Spreading the Gospel

My research assistant, who provides me with hourly commentary on Chelsea (his English Premier League football team), recently pointed to my Kindle and asked if it was a calculator.  I said no, it was like my Chelsea. Because I received a solid education in a predominant language and books have been an accessible part of my life from the very beginning, reading has been enabled to become my Chelsea.  The formula is a bit different in Ghana. 

It’s not uncommon to hear Ghanaian leaders bemoan their oral tradition. This seems a bit archaic of a complaint. I don’t think this communicative form should be bemoaned.  Sometimes it seems that anybody in this country, if handed a microphone, could confidently and eloquently articulate whatever message needs to be delivered.  When I think about how much my peers and I can struggle to orally communicate our research findings, I envy this Ghanaian skill.  

Ananse, the trickster spider figure who is featured in so many Akan oral traditions, is recycled into 21st Century means of communication-comics and video games. 

What leaders should really be critiquing are the discrepancies in education that lead to illiteracy and the lack of public and private funding for facilities and resources that enhance strong literacy skills. 

(Brief PSA on the topic of books and book accessibility: Folks in the Scenic Regional Library service area-don't forget to support your local libraries!  Vote for the tax levy!)

Though many, many languages are spoken in Ghana, they are not prioritized in the reading and writing exercises at school. English is the predominant language used in the curriculum. In order to become a really proficient reader and writer in English, finishing high school is the strongest advantage. This, unfortunately, is not as common as one would hope.  When compounded by the fact that libraries are few and far between and imported books are often priced beyond the means of the average Ghanaian, the possibility to have a literately engaged society across all economic strata is challenged. 

Anthropologists get their kicks exploring diversity.  Therefore, it’s a bit disheartening to see that so many of the books that are most visible to my eye are those that portend to hold secrets vital to securing something you want or think you want. The demand for these books is obvious and I don’t disrespect that. I readily admit that my Kindle holds more than 1 book that qualifies as self-help, but only books that  teach me Buddhist philosophies and those recommended to me by my guru Marc Maron.  I do, after all, operate within my own socially constructed parameters of acceptability.  (Can the hipster gatekeepers let me know if it’s cool to read How to Win Friends and Influence People? Cause street hawkers keep tempting me with it and I kinda think it might have some clues for how to finish these final steps to PhDom.)

I just wish that for every bookshop called 100% Jesus (an actual bookshop in Accra) there was a bookshop called 100% Ghanaian Authors Who Do Not Exclusively Write About Jesus.  But I’d settle for a 50% Jesus bookshop. 

I've never actually seen a copy of Taiye Selasi's debut novel for sale in Accra even though she came to do a book launch. I'm guessing that the many Ghanains who've read it did so via ebook.

Who knew that Steve Harvey wrote books when he wasn't hosting the Feud? 

Perhaps because I’ve been a bit zealously occupied with the Ghanaian interest in what Steve Harvey and Joyce Meyer have to say, I’ve overlooked a very intriguing trend in mass market fiction. In checking in with my friend Esther, a Dr. of African Literature, I’ve learned that a local mass market fiction industry does exist. These books, written by Ghanaian authors and published by small scale Ghanaian publishers, involve stories that are attractive because, as Esther puts it, they “create associations with readers' experiences of all kinds of familiar, and often hot, cultural material.” These stories are not only culturally accessible but also financially, ensuring that even young adults with pocket change can partake. 

One of the most popular mass market fiction books.  It's estimated that such books can sell between 30,000 and 50,000 copies per week!

Literacy, of course, is not just important for the ability to seek familiarity in a world of fiction, but also for collecting and dispersing the grounded world of reality. I tell people that I do research on food insecurity because I want to know how economic realities influence health and well being. I want to write that story better than the people who are already telling (or assuming) that story. Within the agricultural development paradigm that I work*, the most influential voices directing the story of how to understand and solve food insecurity remain those with a lot of money and a lot of power, be they celebrity, economist, or celebrity economist. 

Perhaps the most widely leveraged story coming out of this continent now is the story of the historical and contemporary existence of homosexuality in Africa as written and told by Africans.  Local audiences need to hear these local voices on the matter because, quite frankly, they’re pretty fed up with all the outside voices that state how gay rights should be discussed and instituted.  I was once called a neoliberal by someone because I said same sex marriage should be legal in Ghana.  After some pondering and wound licking, I kinda saw his metaphor.  A local NGO leader, having recently read Chimamanda Adichie’s piece online, announced that a discussion of gay rights would be on the agenda of his next staff meeting.  The production and uptake of such internally composed assessments of reality makes my social scientist heart leap. 

