Culture of Africa
In Ghana you will be confronted with cultural differences. Getting acquainted with some local customs before your departure will ease communication with the local people once you are in Ghana. For this reason, we listed some aspects of the African culture below.

Friendship
Making friends with people you like (especially if they are of the same gender and age explain and clarify cultural differences for you. They can offer you an introduction to their culture and cultural events, like weddings, funerals etcetera.

Visits
Visits to ill acquaintances will be greatly appreciated. In general, it is very common to regularly visit people you know. What may seem odd to foreigners is that you may decide to stick around not very long. You visit, greet and then leave. Greetings and regular visits are crucial for establishing good relations with people and an important part of the Ghanaian culture.

African Time
You probably know that Africans are less bound to time than we are. Not many Ghanaians will announce visits and agreed times for meetings but are often not met - if a time was agreed on at all. You will regularly find yourself waiting for other people who you agreed to meet at a certain time and place. When confronted with their absence, their response will probably be surprised. Rain, for example, is a legitimate reason to postpone or cancel a meeting “Africans don't go outside when it rains". To arm yourself against annoyance, you will have to develop patience. In Ghana, a lot of time is spent on waiting. Apparently Ghanaians understand that Westerners need to develop patience to adept the Ghanaian life style. Patience is a highly respected trait in Ghanaian culture; patient people are wise and will achieve anything, because they take the time to get there. Impatient people are looked down on; their behavior is regarded as childish. This is why it is pointless to loose your temper when things run slower than you want them to be: as a response, people tend to move even slower to get things done for you.

Curiosity
In the Western culture we are used to pose a lot of questions. It shows an interest in the person with who you are conversing. In Ghana too much curiosity is seen as rude. To ask many questions to somebody means you don't trust the person or you want to criticize him. If you ask somebody too much about how things are organized or where somebody has been; people can get irritated. Try to develop to trust people without the need to know how and when exactly things will be arranged.

Right Hand
Only the right hand is used for eating. Ghanaians will wash their buttocks with their left hand. Hence it is very impolite to use this hand. Anything is passed with using only the right hand. If you cannot avoid using your left hand, for example when you are holding something heavy in your right hand, you will say “excuse left".

Social Security
To most indigenous Ghanaians, it is very common to visit and greet your acquaintances and to give money or goods to friends who need them; there is less awareness of yours and mine. The easy sharing might be the reason why Ghanaians see no use in saving money: why save money, if you can loose it to someone else in a second? This will lead to a problem, however, when there are unexpected high expenses, for example a hospital bill. The solution is to rely on your carefully built social network. Whenever a large sum of money is needed, it is recollected from your friends, or people that you gave money to in the past. In this way, your social network serves you as a social insurance. This is why it is so important to be known and liked by many people. Related to this is the importance of keeping your reputation high. This is why people put so much effort in being respected or liked by others. Consequently, honesty and sincerity - two very important qualities in Western cultures- are not always viewed very positively. Instead, respect, politeness and helping other people are valued highly.

Dress Code
Ghanaians tend to dress up for visits or trips to town. The traditional backpackers outfit is not very well received by Ghanaians. If you are rich - and as a Westerner you are - you must have a lack of respect or respect for the other person if dressed in worn out clothes. It is relatively cheap and easy to have your clothes made form local fabrics. Next to dressing nicely, it is important to dress properly. Bare thighs or hips are taboo. Women wear shorts underneath their skirts to ensure covering of these parts. Wearing shorts-only will raise an eyebrow with the locals, as it is viewed as underwear. If you sit down, make sure not to spread or cross your legs. On the other hand, bare chest are more accepted than we are used to. Bare chest women are a common sight in villages. Last, all girls wear earrings that identifies you as a real woman.Join in with daily activitiesIt is recommended to help the people in your compound with their daily activities right from the start. You will be told to rest and stop helping, but it pays to insist and pretend to be angry or disappointed when you are not allowed to help. In the end, people will call on you to join them in activities of which they know you like to help. Examples of daily activities are fetching water, sweeping the floor, doing laundry, cooking, picking fruits and wood from the forest, carrying babies, helping to construct new homes, seed peanuts, help women to sell products on the market, and many more. Joining the daily activities will reward you with a sense of belonging and having nice interactions (verbal or non-verbal) with the locals.