Family Foundations for Solidarity and Social Mobility: Mitigating Class Boundaries in Ghanaian Families

Abstract

In Ghana, members of the middle class have recently started establishing family associations and foundations to support upward social mobility and to help secure middle-class status for family members of lower social status or non-related Ghanaians. Such family foundations and associations are usually established by family members, who see themselves as social reformers and feel that their own social status has been attained through talent and their own efforts, as well as the opportunity to obtain a quality education. By claiming the group’s common descent from a charismatic ancestor, men and women of the middle class creatively (re-)invent family organisations and boundaries of family and solidarity. The kind of association or foundation set up by extended families depends on their members’ social, financial and educational backgrounds: socially heterogeneous families tend to establish associations of solidarity to support their extended families. Foundations of families that are more homogeneous in terms of educational backgrounds and financial resources also tend to educate non-related Ghanaians.