ISP Action

11-19-11
For the past two weeks I have been working on my Independent Study Project (ISP), and it has been going VERY well. I honestly did not even realize two weeks went by since I last wrote, it felt like only a few days. Obviously I have been enjoying this time.
First a progress report. As of this afternoon, I have compiled 28 pages and have gathered 17 written sources. I have also sent two email interviews to two professors at Bethel who will speak to one section on monocultures and European industrialization. I have an interview on Monday with a professor named Mr. Sapong at the University of Ghana, who is a world historian, who will hopefully help me clarify and guide my train of thought. I also hope to interview a Chinese road construction manager who is working on a project (and creating quite the traffic problem) nearby, someone who works for an NGO, the Academic Director for the program Dr. Avorgbedor, an economics professor, an agricultural professor, and a political science professor. I got a list of names a few days ago at a forum on the campus, but I was only able to get in touch with one of the professors (Mr. Sapong).
Before all of that sounds ridiculous for two weeks work, it comes with a few disclaimers. First of all, the 28 pages include much more than pure writing. It has a title page, a table of contents page, an unwritten abstract page, an unwritten acknowledgements page, an outline of what I haven’t written yet, a lot of relevant quotes that I have pulled out from the readings, a two-page bibliography, and an interview information page. So really, I have written maybe 20-23 pages or something like that. I still have a lot of gaps to fill and a lot of work yet to connect all the pieces together.
I should also mention that my thesis has changed from the previous blog entry. It still carries the same pieces, but the focus is different. It is now a comparative study of China and the West. This is my work-in-progress thesis that I cut and pasted from my project: “I will argue that China and the West both approach Africa with the capitalist system of economics, thus they are both acting as imperialist nations and are implementing a process of neocolonialism, but due to a separate set of histories, their interactions with the continent are starkly different in the present day.” Before I was taking everything in a long chain of events, now I am comparing the histories of each side’s interactions with the land and how that has impacted the present day interactions with the continent, more specifically Ghana. Thus, the West gives aid while China is building the infrastructure. Regardless, because of capitalism (yes, China is a capitalist nation even though they don’t like to admit it [although they actually did admit it in 1992, I have a quote that proves that]) both the West and China are imperialist blocs and are using neocolonial practices to undermine the continent. The wording still is not quite what it needs to be, but that is the gist of the paper right now.
This last two weeks has been very freeing. I have no real deadlines unless I make them (and I don’t like to do that, it is too much pressure) and I have been doing things the way I want to. There are no more lectures to have to sit through, no schedules for travelling, no time constraints for assignments, and so on. Very freeing. Without that pressure, I have been relaxed to look into the project at my own pace, and that is how I have compiled the 28 pages. With two weeks left, I should have plenty of time to read the last three written sources I have and conduct the interviews I hope to do, then fill in the gaps and revise this beast. Right now it all seems very doable and this has been a very rewarding experience.
I have also been living on my own. Well, mostly on my own. I moved into a room at Professor Kate’s house, who has an extra space open for people to live in for a fee. For students, the fee is 17 cedis a night, and considering what’s included, that’s a reasonable price. This space contains three bedrooms, a spacious and comfortable living room, a kitchen supplied with the necessary utensils, a front patio which has a nice air flow, and private bathrooms for each room. The room is also very nice. This area is part of Professor Kate’s house, but it is a separate block with one door in between. I am right now not the only guest here. There is a Canadian woman in her sixties named Ronine who is here working for an NGO (I had mentioned that I wanted to interview someone who worked for an NGO, and she is that person). She is really nice and it has been pleasant to get to know her while being here. We also share a lot of the same political ideologies and see the world from a similar lens.
By living on my own, I have to provide my own food. Yeah, I can cook (somewhat…). There is a grocery store at the A&C Mall which is a little ways away, and I have gotten the bulk of my food there. My main reason for going there though is that there is a coffee shop there, and it has legitimate mochas and lattes. I have missed those. Nescafe Instant Coffee just doesn’t cut it, it’s like drinking Folgers/dirt. But I have also gotten some food from the Madina market. That is only a fifty peswas (roughly 30 cents) shared taxi away, and you can get a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables there. You can also get a lot of other things, but you have to bargain, and I’m not good at that. I’m getting better, but I feel bad trying to argue down prices when their original price is certainly less than what I am paying in the US and it is fresher and better here. I am getting ripped off, and I know it, but I try to argue it down a bit. I did win with a taxi earlier today though. I saved myself two cedis by playing the game, and I was proud of myself.
Where I am staying is in the suburbs north of Accra. It is called Agbogba. It is certainly quieter up here and has helped me focus on my writing, but it is a little inconvenient for getting around. I have to take a shared taxi to Madina (50 peswas) then I have to get on a trotro (which in Twi means “really sketchy and overpacked van”) for 30 peswas to get to the campus. The total trip takes about 45-60 minutes, depending on the traffic. It certainly is cheaper than a taxi though, that’s about 6-7 cedis. Then I walk everywhere on the campus which is tiring. Then I take the trotro back to Madina, but there isn’t a shared taxi system to my area from Madina, so I have to pay for a drop taxi (2-3 cedis) or walk (45 minutes). The upside to walking is that it is next to a construction site with a Chinese manager. Yesterday (11/18) I was walking back from Madina and I started to approach the dude but when I got close he called someone. He doesn’t know I’m doing research, so it wasn’t deliberate, but it was a bit disappointing. That could have been a fun interview. I guess I have two weeks left to maybe run into him “accidentally”.
Overall, I have really enjoyed the last few weeks, and hopefully the next few weeks will go quickly. But to be frank, I am starting to prepare myself to return home. I have two and a half weeks left, and once this project is finished, the program is essentially complete. There are a few odds and ends to take care of with the last five days, but that means I leave for home soon. I think that this program has been the perfect length, not too long, not too short. I think that in two and a half weeks it will be time for me to return to the frozen tundra that is Minnesota in December.

