Communicating Sexuality and Reporting Reproductive Health Issues Among the Akan: Questions of Morality, Profanity, and Culture

Societies structure their communication relationships in a variety of ways. The Akan in Ghana have a peculiar way of communicating issues relating to their sexuality. They find it difficult mentioning the real names of the human sex organs; they prefer employing various metaphors to signify these. It is not clear what the reasons are and how feasible this becomes when they (Akan) are confronted with reporting reproductive health since it is usually considered important for patients to indicate specific parts of the body that ail for appropriate diagnosis and healthcare. The study investigated how the Akan communicate sexuality generally, and how this affects their reporting of reproductive health issues. It was grounded on the rhetorical sensitivity theory. A multiple case study was employed for the study. In all, eight respondents were sampled and were categorised into two as cultural respondents and medical respondents. Cultural respondents comprised the Fante ethnic group of the larger Akan group. One respondent each was selected from three Fante traditional communities.