Mad Hatter's Trip To Ghana (Please Read)

For those of you who didn't know, I was away for the past couple weeks in Africa. I'm writing this thread because the people I met all told me to share my experiences with as many people as possible. I hope you will take the time to read this. So here you go:

"Here in Ghana, we love everyone!" Someone said this to me when I was at a bar not long after arriving. It was stuck in my head the whole time, and I could not have thought of a more truthful statement.

Ghana was full of surprises the moment I arrived at the airport. I had to fill out a customs card to enter, but I needed a residential address. I called the friend I was visiting, and discovered that the place I was going didn't even have an address. It was just a house built in a neighbourhood, not on a street or anything. I told the customs guy, and he let me through after giving me some trouble. I got through, and met up with my good friend Isabelle and her boyfriend, (although in Ghana there is no term for boyfriend, so he's considered her husband) and we headed home. I was expecting a taxi, but instead we took something called a "cho cho," a slightly modified fan packed full of people like a pack of sardines. Of course, it never costs more than 50 cents to travel anywhere by cho cho. I got home, and made the nice discovery that we have no running water, electricity about half the time, and no trash cans.

I quickly noticed many cultural differences - the most obvious thing was the friendliness of pretty much everyone. I have never seen people so nice. These people have barely anything - they need to eat the bones of animals to get enough to eat. Yet they invite me to eat with them (for free) anytime I walk down the street. One lady walked me almost a kilometer down a street when I was looking for bananas. She then took me to her house so I could meet her husband. It is customary to greet just about everyone you pass by. Saying "good morning" to a complete stranger and walking away will get you no strange looks. Everything here starts early and ends early. We get up around 5:30/6, and go to bed around 8:30/9. Strangely enough, everything's also laid back. These are the most patient people I've ever seen. When you walk around, children will yell "obrouni!" which literally means "white person." It's not racist at all, it's friendly. The response I'm supposed to give is "obibini," which means "black person." It's like a game.

Another thing I noticed in the people here was that they weren't afraid to ask questions. In a lot of countries, people you meet often try to by chummy by asking you about girls and girlfriends, but these guys took it to a new level...the second day after meeting the guy I was staying with, he was asking me all these questions about losing my virginity, my past girlfriends (what I liked about them, what I didn't), etc. It was actually very hard to explain some of these things, since they have a different set of values. When I was explaining why I broke up with my last girlfriend, I tried to explain that we lost interest in each other. They couldn't understand that, and I think it made me look a bit like a careless *******. I think one conversation went something like this:

"Why did you break up with your last girlfriend?"
"Ehh...we lost interest in each other, and there were a lot of things I didn't like about her"
"What didn't you like about her?"
"Oh, lots of things. I mean she worried too much about everything"
"Did she worry about food?"
"Haha, no, she didn't"
"Then she didn't worry about EVERYTHING"
"OK, not everything. But ALMOST everything"
"Like what?"
"Like being late for something. She'd panic if she thought she was gonna be late"
"You broke up with her because she was worried about being late???"

So that didn't get very far....

There are some other customs that I guess I should mention. Like in most of Africa and some other countries, you use your right hand for just about everything. Using your left hand isn't exactly taboo, but people will be happy when you respect their traditions. People in Ghana are also extremely Christian, in a strange, early 1900's sort of way. They put God in the names of all their shops - "God Is Great Hair Salon," "God's Grace Drinking Spot" (a "spot" is their word for a bar).

Just showering is quite an experience - to shower, you go into this little walled section outside that covers you up to your chest.You then take a bucket full of water, and a smaller bucket. You scoop some of the water up and pour it on your body. it's a weird feeling, showering outside. Sometimes people come up and chat with you while you're at it.

Two days after my arrival, I moved into a traditional home. the household is headed by a priest with 4 wives, and the room I stayed in, along with a guy named Agbo, is the size of a closet. People here speak english, but it's African English, which is so distorted that I can't understand a word of it. They use british words, like trousers, and warp them into weird phrases like, "whabedis." Apparently when someone says that, you say, "fastmovement!"

