…and I am off for my yearly trip to Sweden. This time, I will be running behind a one year old, so no time to blog.
Stay tuned, back in September!
Fante + Swedish = Fandish
Our Swedish Ghanaian child is soon one year old. Time flies when you are having fun! She has now uttered her first word of what we call “Fandish” – that is combination of her father’s Fante, one of the Ghanian Akan dialects/languages and her mother’s Swedish, a Germanic language from north of Europe.
What was her first combo word? I am proud to say my child is polite. I believe she pronounced a mixture of the Swedish and Fante words for thank you.
“tack” (Swedish) +
“meda woase” (Fante)
= “ta’ssi” (Fandish)
Passport Photos in Ghana
In Ghana, you always need passport photos. You need them at the bank, at your workplace, to get your health insurance, for all educational applications and of course at Immigration.
Often you need two photos, or sometimes three. So when you go do passport photos at the photographer, the normal deal is no less than eight photos!
Can you believe my 11 month-old daughter already have a pile of her own photos? Anyways, I recently ran out of my own passport photos and went to do another bunch. Yep, eight little Kajsa’s (for 6GHC or 3 USD) are now in my pocket (and illustrating this post).
Oh, no wait! Already, the photos are down to seven!
Book Reading in Accra with Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Last Wednesday evening, there was a book reading at a coffee house and bookshop in downtown Accra. I have been busy ever since, but still wanted to write something about it. So better late than never, here it is.
The Accra literary crowd is not spoilt with world renowned authors coming to share their work, so it was an exciting evening. Author Nii Ayikwei Parkes, fulfilled most of our expectations. “Literature is a way to have fun”, he mused. With a clear voice and a warm smile, he read his Spoken Word poetry, sang some lines from a favorite song and shared highlights – with some extra italics – from his book the Tail of the Blue Bird (a Ghanaian crime novel that I loved, and I don’t easily warm up to this genre. Maybe this is another post, though).
The discussion that ensued touched on many different topics, but in the center was issues about editorial concerns about readers’ capacity to understand African literature (names, expressions, contexts), the localization of language and Parkes way of using italics to highlight Akan words and expressions in his book.
Parkes, book bloggers Kinna Reads and Accra books and things in blue and other guests at the Sytris book and coffee shop in Osu.
Maybe the most rewarding thing with the event, apart from meeting a wonderful writer, was that in the crowd I know we had some of the next authors out of Ghana!
Migration and Development Conference in Accra
Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to a conference “Migration and Development: Opportunities and Challenges in a Globalized world”. It was a great experience in many ways – inspiration, networking and the personal growth that comes with sharing your work.
To me, it is always inspiring to learn about research that is ongoing some favorite new aspects of migration involved gold scams in Ghana, changing migration patterns of unskilled labor to Accra (kayayeis, scrap collectors and others) and student migration out of the Congo finding new destinations.
The networking was superb – I met with many graduate students at University of Ghana – as migration naturally is interdisciplinary we never knew of each other! We have exchanged contacts and will meet up again soon. Also, in the main frame of the collage above, I met with a former lecturer to Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan!
Finally, the pressure that comes with synthesizing your work and presenting some aspect of it feels horrible, but I am convinced it is good for me. I presented a paper in progress about the migration policies of the north and their impacts on academe in the global south, naturally with a focus on Ghana.
Later this year, a publication from the conference will be put together. If my work meets the quality target (and I manage to submit in time), I will tell you more!
See more of my photos from the conference here.
Guest Post by Kweku Ananse: How To Become an Employable PhD Graduate
Last week, Kwaku Ananse wrote a guest post about problematic supervisors. A main problem,he concluded is misguided advice suggesting you focus only on your dissertation:
In our times, employers want graduates with experience, widely interpreted either as teaching, research experience as evident in a publication, or both.
This reality brings me to the issue of taking initiative outside the normal routines of the graduate program.
1.One is to visit the personal websites of other graduate students in other universities who are in the same discipline as you are.Know what these students are doing in terms of the conferences they attend, the types of publications they have (and the journals they have published in etc). Being on top of these things should alert you to what your competitors are up to.
2. Another thing outside the graduate comfort zone is to test your ideas by sending cold emails to perhaps established leading scholars in the field to give you feedback regarding your use of their analytical ideas (Here, I have to say I am hesitant with important but emerging scholars). You are not always guaranteed a response but you might be surprised how some of these scholars are interested to help young intellectuals with feedback and suggestions of recent literature. These people can be your pool of what Kajsa refers to as “informal supervisors” (see her post ‘Informal Supervisors: Surviving Ph.D‘) who can be both local (in other departments in your school as well as in your program) and as well as international.
3. One important thing to note in a graduate school is not to see yourself as incapable of publishing in leading journals in your field.
