A Shrine, Sewing, and Body Use in Ghana

Greetings family and friends!

All is well in Ghana :) recent mental projects: coming to terms with the fact that I’m leaving soon, and have very little time left with my family here, and too little time to learn *everything*; coping with not being able to buy presents for *everyone*; forgiving my forgetfulness and strange habits; not worrying about things at home that I can’t help; basically, not worrying about all the things I can’t help ;) That’s the way it goes. I have to accept my human limitations and be grateful for what I can learn, see, do, help, and cope with. Yay for learning :)

I didn’t go to Takoradi this past weekend after all due to miscommunications and people being in alternate locations. It happens sometimes – I’ll just be going this weekend, and I’m sure hitting the club/disco once again ;) I also didn’t go to Praso, the nearby town where some extended family lives and where Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana does some outreach, but I may go there after our trip to the North, depending. My paper that was due on Monday went just fine, and now I’m having this middle-of-the-week chill time that I was rather looking forward to. It’s nice, although naturally more busy than I had planned. I’m also studying during this period and tomorrow I shall spend considerable time in the religious studies department library. Why they can’t put everything in one place I don’t know, but I suppose it doesn’t matter much in the long run.

The real story of my mid-week free period, however, is that I went to a traditional shrine today! It was an amazing experience. I have so much to say, and also so much to ponder. I think it’ll have to wait for the next entry, though, as I need to process more before I simply repeat ;) Suffice it to say that Katie and I got to speak to the administrator of a local shrine (the son of the priest who founded it) and asked him questions for a nearly an hour after witnessing libation prayer at the five individual shrines/altars. We also got to watch the kids and adults who live there, some of whom are priestesses, play drums and dance, experiencing how informal teaching, rehearsal and performance are all interrelated, normal and regular things in this context. We actually got to talk to someone who believes in all the aspects of traditional religion, who could explain to us in his own words (though in English) the mind-frame in which all of this takes place, some of the theology, et cetera. Also, he explained all of the specifics for why certain things are in certain places, how kola nuts actually look and how they can be used for divination, and why certain figures are revered. Ah, I learned sooooo much! I’m so thankful.

Of course, I’m less thrilled about doing my African Traditional Religion exam, but I’ll be as prepared as I can be ;) again, the last two exams & paper have gone just fine, it’s just that the exams from years past match very little with what we’ve been taught in this class, and they basically want us to write 5-paragraph essays through the whole thing, for which I have a slight distaste. I suppose that I should be grateful I was warned about the structure this time ;)

So, let’s see. Thursday is a calm day. On Friday I’ll go to PPAG, hang out with my friend George and then Katie, Chantal and I will go out to dinner with our African Lit professor Naana Jane for some processing/debriefing time, now that we’re definitely ending “school” here and are nearly at the end of our general time in Ghana. Hopefully on Saturday morning I’ll go to Takoradi, then come back on Monday morning, and our Guilford trio will cook American food for our families :) And by American I mean that Katie will probably be making some guacamole, so yeah, it’s our normal crazy cultural mix ;) On Tuesday we’ll all take our Fante exam, on Wednesday I have my African Traditional Religion exam, and on Thursday we begin our trip to the North, either returning on Sunday or Monday. I hope it’s Monday, because the trip involves lots of traveling time, so we might as well see as much as we can while we’re up there. Our Benin trip, which would in theory happen the following weekend, is still up in the air. So in sum, you’ll probably get at least a brief report on all of these things, and also I should be posting on Wednesday again next week. Woot.

Ok, Ghanaian English Time :) Please remember that this doesn’t necessarily apply to all of Ghana, and may only apply to Akan-speaking areas.

First of all, people don’t ever say “pick up”, as in “Go and pick up the phone”, or “I’ll pick you up this afternoon”. They just say “pick”, as in “Go to the taxi station, and I will come pick you”, or “why didn’t you pick my call?”

Next, people often ask you if you’re finished for the day, but they don’t say finished, they say “closed”. “Have you closed for the day?” There’s an exact Fante equivalent, and it’s one of those important cultural questions. There are a lot of words asking about how work is going, and people often tell me to study (“learn”) hard. In Fante, the verb for “to learn” is also used for reading, so you essentially say “I’m going to learn my book” Mokosua buuku.

Also, I was reading this book of theology by a Ghanaian woman, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and at one point she mentioned that when people were essentially declining your invitation to eat with them (and you must always invite those around you to eat with you) that people would say “my hand is in it”, because usually you’d be eating out of a common bowl, pulling off pieces from the same ball of fufu, etc. Now, having been in Ghana for four months and never learned this (I learned the word for inviting someone early, because I asked) I thought that it was some obscure cultural thing that mostly older people do, or that’s done in the country, because no one ever said it that way to me in English. Whenever I invited someone, they always declined by saying “no, enjoy yourself” or something of the sort – until two days ago, that is, when one of my little sisters suddenly instructed me in the Fante for “my hand is in it”. I could spell how it sounds, but it wouldn’t be correct. But it’s interesting how cultural things like that, to which I’ve been exposed for so long, can still remain partially hidden.