Benin, travel, insanity

11-6-11
Well, the past week and a half have been real crazy, but fun and eventful. From October 26-28 I was in Cape Coast for a few days of classes and ISP prep. Not too much to talk about there. But on the 29, I started to travel again. I was still a little road weary after the continual long trips from the Northern trip, but I sucked it up and went for it. On the 29 we left around 9 am to go to Accra, and we spent the day figuring out life and things. I’ll get to what I was figuring out later. We spent the day chilling and enjoyed a really good egg sandwich at the night market. We couldn’t be out too late though, we had a fun day planned for the 30…
Not really. We got up at 3:30 am to leave around 4 to go to Benin. If it wasn’t for getting through customs, it wouldn’t have taken so long, but hey, I had to go to Togo to say I have been in Benin. I know, I’m a punny guy. At least I know that for the next month I am gonna be in Ghana. Alright, I’ll stop it. Anyway, we left before the crack of dawn and drove a few hours to the border between Ghana and Togo, and somehow I slept for maybe an hour and a half or so. As soon as the sun came up though, I was awake and unable to sleep. I think the morning hours are the most peaceful, but I hate being awake for them when I could be sleeping. After getting through the border, we drove through Togo. It’s a little country, so it only took us about two or three hours to do it, and that was with a stop. We got off at a little beach side hotel with a restaurant and got a few carbonated drinks. That means I am officially saying that I have been to Togo, because I have stepped foot on the soil. I don’t count the Netherlands, since I was just in the airport. After our brief stop, we got back on the bus and drove to the Togo and Benin border. After getting through that, we continued on to Cotonou, where we would spend the next few days. That was a long day of travelling.
On October 31, we did a lot of things. We went to a town maybe forty minutes away called Ouidah. We were taken about town by a retired professor called Elisee Soumonni, and he has spent his life studying the slave trade in the area. The first thing we did was visit the Portuguese fort in Ouidah. The tour was a small complex, and there is a lot in it that can be compared to the castles of Elmina and Cape Coast. I will not get into it in detail, but it is presumed that about two million people were shipped from the Slave Coast, as it is called, which is from Ouidah to Lagos, Nigeria. Most of the people taken from here were taken to Brazil, which was honestly where people were treated in the worst way. Many did not survive the brutal treatment. However, there are many African influences that survive in Brazil today, and they originated from this area. One of these influences was voodoo. After the Portuguese fort, we visited two places that were centers of this traditional religion. One was the Sacred Forest, and the other was the Temple of Pythons. The Sacred Forest was a tour that took us through a small portion of the forest, but had multiple shrines to different things. I couldn’t honestly tell you what they all were; my memory is not that good. After the Sacred Forest we went to the Python Temple. It was a place of meditation for priests. Also, snaked are seen as powerful spirits and they were to be respected. The ones in the Temple of Pythons were domesticated, and tourists were taken into it so that they could hold a snake or have one around their neck. I couldn’t not do it. I held one in my hands and had another one around my neck. It was interesting, but I had to do it. How could I say I went to the Temple of Pythons and not hold a snake? After that, we went to the equivalent of what is known as the Door of No Return for the Slave Coast. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that Ouidah is inland, not on the coast. Apparently during the trade, the coast was not a safe place, so the European powers established themselves inland for better protection. That means that the captives were marched from the forts probably ten kilometers or so to the ocean, where they were taken onto smaller boats and then put onto bigger boats for the Middle Passage. To remember the departure, Benin created a large arched structure as a token of remembrance. It was in one of the more likely places where people were last on the continent and then forcibly removed. That was all on October 31, and we were still trying to recover from our long trip the day before. Needless to say, we were all quite tired.
The next day, we remained busy. We took a boat ride to a place called Ganvie which is a village built on the water. It was fun to see, but I felt really touristy, and I didn’t like that feeling when I was looking upon peoples livelihoods. That’s all I will say about that. After Ganvie, we went to Soumonni’s house for a lecture. It was really good. After that we had lunch, and then we got a quick tour of Cotonou. I should probably talk about it, since it was a fascinating town. It’s the business city of Benin, and thus is a big city with a lot of suburbs. However, Benin is not a very rich country. Thus we saw the same exact thing we saw in the north: motorcycles. Lots of motorcycles. At any given point, you could look out the window and see approximately one trillion motorcycles. But of course, being smaller, they usually sneak through the bigger traffic and sit at the front of the stop lights. There is even a taxi service in Cotonou which operates by motorcycle. I wouldn’t do it; I don’t want to die. I’m glad that Ampah was driving, but he said that Benin is one of his least favorite places to drive, and I completely understand why. It was crazy! We all needed to recover after the last few days, so we all went back to our hotel and crashed that night.
November 2 was far more relaxed. In the morning we had individual conferences with Dr. Avorgbedor about our ISP’s. It went well for me, and my ideas are more set in stone now. After the conferences, we went to another shopping area for lunch and buying things. I don’t like shopping, so I basically chilled with Ampah and Ebo Sam (the program coordinator). When that was done, we went to dinner earlier because a few of us wanted to do something. At the American Cultural Center close by, they were showing Toy Story 3. We went to watch the movie, but after the movie, there was a brief discussion about it, and it honestly was one of the more fascinating experiences in my life. I should say that there were probably about 25 people in the room: 4 Americans, and roughly 21 Beninese. The conversation started off with community but then talked about development. Since that is partially my ISP topic, it was perfect for me to be there. To summarize what the discussion entailed, there was two parts. First, the discussion talked about how the only people who could develop Benin were the youth of Benin. That is exactly true. Outside forces are focused on their own interests, not the interests of the Beninese, and thus a system of perpetual reliance is created. This is true of America, Europe, China, India, the Lebanese, etc. They cannot develop Benin properly, only the Beninese youth can. However, a comment was made towards the end that made me cringe. The comment was that they could develop to be like America. I wanted to yell, but I held myself back. Yes, America has great wealth, but it also has great poverty. The best way to develop a country is not the American model, but a model that holds equality as the most important aspect of complete development. With the inequality comes the perpetual reliance, and this is a global phenomenon, since the world has developed without a sense of creating an equality of everyone. Now the practicality of this is slim, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for this goal. Now I can’t bring this message to the world, since that would be a message brought from the outside, and thus I would be preaching a contradiction. Thus I am telling this to America, since that is the only place where I could have any proper influence. America, grow up. Stop being so selfish and spread the wealth.
The next day, we did another 4am trip, but this time we went all the way back to Cape Coast. It took about 14 hours or so, including stops such as lunch and bathroom breaks. I spent the next two nights in Cape Coast, which were again very busy. I had to do a gazillion things, and all of it was last minute details. There was no way to avoid it, and in fact I actually did quite a few things before to lessen the stress of those days. I had plans to finalize, a phone to activate, to get a wireless modem, pack all of my belongs, say farewell to my host family, say farewell to my peers, and a few other things. I mentioned earlier that I had to figure out a few things when I was in Accra on the way too Benin. That was my living situation for the ISP. I am staying in Accra, since this is the hub in Ghana where outside forces can be seen most prominently. Well, the hostel we stayed at as decent and quite cheap, so my original plan was to spend the ISP there. However, I could only book two nights, because on Monday November 7 they have a conference taking place and the entire hostel is booked for two weeks. Thus entered panic mode. I talked to Ebo Sam, and he called his equal in the SIT program based in Accra. I was able to talk to him over the phone and he said that three students in that program were staying in Accra for the month in an apartment, and there was room for a fourth person. So yesterday I called Professor Kate, who rents the apartment out, and I reserved a space for myself in the apartment. Uff da. That was stressful. But now I will have a place to live on Monday, and that is good news. Currently I have one more night in the hostel, and then I move out to an apartment. I don’t know anything about the people I will be moving in with, but it will be good to be with people who have a working knowledge about the city. I should mention that yesterday (11/5) I got into an air-conditioned van and came to Accra. After that, I got into a taxi and half an hour later ended up at the hostel. So my travelling is still not finished, and it hasn’t really stopped. Last night, since I am studying outside influences, I went to a Chinese restaurant across the street. It was rather expensive, but it was all for the sake of research. At the restaurant, there were plenty of Chinese people, only proving my point about how the Chinese are very involved in Africa’s infrastructure development. Today, I am planning on organizing my thoughts, doing some research, and preparing interview questions. It should be a busy day, but I will hopefully relax a little and cool down after the insanity I have been experience for the last week and a half. But now the next four weeks are ISP time. Bring it!

