Former Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh, has questioned the continued practice of carrying chiefs in palanquins, challenging Ghanaians to examine whether every cultural tradition remains beneficial in a changing society.
Speaking at a JoyNews and An Amalgam of Professionals event in Accra on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Mr Nsarkoh said the practice illustrated the need to question long-standing customs and consider when modifications become necessary for progressive innovation.
He recounted watching a video of a chief dancing in a palanquin carried by young men, questioning whether the practice should automatically be defended as culture.
“Our larger society continues to allow young men to carry dancing chiefs on their heads in palanquins and call that culture,” he said.
He described the scene as an example of a tradition that, in his view, deserved closer examination.
“Why this manual palanquin is required in the final quarter of the 27th year of the 21st century is simply incomprehensible to me. But it is a useful illustration of what can go wrong when professions refuse to examine themselves critically,” he said.
Mr Nsarkoh’s remarks formed part of a broader critique of professional culture in Ghana, particularly what he described as the legal profession’s resistance to critical self-examination.
He said he had been fascinated by the profession’s attachment to ritual and tradition but was more concerned about rigid hierarchies and age-based discrimination.
“I am more concerned about the rigid hierarchy that comes close to a professional variety of gerontocratic feudalism, which is so brazenly on display sometimes,” he said.
He also questioned the practice of arranging court cases according to the seniority of lawyers, often justified on the grounds that junior lawyers learn by observing more experienced practitioners.
“That sort of thing in my view needs to be modified,” he said.
Mr Nsarkoh argued that technological advances could make it easier to schedule court cases in ways that allow lawyers to plan their work while creating more opportunities for professional development.
He said younger lawyers should have greater freedom to decide which experienced practitioners they wished to observe in court, rather than having their learning opportunities determined primarily by seniority.
“Age and experience must be respected, but by themselves they prove nothing,” he stated.