One last (long!) hurrah from Ghana

It appears that this will be my last blog entry from Ghana. My flight leaves tonight for Frankfurt, and I’ll be in the cool, quasi-wintery comforts of New Jersey before long. There was so much that I wanted to write about before leaving, but I think I’ll just condense a bit of what I have to say into one post, eh?

News & Pop Culture
I realize that I’m returning to Joisey with little/no idea of what’s going on in US news or pop culture. I mean, I know that the Bush administration is generally imploding (oooh, I can’t wait to read more), that Brittany Spears had her baby (thanks for the tip, Jackie!), and that Janet Jackson has an 18 year-old, previously-secret kid (WTF?), but little else. Ah, well, I’ve got a bit of time to catch up. In the meantime, I take small comfort in knowing that I’ve learned quite a bit about Ghanaian news and pop culture. And, in the world of entertainment, Ghana’s quite a small world. Through her work in video production and editing, Yinka has met and personally knows tons of Ghanaian actors/actresses, TV personalities, models, and musicians. So she can easily point out who’s a ho, who’s dumb/smart/lame/cool, and recount scandals in detail. Spiffy!

Also, watching copious amounts of Ghanaian TV has allowed me to remember various commercial jingles. It’s also worth noting (in the vein of “YuhChic’s gettin’ stupid, yo!”) that I’m now addicted to several telenovelas now, which are incredibly popular here. I like Cuando Seas Mia (“When Will You Be Mine”…I think?), La Revancha(“The Revenge”), “The Promise” (it’s Filipino! Go, Asians!), and – my personal fave – Todo Sobre Camila (“All About Camila”). Mind you, it’s not something I’m particularly proud of, but I’m quite sad that I won’t be able to watch them with Yinka anymore. Damn you, Ghanaian TV, for getting me addicted. DAMN YOU!

Did I also mention that I've become quite a fan of football (i.e., soccer)? Just in time for the 2006 World Cup in Germany this summer! Now if someone could just explain this offsides rule to me...

Race and Religion in Ghana
I’ve recounted some of my obruni adventures for you, but – truly – I find race and religion an interesting topic. Regarding race and religion, here’s a quick run-down:

- The biggest minority group in Ghana (or at least in Accra) are the Lebanese. This is surprising, since, as a British colony, I really expected there to be more South Asians (there are not many here at all). Generally speaking, the Lebanese are well-off, with a majority of the posh shops and restaurants in Osu, the ex-pat neighborhood of Accra, being owned by them. There are a lot of stereotypes about the group, of course, and most that I’ve heard have been negative. Apparently, they treat the locals crappily, so there is some resentment brewing. What’s slightly funny is that some of the “Lebanese” aren’t really even Lebanese – they are Syrian, light-skinned South Asians, or Eastern European. Hee.

- Actually, I have to take back what I said about not seeing too many Asians in Ghana. I thought about this, and that’s off. In fact, the Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) seem to be investing a lot in Ghana. On my way to Cape Coast, for example, I was on a bus with three engineers from Mainland China who were on their way to a project. The bus drove on a road which was being rebuilt with the technical assistance of and funded by the Japanese government (there were quite a few Japanese and Chinese working on the road, redefining the term “coolie” once again). Then, there’s Tema, which is a seaport town not far from Accra, filled with many “half-caste” (half-Asian) people from the sailors that pass through. Oh, and let’s not forget the cheap Chinese and Korean goods flooding the Ghanaian markets! Ah, globalization. In any case, I haven’t seen any real cases of overt racism against Asians here…oh, except for that one time that this guy made “ching chong” noises at me in the parking lot and I flipped him off (he wasn’t happy about that). Other than that, it’s a lot of “Are you Japanese? Are you Chinese?” going on, and random people saying “Konichiwa” (sic?) to me (and me saying “Wrong country” and walking away). Whatev.

- Nigerians = violent (Ghanaian stereotype) and make crappy movies (my opinion).

- Tribalism – still alive and well in Ghana! I don’t know a lot about it, but it certainly can affect the country in very negative ways. For example, while I was in the North, I heard that the local education minister was sending teachers back to his home village/tribe instead of to villages who actually needed teachers. So his home village (which has about 100 primary school students) was assigned 7 teachers, while a village like Larabanga (250 primary school students) had one teacher. Um, yeah.

- Religion. Ah, crazy religion in Ghana. Most people are freaky evangelical-type Christians (speaking in tongues and the like), and I sense (from some of their behavior) and they’re not really “Christian” so much as hypocrites. And you know how much I love those types! Luckily, I’ve also met some really nice Christians, so I don’t have an entirely bad impression of it…just a generally bad one. Hee. There is also significant Muslim population in Ghana as well, but, as Yinka often says, Ghanaian Muslims aren’t such strict Muslims (premarital sex = a-OK!). Happy belated Eid-Ul-Fitr (end of Ramadan!), by the way…

- Ah, one last word on religion: despite adherence to Christianity and Islam, a lot of people still believe in old fashioned ju ju (voodoo is derived from this), which has jinxes and curses and all that. So many Ghanaians are still very superstitious and fearful about curses. Yinka’s notebook got stolen at her French class, so she wrote in her new notebook “Property of Yinka. If you steal this notebook, may you and your children be cursed for eternity.” Cool!

