global Church, Orbis Books, N.Y., 1993, 82. 2 Ranch, Judah & Co., The Counseling Source Book, Crossroad, N.Y , 1994, 175. 3 Emmy Ni. Gichinga, Basic Counseling Skills, Gem Counselling services, Nairobi, 1999, 2. understand the Akans of Ghana therefore, one has to have knowledge of their history, their culture, and their world-view in order to be able to know how they react to problems in their lives. In this research work, I intend to give a brief historical background of the Akan, their traditional system of government and that of their world-view. In chapter two, I shall discuss the Akan concept of causation of problems. This will be followed in chapter three by the role played by traditional people in counseling. In chapter four of this work, I shall give some theological application and recommendations on how Priests and Pastors can do pastoral counseling among the Akans by using both the Akan traditional values and the Christian values in helping people to react to problems in life. I shall give concluding remarks to end my work