Feb 29, 2012

Ka-dunn, Ka-dunn (Little by Little)


Active participation during extra classes
On more of a day-to-day operational level our work has involved trying to increase communication efforts at YA; chiefly social media engagement and website updates and articles on beneficiaries which is a process we are slowly trying to formalize for consistency. Alex, Mavis (my co-workers) and I have also taken it upon ourselves to hold extra English classes for any and all primary school children who are interested. It’s been so much fun, and a surprising number of students actually show up (out of their own free will!) We do a lot of reading, simple vocab and spelling to try and reinforce what they’ve been learning in school. One of our teaching “strategies” is getting them to act out parts of the stories we read to aid their understanding and to make the learning more hands-on. It ALMOST makes me wish I had gone into teaching ;)

Extra class sessions

2012 is a big year in Ghana with nationwide elections slated for the end of the year. YA plans to engage the local street youth of voting age (18-25) on the importance of their peaceful participation in Ghana’s political process. Too often, the marginalized  street youth are targeted by political factions to contribute in violent and disruptive behavior that causes fear, panic and disorder within communities that support their opponents.

It is every individual’s civic responsibility to ensure that the government represents the cumulative needs and desires of all Ghanaians, regardless of social background. YA seeks to improve the youth’s understanding of governance in Ghana and how they can use their voice to shape a nation that is receptive to issues that affect them daily. This can be accomplished by encouraging them to consider current policies in government services like education, health care, sanitation and transportation; researching  alternative political parties and their perspectives; formulating an opinion and officially registering to vote. Secondly, YA hopes to instill the ethics behind a fair and just electoral process that supports the right for every citizen (including the youth themselves) to vote without fear of intimidation or harassment.

Meeting with YA & Transport Union
This is a long term project that YA plans to support through various stages. Currently we’ve begun by meeting with youth leaders in organized areas of the community where the youth tend to seek employment. Many young men find work as porters and loaders at the transport yards and bus stations and are managed by owners of the transport union. We met with members of the union to explain our objectives and how their support as 3rd party advocates who co-operate with, mentor and encourage the youth would go a long way in achieving our goal. Luckily they were extremely receptive to our ideas and have committed to attending workshops and education seminars that will teach/introduce core concepts about governance and Ghana’s political landscape in a way that can be communicated to the youth workers they oversee.

Street youth porters

Wave of the future?
Youth will also be educated as to upholding the integrity of the electoral process through the “one person, one vote” concept. Ghana is at a revolutionary point in its political history as this election year will introduce a new biometric voter registration system that will include the collection of fingerprint and photo data to properly track and analyze votes and ensure a transparent election. I’m extremely excited to watch this all unfold throughout the country and in our local area. This is something that is not yet even done in North America during elections (the only place I’ve ever seen it done is at JFK Airport!) and has the potential to make Ghana a pioneer in Africa's democratic development.

It’s thought-provoking to notice the similarities and differences between Ghana and Canada’s issues with youth participation in elections. Back home it’s easy to forget that not everyone is able to go to a polling station without facing social backlash due to their beliefs. Conversely I do know that we encounter a similar struggle with voter turnout in the same demographic of seemingly ignorant or apathetic young adults who either don’t believe their voice can make a difference or know enough to make an informed decision.

Feb 27, 2012

Yo Na Farry Chickeeeee! (Today I'm Excited or "My Ticket to the Gun Show")

February has been a lot quieter on the travel front and I’ve been spending a lot of time at home, hanging out with my family. A couple of weeks ago some cousins on my mother’s side of the family took it upon ourselves to come together and meet up (the family count is back on for a grand total of 40). Some of us had never met, while others had literally grown up together. Some had stayed in the area their whole lives while others had come back home after years away. In most Ghanaian languages there aren’t really words for extended family. Uncles, aunts and cousins may as well be fathers, mothers and siblings respectively, as that’s how close the bonds are. It’s always nice to know that there are people in your corner and we wanted to make sure that we could all have a relationship independent of our parents.



Me & my cousins :)

Apart from the intense heat, water shortages and rolling blackouts I’ve been managing to keep myself somewhat busy. Since I actually live in Tamale, it seemed about time that I actually slow down and learn more about the town where my ‘rents decided to settle and set up shop.


People dancing in the streets
One weekend my older cousin Rukaya & I ventured downtown, via motorbike (awesomeee!) to check out the Damba (Fire) festival . It’s a festival that is normally celebrated in conjunction with the Muslim celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed. I had no sweet clue what to expect as we rode into town or at least attempted to! The streets had been informally shut down. I say this because in North America if an event of this magnitude were ‘going down’ as it were, the city would be involved and would have police available to signal detours in traffic and whatnot to make sure that the festivities occurred in safe manner – not so much in Ghana.


Chief riding on horseback


People flooded the streets and were parading in celebration with the local chiefs down to the festival grounds. One of the chiefs was on horseback, decked out in the local garb. It was also strangely common to see young men shooting rifles into the air to commemorate the day (“Fire” festival, right?).






Young men toting rifles! (with no bullets)

We followed the crowd into town and came to a clearing where female members of the chiefs family were dancing to a circle of drummers.

Domba drummers

At this point the streets were saturated with people; young boys, small children, mothers with sleeping infants tied to their backs. In the firestorm chaos of gunshots, the festival procession and cars that insisted on moving down the street, people began pushing and shoving in all directions. Bodies twisting to sneak past crevices in the crowd. It was like being in a mosh pit at a rock concert. Needless to say, I think I witnessed enough of the Damba festival for a lifetime ... or at least until next year :)

Feb 6, 2012

Yaa Jid-dah? (How’s home?)

