Ga

West Africa

The Ga people founded Accra, now Ghana’s capital, arriving in the region in the 16th century according to oral tradition and organizing themselves into six independent coastal towns. They speak a Kwa language closely related to, but not mutually intelligible with, that of their neighbors the Adangbe.

Did you know?

The Ga people's Homowo festival (literally 'hooting at hunger') commemorates a historic famine that ended in a bountiful harvest, and is marked with kpokpoi, a dish of ground corn and palm nut soup sprinkled on the ground to honor ancestors.

Proverbs (3)

If you speak in respect of heaven, you must say something about the earth too.

Praising the sky alone leaves half the world unaccounted for. The proverb asks for a complete accounting rather than a convenient one, for speech, and judgment, that acknowledges the ordinary ground as well as the exalted heaven.

When someone has done you a good turn, you do not turn your buttocks to express your appreciation.

Turning away from someone is about as pointed a way of dismissing them as there is, and the proverb says that's exactly the wrong response to a kindness. Gratitude, it argues, has to be shown plainly and sincerely, not withheld or given half-heartedly.

It is by doing it bit by bit and softly that the housefly ate the dog's ear.

A housefly could never take on a dog's ear all at once: the only way through is small, quiet, repeated effort that doesn't look like much in any single moment. This proverb credits that unglamorous persistence with accomplishing what force alone couldn't.

Names (3)

First names

Aba

Given to a girl born on Tuesday, in the Ga day-name system.

Kofi

Given to a boy born on Friday, in the Ga day-name system.

Kojo

Given to a boy born on Monday, in the Ga day-name system (a distinct tradition from, but related to, the Akan and Ewe day-name systems).

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