To the savannah!

10-25-11

There are two items that this blog will talk about. The first item was an experience I can now say I have had, but I never really wanted it. That would be malaria. At least I think it was malaria. Halfway through my week in Accra (10/2-10/7) I got sick, and I did not recover for a week and a half. In fact, I am still not fully recovered. I have a cough and a stuffy nose, but that could also be allergies. What is it like to have malaria? Well, it is a lot of fun. Not really. Actually, it mostly felt like I had a cold (interchanging every symptom known to humankind) mainly at night. During the day, I felt considerably better and even completely fine at some points. Then the symptoms would return at night. I also had a significant loss of appetite, which only had me eating about six bites of rice and then I was full. As a result, I lost some weight, and I actually look like I am in better shape now.

On Sunday (10/9) I was fed up with being sick, and the previous night was one of the worst nights in my life. I’ll spare you the details, since I don’t think anyone really wants to know them. I went to the hospital and I was diagnosed with malaria. They took a blood test, and told me to come back later, since the lab did not open until later because of church. They gave me medicine because they were very confident that I had malaria. I was unable to return until the next day, and that was interesting. On Monday across Ghana, the doctors went on strike. That’s right, THE DOCTORS. Last I heard, they were still on strike, only handling emergency cases. I’m not really sure about that, but I have been outside of normal communications for the last week and a half. I’ll get to that later. Even though I went into the emergency room, there were only nurses, and maybe one or two other patients. It was eerily quiet. Fortunately, it does not take a doctor to do a lab test, and the laboratory technicians were not on strike. However, the test came back negative. They said that it was a small sample, and since I had already started the drugs and the symptoms lined up, I should continue taking the drugs. Obviously, I was uneasy. Papa Kum (my host father) also was uneasy about that, so he called the homestay coordinator, Aunty Gifty, for advice. She set up an appointment with her private doctor who was within walking distance of my homestay. So I went to Dr. Martin Morna. He knew what he was doing, and he also affirmed the diagnosis of malaria and gave me better drugs, but he also added something to his diagnosis. He added a bacterial infection. Since I had been sick for five or six days at that point, my body was primed for it. So Dr. Morna added a few other drugs to take care of that. By Friday (10/14), I was completely fine, and on a follow up visit, he gave me the okay to go on the Northern Trip.

