Day 8: June 20th

Today we are on our way to Cape Coast. On the bus Damba, our tour guide, and I got into a discussion about Ghanaian children and school. Each statement he made produced a large number of questions in me. Questions I didn’t think he was qualified to answer. Not that he couldn’t produce an answer, but I felt as if I need to go to ground zero. Talk to students and their families. Damba said, “Every child has to wear a uniform to make sure they are treated appropriately and recognized.” Well, then how are children treated if they don’t go to school? Is there a stigma attached to them even though many children can’t go to school due to lack of funds? How are non-school children mistreated? What happens if they are not “appropriately” recognized? The discussion became more interesting when he began to talk about the female school children. Girls are discriminated against even though most of Ghana is matrilineal. Although women are said to be held in high-esteem there is a weird/uncanny simultaneous air of sexism throughout the culture…. A matrilineal patriarchy. It’s an irony that I can’t completely wrap my head around.
So, for the girl school child, she must fulfill her female duties of going to the market, cook, clean, take care of family members, take care of the house, etcetera as well as complete her school work. Therefore, often times, girls lack in academic performance because of the extra responsibilities and lack of time. As a result, many expect males to do better in school (which is interestingly reversed in the US) and presumable do better in life. Because school is expensive, when parents see that the girl isn’t doing well in school, often times, she is told to learn a trade. So instead of girls going further in school or going to college (or as they say “the university”) they become seamstresses, cosmetologists, and other occupations traditionally linked to women and domesticity. Out of all of the people I met that were attending college they were all male. Apparently this isn’t a coincidence. Some women said they were students, but it was when I was buying something from them so it sounded more like a sob story in hopes that I would buy from them and not the two of us having a conversation that didn’t entail me giving money.
Because girls don’t have much free time they are told to cut their hair. But, girls don’t have to cut their hair if they have the money to attend a private school. As a result, hair begins to represent a higher class status because their families can afford private school and possibly a maid thus the girl has more time to do her hair. In addition, hair begins to represent agency. Girls who have long hair don’t have to cut their hair unless they want to and can do their hair as they please. Girls cutting their hair because they don’t have the time to do it and need time to study seems logical (that is why I won’t be going back to a perm) but I can’t help but think that the girls are being told to be uniformed with the boys. Is this a coincidence or a result of European male-dominated societal influence? Damba also said with the females’ hair being the same, it eliminates unnecessary competition between female students. I wonder then, what is being altered about the boys’ appearance, daily lives etcetera that “eliminates unnecessary competition” or affects their school work or dictates their home lives? It’s unfortunate that even in a Black matrilineal society Black women are still at the bottom of the totem pole and have the least amount of say-so. It seems as if Ghanaian women (at least contemporary ones) have the least amount of agency and the most responsibilities. Again, has that always been the case in Ghana or is that a result of Eurocentric influences? We keep hearing and reading about great Ghanaian women in history but where are great Ghanaian women in the recent past? Current Ghanaian s-heros? Are there any? There has to be.
_____________________
I have come to the conclusion that Ghanaian women (maybe most African girls) have a different association with their hair. It reminds me of Karen (a graduate student in my department from Kenya) that doesn’t appear to have the same attachment to hair as many of the Black American students do. She doesn’t seem as interested in styling it. As she teases us, I teased her one day by saying, “Karen, we need to do something with all of this” when her hair was literally standing on top of her head. There is just a different relationship with hair and it’s probably because girl students are taught that hair needs to take a back seat to their other seemingly imposed “priorities.”
Now I am not for changing people’s culture. If girls desire to seamstresses and hair stylists then more power to them, but if they desire to go to school and do something else with their lives why should gender roles get in the way? Why can’t parents take on some of the girl’s chores in hopes that she do well in school and have the ability to help herself and her family? Damba then said sometimes the parents do help the girls so that they can do well in school. The family (or the mother I presume) hires a maid or what Ghanaians call a “house-help.” It seems pretty innocuous on the surface, but Damba said often times the husbands cheat on their wives with the house-helps. Damba said, when a man sees a woman cleaning after him, cleaning his clothes, he will become attracted to her especially if the wife is not constantly around. Sometimes the wife will not allow the house-help to do anything that deals with the husband or the bedroom in hopes of preventing this attraction. This made me think. It appears that girls who want to go to school can result in them being displaced from the home because the parents want her to do well in school. This can ultimately create a cesspool of resentment within the family. Easily a mother could blame her daughter for a broken marriage and a cheating husband. The family could think, “If it wasn’t for the girl not being able to complete all her chores and her school work, the wife wouldn’t have needed to hire a house help.” Although I firmly believe a man (or woman) wouldn’t going wandering unless they wanted to, many women refuse to find fault in the man and would rather blame someone else for his cheating ways. I believe that regardless if the house-help enters the bedroom or not, washes the husbands clothes or not, if the house-help wants to be disrespectful or not, regardless if the husband wants to cheat he will. It feels extremely unfair and unfortunate that a girl who simply wants to receive an education can ignite a rift in the family structure.
_____________________
Paintings outside of the slave river






















