The genesis of Muslims’ low status in Ghana: How history, education, child begging shaped a public image

FOR decades, the relatively low socio-economic status and limited public visibility of Muslims in Ghana have been a subject of quiet concern and, at times, open debate. Despite Islam being one of the country’s major religions, Muslims remain underrepresented in elite professions, national politics, and influential decision-making spaces. This reality did not emerge overnight. Rather, it is the product of historical trajectories, colonial encounters, educational choices, and contemporary social challenges that continue to shape public perceptions today.

Islam’s entry into the territories of present-day Ghana occurred largely through peaceful means. Unlike regions where Islam spread through conquest or state patronage, Ghana’s encounter with Islam was mediated by trans-Sahelian trade networks. Muslim traders, itinerant clerics, Qur’anic teachers, and migrants from areas that now form northern Nigeria and parts of the Sahel brought the faith southward. Their influence was significant but largely informal, embedded in commerce, scholarship, and spiritual authority rather than centralised political power.

The form of Islam that took root emphasised ritual devotion, memorisation of the Qur’an, spiritual discipline, and moral conduct. Qur’anic schools flourished, producing generations of Muslims deeply grounded in religious knowledge and communal values. However, this religious tradition was not, at the time, strongly oriented toward Western-style formal education, bureaucratic systems, or modern state institutions. This distinction would later prove decisive.

With the advent of colonial rule, Western education became the primary gateway to social mobility, public office, and economic advancement. Christian mission schools, often working hand in hand with colonial administrators, dominated the educational landscape. These institutions produced the early educated elite who would later occupy influential positions in government like the civil service, and the professions.

Muslim communities approached this new educational system with caution. Their hesitation was not simply theological conservatism or resistance to modernity, as is sometimes portrayed. It was also a practical response to an educational enterprise that openly sought to Christianise local populations and marginalise existing Islamic learning systems. Many Muslim parents feared that sending their children to mission schools would result in religious conversion and moral erosion. In hindsight, this skepticism reflected an acute awareness of the colonial project’s cultural and religious agenda.

However, the long-term consequences of this caution were profound. As Western education became the dominant route to economic and political power, Muslims who remained outside this system found themselves increasingly marginalised. Educational gaps translated into limited access to formal employment, civil service positions, and national leadership roles. Many Muslims remained concentrated in informal economic sectors such as trading, artisanal work, and small-scale commerce—activities that, while essential to Ghana’s economy, rarely conferred national influence or elite status.

Over time, this structural marginalisation shaped public perceptions. Muslims came to be viewed as socially and economically “invisible,” underrepresented in prestigious professions and peripheral to national decision-making. These perceptions hardened into stereotypes that persist in subtle and overt ways within Ghanaian society.

In recent decades, another factor has further complicated this picture: the widespread phenomenon of street begging, particularly involving children, in major urban centres and regional capitals. A significant number of these children are popularly believed to have been brought from neighboring Sahelian countries such as Niger and Nigeria. In some of these contexts, child begging—often under the supervision of rented or contracted guardians—is normalszed as part of religious learning, survival strategies, or economic coping mechanisms.

In Ghana, however, the visibility of young beggars on busy streets has had a damaging effect on the public image of Muslims. The sight of children, often dressed in Islamic attire, soliciting alms reinforces narratives of poverty, neglect, and social disorder. These narratives are frequently and unfairly generalised to the entire Muslim population, despite the fact that many Ghanaian Muslims neither support nor benefit from the practice.

The issue is not solely religious. It sits at the intersection of migration, poverty, weak child protection systems, and inadequate cross-border regulation. Ghana’s urban centres have become magnets for vulnerable populations, and the absence of coordinated regional policies has allowed exploitative practices to persist.

State intervention has been sporadic and inconsistent. From time to time, authorities have attempted to address the problem through deportation of foreign child beggars to their countries of origin. These efforts, however, have largely failed. Many of the children return shortly after being repatriated, resuming their activities on Ghanaian streets. This cycle highlights the inadequacy of enforcement-only approaches that do not address root causes such as poverty, lack of education, family disintegration, and regional economic inequality.

Weak enforcement of child protection laws, limited social welfare infrastructure, and poor cross-border collaboration have all contributed to the persistence of the problem. Rehabilitation programmes, where they exist, are often underfunded and short-lived, offering little in the way of sustainable alternatives for affected children.

Moreover, compounding these structural failures is an unresolved theological tension within Muslim scholarly discourse itself. Islamic teachings generally emphasise dignity, self-reliance, and communal responsibility. Many classical and contemporary scholars strongly discourage or outright prohibit begging except in cases of extreme necessity. Others, however, permit it under specific conditions, particularly in contexts of poverty, displacement, or religious learning.

This lack of consensus has produced ambiguity at the community level. Religious leaders often struggle to articulate a unified position that unequivocally condemns exploitative child begging while offering a theologically grounded alternative rooted in Islamic ethics of care, charity, and social justice. The resulting moral uncertainty weakens communal authority and complicates policy engagement with the state.

Yet, it would be misleading to frame the situation as one of religious failure alone. The challenges facing Muslim communities in Ghana are deeply structural and historical. They reflect decades of educational exclusion, economic marginalisation, and policy neglect rather than inherent religious dispositions. In recent years, encouraging signs have emerged: increasing Muslims participation in higher education, growing representation in the professions, and renewed efforts by Islamic organisations to integrate religious learning with modern schooling.

Addressing the current challenges—particularly child begging and damaging public perceptions—requires coordinated, long-term strategies. The state must strengthen child protection systems, invest in rehabilitation and education, and deepen regional cooperation to address cross-border vulnerabilities. Muslims leadership must work toward clearer theological guidance that aligns Islamic principles with child rights and social responsibility. Civil society organisations and development partners also have critical roles to play in designing inclusive social interventions.

Ultimately, breaking the cycle of marginalisation requires moving beyond stereotypes and surface-level solutions. It demands an honest reckoning with history, a commitment to educational and social reform, and a shared national effort to ensure that no community is left on the margins of Ghana’s development story. Only then can a more balanced and just public image of Muslims in Ghana truly take root.

The writer is a Lecturer at Dept of African and Asian Languages, University of Ghana.

BY DR ABASS UMAR MOHAMMED

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