That is the second item to write about: the Northern Trip. From 10/15-10/25, I travelled all over Northern Ghana. Here is a brief synopsis of the travelling.

10/15 – four hour drive to Kumasi.

10/16 – seven hour drive to Wa.

10/18 – brief day trip to Sankana, then back to Wa.

10/19 – five hour drive to Mole National Park (the roads were TERRIBLE! It should have taken maybe an hour if the roads were even decent).

10/20 – five hour drive to Tamale.

10/22 – six hour drive from Tamale to Kumasi (TRAFFIC IN KUMASI ALSO TERRIBLE).

10/25 – four hour drive to Cape Coast.

As you can see, there was a lot of travelling. It was also ripe with experiences.

The first thing to note about the north is the geography. In the south, it is rainforest, except for a stretch along the coast that is called the coastal savannah zone, which stretches from where the coast turns north-east and goes through Accra. In the middle region, or the Asante region, it is a hybrid of rainforest and savannah. The north is savannah. That means the southern areas get two rainy seasons, and a lot more rain. The north maybe gets 15-20 inches of precipitation a year during their one rainy season. So as we travelled north, the trees thinned out and the grass became far more prevalent.

It wasn’t only the trees that thinned out, it was also the people. This is not just in overall population, but also in size. They were far skinnier in the north. The distances between towns also increased. Ghana’s population is roughly 22-25 million in an area a little bit bigger than Minnesota, but most of that is in the south. There are many reasons to account for this. First of all, this was the raided lands that the slaves were taken from. The savannah regions all the way up to the Sahara were the people that were exploited for the infamous inhumane labor we all unfortunately know too well. From these northern regions, they were marched barefoot to Assin Manso, the slave market mentioned in an earlier blog, and then after being sold to the Europeans marched even farther to the castles, and you know the rest. That means that the removal of people gave room for less population growth, and at this point it is all statistics. There is another reason that the North is less populated: jobs. The recent trend in Ghana is to flock to the cities (Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, etc.), because in these places there are jobs. In the north, there is no real opportunity to move beyond your economic level. This is comparable to Komenda, also referenced in an earlier blog. Thus people are leaving an already less populated region for the south. This is unfortunate, because the north provides the cereal crops (rice, wheat, etc.) for the rest of the country. Economic stimulus as applied by the government towards farmers is minimal to non-existent, so there is little hope to keep up farming, because it is not an easy life and reaps very little benefit.

The people in the northern regions also have a negative stigma given to them by the people of the south. They are seen as lazy. This can be understandable though, after spending a week up there. Even though the weather is dry as opposed to the humid south, there is no breeze, and without rain, it gets HOT. Apparently it was rather cool when we were up there, but a fifteen minute walk in Wa left me drenched in sweat. I don’t want to experience what hot is. From 9am to 3pm, when the sun is most direct, the people become inactive. If they become active, then they overheat and are more likely to die from heat exhaustion. That means the active hours are from 6am to 9am, and then again from 3pm to 6pm. At these times, it actually isn’t that bad, but it certainly wasn’t great either. During the day, you will see people gathered wherever there was shade and taking naps. I also took quite a few naps on this trip, frankly because the heat wore me out. The south, however, sees this as laziness, and the habits created from the weather by the people from the northern areas compound the stigma.

I mentioned earlier that there is a movement south because of economic opportunity. This means that the economic opportunities in the north are not as good, and the economic disadvantages is much higher. This was manifested in numerous forms. First of all, the water sources for washing clothes. People would flock to a dirty pond to use the water for washing. Clothes would be strewn on the side of the road to dry after washing, even though the dust on the roads would seem to make their efforts futile. But you have to use what’s available, and that’s what is available. The second way that economic disadvantages were witnessed was the vehicles. In the south, there are plenty of cars. In the north, they have motorcycles. Lots of motorcycles. They are cheaper and they get better gas mileage, so it makes sense. Also, everyone drives motorcycles that are of age. In the south, there are not many women drivers, but in the north, they were half of the drivers on the road. What was kind of scary was that many of the women would bring their infants or young children on the bikes as well. Helmet wearing was also minimal. If you owned a car in the north, you were automatically very well off. That was just two of the numerous things that I noticed that showed the economic disparity between the north and the south.

I should give a synopsis about what I thought about each of the places I visited. Let’s start with Wa. It was really just one long stretch lasting a few kilometers but not really breaking off of the main road. It was long and thin. What was fascinating was that this was one of the few places I have been where I do not get brutally stared at because of my skin. It was kind of weird, and I strangely became uncomfortable without the gazes coming my direction. In Wa, I visited the School for the Blind, to see how they operated their system. It was fascinating, and they were well funded and operated. I also went to Sankana to visit a place of resistance to slavery. They were one of the few groups to beat back the British. They took great pride in their past understandably.

