Dressing is an important part of every culture. It is a way of portraying ones culture visually. Every country have their own way or style of dressing. And usually people can tell where somebody come from by the way that person is dressed. This paper is basically going to be about the different ways people of Ghana and America dress for occasions. People of different countries dresses in different ways for styles for different occasion. Most of the time people can tell the importance or non importance or even the kind of occasion a person is attending by the way he or she is dressed. Some of the occasions that I will be discussing in this essay are Funerals, Church services, Weddings, Parties, Festivals, Graduations and School Pragrams. All these functions or occasions can be found in both Ghana and America but the dressing to each of these occasions differ among these two countries. Before I discuss the difference in the way people of these two countries dresses for any of the above occasions I will like to write a little about Ghana and how they dress in general since most Americans do not know much about Ghana.
Ghana is located in the Western part of Africa, it is a developing country that practices democray. It has several regions or tribes and each of these tribes have their language and way of dressing. Dressing in general in Ghana traditionally reflects the geo-political division of the country into north and south. Kente is the most popular cloth for festive occasion. Cloth is commonly worn by men fromthe south and the smock which is becoming a gown for all occasions and common among men from the north. In the southern part of the country donning the kente as toga-style robes are for, or as skirts, tops, and headdresses for women. Kente cloth is woven in bright, narrow strips with complex patterns; It's usually made from cotteon and is always woven outdoors excludively by men. Ghanaians have worn kente as a garment of celebration, to commemorate the importance of an event or time of year. Kente is the most ceremonial, you don't wear it around the house. It's a bit like having a tuxedo. Even when not woven for clothing, the use of kente conveys distinction. It is special by design--making even one narrow strip requires considerable effort. The appearence of the kente signifies culture. The colors the kentes are made in also have their significance; Green is fertility and new harvest, gold is royalty, black is aging and spirituality, whit is purity. The kente cloth and the smock can be purchased at any commercial market in the urban areas where they are sold by numerous merchants.
Today kente and smock are not only used for festive occassions but also during the rituals associated with the important events of life; for example, marriage, death, and religious worship. Therefore, it is quiet approprate for outsiders to wear it for religious and festive occasions.
We Ghanaians set much store on dressing. We consider it respestful to dress decently for social fuctions and especially for visits to iur palaces. It is considered disrespectul to attend such fucctions and especially for visits to our palaces in crumpled dirty clothes and unkempt hair. Our folks are also not very happy to see a woman or lady dress in shorts or trousers. Another thing is that if you are wearing a hat or cap, it has to be removed when speaking with an elderly person. That shows your outward respect for our traditions. With the above idea in mind I will like to go ahead and dicuss the some differences and smilarities on dressing for occasions among the people of Ghana and America.
Funerals is the first occasion I will like to discuss. In Ghana, funerals are great public events, where families compete for prestige and respect by showing of wealth and by publicly conforming to norms of solidarity and respect for the dead. People wear black or very dark colored kente, smock and GTP clothing for funerals. The men wear their clothing in a toga-style robes with no form of head bond whiles the women wear their clothing in very long skirts, tops and black headscarves. On the other hand, the Americans smirlarly wears black or dark colors for funerals too but the men wear suites whiles the women wear dresses. Sometimes you see both men and women in black or dark colored pants or jeans with a T-shirt or a top same color to go with it. Some women are sometime seen in skirt suite or pants suite with a black hat and a lace covering their face.
Second, church service among religious people from both Ghana and America is a worshiping ceremony. In Ghana most christians go to church on Sundays just as America. People put on their best kente and smock to go for church services. Men wear cloth, shirts, shorts and sometimes pants made with the tradition clothing materials with designs in them. The women also wear a long wrap of colorful designed kente and GTP around their wiast with a top matching the down. Some women wear headscarves made with the same cloth they have on other do not. In the church everybody both young and old put on their best, people that have nothing to do in terms of leading the service and those who do are all nicely dress.
But one thing I have learnt in America is that people leading the service come to church in nice suites especially the men, whiles the others put on anything the want. Depending on the whether you see people come to church in jeans, T-shirts, slippers etc. The idea of wearing your best clothing to church among Ghanaians is not the same with American. I am not saying people do not dress nice to church in America, some people do a few people.
Thirdly, Weddings are grand festive occasions in both Ghana and America. Again people of Ghana wear their best colorful kente and smock to the occasion. Americans also wear their nice suites, pants, skirts, tops etc to wedding ceremonies.
Other occasions that are mentioned above are graduations, parties and school programs. In each of this occasions Americans dress to suit the occasion in so many different ways. Americans have causal dressing for school events and the like. They also have formal dressing for business and work and they have fancy or informal but decent dressing for socializing events. Americans are fashionable, there are so many fashions or type of materials or fabrics to choose from, for example silk, cotton, nylon, polyster, liene and many more in America. All these fabric have different styles that they are sworn in. This give Americans different things to wear. But Ghanaians on the other hand are stock with kente, smock and GTP.
Also, American follow fashion in some my ways, they are creative. An individual may decide to dress a certain way to a particular fuction to make a fashion statement. People will see it and they will start dressing like this person and that becames a fashion or a style of dressing. Ghanaians however are not creative. Every thing in Ghana when it comes to dressing is about tradition. Therefore it is had to make a change, people still dress like our forefathers did years ago.
In conclusion, one can tell or see that the people of Ghana and America culturally are not the same and that have influence the way they dress to occasions. Eventhough these countries have same occasions, the dressing to these occasions visually depictes their cultures and make other people see the differences among them.
