We can term this kind of treatment as stereotype. Stereotype is largely frowned upon but it has managed to slowly become a part of our society where a lot of people don’t see anything wrong with it.
I am of the view that no one is born as a natural stereotype but certain factors change people or mould people into such behaviors. The environment we are raised in, the challenges and trauma we’ve been through and other factors cause some people to behave these way against others.
Most of us have been victims of stereotyping either directly or indirectly. And sometimes even we the victims stereotype against people.
My case was due to my tribe. I am from the Northen region of Ghana and a Dagomba by tribe. You wouldn’t see this as a problem till you leave the North to the South.
I was fortunate enough to gain admission into my high school of choice, T.I Ahmadiyya Senior High School I’m Kumasi. The school’s situated in the Ashanti Region of Ghana where the primary tribe there is Akans or Ashanti’s. The language spoken there is twi.
It’s natural that when you find yourself in a new environment, you become close to anything that reminds you of home. And that was exactly what I did. We had a lot of Northerners in my school and so when I realized that I associated myself with some of them.
We didn’t know that this was kind of a problem. The issue is that the school had seen so many of such instances where they form a group and cause problems.
Yes, this was partly true because our predecessors were very troublesome. It gave every other Northerner especially us Dagombas problems because everyone assumed that all Northerners are dagombas.
Because of their past experiences in the school and the general misconception that every dagomba is a troublemaker, it made life frustrating at times. Dagombas are accused of being troublemakers, being rude, being loud and a whole lot more. Every bad thing that happened in the school us Dagombas were blamed.
If a student is beaten and the language used isn’t twi or English, then the dagombas did it. If there’s any misunderstanding anywhere and twi or English isn’t heard, then dagombas did it. Even if some of the students caught are not once there’s a Northener, you’re taken as the leader and the one that caused everything.
The day I got fed up with this was a Wednesday morning at general assembly. The day before, a group of students beat a prefect for seizing someone’s phone. Most of the boys involved were Hausa students but surprisingly our senior house master with the mic in hand announced the prefect was beaten by Dagombas. Like come on even if we did, is that something to say? 🤷🏾♂️
We were all mad because we knew exactly those who did the beating. We had an association and our leader with some other executives decided to confront our senior house master and told him it wasn’t Dagombas who did that. All he did was say sorry to them and didn’t even correct his statement at the next assembly.
Anoter instance was when I got to shs 3. This time I was directly involved. I decided to run for a position. So I went for my house master to sign my form for submission and while I was there a house mistress just said they won’t approve any Northerner to stand for election. I was pissed and wasn’t to speak my mind but I just held it in didn’t say anything.
My house master then said to her that I wasn’t like my tribe mates and I’m different. I still didn’t utter a word and she still said they wouldn’t because we’re too much trouble.
I was amazed because she doesn’t know me and she just concluded I am trouble. You go through all this and if you’re not lucky you start to treat Ashanti’s the same way because it is very annoying I must admit.
Past experiences probably caused my school authorities to have this misconception and behave this way but then it’s completely wrong. We’re all different and everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt.
I pray and hope we all do better.
Thank you.