And finally, even though when Ghanaians knock and make a sound to indicate knocking “koh kooh koh” they make three sounds, when Ghanaian children play they don’t say “one, two, three” to start something (for example, jumping rope, or beginning a rhythmic game). They just say “one, two”, and they also generally say them slower than kids in the US “one, two, three”, so maybe it takes up the same amount of time. Maybe they also just need less rhythmic preparation. Who knows? I don’t think it’s because western culture puts more things in threes… if anything we do more in four, which my memories of kid rhymes and games confirm. Ah well :)

And now for random cultural topics: Carrying things on one’s head. Yes, people do that in Ghana. My family doesn’t usually carry water on their heads (though other people do), but they carry big containers full of bread, bundles of laundry, and anything else that’s either big, heavy or unwieldy. As I’ve mentioned, hawkers almost always carry things on their heads, but tons of other people running errands and moving things carry stuff on their heads too. One of the first things I was amazed by upon entering Ghana was the men carrying long boards and metal pipes around the city on their heads. Also, by “long” I don’t mean 8 feet. I mean more like 15-20 feet. Sometimes two people would be carrying such a long thing together, but last Friday I saw a man carrying an entire refrigerator on his head by himself! Also, people carry huge loads of firewood in the country, and anything else you can think of that you would have to carry for a distance. Once I saw a large stack of VCRs on someone’s head. Of course, while most Ghanaians apparently do have better balance than I do, they also have a little help which I have never seen portrayed in movies about Africa (maybe people don’t use it other places?): people generally take a rag, and sort of wind it into a circle, and then put that on their head first, to distribute, steady and slightly cushion the weight of their load, and also perhaps protect their head from hard or spiky pieces.

So, considering all of this, I wonder how much people hurt their backs here. They do of course have to lift these things to put them on and off their heads, but usually when it’s heavy they ask for (and receive) help, from anyone who’s around to give it. So anyway, I wonder how this affects one’s muscles. Ghanaians also generally seem to have good posture, though occasionally really tall people tend to keep their heads bent down, as if they grew too fast. I’ve heard people commenting about this in the US, too.

However, people in Ghana also bend at the waist far more easily than people of their same age in the US. They just sort of swing like a hinge from their waist, and it appears that they bend at a 90 degree angle, though they must stick their bottoms out to a degree to keep from falling over. But anyway, a lot of work in Ghana involves doing this for a long time, partially also because people don’t like to sit on the ground (though small stools are common). So instead, they just bend over to deal with their things, and move stuff (like bread, for instance ;)) around. I can talk about bread because my Mother here makes it, so I get to observe people at work around that. Also, most of the time if/when grass needs to be cut here, people do it with machetes rather than any kind of machine or even scythe. They also sweep with a tied-together handful of reeds, so you have to bend for that. But anyway, when cutting grass for an extended period of time, the men I’ve seen at the University each use a waist-height staff in their left hands to hold the top halves of their bodies as they bend over to cut with their right hands. I find all of this significant because it just goes to show how much the human body can actually do when trained, how “back-breaking work” is rather subjective, and how little we push ourselves in the US. It’s not even necessarily that people here are stronger – merely that they’re spry because they keep themselves spry.

And while we’re talking about bodies, I’ll comment on weight :) In Ghana, there are very few people who are really obese, but there are lots of people who are my weight and heavier. The difference is that they’re all older women. In Ghana, it’s expected that as you age, you might also grow in weight. So since I’m overweight for my age in Ghana, people think I’m older than I actually am by say, six or seven years. This is partially also why they all think I should be married by now ;)

Also, it’s common to see girls younger than me with babies, usually on their backs. Motherhood is extremely important in Ghana, and society does what it can to make sure that mothers and pregnant women are comfortable and well-appreciated. In official, salaried jobs there’s a much longer maternity leave than in most western countries. There are even all kinds of cultural jokes and nicknames that you’re supposed to give pregnant women to make them happy. But anyway, lots of these women with young children work, but need to keep their babies with them. Strollers aren’t really used in Ghana, and if you have to work, you need your hands and arms, so it’s usually inconvenient. So instead, women carry children strapped to their backs by a large piece of cloth. Their little legs get straddled over your hips, and when they’re old enough they can even climb on and hang on until you get the cloth in place, or even just for piggy-back rides. You’ll notice that this arrangement doesn’t interfere with carrying things on your head either, so even with two burdens, your hands are still free. Children can fall asleep comfortably while on their mothers’ backs, and it also seems to be a comforting thing: if a baby won’t calm down, you can try putting them on your back and bouncing with them for a while that way. The cloth generally comes up to the mid-back of the baby for those old enough to be staying awake, & more accustomed to holding their own balance, but for little babies it goes right up to their necks, and so some sleeping babies look kind of bizarre to my American eyes, with their heads lolling back at odd angles. Katie and I agree that we’ve always been taught to support little babies’ heads, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern in this case, and it seems that all the Ghanaian adults we know have turned out ok ;) And you may be sure they were *all* carried that way. I’ve only seen one mother with a front-carrier thing.

Final interesting tidbit of the day: Mother and I finally went to visit a seamstress she knows, and I’ll be getting 3 tops and 3 bottoms (1 skirt, two pants), and a dress made by Monday! Not quite all of this is for me (one shirt and one shirt/pants set are for friends) but in any case, I’m extremely excited. Also, between the cost of the fabric, the cost of lining for some of these, and the cost of paying the seamstress, all of this has come out to $55. Isn’t that insane? Of course, such money goes a lot farther in Ghana, but still, four outfits that are *made* for the person who will be wearing them. I mean, I knew that’s how it would be, but I’m still amazed. Mother also bought some fabric and ordered another outfit for me on the spot, which she wanted me to wear to church when I came home – so Bethel and Centenary, you have something else to look forward to ;)

Anyway, that’s about it for now :) goodness knows what I’ll do with the rest of today, but it’s about 2 o’clock and I need to get some food into me. Watermelon just came into season! We’ll see what else I can scrounge around town.

Thanks for continuing to read all of this, or even just for checking in occasionally. Thanks for caring :)

Miss you all!

love,

Rachel Rose