Christmas in Ghana

Afenhyia paa! (Merry Christmas!)

Christmas in Accra was a fun time, marked by gatherings with friends and family. Most people go to church, in what is a more religous-centered holiday than the family-oriented celebrations we mostly have in the "Western world".
Granted, the atmosphere is not as festive as it normally is in Brazil or the US. On the usual commute to work, Christmas lights and other decorative accessories were not as common as they are back home.
However, prices do go up in stores, markets and shopping centers get crowded, and traffic hits new record levels. Ah, the holiday season!

The first celebration I took part of was a dinner with all the team members from our AFRICA LEAD project. On Tuesday night, we got together at a Chinese restaurant to enjoy what proved to be a great meal. (The several options laid out in the round tables were definitely a welcome change, when compared to the usual croissants or ham and cheese wraps, all my volunteer budget allows me to buy for lunch every day.)

On Friday, the 24th, us students got together for a sinful late-lunch. For once, we ate without checking prices, ordering entrees, dessert, and indulging ourselves in Italian food.
Over pasta, strawberry-banana milk shakes and brownies, our (incomplete) group talked about our first four months in Ghana, what we looked forward to in the upcoming village life, and just enjoyed a relaxed afternoon in Osu, the oburoni neighborhood.

In Ghana, gift-exchanging is not as common as in the Western-version of Christmas. However, I was told food is the most common option for Holiday giving. With that being said, I placed an order for two hampers: one for my family (below), and one for the family that owns a small shop across the street.
I am happy to say both were received with much surprise and excitement. From Efua's reaction, my family was definitely not expecting a gift. By the next day, most of the items were nowhere to be seen (although I did see empty chocolate and biscuit boxes lying around the living room...).

To my (even greater) surprise,  I was then presented with a beautiful towel with my Ghanaian name on it: a perfect memento of a year-to-be fully spent in Ghana.
I'll save this one for when I get back home, or else it just might be confounded with someone else's towel (as 1/7 of Ghanaian men are theoretically called Kwame, all men born on Saturdays).

Just about ten days left in the stay in Accra. With the new year, soon will come the next adventure: living and teaching in the village.

Afenhyia paa!

Kwame

Agricultural Development in West Africa

For the past six weeks I have worked with Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI). Our project, AFRICA LEAD, is basically consisted of providing leadership and capacity training to pivotal professionals in West Africa, with a goal to guarantee more food security in our five target countries.
(For more on the specifics of the project, see the post Report on Volunteering)

Researching institutions, attending meetings and reading economic reports has provided me with a comprehensive view of the current situation of agriculture and food insecurity across West Africa, as well as its main causes. Over the years, economic activities in Africa have followed a lead given by countries from the developed world. Nigeria, for example, focused most of its resources into the oil industry. Most countries trailed similar paths, focusing on industry without ever building a solid agriculutral base.

Food security is not only about providing basic survival conditions for the poor, but also to lift millions out of poverty (a targeted 40 million in West Africa by 2015). Many international efforts are being made to create agricultural-led economic growth in Africa, for most countries are importers of food. This is unecessary and due to lack of development of the primary sector, for most of the countries have the untapped potential to not only be food secure, but to also become net exporters. It is not a matter of just having what to eat, but to have nutritious food to ensure each individual's health.

Whereas in my home country of Brazil farming is mostly concentrated in extensive plantations, in Ghana over 90% of farming is small-scale, with families working on their own crops at almost a subsistence level. This not only makes it hard on the government to implement mechanization and irrigation systems, it also means the small farms are extremely poor. What happens is a farmer is forced to sell most of his family's production for income. In time, because the primary sector is not well developed and his productivity is too low, his production proves to be too small to either provide him with the necessary income or to feed his family. As a consequence, months after his own harvest, the farmer is forced to essentially buy back what he produced at higher prices, getting him and his family deeper into what the economist Jeffrey Sachs calls the "poverty trap".

In Ghana, production itself is not the main issue. Theoretically, there is enough food to feed the whole country. But because of incredibly low productivity rates, agricultural outputs grow because of extended farming land, rather than an added value on the crops. This in itself is still not enough to guarantee every individual remains free from hunger. Post-harvest losses are alarmingly high; a main cause for loss of money and food waste.

Nigeria, for example, has a critical problem with transportation, ranking in the bottom 20% of the world for transportation speed. This keeps food away from the poor areas that need it.

Around 90% of Senegal's economy operates in the informal sector, which constrains agricultural businesses from access to credit and investment. Also, they don't contribute with taxes to the government's efforts to develop the nation. Partly because of this the infrastructure in Senegal is so poor: only 15% of villages have access to a local market to buy and sell food.

A question imediately comes up from this serious scenario: what are governments doing? Actually, a lot (of planning). There are plenty of investment plans, international committments and signed compacts pledging to improve agriculture in Africa. The main issue when it comes to the public sector's actions, however, is lack of policy implementation.
As an example, input (fertilizers) subsidies in Nigeria benefit more rich farmers than the targetted poor. Because they have the means to reach the subsidized products, and there is no strict monitoring of these efforts, these larger-scale farmers then sell their surplusses at high prices to the poor farmers who were to be benefitted in the first place.

