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.