Leveraging Gods’ Influence in Sustaining Byelaws in Ghana: A Case of Dipo Practice in Yilo-Krobo

Abstract

This article explored the extent to which the gods’ factor in the development and implementation process of Dipo, a womanhood initiation rite of the Krobo people of Ghana, had regulated sexual behaviour among young people. The Dipo womanhood rite has been introduced by the gods many centuries ago as an important part of the socialization process. The study adopted the quantitative research design approach. The target population was all young girls within the age bracket of 15-24 years in Yilo Krobo, which was purposively selected for this study because the Dipo rite was a unique indigenous culture of the people. The simple random sampling technique infomed the selection of the respondents. In all, 284 indigenous young girls, 15-24 years old in Yilo-Krobo, Ghana  were structurally interviewed to ascertain the power of Dipo practice and the gods’ influences on its sustenance. STATA 14.0 was adopted to analyse the data. Findings revealed the need for re-visitation (Sankofa) of some past practices and entrench them for development in the present. Further, the study revealed a strong correlation between the gods’ element and the development and implementation success of Dipo, which tends to highlight the relevance of divine command in development. The article espoused the values of African traditional practices and stimulated discussions on leveraging the gods’ factor in the process of policy development and implementation in Ghana. Byelaws are very likely to be sustained with compliance if residents are sensitized to believe that they were formulated with the endorsement of the gods of the land. Largely, the average Ghanaian strongly believes that the lesser gods or divinities play a crucial role in their wellbeing and the development of their society. The study therefore recommends the need to apply the gods’ factor in policy initiatives to attain compliance and sustainability for development in Ghana.