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>How to celebrate AU Day, African Union, African Unity?
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A Monday chilling at home. That’s quite nice, isn’t it?
The occation is African Union Day when we celebrate…yeah, what do we celebrate? The Pan-African vision of a united Africa? The African Union? And is it really something to celebrate? Read this sharp article By fellow blogger Ato Kwamina Dadzie on the subject.
Chilling at home, it suddenly dawns on me that every day is a holiday, somewhere on the planet. There is of course a website to inform us of them, see Earth Calendar. There I find out that today is not just AU-day, it is also the day for a local sugar festival in Bolivia, Carpet-day in Turkmenistan and National Tap-Dance-Day in the US.
So I might just celebrate a bit even though the vision of African unity is still just a dream.
In the pic an unrelated African celebration.
>African Literature in the Making: Harmattan Rain
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Yesterday, I found some information on facebook about a book by a Ghanaian writer, Ayesha Harruna Attah that came out a few months ago. Her book is called Harmattan Rain, an interesting choice of title that suggests conflicts, since harmattan is the dry season which normally no not include any rains. You can read an exerpt at the Publish Your Story blog (that amongst others feature Ghanablogging‘s own Maameous among their friends) here.
I take a great interest in Ghanaian and West African literature, simply because I want to learn about life in Ghana – and what better way to learn than from books?
About the book from the author herself:
A few years before Ghana’s independence, Lizzie-Achiaa’s lover disappears. Intent on finding him, she runs away from home. Akua Afriyie, Lizzie-Achiaa’s first daughter, strikes out on her own as a single parent in a country rocked by successive coups. Her daughter Sugri grows up overprotected. She leaves home for university in New York, where she learns that sometimes one can have too much freedom. Eventually, the secrets parents keep from their children catch up with them.
What was especially fascinating about this book, if I got it crrectly, was that it was concieved at an African literature center, where a few talanted students are invited each year for a nine month (!) sejour that – if all works out – ends with a book. The center is called Per Ankh as situated in Dakar, Senegal.
There is so much talent in Africa that go unharvested. I think initiatives like Per Ankh could be one way of changing that. What do you think?
Cover pic borrowed from the author.
>Malaria in Ghana or Bengt You Could’ve Called Me
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I was just reading one of my favorite columnists in Sweden, Bengt Ohlsson. He starts as he often does, to comment on some quite ridiculous trait of the Swedes (this time the extreme dependency on the mobile phone). But then he surprisingly continues with a story about Ghana. He writes:
Men jag vill ändå påstå följande: jag trodde att jag visste vad vanmakt var. Det var innan jag stod på en grusig Medborgarplats i februarimörkret och min exfru ringde och sa att hon hade pratat med vår son och att han trodde att han hade fått malaria.
Det hade han nu inte. Det spelade ingen roll. Eftersom han var i Ghana hade jag inte ens haft en teoretisk möjlighet att dundra ombord på ett plan och åka dit, eftersom Ghana kräver visum och grejer och gula febern och dessutom har de inte ens någon ambassad i Sverige.
In my translation:
I thought I knew what powerlessness was, that was before I stood on a gravel covered Medborgarplats in the February darkness and my ex-wife called and said that she had spoken to our son and that she thought he had caught malaria.
It turned out he hadn’t. It didn’t matter. Since he was in Ghana I wouldn’t even have had a theoretical possibility to rush aboard a plane and go there, since Ghana demands Visa and things and Yellow Fever and don’t even have an embassy in Sweden.
Wait now. Malaria rarely kills, especially not people with funds to get treatment. But yeah, I also freaked out when my siblings caught malaria in Ghana last year. We rushed them to hospital and in just 24 hours they were feeling better. However many Ghanaians cannot afford treatment as highlighted by Swedish Medecins Sans Frontiers in their malaria campaign here.
And not even a theoretical possibility to go? What about the daily flights from Copenhagen, London and Amsterdam? Visa on arrival? Calling the Ghanaian Embassy in Denmark to help out? What about just emailing me or any other Swede in Ghana and ask us to check on your son?
I get the column was about how little you can do on the other end of a satellite phone call, but judgements like these without any facts supporting them do little for building on a truthful image of Africa. In 2006, 8565 Scandinavians ( and about half a million international tourists in total) came to Ghana and many more are discovering Ghana every year and I am pretty sure most of them survived (the only reason I am not saying all is due to dangerous traffic).
Those kids on the beach on the pic above are the ones who risk their life when contracting malaria.
>Dead Aid Debate
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Surfed into Guernica Magazine ( a wonderful web based magazine on art and politics!) and saw this interview with writer and economist Dembisa Moyo.
Moyo has recently written a book, “Dead Aid”. Her agument is that aid dependence is doing more to hurt than to help Africa. And that aid is being sustained not because there is evidence of progress, but because of the 500 000 people who work in the “aid industry”.
At the same time African governments are not taxing their people and hence people also expect little of them. Opaquness rather than transparancy, corruption rather than efficiencly describes governance in Africa.
