Journal of Intergenerational Relationships :https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/wjir20

International Journal of Educational Development: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-educational-development/about/insights

The paper investigates how Fulani (Fulbe) migrants living in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana transmit, or struggle to transmit, their cultural knowledge across generations. Drawing on interview data, the paper examines the current state of intergenerational knowledge transmission across six core cultural domains: Fulfulde/Pulaar language competence, knowledge of Pulaaku, herding skills and environmental knowledge, rituals and ceremonies, music and storytelling, and willingness to transmit culture to the next generation. Participants perceive meaningful cultural loss across multiple knowledge domains, particularly in language competence, values, and oral tradition practices. However, transmission does not cease entirely, it becomes selective, fragmented, and increasingly dependent on the motivation and agency of individual elders and parents rather than on the communal and contextual conditions that traditionally sustained it. The paper argues that perceived cultural loss among Fulani migrants in Shai Osudoku is fundamentally a crisis of intergenerational transmission infrastructure; the erosion of the relational, linguistic, and ceremonial contexts within which Fulbe cultural knowledge was historically learned and passed on.

Introduction
Migration into different cultural contexts have significant impact on cultural identities and transmission (Osei-Tutu, 2024; 2022). Therefore it is expected that a Fulbe (Fulani) who migrate to a non-Fulbe host environment will navigate significant structural and relational disruptions to the intergenerational transmission of Fulbe cultural knowledge.

Background: The Fulani in Ghana and the Shai Osudoku Context

• historical and demographic context on Fulani migration into Ghana: origins, migration routes, settlement patterns in the south.
• Describe the Shai Osudoku District specifically: the host communities, the Fulani population there, their livelihood activities, and their socio-cultural position as migrants in a Dangme-majority area.
• Discuss the cultural and linguistic distance between Fulbe and host community norms.

Literature Review
• Literature on Fulani/Fulbe cultural identity, Pulaaku, and oral traditions • Studies on Fulani migration and settlement in Ghana and West Africa • Fulfulde/Pulaar as an endangered or vulnerable language (Ethnologue) • Ghana Statistical Service data on the Shai Osudoku District demographics • Ethnographic and anthropological literature on Fulbe herding culture and ecological knowledge

Theoretical Framework
The paper is anchored in two complementary theoretical traditions: Intergenerational Learning Theory (Kump & Krašovec, 2014; Newman & Hatton-Yeo, 2008; Schmidt-Hertha et al., 2014). This framework conceptualizes learning as a purposeful exchange between generations where older members transmit knowledge, values, and practices to younger ones through structured and unstructured interaction. Applied here, it helps explain how Fulbe cultural knowledge has traditionally moved from elders and parents to children and youth through everyday relational contexts: herding together, storytelling at night, participating in ceremonies, and hearing proverbs in conversation. The theory also draws attention to what happens when these intergenerational contact opportunities are reduced or broken as migration and urban-adjacent living in Shai Osudoku have done for Fulani families. It provides the conceptual language for understanding willingness to transmit as a critical variable, since intergenerational learning depends not just on the availability of knowledge but on the relational motivation to share it. Cultural Transmission Theory (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman 1981; Hewlett & Cavalli-Sforza, 1986)

This theory distinguishes between three transmission pathways: vertical (parent to child), oblique (elder/community member to younger non-relative), and horizontal (peer to peer). In traditional Fulbe society, cultural transmission operated primarily through vertical and oblique channels () – children learned Pulaaku values, herding skills, and oral traditions from parents, grandparents, and community elders within a cohesive Fulbe social environment. Migration to Shai Osudoku has weakened oblique transmission most severely, as Fulani families live among non-Fulbe populations with limited access to broader community-based transmission contexts. The theory also introduces the concept of transmission fidelity – the degree to which cultural knowledge is accurately and completely passed on – which helps frame what participants describe as perceived loss: not always the total disappearance of a practice, but its incomplete, diluted, or decontextualized reproduction in the next generation. Together, these two theories frame the paper's analytical lens: intergenerational learning theory explains the relational and motivational dimensions of transmission, while cultural transmission theory explains the structural pathways and fidelity of how Fulbe knowledge moves, or fails to move, across generations in a migrant context.

Methodology : interpretive, community-centered research paradigm Qualitative Structured interview. Detail participant selection (elders, parents, youth across genders), interview design, thematic analysis ethical considerations.

Findings: Intergenerational Transmission Across Six Cultural Domains
Present findings domain by domain, each grounded in interview data:
• Fulfulde/Pulaar language competence: extent of use, generational decline, emotional significance
• Pulaaku knowledge: awareness, teaching methods, youth internalization
• Herding skills and environmental knowledge: practice, decline, identity implications
• Rituals, ceremonies, music, and storytelling: frequency, adaptation, transmission gaps
• Sources of intergenerational learning: who teaches, in what contexts, and how
• Willingness to transmit: motivations, barriers, and generational attitudes

Discussion: Perceived Cultural Loss, Continuity, and Transmission Under Strain
Discuss how migration has shifted transmission from communal to individual channels, reduced transmission context and conditions that make oral tradition learning natural and organic. Distinguish between total loss and fragmented continuity. Discuss what participants identify as most at risk and what they are most motivated to preserve. Examine connection to economic survival

Data (oral culture traditional folder) • Interview transcripts from Fulani community members in Shai Osudoku — elders, parents, youth • Thematic codes mapped to the six focus domains • Direct quotations illustrating perceived loss, transmission practices, and cultural continuity • Participant demographics (age, gender, generation, length of residence in Shai Osudoku)

References
Hewlett, B. S., & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1986). Cultural transmission among Aka pygmies. American anthropologist, 88(4), 922-934.

Kump, S., & Krašovec, S. J. (2014). Intergenerational learning in different contexts. In B. Schmidt-Hertha, S. J. Krašovec, & M. Formosa (Eds.), Learning across Generations in Europe: Contemporary Issues in Older Adult Education, (pp. 167-178). Rotterdam, The Netherlande: Sense Publishers.

Newman, S., & Hatton-Yeo, A. (2008). Intergenerational Learning and the Contributions of Older People. Ageing Horizons, 8, 31-39.

Schmidt-Hertha, B., Jelenc Krašovec, S., & Formosa, M. (2014). Older Adult Education and Intergenerational Learning. In: B. Schmidt-Hertha, S. Jelenc Krašovec, & M. Formosa (Eds.), Learninig across Generations in Europe. Conteporary Issues in Older Adult Education, (pp. 1 – 10). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers