Asante – Alex B. Hill

There is so much reflection and thought to write under this title, and the last. I will apologize now for the incohesive and random nature of my thought process and my failure of ability to express in words what you can only understand from experience.

I have been in Africa now for a month and a half – living, studying, and experiencing. Many people like to just leave it at that, but I like to be more specific. I was in the West African country of Ghana. A country with a relatively stable country and economy (some crises right now: electricity and fuel), full of culture and tradition, and even in its immense ‘development,’ Ghana remains with disparities like any other country – even the US. Africa is not a monolithic mass in the southern hemisphere of the world. So many people would rather chalk up the continent into one idea after reading, hearing, or experiencing a small aspect. Intellectuals, non-intellectuals, those who are from Africa, those who haven’t, and so many experts would rather clump the continent together. That just can’t be done. There is nothing about Africa as a whole that can sum up what it is. It is just like how in the US each state has its own special customs or accents or scenery – Africa as a continent is the same, but better. So many people would rather save time and refer to Africa as a monolithic mass. However, as I lived, traveled, and experienced Ghana the falsity of this idea was all too evident. Our MSU study abroad group was based in Accra, the capital city of Ghana and did much of our work at the University of Ghana. We took many field trips: Cape Coast, Volta Region, Kumasi, Villages near Danfa, and more. Every time that we would leave for a trip the Ghanaians that helped us would tell us that we would experience something so different from what we had seen before; something that we could only have seen in our dreams. They could not have prepared us more. Each region that we visited, each city, town, or village that we stayed in was completely different. We witnessed the many ethnic groups of Ghana, their music, traditions, and customs – the Akan of the Accra area, the Ewe of the Eastern Volta Region, the Asante of Ashanti Region. . . If there were so many differences and experiences in one of the smaller African countries, than what does that say for the massive continent itself?

One of the most obvious differences between Ghana and living in the US was the notion of time. In the States it is very hustle, bustle, go, go, go, exuding impatience – but in Ghana things will happen when they do. You can go for a meal order your drink, wait a bit, get your drink and order food, wait sometimes two hours (tops), get your food, and leave in about three hours from your dinner excursion. But its ok, what else were you going to do? Enjoy your food take your time, chat with your tablemates, tell jokes, enjoy the scenery, people watch – everything will happen in good time. I like that notion of time. I liked it so much that I stopped wearing my watch and often had to ask a Ghanaian with a cell phone for the time. I am not a rushed person, well at least not as rushed as most, and I like to take things as they come. Time should not be such a definitive aspect of your life. Time should work for you. One Ghanaian told me, “Here, we are manufacturers of time.” As opposed to we, in the States, who are the slave labourers to time. I return and time is back in my face again, cracking the whip. The ubiquitous tyrant of everyone’s lives will remain to be the arbitration of time.

Hurtling down the road at breakneck speed, I look over at the speedometer – hoping that we don’t nail a pedestrain or hawker – I see that the speedometer has been put out of commission, figures, they don’t want to know how fast they are going themselves. A mass of traffic appears and we, amazingly, stop in time to not die. The traffic lights have decided to work today. The car exhaust and black smoke flow into my front seat window as the hawkers walk by selling apples, ball floats, candy, posters, you name it. They are accompanied by those crippled by polio, beggars, and blind men walking with an aid. This is the taxi ride of Accra, you have not experienced Accra if you do not ride in the front seat of a taxi. Now back in the States I enjoy always smooth roads, no traffic backups (I don’t live in a very big city), and no death-defying driving skills. That is a fun little part of each day that I will miss.

We all take our health for granted. Everyone. In Ghana many of the students got sick, had diarreha, fever, something – back home we are rarely sick, we are rarely decommissioned for a day, we are rarely at odds with the world we live in as far as our health is concerned. I have the luck of owning an adaptable body and did not get sick in any regard. Thankfully whenever I travel nothing affects my internal health. The sun likes to affect my external health – my nose is still red with sunburn. We take our health for granted. Our professor who worked for over two years in the Peace Corps said she was always sick and while in Ghana I noticed this as well. Many people have fever, coughs, malaria, and who knows what. . . but, depending on location and class, they could not self medicate from the cabinet or see a doctor right away. They walk to get clean water, no faucet in the kitchen with clean water. We take our health for granted. I thought about this often when a group of us would go running. We would draw quite a crowd and get some cheers from school children. They must have all thought we were crazy – running miles in the hot sun at a fast pace, did we want to die? Well no, we Americans enjoy exercise, but for the Ghanaians we encountered and many Africans exercise is a way of life not a luxury to feel good. Will we ever stop taking our health for granted?

