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TheRepublic of Ghana is located on the West coast of the African continent.

Thereis a population of approximately 27. 5 million people, and the official languageis English. The country was formed as a merger of the British colony of theGold Coast and the Togoland trust territory (The World Factbook, 2017). Thecapital of the country is the city of Accra, located near the coast of theAtlantic Ocean.

The country was before its independence an area of colonizationby the Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and English merchants who used the gold coastfor the trading of slaves (GhanaWeb, 2017). The country has been a large factorin the slave trade in the 18th century where the colonies ofEuropean countries had built large castles and forts along the coastline. Colonialpowers would fight for these locations, that would function as signs of power. These battles would also lead to certain countries to pull out of Ghana, wherethe Netherlands were the last before Great Britain. Great Britain was the lastcolonial power present in the country and therefore made the Gold Coast a crowncolony (GhanaWeb, 2017).  Thecountry of Ghana gained its independence from colonial power in 1957 and wasamong the first African nations to do so. This switch to independence was ledby Kwame Nkrumah who saw the independence of Ghana meaningless. The rest of theAfrican nation then followed.

This resulted in more than 30 countries todeclare its independence the following decade (Boateng, 2017). Ghana turned outto be a frontrunner for other African countries, showing independency and awillingness to take the first step. This followed an immigration boom to Ghanamainly from Nigeria, which led to immigrants being 12% of the total population(The World Factbook, 2017). Again, in the 1990’s the immigration of skilledGhanaians faced Ghana with problems in its healthcare and education managementand development.

This wave of immigrants also resulted in a downfall for thecountry, facing a severe drought and economic issues. Ghana had after itsindependence been struggling with issues such as “ corruption, mismanagement and military achieved growth and achievement”(Boateng, 2017). Although, Ghana is now seen as an African frontrunner in termsof its economy and political processes. It is interesting to see whether thisdevelopment in a country that has faced a lot of adversity have the capacity tohave a tolerance within its population towards diversity such as religion. Ghana is a country where there is a majority of Christian citizens (71. 2%), alongwith a population of Muslims (17. 6%) (The World Factbook, 2017).

Otherreligions are also present but they serve as a minority. 2. 2 RELIGIONInorder to clarify how the term ‘ religion’ is understood and used throughout thisproject, a definition follows. One definition of religion could be the emphasisof the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power e. g. a personalGod or Gods (Oxford Dictionary: “ Religion).’Religion’is a term used in everyday conversations where the notion of what one reallymeans when referring to something being ‘ religious’ is obvious.

Theconversation usually goes on without the need for an explanation to what ismeant when saying ‘ religion’ or what it means to be ‘ religious’. In an academicfield, this is being questioned. What do we mean and how do we distinguishbetween when something is religious and something is not? What is ‘ religion’? Due to the fact that the term ‘ religion’ is regarded as being a multifacetedphenomenon, several approaches to defining religion has been embracedthroughout the project. Approaches that though complement each other andstructure the otherwise very broad term. Asone definition has not been recognized and agreed upon by academics within thestudy of religion and theology, religion is by Dr Anderson suggestion in herTed Talk to be a term which the individual has to define for themselves (Clark & Clark, 1998), p.

6). This is due to the fact that spirituality and religion are understoodand contains different meanings depending on who you ask and in which time andcontext you ask within (Dr Anderson, 2015, 4: 15-5: 16 ). Dr Anderson gives theexample of some people going to church because of the music; some people likethe feeling of the mosque during prayer, etc. She states that for most peopleit is not about the belief, it is about the feeling that it gives you (DrAnderson, 2015, 9: 00 – 9: 51). Onecould be wondering about the term ‘ religion’ question the difference betweenculture and religion. Is there an end to where culture stops and religioncontinue? Or do the two practices co-exist in order to make sense of the world? A philosophy of life, one could argue. Butwhy is the culture not enough then? Why do some people need religion? Anindication of culture and religion being interdependent is from these twoquestions clear. Culture and religion often interweave.

Religion is a structurethat helps people to make sense of life (Berger, 1967) . Fromthe questions asked above, one should have the impression that religion isloaded with complexities and dynamics that overlaps the other. The existence ofthese complexities is something we are aware of throughout the project.