Wall poetry at a street art festival in Accra

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Even school kids get involved in spreading their thoughts on romance
 (What is secondarily important to this photo is the amount of dirt that has been allowed to accumulate on a vehicle.  In a country where tires are meticulously washed on a daily basis, this level of filth is unheard of)

To keep my heart uplifted, and to feel like there’s at least something ethically sound that I can do for people who are allowing me to invade their lives, I’m going to start spreading the gospel of reading and writing. As an anthropologist, I’m convinced that the more stories we hear and read, whether fictive or true, the better equipped we are to understand how our own individual human experience is similar or different from others and, hopefully, the more likely we are to think critically and compassionately. Last week I gave a novel that takes place in Montana during WWI to a young woman of about 15. Despite the young adult formant, I found so much to relate to in the novel. Despite the geographical and historical setting, I bet she will too.  

In my most recent trip to Accra I made sure to stock up on children’s books so I can read with the kids where I live. Before they receive the football that they request on a daily basis (requests delivered through masterful soliloquies since I really don’t understand the nuances of their request), they will sit for story hour. Maybe in return, I’ll have them train me in how to comfortably hold and speak into a microphone so as to extemporaneously deliver a message--or at least request a football from the next white lady who comes around.

*I recently wrote about the lack of small scale farmer voices in the development of agricultural policies and practice for the blog convened by Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa.  This topic also was recently very well covered by a Ghanaian journalist with The Guardian.

Ghana+Missouri=Soul Sisters: A Mini, Multi Sited Ethnography on Banquet Culture

Sometimes my favorite moments in Ghana are the moments when it’s difficult to tell if I’m in Ghana or in Missouri.  Sometimes it feels like the two very distant contexts deserve recognition that can’t be captured in a signboard declaring them sisters of some international or geographical order.  Sometimes I think the two contexts are sisters of the soul. On Friday night I went to a banquet to celebrate the departure of two long term volunteers who worked with an NGO I mingle with.  For the most part, it was an evening ever reminiscent of any banquet I’ve ever been to in my hometown.  

Did country music play?

Of course it did.  Ghanaians LOVE country music. And they play the old stuff, not the new stuff. Kenny Rogers, not Kenny Chesney. I often feel like writing Kenny Rogers a letter letting him know he could make some good money (probably enough for at least one more face lift) if he’d do a tour in Ghana. We heard some Kenny, some Dolly and one of my favorites, Amanda (Waylon’s version).

Did we pray before we ate?

We did even better. We prayed before and after our meal. Having been raised a non-religious person, the pre-meal prayer at public events that was quite common in my upbringing always left me vaguely uncomfortable.  But thank goodness I was exposed to such vague discomfort early in my formative years.  It’s prepared me for pre-and post-everything prayer in Ghana.  On a recent bus ride my seat companion, in the midst of a rather interesting discussion about hydroelectricity in Ghana, grabbed my hand as the bus lurched forward to begin the journey.  “Oh right, I thought.  It’s time to pray.”

Did we eat meat and weird, fat soused salads?

Indeed! Just like at home, no banquet is complete without a meal that involves meat and salad concoctions (recipes found in any small town church cookbook) that eliminate any of the nutritive value of the vegetables by making some form of oil the prime ingredient.  In Missouri this is likely to be an oil/sugar combo (often in the form of Miracle Whip or the generic derivative).  In Ghana this is a British ingredient called Salad Cream, a product of Heinz UK that is maybe even more nutrient repelling than Miracle Whip.

Grilled guinea fowl and a cabbage and carrot salad doused in Salad Cream as well as a lettuce salad doused in Salad Cream AND Heinz baked beans. 

Did we play Bingo?

Did we ever.  We played for a table full of prizes.  I bought 5 cards, and in purchasing my 5 cards, the seller cautioned me that it might be difficult to keep track of them during the game.  I replied, with no false modesty, that I come from the land of Bingo.  Before I left for Ghana I even purchased a Bingo dauber manufactured in Cleveland (surely the Bingo mecca) at the weekly VFW sponsored Bingo evening in my hometown.  I handled my cards just fine.  My Ghanaian counterparts, new to Bingo, caught on just fine as well.  The Bingo lingo was even humorously woven into the later events of the evening.  During the money collection phase of the evening (a box was passed to collect money for scholarships for girls), the collectors reminded us that the best kind of charity begins at home.  Upon hearing this, a man from the crowd yelled out “Bingo!”  I can so totally picture that exact same thing happening in the cafeteria of my high school.  In fact, it might just have.

