Ghana, Political

One Year of Road Toll in Ghana: My Experience

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Last first of February, I woke up to a new reality. The previous silly-low road toll for taking the motorway to town had been increased ten-fold! That day, I joined the long queue of surprised motorists and payed my 50 pesewas to go in the morning, and 50 pesewas on the way home. All in all 1 GHC per day, at least 20 days a month ever since.

I was one of the ones who, despite the sharp price increase, was happy. I told anyone who wanted to listen that now things would change. First of all, it didn’t make sense to wait 5-15 min at a toll booth to pay the equivalent of two-three cents. But more importantly, deep holes in the concrete motorway, broken/non-existent street lights and pedestrians crossing at any given point would be a distant memory. We would all be able to go to work SAFELY. Wasn’t that worth 1 GHC per day?

A year has passed and the 20 x 12 = 240 GHC that I have payed has unfortunately resulted in very little:

  • One more road toll station has been completed, making queuing a few minutes shorter (It opened two weeks ago)
  • The informal exit to communities 18-19 has been tarred (but no signs or white lines making the exit a hazard)
  • Some potholes have been mended (but new, deeper ones have also appeared)

I must say I am disappointed. I never expected to a year after paying decent road tolls still drive home in  the dark. Even white lines to mark the sides of the road are not there.

Statistics reported on Joy FM on the 20th of January said that already this year (that is 2-19th Jan 2011), 724 vehicles had been involved in car accidents in Ghana. 580 people had been injured and 120 had died.

When will Ghana start taking road safety seriously?

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Ghana, Kenya, Netherlands, Promoting

This Is Africa – A New Culture Website

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My friend Emilie pointed me to the This Is Africa site. It is a spanking fresh culture site that trumpets “Africa for a new generation!” and sports subheadlines like “city life”, “music” and “art&fashion”.

It looks great, slick and graphic in a very modern way. The page has a lot of cool links, for instance to the Ghana based (?) DJ and contributor Akwaaba Music / Benjamin Lebrave. It also features African artists’ music videos in a unique and cool format called The White Room – here Ghana’s Wanlov the Kubolor is one of the artists featured.

But then there is something that makes me suspicious: The website is designed for the specific purpose of connecting Europe a.k.a. “the West” to Africa:

This Is Africa is a media organisation that brings Africa and the West closer together via African contemporary urban culture.

As such, it is funded by the EU. It is managed from Amsterdam as the Director, Editor and Web-manager all live there.

So I cannot help but to ask myself: This Is Africa?

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Ghana, Ghanablogging.com, People, Places

Ghana’s Happiness Culture

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Ghanaians are often described as a “happy people” and just the other day in a group of Ghanaian young adults I was thinking to myself, somewhat grumpily: “what on earth are they laughing about?”

So it is roaring with laughter that I read my GhanaBlogging colleague  Graham‘s grumpy, but on-point, observation about the “enforced happiness” (Graham’s words) or “happiness culture” (mine) of Ghana. He takes us through everyday life cheer, party fun, church enjoyment and with an eye for detail he notes that Ghana’s most popular radio stations are called Happy FM and Joy FM! Graham continues his rant:

Even the music coming from the radio is happy! Hip-Life, High-Life, Happy, Happy, Happy. The music’s light and fluffy drum beats and the synthesised sounds have far too much sugar in them – give me vinegar any day!

Almost in a reply, Anti-Rhythm argues that the play in learning was taken away by the colonial influences on Ghanaian education.

In these our lands, many years ago, we used to learn by playing. Through song and dance and theatrics, we learnt what was relevant for our circumstances then.
When the colonialists came to inflict their cut of formal education on Africa, we left the fun behind.

Does that mean that Ghanaians were even more happy in ancient times?

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Ghana, Personal, Places, Positive

I Love Mango!

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Someone I recently met here in Ghana said she missed some berries from home. I was surprised:

How can you miss any berry or fruit when there is sun ripe mangoes ?, I asked.

This time of year in Ghana might be dusty and “cold” (as low as… brrr… 25 degrees celsius), but it does bring something invaluable…

…Mango season!

