Ghanalinx » Editorials

A Short Lesson on Ga Naming Ceremonies

Chaley Fresh — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:52:32 +0000

As I now enter fatherhood, I wanted to understand the roots of the Ga Outdooring practice. Not so surprisingly there wasn’t much information out there until I stumbled on a great post explaining the process. I’m sure I will be researching more information, especially as my child grows and starts asking me questions, in the meantime I share the post with you…

originally posted on http://sil.ghanaweb.com/r.php?thread=5564477 by Bikome (found via http://www.wulomei.bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=762&sid=d145d270b244a335c66f2e199cd874ac)

Though every GA male has the names of all his children pre-arranged for him on the day of his birth, an elaborate ritual is performed to formally introduce the name to the extended family and to friends of the parents. That ceremony takes place at the dawn when the moon could still be visible on the eighth day of the child’s existence on earth. Past written historical records indicate that it used to be on the fifteenth day. Until that day, the child and mother spend most of their days practically confined and sequestered indoors. The GA called this ceremony with its esoteric spiritual dimensions Kpodziemor, this is literally translated to mean ‘outdooring’. It could aptly be an initiation ceremony for the child.

On this momentous day, the child is taken away from the mother by the father’s relatives who could mostly be, the father’s adult sisters or aunts or even grandmother. The infant is carried generally to his father’s Akutso and specifically to his lineage home or We. The infant is stripped naked. It is presented to the moon or the sky, the believed abode of the Supreme Being. The child is laid in a circle made of ash three times alternately by a member of the paternal family’s lineage with a near impeccable or commendable character. This same person throws onto the roof of the dwelling water that is allowed to drop on the child. The sex of the baby determines the sex of the lineage person who is chosen to perform the ceremony. While lying on the ground, the infant’s feet are gently tapped by the person performing the ceremony. This practice is accompanied with words being uttered by the adult enjoining the infant to emulate him or her. A drop of corn wine or soft drink is put on the lips of the child telling the child that this is the staple of the GA. A libation is poured by an elderly male of the lineage. The elders of the lineage confer momentary and one of them announces the name of the child with a bottle of Schnapps of which everybody present is expected to sip from a common glass immediately after pronouncing the name of the infant.

Refreshment mostly of corn beer is served. The floor would then be opened for donations and gifts from family members and friends. This phase of the ceremony is characterized with some copious doses of humor, jollity and frivolity. Each donation or gift is accepted with joys of jubilation offering thunderous thanks and blessing to the donor.

The entire ceremony brings into sharp focus some of the beliefs of the GA. The child is stripped naked. The moon, the rain and the earth in the presence of the living and the ancestral spirits are invited to commune with the child and the earth god. A special invocation in the form of libation or prayers is performed. Prayers of blessings are offered for the child and its parents. The essence of this unique prayer is to detail the expectation of the family of the child from the child and the family’s reciprocal commitment to the infant.

Below is translation of the text of the libation: Attention venerable Fathers and Mothers

May it be so?

What day is it today?

Today is indeed Saturday (the actual name of the day is mentioned)

Saturday of our grandfathers

Saturday of our grandmothers

We are today showing the stranger who has joined us to the moon.

We ask that good fortune be our lot

May we have many men to direct our affairs?

May we have many women to care for our homes?

So that we may form a full circle when we meet

When we dig a well may we find water?

When we drink water may we have peace, good health?

And prosperity

Long life to the father of the stranger who has

Joined us

Long life to his mother

Darkness behind him (May he never go back)

Light before him (May his path be clear).

May he have respect for the world (be respectful)

So that we the family members may always find it easy to forgive him ”

The humble Ga waits for the wind to blow before he speaks

Even if you have heard you haven’t heard

May childbearing women become like gourds

When we see a pregnant woman we should subsequently see her with a child

May we sit for more people to come and join us

This child came with black hair may he go with white hair If any snake, malicious person or sorcerer

May complain that in this ancestral home (We) there is always an outdooring

As we bless are we blessing him? No! May it be so Wednesday and Sunday kill him

May he die

Everybody hoot at him Ooho

We ask that good fortune assuredly be ours.

The next phase of the ceremony would be a final libation by the same elderly male member of the lineage who would point out the exit door of the We to the members present. This final libation signals that members are free to depart in peace. Each member present is offered a box of safety matches.

