Now that the honeymoon has ended, I’m being exposed to a bit of the reality of this country. I’m learning a lot more about the history and it makes it much harder to remain frustrated with the slow pace of Ghana. First of all, when the colonialists where here, they made sure to suppress industry here in order to maintain African states’ dependence on foreign products. In 2007, that means that this country missed out on the industrial revolution that makes our world work at hyper-speed. So when I’m going ‘grocery shopping’ I’m usually going to the woman who sells eggs, the woman who sells pineapples and then the woman who sells onions. The fact that such a simple process takes soo much longer was infuriating last week. But the fact is that, that’s the stage of development that this infrastructure is at right now. People are much more frequently operating businesses from the load they carry on their heads. And although it’s hard to get used to, it’s beautiful. I get to see the chickens that lay my eggs every day on my way to school!
I have to face it, there are ugly things about the world, and this place is no different. I’m learning to categorize that ugly things as ‘TIA’ (This is Africa), which is was we all say whenever something happens that would just never happen in the US. And those things are a huge part of this experience. So people have been mugged, friends have turned out to be criminals and the cops hit on you while holding semi-automatic riffles. Ghana isn’t perfect.
Then there are the little things that just SUCK. For example: open-sewers. Whereas sewers in the US are underground, they are open for you to look at, smell, and fall into! They are full of litter and animals grazing in them. Not pleasant at all. This isn’t incredibly common, but people publicly pee in them also. It also really sucks that as a foreigner, you get special prices for everything. Because there aren’t price tags on most things, you ask for the price and then bargain. While I’m learning to accept it, it drives me crazy that we are usually given prices that are at least 30% more than what they would normally cost. I came up with a new rationalization for this today though. I can’t really be mad about that though because in America, I’m all for taxing the rich. Well, there are no taxes here, so in a lot of ways, its just informal taxation. Other things that can be a hassle: water pressure that is less than a faucet, Internet or lack thereof and NO COFFEE! But as a visitor, it’s a good practice in acceptance to be without. Period.
So on Friday night, we went to club that actually ended up being a hooker joint. Woops. I think most of the men there thought we were prostitutes, but at this point I’ve got the polite ‘I don’t want you anywhere near me’ conversation down pat! Ha! But we made friends with some of the girls there and its is just so incredibly sad that they should be forced into that position. Never having actually had a conversation with a prostitute before, it was interesting to say the least. My big question is: why is that even allowed? I mean prostitution is clearly illegal here, but it’s not like any cops are at this parking lot filled with prostitutes and buyers. It was just so casual and out in the open. My friend Kathleen and I are discussing making a documentary about the ‘Ladies of the Night’. Because their profession isn’t such a crime that they should have to hide, they seem like they want to talk. Although I’m not really sure if some of them want us as friends or customers….
I’ve been wondering this week what the Ghanaian perception of American culture is like. At a glance, they seem like they couldn’t care less about American pop culture or politics. I remember seeing in China how obsessed they were with American celebrities. It was like they were copying and pasting certain parts of American culture into their own hybrid youth culture. Here, America is more associated with green cards than red carpets. When I tell people that I’m from New York (that’s right, I’m not quick to say that I’m from ‘America’), I can’t gage any reaction whatsoever. They don’t seem resentful, but they certainly don’t seem impressed.
America does play a huge role in the development of this country not only in the form of financial aid, but in the form of immigration. In many ways, the development of this country has been impeded by the amount of educated Ghanaians who leave the country to find that ‘better life’. And getting a visa here is nearly impossible, so the people that are going over are the elite class.
I haven’t heard much about Ghanaian thoughts on American politics other than a song I heard on the radio last week called “Barak Obama”. The lyrics go, “The white man will never let the black man become president, no matter how many votes her gets”. It’s the first mention of politics and the first acknowledgement of racism in America that I’ve seen. Hopefully we can prove them wrong!
2 comments:
Something else, your journey. I'm going to dig some stuff up on colonial history for you.
JB
The Asante and Fante were players in a pre-existing slave trade when the Portuguese arrived in 1471, some 20 years before the Columbian invasion of the Americas. From that point through the Danish and British ban on the slave trade in 1792, these tribal factions battled for prisoners that they would sell to the colonists. It’s not so much that the British (the dominant colonizer among the Europeans) suppressed industrial development on the Gold Coast. They did that everywhere to keep the competition down—even here in the colonial US. More importantly they used manufactured goods to accelerate the slave trade. It was British weapons in the Asante’s hands that accelerated the slave trade and made the Asante the politically dominant culture that they still are today. Pitting different tribes against one another was how the British operated and they used their industrial strength to maintain control.
Following WWII, and particularly after Ghana became the first independent sub Saharan country in 1957, industrial development hasn’t happened in Ghana for different reasons. Now it is about international capital finding its way there. If one looks at the Asian third world model, this industrializing capital has come with the exploitation of cheap labor.
So tell me, what is the business climate like there? Is labor cheap, and if so, why has there been so little industrial development? And when we talk about sewers, roads and running water, what is the government doing with these infrastructure issues to attract international development?
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