On our way to Cape Coast we stopped at the “Slave River” in a town called Assin Manso. Assin Manso is a town where one of the largest slave markets existed. Whites would buy Africans and African ethnic groups would purchase other African ethnic groups to sell to other Europeans. Assin Manso was one of the greatest slave markets where enslaved Africans from various nations (who often were POWs sold into slavery by another rival African nations) took their last bath. After walking possibly hundreds of miles and chained together at their necks, they had to wash in order to be presentable on the auction block. Then they had to walk another long journey to a slave dungeon many miles away.
The guide at the “Slave River” told us about the Joseph Project the current Ministry of Tourism is sponsoring in an effort to get African Americans to come back to Ghana to invest. The premise is based on the story of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph was the favored son in his family. The brothers were jealous of him so they took Joseph’s cloak, put animal’s blood on it, showed it to their father so that the father would believe that Joseph was dead, and the brothers sold Joseph into slavery. Joseph was sold to the reigning king of Egypt. Joseph is then favored by the king and becomes king of Egypt. Later famine breaks out in the area and many come to the palace for food. Among those people were his brothers. The brothers didn’t know Joseph was king and were surprised to find Joseph in charge of distributing food to those affected by the famine. Instead of rejecting his brothers and not giving them food, he helps them in their time of crisis. The way this relates to the “Joseph Project” is that Ghana is asking Black Americans (most who are the descendants of Africans sold into slavery by other Africans) to forgive Ghana, come back to Ghana, and help the country in its time of need. This feels problematic on so many levels; I’m not sure where to begin. It feels like it is drawn from this over-arching mentality that some Africans have …“Slavery happened, get over it.” Although I don’t think many African Americans are angry towards Africa (I don’t think many Blacks even know that Africans participated in the slave trade), so there doesn’t seem to be any emotional hesitation in investing in Ghana. But to say “get over it” and not seriously address historical issues or many Black Americans’ feelings about the slave trade is problematic.
Something that made it more troubling is the feeling about slaves and their descendants. In Assin Manso, parents would tell their misbehaving children that if they don’t behave, they would be sold into slavery. In the town, if it was known that you were a slave or the descendant of slaves, you were looked down upon. So it is interesting that in the US, whose Black population (in the millions) who are the descendant of slaves, are begin asked to come back to a place where their existence would otherwise be considered a taboo.
__________________

Before we stopped at the river I told myself I wanted to touch the water. Maybe put my feet in it. Take in the sounds, the air, and the smells and think back. When we reached Assin Manso we walked to the “Slave River.” The path was cover by trees and would have been a nice scenic route under any other circumstances.

When we reached the river, it was clear that the small area where the bathing took place opened up into three rivers that possibly continued for miles. I walked down the short path where the slaves walked to reach the water. I wanted to take my shoes off, sit on the bank, and put my feet in to take in the space but the ground was muddy. So I squatted down and put my hands in the water. It wasn’t until I washed my arms in the water that I became emotional. The still water was cool to the touch like it could have been a small relief from the long journey numerous chained African people had to take.

The shade from the bamboo trees serves as protection from the sun… a shade that covered the bathers who were told to wash in the shallow end where the overseers could supervise them.

I can see the three avenues that could have and were taken by escaping slave.

Some who didn’t escape committed suicide. They were usually the ones from Nigeria (either Ebo or Yoraba) who believed that suicide didn’t inhibit transmigration. For those who were too weak they were left chained to a tree to die. Because of the heat, the walk of over a hundred miles to the Slave River many babies died. If the over seer saw that the baby was limiting the mother, or slowing the group, the guide said, the overseer would smash the baby’s head in the tree and leave the body in the river. The mother or father who watched that had to have died soon after. Heartache. Suicide. Something.

I ball and chain discover a few years ago in the river. Possibly of an excaped or murdered slave left in the river.

As I stood there, the area was quiet and cool. Many assume it would be humid and thick since we are here during the rainy season, it is the summer, and most people seem to believe the whole continent of Africa is as hot as an oven year around. It felt like a burial ground. As if there should have been a memorial constructed or some tombs with names but of course those who lived and died there often went nameless.