Some people, like her teacher at Oxford and Harvard
Paul Collier, feel she is mostly correct and that her wishes of slashed aid will come true because of the current economic downturn.
Others like writer Madeleine Bunting thinks Moyo’s liberalist views are poorly underpinned and wonders what will happen to the poorest people, like the HIV infected, if aid is terminated.
The other day I met a fellow who works with the Millenium Challenge initiative to build roads and make agriculture more efficient in Ghana. A project costing USD 547 million. Some of the projcts he described, like facilitating the supply of vegetables to Accra and the harbor in Tema, is something I have never heard the Ghanaian government(s) suggest.
Then the question is why, is it because someone else is already doing it?
>Water Problems in Ghana
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Sitting here in efficient Sweden and reading about the things that grinds on my blogger friends’ nerves, like water shortages. How can a country like Ghana, with so much water fail to provide its citizens with this important service?
When my husband and I moved into our first home in Ghana’s harbor city Tema, one of the first things we bought were buckets to store water in for the days when the tap doesn’t flow. Later I have come to understand that that is most days for those who live in Accra. How the capital can be worse equipped than other cities is another question for the leaders of the green country I now call home.
As it is now, entrepreneurs charge poor people large shares of their daily earnings for small bucket fulls of water. It should be the Government’s highest priority to solve this problem, to make sure clean and safe water is provided to all.
Accra’s serious water problems have been reported again and again, but nothing seems to change. Abena writes that there has been no water for a week. I don’t want to think about what can happen when the distribution fails for more than a week…
In the pic, an empty swimming pool.
>Swedish Princess Wedding
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Just reading Swedish news websites here in English about how Swedish Crown Princess Victoria has gotten engaged. The news cam also be viewed on YouTube here. After 7 years of courting the Swedish gym owner, Daniel Westling, I can’t say I am surprised.
However, she is the first female to inherit the throne (after a change in the Swedish constitution in 1980) and he is , according to respected historian Herman Lindqvist, one of the very few Swedish born so called “common people” to ever become royal. And the whole thing is…almost medieval in that a 31 year old has to ask her parents and the prime minister for approval. As my journalist friend Katrine Kielos writes
“We live in a modern society…(Duh! a clip was put on YouTube by the Royal court! My comment.)…is it then not time for the next step? That we become a republic and Victoria runs for Commander in Chief?”
I do agree, but first there is the wedding scheduled for spring 2010 to think about.
Since I got married less than a year ago, I have some tips for the Princess when planning her wedding:
* Choose a comfortable dress and pretty but also comfortable shoes so you can dance and enjoy.
* Visit the bridal site Offbeat Bride for inspiration on a more fun and personal wedding. Don’t be too serious!
* Throw a big party, hopefully you just get married once.
* Involve your families in the preparations (that one will be easy for the Princess).
* Marry for love.
Blurry princess – and prince – pic borrowed from SvD.se
>Saturday Sunrise
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Take a deep breath, enjoy this picture and then enjoy your weekend whereever you are, dear reader.
(Will be back next week with more substance).
>Ghanaian Beads
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Glass, recycled, clay, brass, silver, ceramic
Beads in Ghana is big business. In 2007, I made a web search for “beads” and “Ghana” and got 609 000 hits, today I got 655 000 hits. My love of beads which I have written about here, here and the other week here have recently been upgraded to obsession.
Most importantly, I have joined the Ghana Beads Society which convenes the first Thursday of every month at 4.30 PM at DuBois Centre in Labone, Accra. The meetings are enthused gatherings of bead nerds as myself, mostly other (female) obrunis and some (male) Ghanaian bead traders (where are the Ghanaian women who most often wear beads?). In the beginning of each meeting, wonderful beads are being sold for bargain prices, the peak of the meeting is spent learning about beads, feeling their delicate textures, getting shocked by how difficult they are to make/bring into the country and marveling at their various colors. There is also some networking and meet and greet with the founders of the GBS and other bead experts.
I have gotten to meet with bead enthusiasts and bead entrepreneurs like Kati Torda of Suntrade and Trish Graham of Ahene Pa Nkasa. It is truly inspiring how they have rediscovered Ghanaian beads and though determination and a will to learn have upgraded the traditional bead into modern use. See for instance the lovely bead work Kati Torda did for Miss Ghana 2005 here.
And I have started thinking about setting up my own bead business. If I did, I think I would be focusing on bracelets – which I love – and “over-the-top pieces” which would be overtly elaborate combination of the West African beads I have come to enjoy so much. In a few weeks, I hope to go for a “stringing” class to learn how to successfully create jewelery with the beautifully rustic and colorful beads I have already purchased over my first two years in Ghana. Then we’ll see.
I only know, this is not the last time I write about beads.
Pic borrowed (and cropped) from Kati Torda’s photostream on Flickr.
