Ghana can a very religious country at times. Religion is tied to a lot of things that goes on in the country. From churches having all night services with dance and praises to Muslim call for worships from megaphones in the distance, Ghana is a hotbed for expression of religion. If we’re not about religion, then we’re are very vocal about our politics.
It seems that being vocal about religious beliefs has spread to social media as well. But it’s not individuals who are expressing these views, but rather some public and private companies.
This Easter, I couldn’t help but notice a small trend happening on my timeline. Some public and private companies were sending out Happy Easter messages on social media with some “Christian” imagery attached to those messages.
Here are a couple of Happy Easter messages from the Electric Company of Ghana (ECG):
We remind all Christians on this day, of what Christ did for the world. Have a blessed Easter Friday pic.twitter.com/zinWFQaybC
— ECGgh Official (@ECGghOfficial) April 14, 2017
We wish all Christians a Happy Easter pic.twitter.com/3K8y5gIuCr
— ECGgh Official (@ECGghOfficial) April 16, 2017
There hasn’t been a lot of backlash to the above tweets. There have been some people asking why ECG would tweet out a reminder about Christ:
That’s awfully rich coming from ECG. Who says we need a reminder from you? Who thought this was a good idea? https://t.co/hBFmtKzhhy
— D 4 Daixy (@D41XY) April 14, 2017
But it seems that it’s not a big deal for companies to express themselves during the holiday on social media. This morning, *ExpressPay sent out similar imaginary for Easter Sunday:
— expressPay (@expresspaygh) April 16, 2017
*It seems like ExpressPay deleted their Easter Sunday message*
These messages don’t seem to have attracted a lot of backlash but rather seem to be embraced or simply left alone by the general social media audience.
But not every company was sending out “Christian” imagery when posting Happy Easter messages online. First Atlantic Bank sent out a tweet with an image which was quite the opposite of the other two companies mentioned above. They sent out a message with some imagery of the “Easter Bunny” and “Easter eggs“:
This Easter, be sure to avoid debt.
Follow our daily countdown tips on how to get the best out of the festive season!#MyPurpleBank pic.twitter.com/Gdfmtkten1
— First Atlantic Bank (@FirstAtlanticGH) April 10, 2017
Interestingly enough, this caught the eye of one twitter user who found the tweet offensive because of lack of Christian imagery:
Dear @FirstAtlanticGH, Easter is a Christian event. As a Christian, I find it offensive there is nothing about Christ in your artwork.
— Charles Hansen-Quao (@charleshq) April 10, 2017
In other countries like the US, private and public companies try to avoid displaying any imagery that might have religious connotations. They feel that the use of those images might bring unwanted attention and cause controversy and they generally try to avoid that. It’s gotten to the point that companies send out “Happy Holidays” messages during Christmas instead of the traditional “Merry Christmas” because they fear the latter might offend some section of the general public.
In Ghana, things are more of the opposite. Ghanaian companies have no fear of repercussions when displaying Christian images online. Given the religious environment, there isn’t really much to fear. Some companies might actually be encouraged to display certain images which show off religious themes in their online messages.
But if companies are displaying images of Christianity at Easter, will they do the same for Muslim holidays as well? What about Buddhism? Or other religious holidays?
I would guess not. The numbers suggest that Ghana is largely dominated by Christianity compared to the other religions that exist in the country.
They say religion and politics don’t mix sometimes, especially in the public sphere. But religion and social media?
There doesn’t seem to be any problem with that.