I love the small ones, the big ones, the reddish ones and the still green. I like the ones that smell like pine sap and sunshine. With time you learn how to predict how the stone stands in the middle of the lovely fruit. You cut close to it and have a big chunck of sweet fruit. I like cutting thin wedges, but sometimes I do diagonal squares and gently push the half inside out. The sun colored fruit begs to be eaten! The consistency of a perfectly ripen mango is velvety and smooth. The feeling when you dig into a mango half and the juice drips along your hands, arms towards your elbows…

The big ones are 50 pesewas a pop at the fruit stand opposite my house. You want one?

Pic borrowed from YKWYA.

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Ghana, Personal, PhD

My Spring Semester

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Finally Monday!

Today I start teaching this semester’s course, still at Ashesi University College. I will be teaching one course, Social Theory, to two cohorts of 50 students each. Last year, I did a blog for my class the Social Theory Blog…although it went great and was much fun, this year, I think I will do something else. I believe in doing new stuff and developing as a lecturer. I got some inspiration from Ken Bain’s book “What the best college teachers do” (courtesy of my mother) over Christmas. Will keep you posted.

My classes will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays, one in the morning, one just after lunch. On Tuesdays I will be in my office for administration (read: grading) and office hours.

I also guide three final year students towards their final thesis. This is challenging and fun and I hope I also get to see them almost every week until April when their paper is due.

The other part of my work is research. This year, I hope to be able to spend most of Thursdays and Fridays at Legon/Institute of African Studies working towards my PhD. Thursday mornings is graduate seminars, and the rest of the time I’d spend in the library or in meetings. I am aiming for building a strong relationship with my three (3!) supervisors and putting together a questionnaire to be able to collect my quantitative data by the end of the semester. I have no idea if that is feasible, but I feel like I have been reading forever and now would like a grip on the empiry!

So, there you have my spring and my aspirations.

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Blogging, Ghana, Ghanablogging.com, Positive, Promoting

GhanaBlogging Progress

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The group I co-founded with fellow Swedish-Ghanaian Blogger Maya’s Earth, GhanaBlogging, is in the habit of meeting monthly. Today at 3pm at Café dez Amis (former Afrikiko) it is time again.

Right now we have some interesting and positive developments and thinking about formalizing ourselves into something more than a group of friends, into some kind of organization. This is for two main reasons.

First, we are getting more and more invitations for collaborations from companies and other organizations (Google Ghana, Nokia, British High Commission etc.). This is wonderful, but it is becoming unclear who to contact and how to spread information properly. I am also proud to say we are a very critical group who feel strongly about being independent, so this is another issue when market forces knock on your door.

Second, we are growing like crazy! Before Christmas, more than 70 bloggers wanted to join us! At the last meeting we were more than 15 bloggers present! ( If you also want to join us, fill this GhanaBlogging form and we will get back to you!) This means we need to streamline the application process further – and just welcoming double the amount of members we have is a great task that requires organization.

Despite these changes the group is still very much a group of friends, meeting, discussing and laughing.

See you later!

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Ghana

New Issue of Dust Magazine

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I hope you have come across the new issue of Ghana’s best free magazine, Dust. “It’s everywhere” is their clever slogan (but now I can’t find it on the mag – did I dream it?) and it is true as you can pick it up in different places, but also read it online: Dust December Issue 2010.

The magazine is the brainchild of my friend Chrystal and a bunch of Ghanabloggers are involved: Kobby Graham as editor, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah as a returning contributor and Esi Cleland as this issue’s featured blogger!

Read it to get a glimpse of the cool, cultural, urban Ghana that also exists along the more traditional images of my home country.

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Ghana

…And in Ivory Coast – Election Mayhem?

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Outtara

Just reading this report from MyJoyOnline on how Ivory Coast is now closed for traveling and to foreign news agencies and the sore loser in the election, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo is pulling strings to get back the power of the country, just awarded to the opposition leader Alassane Outtara. The report suggests:

The head of the independent electoral commission (IEC) , Youssouf Bakayoko, said Mr Ouattara had won 54% of the vote, compared to 46% for Mr Gbagbo.

He was speaking under armed guard at a hotel, rather than from the commission’s headquarters.

This interesting timeline of Ivory Coast by BBC reminds us of Ivory Coast’s volatile past and that Outtara was the presidential candidate who was accused of not being a national Ivorian (but rather from Burkina Faso) back in 1999. Violence seems to be lingering in the air, and attacks on party offices have already been reported.