One morning, Isabelle and I took some trash can lids and started throwing them around outside as frisbees. All the kids started watching us carefully, cause they've never even seen frisbees before. We started passing them to the kids and showing them how to play, and pretty soon every kid in the village was playing frisbee with us. We taught them to throw them to each other, and gave them a couple of the lids. Now every kid knows my name (Justin), or at least they know a name similar to mine...some of them can't pronounce my name, so they just call me by a similar name, Justice. So I couldn't walk down paths without kids calling me and waving to me.

My main purpose in going to Ghana was to learn some of their music. They have some of the most complex rhythms I've ever heard, and I got to hang out with some of the best drummers in all of Ghana. I was learning 4 instruments in 2 weeks. Not an easy task - on some days, I had hour-long lessons for all of them. I learned the atentebe flute, a bamboo flute that's a bit like a recorder, but much better-sounding, the balafon (an African xylophone), djembe drumming, and panlogo drumming. I bought a djembe drum while I was there, and I was lucky - it was borrowed for a performance by two of the best djembe players in Ghana. The whole drum was only $40 US, and everyone talked about how great the drum was. The dancing here was also beyond impressive. People did flips, handstands, one-handed pushups, handsprings, and just about everything you could think of. They train every day, and have the bodies that all of us strive for.

One of the things I'm going to remember most about this trip is when I helped slaughter a goat. I don't know if I'd do it again, but it was certainly an experience - I was with two guys who had a goat they needed to kill to eat. We made a fire (for use later), and I put a knife through the goat's neck while the two guys held it down. That was the really disturbing part...when it gasps for air and starts sounding like its drowning in blood. It kept twitching for a while after, too. We put the goat over the fire, and scraped off the fur as it was burnt. We cut the head off along wiht the limbs, and cooked them a bit more. The body was put on a table and cut open. All the insides were taken out and cleaned. Everything was removed from the digestive tract. The next day, they ate the goat, bones, teeth, and all.

Well, that's about it in terms of stories. But one thing that really struck me was a conversation I overheard. Someone was asking why anyone would want more money than they need. The answer he got was something like, "Maybe they want more expensive clothes or something." Africans are often criticized for not "being able" to start an empire, or not being rich. But the truth is, they don't WANT any of that. Here we are, getting jobs just because it'll give us a big income. We work constantly to get a bigger house, more cars, a bigger TV, etc. And these people are asking why anyone would want anything more than a one-room house and some food to live on.

It's food for thought.



I have plenty of pictures. I'm going to try to upload them when I have the chance. Please give your comments.

Sounds like quite the experience. I always wanted to travel to Africa and stay there for about a week or two just to observe their customs and meet new people. Was there any reason in particular why you went to Africa, or was it just for the music?

That sounds awesome, Mad Hatter.

I would love to do something like that, minus the goat killing. But I suppose I could if I had no choice.

Wow. Your visit truly gives insight to us who havn't been to African countries. I'm really surprised at how nice everyone was to you. I mean, sure, I knew that they could be really hospitable, but... I'm going to stop typing before I say something really stupid.

Also, their lifestyle actually makes a lot of sense. Almost no wasting. Plus, they're content with what they've got. We could learn a lot from them.

So, great story Mad Hatter! Have a nice day.

Originally Posted by Comrade

Sounds like quite the experience. I always wanted to travel to Africa and stay there for about a week or two just to observe their customs and meet new people. Was there any reason in particular why you went to Africa, or was it just for the music?

The thing that actually caused the visit was that my friend was staying there for 8 months, and she wanted to show me her life. But the music was the main thing I wanted to actually learn about. Well, in addition to their culture, but music is very representative of their culture.

I'm really surprised at how nice everyone was to you. I mean, sure, I knew that they could be really hospitable, but... I'm going to stop typing before I say something really stupid.