Next was Mole National Park. This was a nature preserve funded by the government. I felt very touristy there, and it was the second time in Ghana that there were more Bronyis than Ghanaians in one place (the other was in Cape Coast at a restaurant called Oasis established for tourists). I went on two nature hikes; one in the afternoon and one in the morning. The one in the afternoon was uneventful, I only saw a couple of bushbuck, which are deer. It’s not like I live close to a nature preserve in Minnesota and haven’t seen a few deer before. The morning trek, however, was legit. First, we walked across a marsh because we had seen a few elephants a little ways off. So we went across, and we got close to them. IT WAS SO COOL!!! I was maybe about fifty meters away from two of them, and got a couple of decent pictures in. After that, we walked a little more and found a couple of baboons. They’re strange little things. So that was fun. I made a point earlier that it was funded by the government, and it was for tourism. I’m not just saying, but all around the Park was the economic disadvantages, and yet this place was funded for tourism. It doesn’t seem right. The same point can be noted about the castles. There are many things that the government could be doing internally to develop their own country, yet they focus more on tourism than these things. I’m not saying that tourism should be removed from the government’s priorities, but I am saying that there are many more valuable things that it could be doing. Sorry, that was a tangent, but it happened.

After Mole was Tamale. I honestly experienced very little of it, so I cannot give a decent synopsis of it. What I can say though is that they make some really nice leather stuff. I bought a pair of sandals and a game called Ware (Wa-ray). It is known in America as Mancala. The second day in Tamale was spent refining some things for my ISP and dwelling on my experiences. I will get to that later.

Lastly was Kumasi. I did not like Kumasi. This was in the hybrid zone area, and it also housed the second largest market area in Africa. I saw it, and my introvert nature took hold of me. Whenever we drove somewhere, we were caught in incessant traffic, since it was mostly single lanes everywhere yet housed presumably a million people. Imagine that, if a place like Chicago became single lane traffic. Yeah, you try and enjoy that. Also, the African style of driving compounded my introverted nature. They are, what you call, aggressive drivers. My passive aggressive driving habits I have learned in Minnesota would not work whatsoever in Ghana, much less Africa. Thank goodness Ampah was driving; he is a REALLY good driver. In Kumasi, we visited a carving market, and I bought a few things there, but other than that Kumasi was not my cup of tea. An introvert is not meant to do well in a place like that. Cape Coast today seemed incredibly tame in comparison. I’m not planning to go back there.

I know this is getting quite long, so I have one last thing to talk about, and I mentioned it briefly earlier when I was talking about Tamale. I spent some time on this trip considering my ISP (Independent Study Project) which is fast approaching. It starts on November 5, which is less than two weeks away! The ISP lasts for four weeks and then I have one more week and then I get on a plane back home. Time is flying by. Wow. As I considered my topic, I also considered my methodology of research. My topic, which in short is a study of global forces (specifically comparing China and the West) and their influence on Ghana, would require me to go where the foreign influences are mostly located. That means that I have officially decided to spend the entirety of the four week of the ISP in Accra. I am currently working out the housing details and also the travelling details to get to Accra, but this is where I will be able to do my research effectively. In Cape Coast, I would maybe have one or two good interviews to work off of, but in Accra I would have hundreds. Also, the University of Ghana campus would house many important items that would greatly help me.

I’m sorry that was so long, but there was a lot to write about, and I honestly just scratched the surface on most things and left out a few other items. But what can I do? I don’t want to write a novel, that would take too long. I’m not working on my doctorate yet.

Accra

10/7/11

This last week (10/2 to 10/7) I was in Accra, the capital of Ghana. This was not my first time in Accra, but the last time was the first night I landed, so I was quite jet lagged at the time and honestly barely remember it. My impressions of Accra after this last week are mixed.

The first thing we did after our three hour bus trip to Accra was visit two places. One was the National Museum and the other was Kwame Nkrumah National Park. The National Museum had many good displays, and I can tell you that after six weeks in Ghana, most of it was accurate. The museum itself was not really suitable for tour giving, and the tour that we were led on was very sporadic. Also to note, on the top floor of the museum, although the tour never went to this part, there was a bust of Marcus Aurelius and a statue from Delphi amongst other completely irrelevant items. I was confused by them, but whatever. I’m not the curator of the museum; it’s not for me to decide. Overall, the museum was good, although interesting in some regards. After the National Museum, we went to Kwame Nkrumah National Park. Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana after it achieved its independence in 1957. He ruled until 1964 when a coup overthrew him. Although he was exiled from the country, his ideas could not be removed. He was a visionary for the development of Ghana, and he did much more that you can look up later, because I simply do not care to spend the time writing all of that down. About two or three weeks ago was the 102^nd birthday of Kwame Nkrumah. Although he died in 1972, his birthday is still celebrated. Apparently Nelson Mandela came to Ghana to join the festivities, and no one told me this. I’m still kind of bitter about that. But the park was very beautiful and spacious, and I’ll put some of those pictures up in December. That was Sunday.

On Monday, we had a lecture at the University of Ghana about the traditional forms of slavery, and how the term slavery was changed upon European arrival. It was fascinating, but a bit of an overview of basic knowledge. The professor, Dr. Akosua Perbi, admitted to this ridiculousness. She said that in one hour, we would be covering everything that takes at least four full years to truly study. After that lecture, we simply spent the day exploring the campus and I also bought a few books that sounded rather interesting. That was Monday.