Why Ghanaians Need To Return Home

G.O — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:25:30 +0000

They say that you shouldn’t go into crack cocaine because you might never come back. Unfortunately, for some Ghanaians in diaspora–the diasporian experience has become an experience similar to an addictive drug. Some of them seem to be hooked from their heads all the way down to their toes. I don’t know how many of you out there have ever lived with an addict. See, I have a cousin, who has been struggling with alcohol abuse for sometime now. To tell the truth, he doesn’t like to drink. He hates it, at least, this is what he tells me. Ironically, he cannot seem to quit try as he may. I don’t know what moves him to drink. Perhaps, it might be all the years of alcohol abuse, which has slowly evolved into a habit to hard to quit. Mind you, he started drinking quite early on in life. Therefore, this might help explain why quitting has become such a battle of will. He, needless to say, tried to quit when he first moved in with me. He, actually, went months on end without drinking to my surprise. I don’t what happened. All of a sudden, he resorted back to his old ways. He started drinking like never before. I confronted him on numerous occasions to his frustration and anger. His only reply to me was: “Leave me alone– I am an alcoholic.” “I tried to quit to follow your example, but I just can’t follow through.”

I told him, look; quit drinking for yourself–not for me. Quite astonishingly, he came up with all kinds of lame excuses for resuming his habit. He told me that one of the reasons why he decided to drink again was because of loneliness.”You know how lonely it gets here in Holland” he said. “The indoor life makes one want to drink.” “There is no happiness here.” “You only work and work.” “Therefore, I have to create my own happiness, you understand?” I asked him; how good is happiness, when it comes at the expense of your health? We are all going to die is what he told me. He made up his mind that he wasn’t going to stop drinking. I made up my mind that I was not going put up with his bulls**t. So, I kicked him out. He went and got his own place days later. By now, you might wondering what my cousin’s story has got to do with diasporian Ghanaians, aren’t you? Well, a whole lot if I may say. You see, I have heard some diasporian Ghanaians tell me how much they would like to resettle back home. In return, I would ask them; what’s holding them back? The reasons and excuses, which most of them give, leave me baffled for days. Some of them would tell me that they would like to move back home, but the environment isn’t conducive enough for them.

Others would tell me how they feel un-welcomed in Ghana, whenever they go on a visit. Hence, their decision to stay where-ever they are. Just the other day, a fellow told me that a move to Ghana would be an act of economic suicide. According to this fellow, the political scene in Ghana is very disheartening, to say the least. As a result, he wouldn’t dare leave his host country for Ghana. It seems to me that some diasporian Ghanaians are prepared to come up with all kinds of excuse to stay where-ever they are. Simply because; they have created a life of comfort for themselves and their children in their host countries. They have their 9-5 jobs, which reward them with a salary each month. They have their churches, which have become more like a family gathering. Those unemployed have access to government social benefits. Therefore, you could imagine why a move to Ghana isn’t attractive to some of them. After all, Ghana doesn’t have all these goodies. So, it’s better that they stay where-ever they are. Perhaps, we should give them the benefit of the doubt, for they might be right.

But, what if all these reasons, which have been given thus far, is just an excuse to remain addicted to a life of ease and comfort in one’s host country? Remember, an addict would move heaven and earth to justify his/her decision to keep up a habit. See, we need to be more honest with ourselves. As the saying goes; where there’s a will–there’s a way. We cannot afford to use our strength and expertise to help build another man’s country to the detriment of our own. Also, we shouldn’t expect the petty remittances, which we send every now then, to solve our long term economic problems. Remittances, which some would consider to be another form of welfare, cannot build a nation. Time and history have both proven this to be true. Ghana’s future lies in the hands of her diasporian children. The question, therefore, remains; when are they coming home to help build their own country with their acquired knowledge and skills? If they cannot trade their lives of ease and comfort for sacrifice–then I am afraid that their children’s children would wind up cursing them somebody. Please, let’s remember what the Germans did to the Jews to advise ourselves.

University of Toronto Professor, George Dei Releases New Books

G.O — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:12:37 +0000

Ghanaian-born, University of Toronto Professor, George Dei has just released four new books: The first is Teaching Africa published by Springer, New York [2010] which offers critical perspectives to the study, learning and teaching of Africa and the African experiences. The book [with a Foreword by Professor Molefi Asante of Temple University] challenges problematic portrayals of the African experience. It provides critical insights to understanding the complexities, differences, as well as the shared experiences and histories of African peoples. Written from an African-centred perspective, the book addresses distorted Eurocentric views of Africa, and takes up key questions about the teaching methods and methodologies relating to Africa from an Indigenous African knowledge base. Dei addresses the need for African peoples to reclaim their past, histories, and also interrogate and contest the present, so as to design their own futures.

