a)

Festivals in Ghana and the people who celebrate them

b)

Reasons why festivals are celebrated in Ghana

1. To honour the gods and the ancestors for their protection and ask for their guidance and blessings for the coming year
2. To settle family disputes
3. To plan community development projects and raise funds
4. To promote tourism: Some of the festivals celebrated in Ghana attract a lot of foreigners (tourist) into the country
5. To pay homage: Festivals bring people from far places to their hometowns to pay homage to their chiefs
6. To preserve and maintain cultural and traditional heritage

a)

b)

Effects of superstitious beliefs in Ghana

1. Allows human right abuse
2. Slows/retards development/progress
3. Prevents scientific growth and development
4. Brings extreme/irrational fear
5. Brings conflict between society
6. Brings conflict between family members
7. Creates mistrust among individuals in a community
8. Discourages one from seeking appropriate solutions to problems
9. Creates tension in society as people are wrongly accused of witchcraft
10. Retards development initiatives
11. Encourages rest
12. Helps to maintain law and order
13. Promotes environmental conservation and protection
14. Controls spread of communicable or contagious diseases
15. Promotes outmoded cultural practices
16. Prevents people from being wicked to others
17. Lots of money is spent on purification rites and sacrifices
18. Prevents crime
19. Does not lead to critical thinking or scientific thinking

(a)

Reasons why the transatlantic slave trade continued for a long time

1. The European slave traders found trading in human beings very profitable
2. Slaves offered valuable economic labour on sugar, cotton and coffee plantations in the West Indies and America
3. There was ready market for slaves in mines in South America
4. The African chiefs were very greedy to make much money
5. The middlemen found it profitable
6. Africans were not recognized in their own governments to be able to oppose the traders with a united front
7. Most Africans did not know their rights
8. Some chiefs wanted guns and gunpower to wage wars to conquer other territories/to expand their kingdoms and empires
9. Red Indians could not cope with the volume of work on the plantations and mines in America and West Indies

(b)

Negative effects of the slave trade on West Africa

1. Many Africans were killed during slave raids and ethnic wars for slaves and it led to a reduction in the youthful population
2. There was loss of manpower as about 210 million able-bodied young men and women who could have worked for development were taken away
3. There was racial discrimination as the Africans were treated as sub-human beings by their white slave masters
4. Africans dispersed to many parts of the world especially the Americans, West Indies, Asia and Europe
5. Africans suffered loss of image and self-respect. They felt inferior to people of other races
6. The trade made West Africans generally unsafe because of slave raids and tribal wars
7. Africans became more barbaric and brutal than before the trade
8. Africans lost confidence in themselves in their ability to rely on their own minds and efforts to development

a)

Features of a slum

1. Overcrowded settlement
2. Filthy/dirty environment/poor sanitation
3. Buildings not well arranged
4. Narrow or no streets
5. Presence of criminals
6. Buildings are made from inferior materials
7. Pressure on social facilities
8. Presence of social vices
9. Frequent outbreak of diseases e.g. cholera

b)

Measures to prevent slums in the urban towns of Ghana

1. Town planners to provide good layout
2. Building plans to be approved by the authorities
3. Demolishing of unauthorized buildings
4. Provision of streets before settlements develop
5. Waste collection facilities must be provided/improvement in sanitation
6. Orderly arrangement of buildings
7. Control of rural-urban migration
8. Putting up of low-cost building/states
9. Public education on the dangers of slums
10. Enforcement of bye-laws on town planning