On Tuesday, we went back to the University of Ghana for two more lectures. One was about women’s oral culture, and that was a fascinating lecture as well. Our professor, Akosua Anyidoho, went over briefly how in Ghana, there are festive occasions that are celebrated, and what women’s roles in them were. In some instances, such as birth or puberty, only women participated in some cultures. These practices are called restricted because of their nature, and usually they are more formal. There are also unrestricted ceremonies, and they are more informal and public in nature. Then we had another lecture after this one about archaeology in Ghana. I had been looking forward to this lecture ever since I saw on our schedule that we were having one on this subject, and I wasn’t disappointed by it. Archaeology has a connotation to being mostly in the Middle East, and I was curious to see what was going to happen here. Our professor, James Anquandah, was one of the most passionate speakers I have ever heard in my life, and you wouldn’t expect it by his stature. He was in his seventies and maybe 5’5 and about 8 pounds. Yes, the weight was an exaggeration, but he was a little guy. Although this lecture was a broad overview as well, it was very enjoyable. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it was great. One thing that he talked about was the Shai Hills, which we went to the next day, but more on that later. After this lecture, we went to the W.E.B. Du Bois house in Accra. Yes, the last two years of his life were spent in Ghana, no big deal. It wasn’t very well put together as a museum though, since it was just a house that was modified into a museum. Not ideal. After that, we went to Osu to a market on Oxford Street. It’s significant to put the name out there because very few streets in Ghana have names. That sounds weird to us Western types, but that’s how it works over here. Anyway, at this market, we were absolutely bombarded by hawkers. One guy followed me around for about 30 minutes trying to sell his art, which probably wasn’t even his in the first place. That was not fun. After about 45 minutes of this, I had enough, and so did a few others in our group, so we got off of the main road and explored the outlying areas close by. It was a little adventure. That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday, as mentioned earlier, we went to the Shai Hills. The Shai Hills is an archaeological site about an hour drive north of Accra. Here was a place of prehistoric peoples who lived in the shelter of caves on the side of the hills. It was a short hike after a bumpy off-road trip to one of the caves. Before our vehicle came over to pick us up for the bumpy ride, we waited around and hung out with baboons. That’s right, I can now say that I’ve hung out with baboons. Sorry, that was off topic. After our ride and short hike, we explored a cave, which was an enclosed area of rocks with multiple exits. I thought it was great. After this, we returned to Accra.

I have to mention something at this point. On Tuesday night going into Wednesday, I started to not feel so good. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I started drinking even more water and taking ibuprofen every four hours. On the drive back, however, the ibuprofen from the morning wore off, and I felt absolutely miserable. When we got to the hostel, I laid down in bed after some more ibuprofen and slept the rest of that day. And the next day. In fact, I didn’t feel better until this morning. Apparently I looked even more pale than usual, but I’m alright now. My peers were nice enough to get me some food to eat, which I greatly appreciated, and I paid them back what I owed them. I just got a 48 hour bug and now it’s gone. But that meant I missed the last day and a half in Accra. That was Wednesday/ Thursday.

On Friday, we left at nine and got to Cape Coast by 12:30, completely exhausted from the week. That was Friday.

In light of all this, it’s hard to make any clear reflections about Accra, since I only really had three days there. But my initial reaction is this: “hmmm…”. When we came back to Accra, it felt like I left the continent of Africa. When comparing it to what I had seen in Cape Coast and Komenda, it felt like I was in a Western inspired city. There were skyscrapers, a very modern mall, a lot of lights, and so on. This was also the location of most of the imports into Ghana, so there were a lot of outside products and companies. There were plenty of Chinese restaurants everywhere, plenty of Coke, some Lebanese places, and so on. Side note: I noticed the Chinese places and the Lebanese places because that is a major focal point of my project later on. In spite of the global world’s ideas about modernity, it has affected Accra dramatically from the rest of Ghana. For example, In Ghana, it is incredibly disrespectful to use your left hand when engaged with a conversation with someone. That is because the left hand is traditionally the wiping hand before the introduction of toilet paper. Many foreigners, either tourists or business types, are completely oblivious to this protocol, and they would use their left hand without even realizing the significance of it. Because of the free use of the left hand by visitors, the people from Accra became used to it and they started using their left hands themselves. To summarize, the pull of modernization by global terms has created a loss of culture, so Ghana is losing its sense of a uniquely Ghanaian lifestyle. One could call it a cultural syncretism, although the term is mainly applied to religion. At least that is how I felt about Accra: It was modern, but not really Ghanaian compared to other parts of the country. If that is a good or bad synthesis I am not sure. After all, I only observed Accra for three days.

African Drumming Stuffs

10-1-11

For the past two days, I have partaken in some sick awesome Africa drumming. It may be one of the more legit things I have done in my life. Two days ago (9/29) there was a dance workshop for our group to be a part of. Since I have a general distaste for dancing, unless it is swing dancing, I finagled my way into the drumming group. For maybe two hours or so I participated by playing the djembe with a simple pattern: 1-+-2-e. Of course African beats are strongly based on the off beats, so it is more like this: +-1-+-a. It was a lot of fun, and my hands kind of hurt afterwards, since the djembe is played with your palms, but it was totally worth it. Also, the odd beat in each measure is actually closer to a triplet than a sixteenth, but it was easier to notate it for this purpose with what I notated it with.

