This blog post was requested by a friend of mine who was a
few years older than me and currently works at Lawrence University. I didn't ask him if I could use his name
here, so I'll just stick with his first name. Thanks Nate! I'm going to do my best to comment on my
perceptions of Ghana, and Ghanaians' perceptions of America. Coincidentally, this post is exactly the type
of thing PCVs are supposed to be doing.
Two of Peace Corps goals are: education of Americans about the host
country, and education of host country nationals about America.
My perceptions of
Ghana
I feel like my perceptions of Ghana were similar to other
Americans'. Ghana is in Africa, and it's
hot. But I also knew a bit more about it
before I came. I took an African history
class my senior year at Lawrence, which doesn't seem like a whole lot of
African history, but Africa is not an emphasis in the American educational
system. I also knew a handful of people
from Ghana in college and was really good friends with one guy in particular,
David.
David and I were on the same intramural basketball team for
all 4 years of college, but we never had any real talks about Ghana. However, David was a smart dude, and I
respected him a lot as a scholar, footballer, and person (not as a basketball
player though. He might have been able to beat me sometimes in 1v1, but I was a
much better team player). I had no real
reason to think that Ghanaian students would be any different from American
students or students from other countries that I met while at Lawrence. I generally thought that all students in
Ghana were like him: hardworking and ambitious.
In reality, I don't think students in Ghana are very different from
students anywhere else in the world: some care and want to learn and are
willing to try hard, and others would rather do a million other things than sit
in a desk. My perceptions were shaped by
my personal attitude toward school (why wouldn't
you want to learn new things!) and by the smart hardworking international
students I met while at LU.
The biggest difference that I do see between Ghanaian
students and American students come from systemic issues like corporal
punishment (caning), teacher apathy, and lack of parental guidance. Those things are difficult to change, and it
takes personal commitments and willingness to change. I'm working on some of those things at EP
JHS, but the going is slow.
David was one of the more religious people that I knew
(granted that doesn't say a whole lot because I went to a small,
non-denominational, liberal-arts school), and I guess I didn't know what to
expect when I got here, but almost everyone is pretty religious. Traditional religions and the people who
practice them are not nearly as prominent as they used to be, but interestingly
enough, everyone respects the power of traditional religions and the magic
associated with them. The people of
Ghana are overwhelmingly Christian, and Islam is the second largest religion,
but only the most devout people who have truly put their faith in God don't believe
that traditional religions have the power to hurt them. The same goes for witches; everyone believes
in their existence and takes witch threats seriously.
Probably my most incorrect perception of Ghana was that
Ghanaians would always be trying to rob, scam, or cheat me. I just assumed, thanks to the American media,
that Americans who travel to third world countries are always in danger all the
time. This is just not true, and I find
98% of Ghanaians to be extremely nice and helpful. Ghanaian hospitality is more than a saying,
it's a way of living.
I was also unsure of how people would look at me considering
that I'm a white man coming from a country which participated in the slave
trade. I whole heartedly believe that
all people are equal and should be treated as such regardless of skin color,
gender, wealth, sexual orientation, or any other differentiating factor among
human being, but I still felt guilty and sorry about slavery, discrimination,
racism, and the struggle for civil rights that black Americans had to deal with
in America (and still have to deal with today).
Gay rights is a pretty big issue in America right now, and I just don't
understand how people can be so ignorant and closed-minded about such an issue
that obviously is exactly the same as all the other civil rights struggles from
the past. The great Charles Barkley said
this one night on TNT's Inside the NBA show, "I'm all for gay rights. As a
black man how can I agree with discrimination of any kind." Ghanaians are also extremely homophobic to
the point that it's illegal, and I don't think they will be changing their
minds too soon because of their strong religious beliefs. This paragraph was supposed to lead into the
section about Ghanaian perceptions of America, but instead I went on a
rant. Sorry, but I'm not going to delete
it.
Anyways, 99% of Ghanaians have stopped blaming Americans for
the slave trade, and I haven't been harassed about it yet. (Or maybe they never
blamed Americans too much. The British
colonizers are still referred to as "colonial masters" and I think
they took a lot of the heat. And it's
important not to forget that kings and chiefs in Ghana were usually the people
selling the slaves to the slavers and making money. And slavery was practiced in Ghana by
Ghanaians before the Europeans came to buy slaves.) Slavery was terrible; everyone acknowledges
that. I had a really great conversation
with my new headmaster a few weeks ago about all kinds of perceptions and
beliefs people have in America and Ghana.
In the end we agreed that generalizing and assumptions only lead to
problems, and there is no way to undo the past; we can only learn from it and
try not to make the same mistakes.
Ghanaian perceptions
about America
Ghanaians really do believe that all Americans are rich, and
they believe that if you have a job in America you also live in a mansion and
drive expensive cars. I work all the
time to dispel this myth. Yes, it's
true, the average American is wealthier that the average Ghanaian, but the way
wealth is distributed is similar to Ghana.
There are super rich people, people who have plenty of money but not
boatloads of it, people who earn enough to get by, and people who really
struggle. The difference is that America
has more of a middle class than Ghana, so a greater number of people are able
to live comfortably. Something that is
hard to explain to my students is that living in America costs a lot of
money. A person can live in Ghana on
very little money, but everything is more expensive in America (except imported
goods like electronics which cost the same or even more here). So to just afford basic things like food,
water, shelter, etc, you need to make a lot more money than most Ghanaians. I've been told that even when families send someone
to America to go to school or work they think they live a lavish lifestyle because
they are able to send back enough money to support the rest of the family. The exchange rate and cost of living are the two
biggest factors that allow this to work.
People do ask me for money, but not so much in Bodada (they know
I'm a volunteer and I'm here to help them) . Usually when I just say no people will leave me
alone, but sometimes I have to explain that I'm a volunteer. Occasionally that isn't even enough, but then other
Ghanaians will step in and get the person to stop bothering me. Ghanaians have a lot of pride, and they don't want
visitors or outsiders to think that Ghana is full of beggars and robbers. It's surprising and really nice how often I'm helped
by strangers here.
Switching it up a little, Ghanaians also love Obama, but he's
the only pop culture icon from America that most people know. I already talked about the Obama shirts, but there
are lots of other shirts that people wear that are originally from America. They buy big crates of clothes that were donated,
and sellers sort through them and then sell the nicer articles on the streets and
in clothes kiosks. Just the other day I saw
someone wearing a Gustavus Adolphus t-shirt, and I've seen lots of other t-shirts
that I recognize. Most people don't know
what their shirts represent back in the states, and there's no discrimination between
colors and genders. I see guys wearing women's
shirts, sweatshirts, and shoes all the time. It makes me smile.
I'm sure in Accra there
is a greater influence of American culture and media, but in most parts of the country,
people don't listen to American music too much (some like rap and pop but they love
country music) or watch American movies. Some radio stations will have an hour of American
music each morning, but mostly they play local music and the DJs talk a lot, like
wayyyyyy too much. More affluent people have
TVs here with a satellite dish which gets a few channels for free because you pay
for the dish itself and the converter box, and occasionally an American movie will
be on. But most of the programming is either
Ghanaian or Nigerian. They also have a few
international news stations like BBC and Al Jazeerah.
Most people here have a lot of respect for Americans and I get
the impression that we are thought of more highly than Europeans. I like to think it's because of programs like Peace
Corps which offer more substantial aid than some other volun-tourism groups, but
it's probably because they know American money is good and that Americans are rich
and nice.
I'm kind of running out of steam now, so let me know if there's
anything that I should elaborate on by commenting, Facebooking me (I uploaded more
pictures!), or sending me an email.
