less than one month.

It’s crazy to think that in less than a month I will be back in Ghana doing research on tro-tros again. It is going to be an amazing Christmas.

why I write.

This post is dedicated to the man behind my posts…Gideon Okraku. Thanks for inspiring me every day to write about the things I see and for answering all of my crazy questions about Ghana. You are the reason behind this blog and my passion for the African continent, and of course Ghana.

 

 

 

art and Africa.

Over the course of my summer in Ghana, I came across a lot of amazing art. Street sellers around the country are always selling “authentic” African paintings for obrunis (foreigners) to bring back to their home and show off the glorious majesty of “African Art.” However, seeing the same images of drummers, villages, and market women really got me to thinking about what makes African art African.

Gideon took me to this amazing art gallery called the Arists Alliance Gallery in Labadi (an area within Accra) where the work of artists like the great Ablade Glover, the founder, are featured. The gallery is wonderful, far better than any museum in Accra and features both old and new arts from a variety of mediums. It defies the stereotypical images of African art and presents a realistic portrayal of how African art is an ever changing field.

Ablade Glover painter and founder of the Artists Alliance Gallery.

This gallery really made me think about what it means to be an African artist and how Ghanaians creativity is often stifled by their nationality/continentality (note: not a word, but it should be).

Market by Ablade Glover

I believe if you make art and you are an African, then your art is African art. However, many people believe that African art can only feature women with babies, animals, or other traditional subjects.

What do you think?

What’s up Africa features Sarkodie’s “U Dey Kill Me Ooooo” Dance

mobile web ghana.

This new program “Mobile Web Ghana” aims to make Accra the new tech capital of the world. They are holding training sessions in Accra this month to create new Mobile Web programs for Ghanaians and the rest of the world to enjoy.

Check out their website and the project’s aims here: http://www.mobilewebghana.org/?page_id=7

miiba = I am coming.

Ghanaians are always coming. Regardless, of what you say or do the response always seems to be the same, “Please, I am coming” or “Miiba” (Ga- pronounced minba) or “Mereba” (Twi- pronounced meeba). The phrase essentially means, I will be with you in a minute (but often a minute turns into an hour or several hours).

Waiting is a key part of Ghanaian life. Therefore, learning the phrase miiba is essentially to living in a Ga speaking area of Ghana.

making red-red.

Today, Gideon taught me how to make red-red, my favorite Ghanaian food. Thus, I thought I would share the simple 5 step recipe with you.

Step 1: Gather the ingredients: gari, cowpeas, palm oil, and plantains.

Step 2: Boil the cowpeas for approximately 2 hours, or until they are soft and ready to eat. Then, you add salt to taste.

Step 3: Peel and cut plantains in diagonal slices (as shown above in the picture) and add a pinch of salt. Then, heat oil (vegetable or olive) and fry the plantains until they look like the picture below.

Step 4: Heat the palm oil until it is melted.

Step 5: Combine all the finished ingredients together (First, take some beans, then add some palm oil, next add some gari, and top it all off with some fried plantains) and enjoy!

 

wɔ = to sleep.

Lately, I have been sleeping a lot. I don’t know what it is about Ghana. But, it makes me crave sleep. Therefore, my Ga word of the day is wɔ meaning to sleep. I also learned that the word for the noun sleep is adɛɛ or daa, which is similar to the Twi word for the verb to sleep da.

police training in Ewe.

This picture is of me at the Ho Police Academy yesterday where we visited Gideon’s brother Nana. In Ghana, if you want to be a police officer you must be at least a graduate of SS (high school). Then, you must pick a 5 cedi ($4) application from the post office and fill it out and turn it in. After the deadline, the police choose to recruit so many of the applicants based on their body types, education, and various other criteria. Those chosen then go to a 6 month training camp that to me seems a lot like army boot camp in the US. The camp attempts to change the way that they think about themselves and the world around them and make them into someone new. They cannot see their relatives at all for the first three months and they cannot have phones nor can they leave the site of the camp. It seems like a pretty intense system to me.

While we were waiting for Nana, one of the officers, Peter tried to teach me some Ewe (the language predominantly spoken in the Volta region of Ghana and Togo) and reminded me at how difficult the language is. To me, it sounds a lot like French, but maybe that is just because the first time I heard it spoken was in a Francophone country.

polisifonyɔ = police.

Today, Gideon and I are going to Ho to visit his brother Nana at the Police Academy there.

Ho is a beautiful city in the Volta Region of the country. It is the largest city in the region and most people there speak Ewe, also the primary language of Togo. The Volta region was initially part of Togo, but right before Ghana declared independence their first President Kwame Nkrumah made a deal for the Volta region to become part of Ghana. Ever since then, the Volta region has been a part of Ghana, but in many ways is very different from the rest of the country.