One of the sad reflections from Ghana is the idea of culture and tradition that is just not seen in the US. Ghanaians have a deep shared history and strong traditions rooted in their respective communities, which share much in common. There is a huge importance of family and the customs that are passed down. Many professions are passed from father to son, mother to daughter and the day to day of family life is passed down through traditions. In each of the villages we visited we were sure to make courtesy calls to all the local chiefs. The local chiefs still hold a great deal of power and we soon understood the protocol for visiting a chief. The importance of connections between people is huge. In some cases this cause corruption and nepotism, but there is an underlying good intention. Your connections with family are extremely important and you never lose that connection no matter what – if you decide to blow of family then you are looked down upon. You keep the family name, you name your children for past relatives, you visit often, and if you have a good paying job, you send support. This unknown emphasis on human connection is amazing. It goes beyond family to the people you meet in life. I couldn’t believe how many people could remember my name from a one time meeting. It must be the greeting ritual that makes it easier to remember. In Ghana you do not just wave and say, “Hi, how are you?” and receive the standard response, “Fine, thanks.” You stop talk, inquire about family, friends, and life. The nature of people in Ghana is just so much more cohesive and happy. I think it is because of the emphasis on people and getting to know them.

One of my favorite parts of Accra is that the grocery store is right at your vehicle window. While you are stuck in the mass of rush hour (sometimes it isn’t even rush hour) traffic, hawkers walk up and down the rows of cars, trucks, lorries, and taxis selling just about anything. Probably the oddest things I saw being sold were: a pair of puppies, toothpaste, a box of chickens, coffee mugs, umbrellas, the list goes on and on – pretty much anything that up might need is right outside your window. Besides the window side store and clubbing scene, I prefer to stay out of the big city. My best experiences on the etire trip were in the small villages of Otinibi and Danfa. The village life is so much more appealing and friendly. The village is a more closely knit community and is extremely welcoming.

Ghana was an amazing experience from all of the great classwork we did and, most of all, from the excursions we took as a group and adventures on our own. Meeting people was my favorite part and learning about their lives was most interesting. I don’t think I could have had a better experience in Ghana, unless maybe I spoke the language, but I am getting there. Ghana is an amazing place, an interesting beacon for the continent, and a force to be reconned with in the future of our global economy. I still have some very specific reflections from Ghana, so be sure to check back to learn about: investing in death, the discovery of oil in Ghana, and the confusion of the rastafaria movement.

Here are some random, artistic, super random pictures left over from Ghana:

Downtown Osu at night, Osu has many western style establishments that are run mostly by Lebanese.

An awesome tree at the Forex by the Center for Art and Culture.

The arc of Ghanaian independence just down the road from the presidential palace.

A fisherman’s association from the view of Cape Coast Castle.

A fisher and his boats taking a rest in the nook of Cape Coast Castle.

The canopy of Kakum National Forest, beautiful!

Don’t look down (from one of the canopy platforms.

Slightly frightening sign in Accra, just before we sped off. . .

This is the village area we stayed in, Shiashie, engulfed by the growing Accra.

The moon between palm trees at our hostel on Don’s 21st birthday.

A nice village scene in the Volta Region near Wli Falls, tallest in West Africa.

HIV/AIDS awareness and education.

Cool coke bottle shot, drink up.

At the University of Ghana.

One of our favorite restaurants to visit, off the beaten path, but well worth a good Ghanaian meal.

Me and Joseph, the most amazing hostel worker ever.

Index of blog post series on Ghana.

Congratulations big sister Molly on graduating from Kettering University! Now the lifelong education starts which no school or curriculum can offer.

At the end of this week we traveled to the Ashanti Region to visit Kumasi and some of the surrounding villages. We began our travels just as the G8 Summit was ending and the news has been all over the importance this summit held for Africa and Ghana.

8 June 2007
The eggs and toast constant has finally been broken with some glorious french toast – syrup, cinnamon, and a delightful change. No one in our group has ever appreciated or enjoyed french toast as much as we did that morning. The heat and sun have also returned from an absence. It has been a rainy and overcast week, but the sun emerged to greet us. Before hitting the road we stopped at the Forex to exchange some money. Aljazeera News was playing and the topic was the G8 keeping promises to African aid. They reported that $25 million is sent to Africa in aid each year, but that there is an $8 million shortfall. During this summit the G8 pledged to give $60 million to fight HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria in Africa. Will these be promises kept?

We hit the road for the 5 hour trek to Kumasi. It would have been a very boring and tiresome ride, but I had my book and BBC radio to keep me company. Top stories included the role of the G8 in keeping promises and African nations also keeping promises, J.A. Kufor, President of Ghana, speaking on behalf of the African Union as chairman asking for G8 commitment, and a stunning story about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Cameroon – a boy ran from home with his younger sister to protest and to protect her from the harmful practice. Their father then went to the village council to plead with them to abandon the practice as it had taken his son and daughter away from him. The village then banned the practice and the children returned home knowing that now many girls would not have to suffer FGM. I had also purchased a novel from the University bookstore, The Last Duty. The book is about the Nigerian Civil War of 1964, which I knew nothing about in all of my studies of Nigeria. The book tells of the war and its effect from six different people’s views, all six are linked, and all six represent a different side of the story – except for the rebel view.