Yesterday (9/30), I was able to join with another group. This group is a group of younger people (they were younger than me), and they were absolutely phenomenal. Once again, I played a simple rhythm, known as the gallop, because it sounds like a horse galloping. With a triplet feel, it would be any two consecutive notes, depending on what the song calls for. Fortunately, the instrument that I was playing this time (I forgot the name of it) used sticks, so my still recovering hands were able to take a break. With this group, there were also a bunch of dancers who were also young and also phenomenal. They knew what was up. I can’t take credit for the connections, for that belongs to Leah, one of the girls I am travelling with who is interested in African drumming. She found someone named Etↄ, (eh-tow) who is part of a few ensembles around town, including this group.

After we played with these kids for about two hours, we went to a touristy area of town to a place called Oasis to here Etↄ play with another group called Nyame Tseate (I think). A few other girls in the group also joined us to watch the performance. After watching Nyame Tseate, I have no idea what else there is in this world for me to see. The drummers were absolutely flawless, and then the performance was even better. After some traditional dancing, five of the performers began doing acrobatics while the rest continued to play the drums. I have never seen anything like it. I honestly don’t even understand what they were doing but my mind was completely blown. It was absolutely ridiculous. Guys were standing on other guys heads, flips were happening left and right, and then people started flying. It was perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life.

I should perhaps explain how the drumming works. To be honest, I can’t really discuss it for sure, since I am so new to it. What I have gathered, though, is that the drumming is a call and response with the dancers. The drums help instigate the story that the dancing is trying to tell. Usually one dance will happen until the main drummer for the song plays a certain rhythm to tell the dancers to move to the next dance. The music itself, to the untrained ear, sounds like a lot of noise with a center emerging every once in a while. This could not be farther from the truth. Every drummer has a unique part to play, and without even one piece present, it does not sound right. Drumming is a heaps ton of fun!

Komenda

9-25-11

This last week (9/18 through 9/25) was the rural stay, but it wasn’t all that rural. We got into the bus and drove about 30 minutes west down the coast from Cape Coast to Komenda, which is a paramount city. What this means is that Komenda is responsible for outlying villages, such as Kissi and Kyense (pronounced chen-say. I know, “ky” apparently makes a “ch” sound in Fante, and it is messed up. I don’t really know why it honestly matters, since Fante is an oral language, and no one here agrees how to spell anything in Fante). All the outlining villages have their respective chiefs and elders, but they are held responsible by the chiefs and elders in Komenda. Komenda itself is roughly 12,000 people as of the 2000 census, and the outlining villages are around 500-4000 people each. There is electricity in the town, which doesn’t always work, but running water is not common, so I had to get used to the bucket philosophy of showering and bathroom flushing.

Komenda itself was wonderful and fun. It was only a few blocks long, and it was right on the Atlantic Ocean. There were maybe two paved roads that existed, while everything else was dirt roads. The main complex of buildings is Komenda Training College, located a short walk farther west down the beach. There used to be a sugarcane factory about twenty years ago, which provided a large source of income, jobs, and electricity to the town, but it was shut down due to mismanagement. Komenda has never really recovered, and thus the dynamics of the people in Komenda was very intriguing. Since there were very few jobs in town, most people in the middle of their lives went to Elmina, Cape Coast or Takoradi, the major towns close by, to work. That left the children in the care of the grandparents. There were very few people from my age to about sixty in the town. The kids deserve a special note. They were everywhere, and they were relentless. The training at the primary school included a very simple English dialogue, but the kids were not fully aware that it was a dialogue. Everywhere we went, kids yelled after us, “Brunyi-coco (meaning red foreigner) how are you? I’m fine. Thank you. And you? I am also fine. Thank you.” They didn’t even give us a chance to respond, and it was said as a chant and so robotically that it was really cute. By the end, it was becoming kind of annoying though, but it was endurable.

Oh right, I should probably explain why we went to Komenda. We went there for some practice in research methods in relation to the big project at the end of the course, known as the ISP (Independent Study Project). The program turned out to be more sociological than historical, a misjudgment on my part, and so the research becomes mostly interviews. Apparently it used to be more historical, but that has changed in the past few years. This is not my strong strength, but it is good practice and good for possible future research. But knowing my mind, I had to refine my research topic and create an outline for my ISP before I could pursue any interviews, because I need to operate within this structure and framework to really get the most out of the interviewing process. I spent the better part of the week doing this. I even have a thesis in the works, and it is something like this: The development of monocultures in the colonial era coupled with European industrialization has created an African distrust of the West’s business practices, and has thus allowed the East to enter into Africa and establish their industries. It’s still a work in progress, and I have a bit of work to combine all of this information together and make a logical flow that the connections can be seen. Needless to say, I spent some time bouncing ideas off of Ebo Sam (the program assistant) and Dr. Avorgbedor (the main teacher for the course) to refine my topic and structure. I only got to one interview, and it honestly was not quite what I needed to do. Earlier in the week, before I had really established my thesis, we went to the Training College to meet with Ato Bedu-Addo, one of the higher up people at the college, and began to establish contacts with whom to meet. I knew I wanted to do something with monocultures, so I agreed to meet with an agricultural professor. I only had simple concepts to ask and get official definitions for, so the interview was not very successful, which is mostly my fault for not really being prepared. Oh well, lesson learned; spend a lot more time preparing and thinking before going into an interview.