Being part of the efforts to create food security in West Africa, I have seen that the development scene is no straightforward business. There is no single cause, there is no single answer, and there are no guarantees. From lacking infrastructure and investment, to inconsistent governmental efforts, great part of the poverty in Africa can be solved through developing the primary sector.
The consequences of decades of badly planned growth (or lack thereof) are seen across economic, social and health sectors. What is reassuring, however, is that the world has indeed taken a conscious look at these issues, and much is being done to assure that the 21st century proves to be better for the "mother continent".

Scaling up for Food Security,

Henrique

Volta Region Excursion

Hello all! As promised, here's a quick view on our 5-day excursion to the Volta Region. (Well, in my case, 4-day, but that was covered in the last post...)

The Volta Region, formerly known as Togoland, is on the eastern-most part of Ghana. It was once a German colony, until World War I, after which it was administered by the British as part of the Gold Coast colony. In the 1950s, a plebiscite determined that the region would join Ghana. The Ewe people, predominant in the Volta Region, are spread across Togo and western Benin as well, with different language and customs.
On this trip, we got to learn a bit about Ewe music, dancing and pottery making. Also, we climbed Ghana's tallest mountain, Mount Afadjato, and visited a Traditional religion Thunder god temple.

Let's start with the shrine:
Traditional religion is based on the forces of nature, worshiping, as the High Priest explained, "forces that were in existence before man came". They do believe in a supreme God, who created everything, and worship these other, specific gods as a means through which they worship God. Traditionalists do not believe in Heaven or Hell, but in reincarnation. Also, some customs are similar to those of other religions, such as the sacrificing of a ram every year, in an allusion to the story of Abraham. The High Priest said, however, that their belief in this story comes not from the Bible, but from accounts of their ancestors of the same occurrence.

To enter the shrine, we were required to dress as one would traditionally. When this religion was established, there were no shoes and shirts, only cloths. We all had a fun time walking around barefoot, wrapped in cloth in the heat!

 

In the temple, the High Priest gave us a very informative reception, guiding our group through a ritual of offering a bottle of alcohol and asking for blessings. The ceremony was mostly conducted by the High Priestess, who was the one doing the actual praying. After everything, the High Priest answered several of our inquiries, enough to give a basic glimpse at Traditional religion and raise new questions.

On Sunday morning, we went for a dance and drumming workshop, where we learned the Gamu dance, or the money dance. A combination of sideways movements of the arms, rhythmic stepping in a circle, and smiling.

After some intense sweating and dancing, we learned to play each of the instruments that compose this traditional Ewe rhythm.

On Friday, the day I missed, there was the first half of a doing pottery. In this technique, the top of a pot is done first, by molding the clay and setting it to dry. Though I was absent, the guys did extra tops for Clara and myself, including a bowl which read Y3 d) wo, or "We love you". haha Very sweet.

It just so happens I was not born to do pottery, and on our second session, when the task was to scrape the top in order to make it thinner, I destroyed the bowl and the two tops... On the picture above, for example, the top I am holding only had a few more seconds of existence, before it crumbled in my skilled hands.
After molding the body of the pot and uniting each piece, these were also set to dry. After a few days time, the pot is to be sand-papered and painted. Below, the final step: building a fire with hay, corncobs and wood on top of the pots, in order to toughen them.
Because our time was short and the our masterpieces had not dried by the end our excursion, the pots are to be brought to us in Accra. Personally, I don't think I had any left, but we will see how this goes.

Finally, the climb of Mount Afadjato, the tallest peak in Ghana. The name comes from Ewe, and means "at war with bush", in reference to a kind of poison ivy found in the mountain. Upon reaching the peak, we were presented with a great view of green forests, a waterfall, and the neighboring country of Togo.
I must be honest here, at under 900m, this was not a very imposing mountain... The build-up we had awaiting for its size was also fairly disappointing, considering that as soon as we reached the top, the mountain right next to it, located in Togo, was slightly taller.

Nonetheless, it was a very fun climb, with some steep parts and lots of pauses for water. Three months without regular exercise definitely kept our group a little out of shape, but this made the 45-minute climb more rewarding.

 

The excursion was a lot of fun, with opportunities to get a different view from the usual Akan, and to a lesser extent Ga, cultural exposure. A great way to enter December, the last month in Accra and work at DAI. Although over one third of the program has gone, it is hard to locate myself in a time line, as life here has become part of a normal routine. This makes me more excited to begin the stage of living in the village, for a drastic change in lifestyle and more new experiences to learn from.

By the way, thank you all so much for the health wishes. I am cured from malaria, no worries. haha
I appreciate all the visits to the blog very much, and it is an incredible joy to know that people from six continents and over 20 countries have read some of the posts! This is incredible motivation, and makes telling a little bit about Ghana very fun.

Thanks much,

Kwame