- Read such journals and note what the leading debates are.
- Examine such debates side by side your current research.
- When you see a contribution that perhaps a facet of your research can make to such debates, ‘be bold’ (as they say in GH-politics) and write an article and send it out.
Several things can happen with such an approach: the paper might be rejected (and good reviewers will give you details as why the paper was rejected); paper accepted (but with some revision,either substantial or minor). Whatever the case, the plus side of taking such an initiative is that you have begun a process that is going to be part of your academic life.
This guest post is written by fellow graduate student Kwaku Ananse, one of my readers.
Photos from Google Elections Digital Tools Workshop
Here are some pics from the ongoing Google Elections Digital Tools Workshop.
Ory Okollu
Justin Arenstein
The civil society organizations crowd
Google Team
Guest Post by Kweku Ananse: Why Your PhD Supervisor is Not Reading Your Work
I am happy to introduce my first guest writer on this blog. This guest post is written by fellow graduate student Kwaku Ananse, one of my readers:
Just like most things in life, conventional wisdom posits that graduate school life is a linear process: you apply to the program of choice, you get accepted, you take and complete core and pertinent elective class classes, pass all those classes mostly with As (and Bs), and then you focus on completing your proposed thesis or dissertation. Even within the process of completing the thesis/dissertation, the accepted thinking posits that those committee members you select are the ones that eventually lead you to the finish line.
However, within my experience, being a ‘traditional graduate student’ who wants take the routine routes to complete a program should reassess such taken-for-taken ideas. One should realize that your supervisor most likely will not be the ‘ideal’ supervisor to deliver on the assumed responsibilities that he/she is supposed to provide.
There are many problems relating to why responsibilities are not fulfilled:
- Lack of time to read your work (but makes you to believe that all is well);
- Unwillingness/inability to provide you regular important feedback;
- Too many other ‘senior’ graduate students he/she might be attending to etc;
- The person reads,but doesn’t challenge you in your thinking/writing etc.
- Also committee members, understandably, will not like to step on a colleague’s toes (your supervisor’s) by seeming to provide research guidance that contradicts one’s supervisor’s (perhaps outmoded) suggestions.
Another reason to always be wary of the traditional route comes in the guise of ‘just complete your course work and dissertation advice’. Such advice doesn’t take cognizance of recent trends. Nowadays, having a transcript, a diploma/certificate and a dissertation under your armpit doesn’t cut it (unless of course, you already have a job security in a university/college).
In our times, employers want graduates with experience, widely interpreted either as teaching, research experience as evident in a publication, or both.
So, what should we do? Look out for Kwaku Ananse’s next blogpost.
Procrastination Day
This is what my day has been like today,but involving a vaccination appointment with my daughter instead of a squeaky chair and a salad lunch instead of whatever was in this brilliant little film. Now I need to go to get some stuff done. Really.
Plane Crash in Accra: News Broke on Social Media
This evening a plane crashed through one of the walls of Kotoka International Airport in Accra. As the airport is very centrally located, this is a catastrophe. At the time, a heavy rainfall was coming down, potentially causing the accident, but surely limiting the casualties as the area is a traffic hub for eastern/central Accra.
The news broke on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SamuelObour/status/209023833632555008″]
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/MacJordaN/status/209025454991089664″]
And there were conversations on how traditional media was running behind. Just 10 m inutes ago TV 3 featured the news, according toTV3 the cargo plane was coming form Nigeria and skidded off the runway.
However, there was plenty confusion.
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/freduagyeman/status/209029990057115648″]
There were some casualties, people on a “trotro” or minibus and a motorcyclist are mentioned in unconfired reports and the deathtollhas been mentioned from8-25 people. The road from 37 station towards La Badi beach is closed.
Online news is still scarce. See MyJoyOnline, Nigerian Daily Times, fellow Ghanaian blogger Samuel Obour.
UPDATE: Reuters report and Allied Press.
On Twitter, the discussion continues.
Swedish Bitters in Ghana
The doctor asked, can you get hold of Swedish bitters?
The older woman smiled. Yes, she said, I believe I can. Then she picked up her phone and called me.
After visiting three pharmacies, I found it. Made in Ghana.
Computer Meltdown
Over the last month, my darling computer has slowly gone to an eternal rest. At first, the battery was lasting for shorter and shorter periods. Then it was suddenly shutting down. Repeatedly. Then in addition it did not allow me to watch video. At some point, my lap-top was more like a unreliable desk-top. And now since a few days it does not start at all. I am missing everything about it and trying to adjust to a work computer with a different operating system for now.
A blog related challenge is that I always attach pictures to my blog posts and most of my pics are now locked up in a hard drive I cannot access (no worries, I have back up). For now, that means posts without pictures (and with a slightly sad undertone).
My darling computer, you are missed!