YuhChic the Man Hater
Okay, an exaggeration perhaps, but Ghana has certainly exacerbated my man-hating tendencies.

First of all, the attitude towards women (and by women) is annoying to me. That is, Ghanaian society is really a machismo one, where men can sleep with whoever they want, whenever the want (fidelity…ha!), whereas women are supposed to be submissive and loyal. ::sigh:: There’s no such thing as spousal rape here, at least it’s not recognized by the law, and rape victims are often made to feel like rape is their fault. Double ::sigh::

But that’s the general stuff. From more personal experience, let me give you some advice if you’re a single female wanting to travel abroad by yourself: if someone asks you whether you have a boyfriend or are married, answer in the affirmative, despite any man-hating tendencies you may have. :) When given the opportunity, say that you are married! It’ll save you trouble! It was hard to do this with a straight face, but I managed to become a pro at the end.

When people (Ghanaian males, to be specific) first asked me, I was a chump and answered that I didn’t have a boyfriend. Then they’d ask me why and insisted that women cannot be without companionship. This all leads to the inevitable conclusion of the conversation: I want to marry a white woman and have her take me away from here. I chatted with several taxi drivers (after telling them I was married…hee), they actually asked straight out: “Give me the numbers of your white lady friends and I will call them and maybe they will marry me.” One of the drivers was like, “Oh, you are American? Then you are beautiful!” Hehe, nice pickup line, buddy.

On some level, the whole situation is sort of funny, but also really sad to me. Besides the whole line of thinking that many Ghanaian men (and women) think that an obruni is a fast way to get out of the country (my taxi driver’s thinking: “Well, if you are a white woman in Ghana, then you must come here because you like black men and want to marry one?”), it’s a bit tragic that few people want to stay and make things better. Triple ::sigh::.

In any case, with rare exceptions, my experiences with Ghanaian dudes have been largely negative – what with being a foreigner and a woman, as well as all the negative experiences that others have recounted to me. I’m more of a man hater than ever, really. Hmm, positive or negative outcome of this trip? I just don’t know.

Bribin’ it up
I’ve tried to write about mostly good/funny experiences during my time in Ghana, but I’ve hinted at some disillusioning experiences as well. I got one last present – an important whack of reality – from Ghana just before I left.

On our way back home from purchasing some souvenirs for my family in her car, Yinka and I were trying to pull into a main road from a dirt side-road. No lanes marked, no signs forbidding joining the traffic. Yinka followed another car into the main traffic. Suddenly, a traffic cop (or Ghanaian equivalent) pulled us over. Apparently, we were taking a “unauthority (sic) road.” The cop let himself into the car and told us to pull into the nearby police station.

Once at the station, he and another officer took Yinka’s license and keys, informing her that she would have to pay a $500,000 cedis fee (US$50+, but a lot), or her car would be impounded and she’d have to go to court and pay $2.5 million cedis. Verbal abuse followed, since we questioned why we were pulled over in the first place. The cops were getting pissed, we were kind of upset, and it just generally sucked.

For those who don’t recognize the situation, the cops were looking for a bribe. ::sigh::

As I was talking to the coppers and trying to calm them down, I was really trying not to say the following, but eventually, I had to: “Sir, how much do I have to pay for us to fix this problem?”

I’m not really proud of my behavior. In fact, I daresay that I might go to hell for being part of the problem. But, as I was watching Yinka get upset at the prospect of losing her car for 2 weeks, I guess I just realized that sometimes money (and, er, principle?) is a small price to pay for your friends and family. I paid the dudes $300,000 cedis (Cop, as I was trying to slyly hand over the money: “Hide that!”) and we ripped outta there. Ah, what an experience.

Corruption is rampant in a lot of the third world, I guess, and – if you’ve never experienced it – it’s easy to say “Well, people just shouldn’t take part of it! It’s morally wrong and hurting development!” In reality, it’s much different. In fact, it’s really scary how easy it is to give a bribe, and thus contribute to the vicious cycle of corruption. The only thing I could really do to make myself feel better was to convince myself that those cops were going to cursed or punished by God – you know, much in the same way in high school when I convinced myself that the “cool” kids would eventually be punished for their crappy behavior towards nerds in high school. My high school wishes came true, so I can only hope that my current conviction does, too.

Last thought…really!
Finally, eight weeks of living in Ghana has certainly been interesting! I’ve seen quite a range of living standards, that’s for sure – from posh (and not-so-posh) urban surrounds to a much simpler village life. There were new friends as well as not-so-nice people; there were great traveling stories, and there were disillusioning life experiences, too. To avoid being overly corny about the whole thing (tough for me, I know!), my time in Ghana really allowed me to learn a lot about the world and (dare I say it?!?) myself. Despite any disappointments, I would do it all over again. Well, maybe sans mysterious illness, but I would!!

In any case, I made some great friends for life during my time here and got a smack of reality in a lot of stuff. For these, I will remain very grateful!


Sidenote of the Day: Did I mention thank you?
I wanted to thank my friends and all the peeps who actually read this blog! I hope you sort of enjoyed it. Let me know if you have any suggestions – I’ll endeavor to keep it up for the rest of the year. Also, thanks to those who sent their good wishes while I was ill – I appreciate it and apologize for not sending thanks sooner!

See you soon (if only in cyberspace!)!