Fellow Ghana blogger Osabutey suggests Gbabgo should be stopped before he burns down the country, but who would stop him?

Pic borrowed from BBC/AFP.

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Ghana, Personal, Sweden

End of 2010 – Already?

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Flipping through my calendar (a Filofax my friends always tease me about because it is big, heavy and not modern at all) my eyes fix on today’s date: 23 November 2010. I shake my head. Really, November? November as in the end of the year?

Life in Ghana without seasons – or ok, with very different and more subtle seasons – always confuses me about the time of year. This morning for example, I stepped out in our garden in flip-flops and a waxprint cloth around me. The sun shone with hot rays on my face, just like the sun in an early July morning in Sweden. But /snap/ it is November.  And that means another year has soon passed again.

Can you believe it is the end of 2010, a year I feel has just begun?

Are you ready for 2011?

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Ghana, People, Places

Emilie Reports from A Ghanaian Village

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Emilie, Kuapa Kokoo worker Frank and cocoa beans.

My good friend and former class mate  Emilie Persson, fairtrade activist and Ghana-lover, is currently living in a cocoa producing village in Ghana and writing reports for Divine Chololate’s blog. (I hope you have tasted Divine’s fairtrade chocolate made from Ghanaian cocoa?)

In Emilie’s first post she writes:

I will try to capture some of the everyday activities from one of the many villages where the Kuapa Kokoo farmers live and where farmer grow the cocoa for the company they co-own – Divine.

As a masters-graduate in global studies, from the University of Gothenburg in western Sweden, I’ve been given an exciting opportunity to spend two months in the Ghanaian countryside, more exactly Assin Akonfudi in the central region. Having a passionate interest for development and agriculture and with several years of experience advocating Fairtrade in Sweden, it’s great to be able to get a more in-depth insight into the lives of the farmers behind Divine.  I hope it will be as interesting for you too!

Weekly, she will be writing  updates and posting her wonderful pictures. So check back in!

Today is also Emilie’s birthday. Happy birthday, dear friend, hope you’ll have an excellent day in the cocoa village!

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Ghana, People, Places, Sweden

Swedish Trade Minister in Ghana

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Currently the Swedish Trade Minister Eva Bjorling is in Ghana.

The minister has been visiting a Swedish-Ghanaian theater project, had meetings with Ericsson in Ghana and met with Ghana’s Trade Minister Hanna Tetteh. According to Peace FM, Bjorling said that

“trade relations between the two countries had steadily increased over the years, indicating increased interest among Swedish companies to strengthen business relations with Ghana.”

I believe that the last time Sweden sent a minister to Ghana was in 2006 (captured on the popular Swedish TV program Diplomaterna). Earlier this year, the Swedish Ambassador to West Africa promised increased investments in Ghana from Swedish companies. And now this visit, so maybe ties between Ghana and Sweden are actually being strengthened.

I feel it is hopeful that the relationship between my two countries, Sweden and Ghana, is based on trade rather than aid.

Some Swedish companies in Ghana are Sandvik, AtlasCopco, MTG/ViaSat and Ericsson.

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Ghana, Places

Accra – A Boring City?

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When I first moved to Accra, I found the city boring, dusty and event-less.

Three years on and counting, I am not sure if it is the city that has changed or my network that has grown. Maybe both?

Yesterday, I knew of five interesting events happening simultaneously:

the Ghanablogging November Meet-Up I arranged at cozy Cafe Dez Amis (former Afrikiko), a discussion evening with entertainment for diasporan Ghanaians and others at Golden Tulip Hotel. There was also a fund-raiser coctail at Bella Roma Restaurant in Osu, a first meeting for the new expat network InterNations at Rhapsody’s and the High Vibes music festival also opened… (click on link to see program for the following week!)

I smiled to myself as I hurriedly left the first event for the second, smiling because I felt like this was the first time I was actually missing out on something in Accra…

I only resent that events often are announced short in advance (some less than 48 hours !)  and that there is no information central for finding out about “all” events (if there is, please let me know!). I believe that makes Accra rather boring for a newcomer.

What do you say, is Accra boring?

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