I was surprised too. There were a few bad apples...two of our friends had their cell phones stolen, and a fight broke out right outside a concert my friend organized. Don't be afraid to ask questions...I'll gladly answer anything.

Also, their lifestyle actually makes a lot of sense. Almost no wasting. Plus, they're content with what they've got. We could learn a lot from them.

We could learn a huge amount from them. One thing I thought was kinda funny - all the men there have perfect bodies. Like the kind we all want (haha, I have photos of that too). Americans spend billions each year to look like that (usually without much success too). These guys have those bodies simply because of their poverty, and here we are wasting billions.

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't sure if people would actually read this, heh.

Wow,that must have been fun. Personally, I'd much rather go to Japan than Africa. I guess I just like Japan better than Africa.

Your conversation implies that these people aren't too deep. :\

I would love to visit Africa or some part of it, while I'm at it, another country for that matter.

Thank you for posting this. Reading about your experiences made me even more certain that I want to study Social Anthropology later on.

Though I kind of disagree with the statement that Africans don't want to own lots of things, and have more than they need. A lot of the help we send to Africa in form of money, food or supplies end up with the richer people there. If you look at the situation in Sudan, they fight over land, and they want more of it. At first North and South Sudan fought, because North had been favorized while they were under Britain. Also, the northern part got the best of the Nile, while in the south there consists mainly of deserts. So North and South fought to get the better place, even though they didn't have to.
When finally North- and South-Sudan made peace, an area in the West -Darfur became a problem. Nomads there, the Janjaweeds (men at horses), started taking out civilians because they wanted their land. The capital of Sudan, Khartoum, is said to have helped Janjaweed, and the situation today is intense.

I believe that Africa isn't as great as it could be because they lack the technology they need to use their recourses. And because of the wars there. Not because they don't want to become wealthier.

Anyway, I really, really enjoyed reading your post, and I think I'll use some of my time studying in Africa (I have to do a part of my studying in a foreign country, and study the cultures there, if I want to make the master in Social Anthropology).

Thank you for the informative and interesting report Mad Hatter, it was really interesting.

Although like Pandy, I disagree in that they don't wANt to develop further ( since the continenet has always been raped by the western countries, forced into continued poverty and sparked racial hatred) I also know that their stiving for wealth is unlike the westerners.

I hail from Libya, an African country and have had the privelage of moving all over and reaching the desert-parts of it, and mixing with the nomads there. Since my father's side of the family are of the poorer more isolated parts of the country, I find myself there once a year/2 years and it's a renewed experience every time. The pace of life is a lot slower, and there is no time for idling. Washing machines aren't there so you wash your clothes by hand, fires have to be kindled manually, and olives/dates from the trees have to be manually collected.

So, how did you get any water that you needed to use? =) Wells?

Because that's one thing I don't always get used to. Having to go to the well and draw up the water for everything, washing clothes, drinking, washing the dishes, having a "shower" ( similar to your situation, we stand (but in a closed tiny hut)(so no one can relly come over and speak ;p) consists of having a small bucket filled with water and an old used tin as a scooping type thing.

When you stay in places like that, it seems almost impossible to imagine that you had lived in the US/UK/misc western country. It's as though that was in another realm and life altogether no?

I hope you managed to learn well what you had set out to.

Originally Posted by aeternus aura

Your conversation implies that these people aren't too deep.

The main problem was the language. "African English" sounds so different from our English that I'd consider it a different language entirely. A lot of the time I'd swear they were talking in their tribal languages, until I realized they belong to different tribes. The other misunderstanding is just in the way relationships work over there. Divorce and things like that are pretty unheard of.

Thank you for posting this. Reading about your experiences made me even more certain that I want to study Social Anthropology later on.

Yeah, I was taking a social anthropology course before the trip, and it was a huge help. In fact, that's partly what sparked my interest. It's a great field.