Thisawareness should be emphasized in order to avoid misinterpreting the datagathered and analyzed. The suggestion by Dr Anderson on the individual definingreligion for themselves has been embraced.  Furthermore, to embrace a philosopher’s position, Emile Durkheim’s definition of religionhas been embraced as it compliments Dr Anderson’s notion of a free interpretiveapproach. This definition and point of departure are embraced by EmileDurkheim, as he wrote in 1912: “ A religion is a unified system ofbeliefs and practices relative sacred things, that is to say, things set apartand forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moralcommunity called a Church, all those who adhere to them.” (Durkheim, 1912, p. 34). Theproject has chosen to embrace Durkheim’s definition together with Dr Andersonapproach as the two regard religion and spirituality as being a system ofunification where people connect as a sense of belonging, but at the same timelet the individual choose for themselves how to define religion as it anindividual experience and feeling that it contributes as well.

This approach isyet supported by Clark & Clark where the two authors present the concept oftwo ways of defining religion. One is the substantiveand the other the functionalist approach. According to the first, religions is defined in terms of its belief content (Clark & Clark, 1998, p. 2). Meaning that religion is centred around the belief in something supernaturalthat is existing alongside the world of the already known existence of life. This approach has been criticized to not recognize or respect themultidimensional nature of religion.

The functionalist approach, and theapproach that this project has chosen to absorb, regards religion from a ratherdifferent position than the substantives position. As its name indicates, thefunctionalist emphasis in its definition of religion on the functions ofreligion rather than the content of the belief. By looking at the role ofreligion in society and by looking at the ways in which religion binds togetherthe members of a community into one coherent whole (Clark & Clark, 1998, p.

4). This functionalist position is embraced throughout our project as we lookat how religion plays into part of people’s lives in Tamale and how they regardreligion as a practice whose existence is dependent through a socialinteraction.  2. 3 TOLERANCE Thispaper will use the word tolerance in a specific sociological context.

Theofficial definition of the term, according to Merriam-Webster the termsignifies the “ sympathy or indulgence forbeliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own’, it is the’act of allowing something” (Merriam-Webster, 2017). In this case, the termis used to describe the personal allowance for Ghanaians to live in a societywhere there are different opinions, political orientations, religious beliefs, and race. It is used to outline the amount of grant the citizens of Ghanaexpress towards factors of society and life, that does not necessarily have acomplete match with how their life is shaped. 2.

4 RELIGIOUSTOLERANCE Whenusing the term tolerance in a religious context, it is referred to the ideathat religious belief is not establishing a basis for conflict within thepopulation. When mentioning religious toleration, it is referring to the notionthat Ghanaians are living in harmony side-by-side, without letting a differentbelief or a direction of life conflict with their own. The term is used tooutline how the citizens are allowing different beliefs into their society andnot letting it affect how they treat or perceive one another as a member ofthat specific belief, but rather as a fellow citizen of Ghana.  Inregards to religious tolerance, the German theologist Gustav Mensching draws adistinction between formal and contextual tolerance. In his work ‘ Tolerance andtruth in religion,’ he refers to formal tolerance as the state where otherreligions are accepted in terms of simply letting them be and coexist (Yousefi, 2010, p. 104). This does not imply the appreciation as an enrichment though, amongst other reasons it could also emerge out of indifference.

Formaltolerance often occurs in countries’ constitutions in the form of freedom ofbelief as well as in the UN Charter which is an agreement following the UnitedNations conference in San Francisco (1945) (UN, 2017) (Yousefi, 2010, p. 104f.). The common reasons to postulate and support formal tolerance are thenon-enforceability of vigorous belief, the human right which is freedom ofworshipping a God and the Christian love that forbids going after others forholding another belief (Yousefi, 2010, p. 105).

Thecontextual tolerance, however, goes beyond just letting various and differentbeliefs coexist and does include the positive recognition and appreciation ofthem as another religious opportunity to encounter the holy, positive and trueappreciation of that other belief is expected to be the result of contextualtolerance. Furthermore, to Mensching showing other cultures respect andappreciation poses an ethical claim due to creating a safe environment forsubjects to develop their personal identity based on their cultural andtraditional background without needing to fear discrimination. (Yousefi, 2010, p. 106) Thisproject will thus accept religious tolerance as being the accepting of areligious choice. The acceptance can then be argued to be either formal orcontextual. 2.

5 ATHEISMTheterm ‘ atheist’ is in this paper defined as a person with no religious beliefsor of any connection with religious practices. It is a person that does notbelieve in anything of a religious context. According to Merriam-Webster, it isa person who does not believe in the existence of any God. One who subscribesto or advocates atheism. Atheism, is the exact disbelief, and philosophicalposition that there is no existence of a God or Gods (Merriam- Webster, 2017).