So, today marks the second week
since I left for Ghana, and what an incredible two weeks it’s been! I’ve spent all day writing; I'll be doing a project with Professor Zuckerman this fall on Contemporary
Sociological Theory, and decided to get a head start on some of the work. I’m only two books in out of eight, and
they’ve both been difficult reads! This
morning I wrote a paper on Frantz Fanon’s The
Wretched of The Earth, a sort of “how to” on colonial revolutions and what
is to come post-independence; quite a read while in an area that only achieved
independence a little over 50 years ago!
My book was as exhausted as I was (printed in 1963 and hardly a book at
all).
In addition to that 8 pager, I had
another 10 of transcription to do from the previous day. Not much is going on
today, so I figured I’d share some interesting observations about Ghana and the
culture here instead. As Keith Hubert, a
former professor of mine who first brought me to Ghana would say, Ghana is full
of opposites. From the mundane, like
throwing away all tissues and toilet paper in a trashcan so as to prevent a
blockage in the sewage line, to the totally bizarre, like how no one uses their
left hand when doing any sort of business transaction (the left hand is
considered the “dirty hand” and as a result, you’ll hand money to someone and
take the product in one fluid motion with your right hand).
One of the more interesting ones to
me is the “holding hands” opposite.
Ghana is on the list of incredibly homophobic countries (there are legal penalties for homosexuality here),
and even in casual conversations I’ve had here, people talk with disgust about
homosexuals “doing things that animals don’t do.” I found it quite odd, then, when I first
arrived in Ghana some four years ago and met the trotro’s “mate” who introduced
himself to me, gave me a handshake, then when introductions were over, he just
kept holding my hand. For the whole
conversation. And then some. See, here in Ghana, unlike in America,
holding hands is not something that implies romantic intention whatsoever; it's
an innocent sign of friendship. If you
need to go somewhere and don’t know the way, it’s quite common to be led there
by the hand. And gender doesn’t matter –
man, women, what have you, holding hands is just a nice, physical connection
that people display for connection’s sake.
I’ve also noticed it a lot with full grown adults leading others across
a busy street, alike an American Mom leading her children about a parking lot –
just tight enough to yank back if a care comes too close.
 |
| It was still hard to get used to after a few weeks! |
Of course, another common practice
is to display your religious beliefs on your most cherished possessions. Every store has some sort of bible verse,
reference to God or Jesus, or religious symbol as the name, as well as all cars
have fun stickers of the virgin Mary and Christian verses. Some people seem to believe in Christianity a
whole lot here, but more than anything, it just seems cultural; people ask what
kind of religion you are just like we’d ask where you’re from. A kind of question that really doesn’t inform
you a whole ton because we’re all from somewhere
and you’ll probably forget it soon anyways.
And there’s no one dominant form of Christianity here, it’s totally up
for grabs. Catholics, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Presbyterians, ect. And right alongside
is Islam (although only about 12% of the population is Muslim, and they're
mostly up north.
I’ll try to think of some more
interesting aspects of Ghana to talk about for tomorrow, where the plan is
either to go to Akosombo or just relax for a day.
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