Though I kind of disagree with the statement that Africans don't want to own lots of things, and have more than they need. A lot of the help we send to Africa in form of money, food or supplies end up with the richer people there. If you look at the situation in Sudan, they fight over land, and they want more of it. At first North and South Sudan fought, because North had been favorized while they were under Britain. Also, the northern part got the best of the Nile, while in the south there consists mainly of deserts. So North and South fought to get the better place, even though they didn't have to.
When finally North- and South-Sudan made peace, an area in the West -Darfur became a problem. Nomads there, the Janjaweeds (men at horses), started taking out civilians because they wanted their land. The capital of Sudan, Khartoum, is said to have helped Janjaweed, and the situation today is intense.

I do agree with you. I don't think what I saw applies to a very high percentage of Africa. I know there are many tribal conflicts, land conflicts, etc. But in Ghana, different tribes often lived in the same households. I didn't hear of any major conflicts in the area I was in...maybe there were some that nobody told me about.

But anyway, sorry, if I wasn't clear about this. I didn't mean to imply that this is something common in all of Africa; it's just something I noticed where I was.

Although like Pandy, I disagree in that they don't wANt to develop further ( since the continenet has always been raped by the western countries, forced into continued poverty and sparked racial hatred) I also know that their stiving for wealth is unlike the westerners.

I guess what I said to Pandora also applies here. Though I should add- I was not staying with the poorest of the poor. I was with really poor people, but they could still afford to eat and be healthy. We visited some poorer areas that were pretty much shanty towns, and I've never seen anything like it.

So, how did you get any water that you needed to use? =) Wells?

heh, each neighbourhood has a central source of water. That part comes from running water, but we still have to go out, fetch buckets, and bring them back.

Because that's one thing I don't always get used to. Having to go to the well and draw up the water for everything, washing clothes, drinking, washing the dishes, having a "shower" ( similar to your situation, we stand (but in a closed tiny hut)(so no one can relly come over and speak ;p) consists of having a small bucket filled with water and an old used tin as a scooping type thing.

Yeah, washing the clothes was the part I couldn't stand. I almost lost a layer of skin on my hands from it... I kinda liked the showers. It was a cool feeling to shower outside with a nice breeze.

When you stay in places like that, it seems almost impossible to imagine that you had lived in the US/UK/misc western country. It's as though that was in another realm and life altogether no?

Yeah, it was really weird coming back. I had 9 hours in London on the way back, which was probably as far away from African culture as you can get. I think the most frustrating part was not being able to pee anywhere I wanted to.

well i learned something today to tell you the truth i think i might like that kind of lifestyle. it's interesting to imagine what might have happened if europeans didn't go try to colonize the whole globe, and just stayed where they were. sure Africa and Asia might not have the technology and knowledge they have now, but since when did humans NEED things like tv, or cars.... when some greedy guy said so? its just food, clothes, shelter and water, and you're fine. i can understand that way of thinking, call it old-fashioned or whatever, but its easier to live a happy life when you're not bombarded by hundreds of images telling you to desire this or buy that. you'll just end up constantly working to get more, with little time to actually enjoy.

that must have been quite a trip dude do you have any music files you can share? how bout that concert? and those best musicians you wee talking about?

Hmm, I don't have any sound files. Just videos and pictures. I can't really upload the videos, but here are some of my photos.

I know this is out of the topic but did anyone you see had a click in their name? For those of you that know what I'm talking about, it's not racist.

Haha, no. I had trouble pronouncing a lot of their names, like Owoe, which has very specific pronunciation. Some of the words are tricky...to say "My name is..." you say, "Ngko nye nye..." I used their languages whenever I could, but I still only learned a few phrases.

Mad Hatter, it's a long time since I read something so intently as I read your story. It's really fascinating. Such simple cultures have always fascinated me in a way.

I do understand that they want to live simple lives and don't understand the way we live. Having less makes you happy, not needing to care for so many possessions. I'm a bit like that myself, even though I'm glad to have a comfy bed.

A trip to Africa is just what I need, I think. So I thank you for sharing your experiences. They gave me something to think about.