Weekend Update

Above: A view of Legon from the highest point on campus.

So we’re finally done with ISEP orientation, which means we’re free to do our own thing until classes get started. Friday was the last day that we traveled as a group, and we saw some pretty amazing things. Using a tourbus, we to a few places in the area, including the W.E.B. DuBois memorial and museum (I didn't know we'd be visiting it when I quoted him in the last post, but now you can see another reason why I'm so blessed to be here), the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial, and an arts center. All of these places really stood out for really different reasons, I’m trying to revisit each of them ASAP.

Since DuBois is to Africana Studies what Plato or Aristotle are to Philosophy, being in the place where he lived his final days in exile was an incredible experience. His former home, which is more or less in the same condition it was when he lived there, is currently filled with a large collection of photos and information of the Organization of African Unity. DuBois, along with many African leaders worked to organize and sustain the organization. I was glad to hear the organization's still around, and it actually had its last conference here in Ghana about a month ago. Also, his own library, in which he sought to complete the Encyclopedia Africana, is still filled with about 1,000 books that he personally used. Since the Encyclopedia was still a work in progress when he passed, a secretariat was established to complete the work. Apparently, this organization is based in Ghana and has a projected completion date of 2009. I’m actually going to inquire about getting involved in some limited capacity the next time I visit the museum. There was a lot of other amazing stuff on site, but since we were in a group where most Americans didn’t even know who he was, Jason, Ash and I decided we’d go back for a more thorough visit soon. (We’ll have pictures next time around.)

So far, the Nkrumah Memorial has been the most moving part of my trip. Again, I’ll take pictures next time I visit, but I can say that it was the most impressive memorial I’ve ever witnessed firsthand. Outside of any cultural bias I may have, I’ve gotta say that this easily outshines the FDR and Washington memorials. A larger-than-life statue, museum, numerous fountains, and a tomb encased in giant stone sculpture were only part of this testament to the great African liberator. What made the experience so powerful to me was that the entire area was dedicated to the memory of a black person. Never in America I have ever seen a comparable memorial for a white man, let alone for an African American. (They’re still fighting to get the King Monument off of the ground, and how long has he been gone for?) The other reason it was so powerful for me was because it put a face to the notion of black empowerment and liberation for me. As an American trained in the Western tradition, it’s hard for me to conceptualize a concerted, successful movement for blacks to assert and gain independence from white oppression. We all know that there are a wide range of social, political, and economic ways in which the West still exploits and undermines the African people. I’m very cognizant of this, and I still plan on researching this with an independent study on neocolonialism. However, for a group of blacks to spearhead a movement for independence, establish their own nation, and achieve relative autonomy in the modern world is pretty remarkable. Phenomena like this shouldn’t be that hard to imagine and realize, but after the age of slavery, jim crow, imperialism and colonialism, you better believe they are. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why initiatives like Nkrumah's Convention People’s Party movement would never work in the U.S. Namely, African Americans don’t constitute enough of a monolithic group with common interests, sufficient resources, or sheer numbers to achieve a similar goal. Nonetheless, it was really inspiring to be at the resting place for what many consider the greatest African leader of the 20th century. While we have to deal with real-world limitations and contemporary factors, we could definitely learn a few things from the work Nkrumah did.

The last stop was an Arts Center, which is basically the obligatory tourist destination where Westerners get overcharged for local garments, art and crafts. As beautiful and impressive as the items on sale were, I really wasn’t feeling the touristy vibe that cheapened the experience. Similar to the guys who swarmed us straight off of the airplane, there were also countless hawkers trying to push flags, bracelets, t-shirts, sculptures, and the like. The funny thing about the sales approach here is that hawkers will try to befriend you before they push their products. Attempting to appeal to my visible American identity, one dude introduced himself to me as KRS-ONE, and another as Omar Epps. These cats would run up to my side, flank me three or four at a time, and each make their pitch. Haggling is a way of life here, and unlike most other international students I have a little experience coming from New York. I ended up buying a few things after negotiating some prices down, but got pretty frustrated with the Ghanaian guys vying for my attention and disingenuously calling me “brother.” We made a few other stops, and after a bus ride home and dinner we got together with some friends from another program to check out nightlife scene.

Since our homegirl Ama has a lot of family here, we’ve been able to get tips on hot spots in town and made our first venture into the social scene. After bargaining for a cheap fare, we got a cab to Osu, a section of town filled with bars, restaurants and clubs. Since there were quite a few of us, a Ghanaian student we were with drove one car and the rest of us hopped in the cab. There were actually 5 of us (1 over the legal limit) in the cab, but given the short distance and limited restrictions in the area, we figured we’d just go for it. Someone should have reminded us that police set up checkpoints around the road at night to reduce crime, especially robberies. Next thing I know, we’re pulled over by a cop waving a flashlight at the side of the road. *Gulp.* He looks in the car window and waves his flashlight around, scanning all 6 people in the small cab. Casually, he asks the driver where we’re headed. After a calm response from the driver, the cop looks around, thinks for a minute, and matter-of-factly states “I am going to arrest you, OK?” Let me repeat this in case you missed it the first time: the cop looks around, thinks for a minute, and matter-of-factly states “I am going to arrest you, OK?” He didn’t call him boy, didn’t harass him, didn’t assume we’d robbed someone, remained pretty respectful, and barely power-tripped. (So thiiiiiis is how law enforcement is supposed to work! Someone get the NYPD on the phone, quick!) The driver got out, and after talking with the cop(or slipping him some cedi’s, I dunno…) we got back in and completed our route. Close call, but considering it was a near-legal issue for the driver, things remained pretty chill.

The first club we got to turned out to be a tourist spot, and I think it may have been a teen party as well. As soon as we entered, we knew we didn't want to stay for too long, but did want to get our 4 cedis' worth of partying. Despite the mixed crowd, I did spot GQ, one of the enterprising Ghanaian businessmen (or street hawkers, depending on how you look at it) that had appeared at the market earlier that day. While he tried to sell me some bracelets hours earlier, he had his hustle-mode (surprisingly) turned off. For like a half hour, we talked hip-hop, New York, and women like I would have with any of my friends back home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving the dude a spare key to the hostel or anything, but he was so chill I had to at least buy him a drink. Anyway, the clientele was about half Ghanaian and half other, so after about an hour of dancing, the crew (about 10 deep) decided to move to plan B. We hit up this spot called “The Office,” a club that ranged from about 18 to… well about anything. (Kinda like those parties scheduled to go “from 9:00 until...”, you know?) We stayed there for a while, and since all music played was either American hip-hop or Caribbean reggae/dancehall, we sang and danced along without missing a beat. After a few hours of watching some old guys act a straight FOOL out there, a couple of brothas got into a little altercation. It didn’t really escalate too much, but it kinda killed the vibe so we headed home around 3. An African out-of-towner (my guess is Nigerian) who had been in the party explained that he had just gotten to town, and thanked us for getting the party live. He asked where our next stop was, but we explained that it was time for us to go home. So apparently, a group of American college students less than a week into the country had gotten a jam-packed Ghanaian club jumpin'. (Effortlessly, I might add.) Not a bad run for the first weekend in town.