Ebo Sam lives in Komenda, and he was gracious enough to open up his house for me this week. Since I am the only guy, it is necessary for me to have separate accommodations for obvious reasons. The other six girls paired up and were in separate homestays throughout Komenda. Our meeting place was Ebo Sam’s house, so I didn’t have very far to go every day. Also, I was fed way too much food, and I of course ate all that I could, because it was really good. Ebo Sam is married to Ama, and they have an eight-month old son named Kweku who is absolutely adorable. It was a lot of fun to be there, and it was also nice not to walk a distance to get to our meetings. Also, Ebo Sam likes jazz. Enough said.

Komenda is surprisingly hot during the midday hours, considering it is right on the ocean and there is a constant breeze coming into town. But after about four o’clock, when the sun is two hours away from setting, it starts to cool off nicely. Our group went to the beach around five or so about half the time just to enjoy the view. I don’t see an ocean all that often, and I don’t see palm trees that often either. The sunsets on the ocean were AMAZING! I don’t have any words to describe it, and the pictures I attempted to take of the sunset were unable to grasp the beauty of it. I really have no way of describing it, but when I upload some pictures in December I will ask you to describe it and see how good of a job you can do. That’s right, you won’t be able to.

Elmina and Assin Manso

9/4/11

Well, I am sorry to do this to you, but this is going to be a downer of an entry. I would rather not do this, but the circumstances essentially require me too. Last Friday (9/2) I went to Elmina Castle, which was a slave castle. For obvious reasons that was a difficult trip, but at the same time it was necessary.

The first part of the tour took us into the women’s cells, which was honestly traumatic. The cells were lined on the bottom level around a small courtyard, above which the general of the castle had his office and living space. The only time they were taken out of the cells was either when they were being transported to a slave ship, they were removed when they were dead (sometimes dead bodies were not removed for days), or the general made his selection. All the women would be gathered together in the courtyard, and the general would choose which women he wanted to sleep with. After he had pleasured himself, that woman would be brought back to a separate cell, but the ordeal was usually not over for her, because the guards would often thrill themselves at the woman’s expense. She was usually kept in this predicament until she died.

The next part took us to the men’s cells, which did not have a courtyard, or any light whatsoever. Through the men’s cells was the Door of No Return, where people would be taken onto ships and never return to Africa, for they were shipped into a lifetime of servitude in Brazil, the Caribbean, or the United States. The door was narrow, and the only way to get them through was to ensure that the captives were skinny enough to fit, so they were deliberately underfed to make them become skinnier. This was also to make the packing for the Middle Passage more efficient, getting more people on a ship at a time. In the cells (both men and women) there were no utilities, so people were forced to defecate where they were at, which piled up over time, creating a layer of excrement on the bottom of the floor, where they also had to sleep. Walking into the cells, I could smell something odd (and I have a bad sense of smell, so the fact that I smelled something means a lot). It was still the remaining particles of smell that were embedded into the stone of human remains, and not just fecal matter. The entire thing was disturbing, but it wasn’t the end of the tour.

After this, we ascended the castle to the upper levels, which also experienced a few more things that were quite disturbing. First of all, there were cannons on the castle, but they only faced towards the sea, for they were more concerned about other European nations coming to take over than an invasion from African peoples. This was because the populations on the coast became allied to the Europeans and they captured peoples from northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Northern Togo and Ivory Coast. The Europeans systematically subjugated the African populations by the intricate trade network. This trade supported the subjugation of Africa by other Africans, being unaware of the long-term results that this would create, since they were just trying to make a monetary bonus. On the upper levels of the castle were the people who were deemed more important according to the Europeans. This included the housing of missionaries, a church, and the staff who ran the castle. The entire idea of it honestly pissed me off, for this is not what Christianity should be aligned with. They should have been the ones dismantling the castle, not taking up residence in it. I wish I was making this stuff up, but I’m not.

Well, sorry about this post, but it had to happen.

Jon

9/7/11

Well, this entry is probably going to be shorter than the previous one I just wrote, but it also is going to be a downer. Today, we took an hour bus drive north of Cape Coast to a place called Assin Manso. This is not a place that is talked about a lot, because it was a slave trading station. When we approached Assin Manso, I noticed that there were no people around the complex who were looking for tourists to make money off of. That means that a lot less people go to it. This is probably because it is away from the more touristy areas, and it does not hold the infamy that the slave castles hold.

We entered into the comples through a metal gate and were immediately in a courtyard. This was a main trading center where people were sold and then shipped to the castles. It should be noted that most of the people taken into slavery were not from the coast, but rather from northern Ghana and Burkina Faso. These people were transported, often without clothing, for about 300 miles on foot until they arrived at Assin Manso. Throughout the whole journey they would be chained. Many were injured and on the verge of death. To make the captives more appealing, they made the captives bath in a river (still chained), and then they were left out to dry in the sun like one would dry their clothes on a line. A recent search of the river found a ball and chain still there, and I held them for a brief bit. They were heavy, and I felt disgusted that someone at some point was bound to this object and forced into a lifetime of servitude or death.

After they were cleaned, they were brought into the courtyard for exhibition, where they would be sold to the slave castles. At this point, the previous blog should come into play. If they survived both this first journey and then the horrific experience in the castles, then they were placed into a ship on the infamous Middle Passage, and if they survived all of that, then they were bound to a lifetime of servitude. Humans are capable of so much cruelty and have such a horrific potential. I hope that nothing like this ever happens again.

Jon