This train just keeps rolling and I haven’t felt this continuously occupied in a long while.

The recent gap between the last and current post has been due to my week-long (literally, seven days) stay in the village where my parents were raised and met; Gambaga. (This is a super rural part of Ghana where it’s still the norm to cook using firewood or charcoal pits)


Tamale (where I ususally live) to Gambaga (the village) route


The entire (and I do mean ENTIRE) family congregated there to memorialize, mark and mourn the life of my paternal grandmother, Joekib Kombian. Although the time spent there was very personal and intimate for me, I still think that the Ghanaian funeral process is a worthwhile cultural experience to document. 

I’ve never been privy to the details of a traditional Ghanaian funeral, let alone the intricacies of our tribal (Bimoba) customs, combined with the conventional Christian service.

As my dad explained it, “Wisdom here is equal to age.” Funerals in Ghana are social events, on par with the ornateness of a large wedding. The passing of an older individual and community pillar will see a comparatively larger audience than that of a young child. My grandmother was a wife, mother of seven, and surrogate mother to many of her grandchildren and orphaned relatives. She was also the mother of one of the first people in the entire tribe to complete school from primary to University level and to leave the country (my dad), and was fiercely respected.

It’s here that I’ll note that my count-down of family members will go on a temporarily halt due to the very nature and sheer amount of relatives I saw within those seven days. Within the lines of the local customs the people in attendance ranged from my grandmother’s:
-     Husband (my grandfather), children (my dad and his siblings), sons & daughters in-law (my mom), grandchildren (myself), great grandchildren (some of my cousins are parents!)
-     Siblings (her remaining brothers and sisters + their spouses, children, etc)
-     In-laws (my grandfather’s brothers and sisters + their spouses, children, etc)

I’m getting confused already :p
So that was strictly family.

Then you add in all of the people who were remotely close to my grandmother or any key members of the family. So for example, five of my mother’s siblings attended (especially since they had all grown up in the village and had known grandma from childhood), but my dad also had classmates from his school days make appearances. Elders and tribal chiefs (entourage in tow) from neighboring villages were also called to attend. Needless to say, there were MANY, MANY people.


Bulls used for the funeral

So now that the extensive guest list has been cleared the next major element becomes the issue of being able to feed everyone during the funeral time period. As is the local tradition, people offer support and condolences in the form of livestock and meat (African’s LOVE their meat) to be prepared during the funeral. The family was given a bull and several goats purely for use during the funeral.


Cooking was divided within three camps; my grandparents’ house, my mother’s childhood house and a family guesthouse that we had acquired to accommodate everyone from out of town. Every day of the funeral each group would divide and conquer in a mass cook-off to ensure that all of the core family, elders and distinguished guests had enough food and were well fed. Everything from the local corn flour dishes with soup to  rice, salad and pasta were prepared. I even went on a grocery shopping quest with my aunts to buy a ridiculous amount of fresh vegetables; enough to fill up the back of a pick-up truck.

Dancing with grandpa (left) and his younger brother (right)
at the funeral house
Friday & Saturday (Jan 27, 28) were the main days of the funeral, but in the days leading up to and afterwards there were a few standard practices that were recognized. Each morning, everyone made at least one visit to “The Funeral House” (my grandparents’ house) to greet my grandfather specifically as well as any other elders on the premises. From that point onwards you normally went around from hut to hut, greeting a variety of family members and village locals and who had some connection to the family. For me this was a very interesting experience because the last time I had spent a significant amount of time in Gambaga was when I was 5 (17 years ago – ouch!) and so there more than a few people whom I could not place or recognize. The reverse was also very much true!

The tribal attitude toward death in old age is very celebratory; in this respect it made perfect sense that every night that week there were speakers set up and music blasting outside of the funeral house so that people could dance to honor the life of the departed.

Little did I know that this was to be an introduction to the traditional Bimoba funeral day (Friday). We were joined by the whole village, including drummers and dancers who led a 6 hour dancing session.

Funeral crowd

Traditional dancers and drummers
Young and old, male and female are joined in a moving dancing circle (representing the Circle of Life or something symbolic I’m sure, I just watched The Lion King last night so I have that song on the brain). The Bimoba trademark is some serious hip shaking with a waist garment made of cowrie shells. I was pretty impressed by the men who were able to move incredibly well. I,  on the other hand was only able to make a modest effort as I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle while trying to move in a circle in time to the rhythm, whilst shaking my hips. It wasn’t pretty but people appreciated the effort J.



 
A feeble attempt at dancing with cowrie shells!
Saturday took on a different tune with a (more) traditional, outdoor church service. This was what I had anticipated and what I was more familiar with, from a Canadian perspective. Readings were done by factions of the family, expressing what grandma had meant to us, how she had changed us and why we would forever miss her. It was a nice moment that I’m glad I got to share with many people who felt the same way.

Sunday marked a day of Thanksgiving – that’s to say that as an immediate family we all kind of paired off to go and thank elders, chiefs, community members and friends for attending to celebrate and pay their respects with us. My uncle and I went to one of the surrounding towns to thank one of the pastors for officiating the Saturday memorial service. One of my cousin’s classmates (whose dad happens to be a Bimoba chief in a surrounding town) had also attended Friday’s festivities, so we paid him a visit, expressing our gratitude.  

The experience of saying goodbye to my grandmother was a bittersweet realization of the passage of time. I had last seen her seven years ago and had surely taken it for granted that she would be around on my next visit to Ghana. Conversely I truly felt the meaning and bond of family within the Ghanian context – a sacrifice, respect and love that knows no bounds.