> Me too, since COVID. East Legon, near Blue House (if you know Accra, you know what I mean.) I know East Legon; in fact I live not too far from that neighborh

> Me too, since COVID. East Legon, near Blue House (if you know Accra, you know what I mean.) I know East Legon; in fact I live not too far from that neighborhood. I also grew up here, but spent some years in the US before returning. Maybe we can meet and reach a consensus (or agree to disagree) over coffee, if you're up for it :) > The Ghana card requires it. It's called 'HOMETOWN' vs 'place of birth'. If you are a Fanti, and try to say Accra is your hometown they won't accept it. [1] While the application may require you to specify your hometown, there is no verification for this, in so far as your many Ghanaians live and were born in towns different from where they traditionally come from. In other words, your hometown does not necessarily indicate your ethnicity, and many Ghanaians are of mixed ethnicity, like myself. I'm sure I could claim to be from a different hometown, and they would have absolutely no way to verify it. As an indication that is it not considered an important piece of information, the hometown does not actually appear on the card you are issued with. > For a living example, let's take the Akan supergroup. There are various tribes within the supergroup, and in general each speaks a language that is mutually intelligible with tribes that they border. However, the further you get away from your hometown, the less likely that you can easily understand what's being spoken even though it's an 'Akan' language. It's just a matter of definition. I assure you that most Akans will not have a problem understanding the language spoken in other nearby towns, save for some groups that are distant from the mainstream Akan culture, like the Nzema. > As per above, the Akan aren't a tribe. In so far as they share many aspects of culture (e.g., matrilineal inheritance, a common origin story, common naming system, etc.) that are distinct from non-Akan cultures, then by the definition of "tribe" they can indeed be classed as such. Now you might prefer to call them a supergroup, but that does not invalidate my point. See the point I'm making is, the concept of tribe can actually obscure that commonalities between people. There is evidence of significant cross-cultural influence amongst the various groups in Ghana. Many Ghanaians do not know this, but there is even an ethnicity ("tribe" if you may) called the "Guan" that is indigenous to 8 regions. They can be found an as enclave within almost every major ethnicity in Ghana. This fact shows how complex the concept of ethnicity can be. > What would you call it instead? A word like "ethnic group" does not have the baggage of colonialist attitudes, and it is used for people all over the word (including western countries), so I'm comfortable with that.