Our first stop before Kumasi was Bonwire village where we visited a Kente cloth weaving shop. We were mobbed by children here and people trying to get us to buy their stuff. It must have been one of those tourist common spots. It was interesting to see all the Kente cloth and Eric, out bus driver, helped me bargain for a Kente cloth tie – very awesome. Some of the sellers were very persistent. One, I forgot his name, stuck with me and haggled me for a long while. He tried to sell me bookmarks, then helped his friends sell me stuff, then asked for money for his grandmother, sister, and himself – the story always changes.

Gracious Living Hostel was situated on a road that I knew well. It was the typical African roads that I had come to know from Uganda and feel always in my hindquarters – not a smooth surface to be found, dust kicked in the air blinding all, and a tense body ready for the next impact. At the hostel there was some trouble with rooms and so we were a bit crowded in the beds, but hey this is Africa, we can deal. Some of us played a card game called ‘peanuts,’ but which I later found out was the game I knew as ‘nertz.’ It reminded me of some great afternoons with Grandpa.

9 June 2007
We began our day with a nice breakfast and went to the Kejeta Market in Kumasi. This is the largest open air market (in the world? in Ghana?). The market was much like Makola market, but much bigger and crazier. It was also much more fast paced and there were narrower alleyways and more grabby stall owners, there was just so much more happening. In the market is where I also witnessed the ‘travels of a t-shirt in the global economy.’ There were many stands sporting the latest Western fashions, but these were obvious imports. There were large groups of people sorting slacks, jeans, and t-shirts from piles of clothes imported from the ‘developed’ world.

Afterwards we headed to the village of Kurofuforum where we learned how brass figurines are made. It is such a long and tedious process with so many steps. It gave us a new appreciation of the artwork. The man showing and teaching us had scars all over his knees and arms and could pick just about anything directly out of the fire – so calloused and hardened by his work. We then went to Bosumtwi Lake. Here we were accompanied by local fishermen on their fishing boats to swim in the lake. The fishing boats are comprised of half of a tree log, that is it. It was a very good workout to paddle all the way to the middle and a joy to swim in the, what felt like, 90 degree water. What a great experience.

10 June 2007
We began today by stopping at an Adinkra village to see how cloth is stamped. We bought a cloth and witnessed some of our professor’s skill at arguing and bargaining in Twi to get a good price. We then all took turns stamping the cloth to take back with us as a reminder of our trip.

We happened to pass the regional bottling station for Coca-Cola in Kumasi. Coca-Cola is the drink of Ghana. It holds about 90% of the soda industry here against Pepsi.

We visited the Royal Court and Palace Museum of the Asantehene, the ruler of Asanteland in the Ashanti Region. No pictures were allowed and the outrageous price for foreigners followed us into the compound. We were first subjected to a propaganda video about the Asante people. The video claimed that the Asante were peace loving people, yet if you look at their history it is clearly evident that they were quite to use violence and were very aggressive people who instigated many conflicts. It was very interesting to learn about the history of the Asante people from the very place where their kingdom resides. It was especially interesting to learn directly about a people that I have studied so much.

On the way back to Accra from Kumasi, BBC doesn’t come in until you get closer to the greater Accra region, I finished my book and was finally able to listen on the BBC to debates about the G8 summit from an African’s perspective as callers from Tanzania and expats from other parts of the world voiced their opinions and reactions. Another interesting story was about the Burma Boys of Nigeria who fought in WWI for the British in Burma. The story was of colonized Nigerians fighting in Burma and being addressed by the Japanese fighters in perfect Hausa, one of the major language groups of northern Nigeria.

This weekend we have seen the greatness of the very western oriented Kumasi and the kingdom of the Asnatehene. We were able to see part of the reason that the British gave Ghana the colonial name of the Gold Coast from the wealth of the Asnate. We have experienced a region deeply rooted in tradition, powerful traditional rulers, and great wars with imperialist countries.

On the way to Kumasi our professor commented on how much has changed since the last year. She noted that there was so much money flowing into the country now as opposed to just a year ago. Is the G8 keeping promises in Ghana? we have passed so many road improvement projects that it is almost as if I am back in Michigan and experiencing the common ‘summer of orange barrels.’ Except that there is no such thing as orange barrels here, there is just random stuff in the road to divert traffic. The money and aid flowing into Ghana makes me wonder if there are any G8 promises not being kept here. The promises for keeping aid promises by G8 countries is rebuttled by the G8 calling for promises to be kept for good governance in Africa, and is again clashed with the argument by many African intellectuals to have foreign countries leave ‘development’ to the Africans.

Check for new pictures of drumming and the Peace Corps in older posts.

Index of blog post series on Ghana.

Tag: Asante

when not in ghana

. . . keep your promise!