>Kokrobite Beach Vacation
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There’s a beach just west of Accra called Kokrobite that seems so far from my everyday life of metro-boulot-dodo, but in geographical terms is not. This is where I spent this past weekend.
Kokrobite(some native English-speakers spell it Kokrobitey to underline the correct pronunciation, including the “e”) is situated one hour from Tema, 30 minutes from Accra on a good day with little traffic around Mallam junction leading out west from Accra. This backpackers hide-out is complete with cheap accommodation (can wholly recommend Bah’doosh where I stayed this time), Rastafarians, palm trees, cold beer and a beautiful and crowded beach with a glittering and wavy ocean.
Everytime I go, I bring only a pair of flip-flops, a piece of African print that can make a dress or a wrap or a towel or a headgear, a flowy white cotton top to avoid sunburn and my colorful patchwork trousers (bought in Kokrobite last year)- all of which goes with a bikini and some beads around the wrists.
My husband and I also take a long the books we never get to read. In the mornings we have breakfast in the shade reading together, something that is terribly nerdy, I know, but just screams vacation to me. Swedish celebrity blogger Alexandra Pascalidou has made beach life her everyday life in Thailand for a couple of months. It should be possible to do the same in Ghana.
Some people might have ulterior and somewhat more “smokey” reasons to come to Kokrobite, but as for me I just find it relaxing without any additives. It is like I took a plane to vacation land. But I didn’t. Did I say this place is an hour away from home?
Pic: This is how happy I feel on the beach.
>Hugh Hefner in Ghana
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So, lately the debate has been all about Ghana’s Ex-President Kuffuor who has been awarded with some huge retirement benefits.
* Lump-sum (thought to be worth $400,000)
* Six fully maintained comprehensively insured, fuelled and chauffeured-driven cars to be replaced every four years. The fleet comprise of three salon cars, two cross country cars and one all-purpose vehicle.
* Two Fully furnished residences that befit a former president at place of his choice
* 65 day overseas travel with 3 assistants each year
* 18 months consolidated salary
* Million-dollar seed money for the setting up a foundation,
* Security – 24 hours security services
* Budget for entertaining each year
Blogger Que has made an interesting comparison to the benefits of the US ex-president Bush here and an expose of possible feelings towards this here.
While parliament has agreed to again “review” the benefits after the public outcry, I have thought about the benefits intruiging me the most. They are the entertainment money and the 65 travelling days a year with three assistants…Isn’t that just too similar to Mr Hugh Hefner of the Playboy mansion?
And when the laughter stops, this is real – not just reality-show, is this the image we want to portray of Africa? and should a developing country really pay for this kind of lifestyle?
>Behind the Obama-Mania
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I recommend to anyone living in this time and age to pick up a copy of Barack Obama‘s “The Audacity of Hope”.
Reading this book is like opening the back door to the Obama inauguration frenzy, including colorful pop-art posters, music galas and celebrity worship, and coming out on the other side of the stage and see that the sky is really blue.
Yes, his election really signifies change due to who he is, but there is more.
It becomes clear that this man is a calm, reflecting but determined do-gooder (funny fact: according to wikipedia Michelle and Barack’s first date was to see the movie “Do The Right Thing”) who has a dream of letting complexity back into politics. The book is about many other things (chapters are called Values, Our constitution, Race, etc.), but to me the message of complex decision-making resonates. Not every issue can be answered with “Aye” or “Nay”, there are trade offs in policy-making and most issues need a bit of explanation before we can take a stand. He also comes down on the polarization between Republicans and Democrats, itself a simplification, in the American political system, but adds that the media thrives off of it:
Your quote doesn’t run if you say, “I see the other guy’s point of view” or “The issue is really complicated”.
I can’t help but think that the current economic crises might be just what Obama needs to create a less partisan, less simplistic and more constructive political arena. What we can do, wherever we are in the world, is to accept his challenge of complexity and ourselves get more involved in politics, and maybe also give less meaning to abbreviated news clippings.
The book also has a couple of funny incidents from the (senate) campaign trail, like the one about the guy from Obama’s opponent’s office who followed him everywhere with a hand-held film camera. After he refused to give Obama even the smallest personal space, Obama introduced him to the press during a briefing. Later he got a apology from the opponent, who by then had been hurt by the story of the persistent and rude filmer.
The New York Times called Obama “level-headed” in their review of The Audacity of Hope. To me, that is a excellent attribute for a world leader to possess.
In Ghana, I am going to view the inaguration ceremony at the Du Bois Center in Labone, Accra and in the evening I have been invited to a celebration arranged by the Africa-American Association of Ghana (AAAG) at Sweeties Night Club in Airport Hills.
>Post Election Thoughts
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As the sun sets on the Ghanaian elections of 2008, here is my post election column for the Swedish newspaper AiP.
Although the brief text unfortunately is in Swedish only, the heading optimistically reads “Ghana visar vägen i Afrika” – in English “Ghana Shows the Way Ahead in Africa”.
In the pic, the beautiful sunset over Tema/Sakumono beach yesterday evening.