There were moments that were very specifically Ghanaian.  For example, never have we ever danced the Azonto at a banquet in Hermann, Missouri (though I really, really wish we would).  Never, ever do we dance at banquets in Hermann, Missouri.  In Hermann, Missouri dancing is an activity best left to young people at school sponsored dances.

Dancing Azonto.  This is an ongoing dance phenomenon originating in Ghana.  It's pretty fun.  Though I still can't proficiently dance Azonto. 

And what could I say was missing from the event?  Mostly a Jello (gelatin or pudding) inspired dessert.  

Celebrating 57 Years of Independence (Or Some Form Thereof)

Yesterday, on March 6^th, Ghana celebrated 57 years of independence. Ghana gained independence in 1957 under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.  Ghana was the first African nation to remove the colonial powers (in this case, the British) and retains a lot of credibility for this accomplishment. In the 57 years that have occurred since, Ghana has had, until relatively recently, a very fragile and somewhat compromised democracy.  Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 and between 1966 and 2001 there were 2 more coups and one president who remained in power for 20 years.  In 2001, this president, Jerry John Rawlings stepped down after John Kufour (a member of the opposing party) was elected president.  This marks the birth of Ghana’s more effective democracy.

Fort Usher in Jamestown (Accra's oldest section) went from being a slave holding prison to a colonial prison.  Now it stands largely untouched and serves as a powerful visual reminder of history not so long ago. 

Ghanaians are proud of their history and proud to be the beacon of “African” democracy that the rest of the world has appointed it.  However, they tend to be hypercritical of their failure to figure out democracy to the extent that they think that the rest of the world has it figured out.  It’s frustrating to have so many conversations allude to democratic imperfection in Ghana and democratic perfection in the United States.  I’ve had to convince people that in the US we too have dirty politics, a ruling class, and nepotism.  I’ve explained how my country just repealed a major voting rights act and scoffs at campaign finance reform. I relay how when Senators finish in the Senate, they roll back in as a lobbyist, ensuring that they are still effectively a law maker, just a much better paid law maker.  And though we are never threatened with having our politics labeled as “tribal,” who are we kidding with our red and blue maps??

On any given day in Ghana, Ghanaians are decked out in the colors of their own flag.......it was a bit surprising to see red, white and blue on the actual Ghanaian Independence Day. 

The Ghanaian flags at Jubilee Park in Wa where the Independence Day festivities were held. 

It’s scary that they keep looking to us as a role model, especially when Ghana has actually accomplished some things that we have yet to accomplish.  Ghana figured out a decent enough version of national health insurance in its democratic infancy. The Ghanaian National Health Insurance Scheme just celebrated 10 years of service.  We put together a majorly patch worked version in our geriatric years.  Ghana also did a better job at resolving a contested presidential election.

Not only does Ghana have national health insurance, but a call center to handle questions and concerns.  Maybe they should be contractors for the US?

In September, the Ghanaian Supreme Court overruled a petition from the losing party claiming that 2 million of the votes that elected John Mahama president were fraudulent.  During the Supreme Court deliberations the country was abuzz with declarations of the need to maintain peace through the judicial process.  Banners displaying such messages as “Our Peace is Profound” were draped from buildings.  Commercials pleading for people to remain peaceful no matter what the Supreme Court ruling were on repeat play on TV. I found this public messaging to be kind of annoying and sometimes amusing.  In expressing my befuddlement to someone, I was politely reprimanded for forgetting the turbulent decades that followed independence. I think I was also undervalueing the value of peace in Africa.  In an otherwise "violent and volatile" climate, if a country can handle elections peacefully, it is accredited by the rest of the world and open for commerce. Of course everything went peacefully upon the ruling and Ghana was able to maintain its title of a peaceful African democracy.

Nana Akufo-Addo, unsuccessful presidential candidate and unsuccessful petitioner of the Supreme Court

Yet the discontentment that abounds for how elected leaders lead is perhaps the most unifying topic of conversation in the country.  No one is pleased with government here.  So while independence is something unique and important to celebrate, the state of democracy that is in place is something that warrants more discussion and action.  Furthermore, questioning just how independent Ghana remains is also up for discussion. It is pretty profound that USAID chose Independence Day as the day to reveal its second phase of a multi-billion dollar project incentivizing private enterprise (often foreign) and higher reliance on improved (aka externally derived and expensive) technologies as a means to achieve food security in Ghana.  Powerful international authorities no longer wear pith helmets, but they still wield a lot of power for directing policy and practice.

To be independent is a real thing, but how that independence is defined and enacted is a much more complicated matter.  

An exhibit at the National Museum in Accra highlights what kids think the next 50 years of Independence should hold