The second book, Learning to Succeed [published by Teneo Press, New York, 2010] comes out of his longitudinal research with ‘high academic achievers’ in the Canadian school system (high school, college and university). The book is relevant given the lessons their schooling success offer in the struggle for educational excellence among all students. The book is a collection of pieces on the study of high academic achievers written with his co-researchers at the university on the Canadian school system. The essays point to the varying conceptions of “high academic achievers” from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds of ‘success’ and ‘failure’, to the learners’ understanding of the role that education and academic success play in enhancing social opportunity, and individual life chances.

The two other books: Fanon and Education: Thinking Through Pedagogical Possibilities published by Peter Lang, New York 2010 [co-edited with Marlon Simmons]; and Fanon and the Counter-Insurgency of Education. also published by Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2010 (sole edited by Dei) look at the implications of the ideas of Frantz Fanon for rethinking education [broadly defined] in North America. The books [the other Fanon book 'Fanon and the Counterinsurgency of Education', has Foreword by Ato Sekyi-Otu] take up the challenge of an anti-colonial reading of Fanon, to broach questions of identity, difference and belonging, and the implication for schooling and education. In particular, the two books on Fanon highlight the limitations of Black/African bodies continually seeking currency and validation through a negotiation of White colonial spaces.

Oil find: Ghanaians deserve to know what gov’t is doing

G.O — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:07:52 +0000

A Research Fellow at IMANI Ghana, Mr Bright Simons has expressed disappointment at the insidious way and manner in which the country’s oil resource is being managed.

He said the opaque clouds that have enveloped the processes relating to the management of the resource and the role government is playing should be of a major concern to all Ghanaians.

“The lack of transparency is unbelievable,” he told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah.

Mr Simons averred that if the government stops obfuscating its management of the process, “I will mark government very high.”

But what transparency does he want to see, to which he responds; “Go to the GNPC website, go to the Ministry of Energy website and see for yourself whether as an independent observer you have any understanding whatsoever what the government’s policy on oil and gas is. My point (is) that government has to publish at least a paper (explaining) its decision to interfere with the process of Kosmos energy offloading its stake in the Jubilee fields to Exxonmobil.”

He said the government was not running a private business and that if it is intending to invest huge public money in the oil industry, the people of Ghana deserved to know why and also contribute to that decision.

“We have been told consistently that there are about 30 proposals that are being considered, put all of them on the internet,” he charged.

“If you take the four billion dollars that is being bandied around and if government is raising four billion dollars to invest in an enterprise, that will probably be the biggest single Ghanaian state sponsored venture we’ve seen, since the days of Valco and Akosombo Dam, don’t you think we have to contribute to (making the decision)?

Analyzing complex figures, the IMANI associate said there was the possibility that the stake the government was contemplating buying was over-valued and wondered why the government wanted to participate in a venture with a high risk.

He stated that it was dangerous to assume that the people at the helm of affairs would manage natural resources in the best interest of the people because “we have seen mismanagement of natural resources before.”

Play the attached audio and listen to Bright Simons’ submissions.

Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Social Networks and Kids: How young is too young?

G.O — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:19:17 +0000

A growing number of children are flouting minimum-age requirements on social-networking sites such as Facebook

Status updates, photo tagging and FarmVille aren’t just for adults or even teenagers anymore.

Researchers say a growing number of children are flouting age requirements on sites such as Facebook and MySpace, or using social-networking sites designed just for them.

Facebook and MySpace require users to be at least 13. But they have no practical way to verify ages, and many young users pretend to be older when signing up.

Some scientists worry that pre-adolescent use of the sites, which some therapists have linked to Internet addiction among adults, could be damaging to children’s relationships and brains.

But many other experts say there’s not any solid research to back that up and that most children seem to use social-media sites in moderation, and in positive ways.

“For the most part, although there’s so much press about all the bad things they’re doing, much of what they do on these sites is stuff they would be doing anyway,” said Kaveri Subrahmanyam, a professor of psychology at California State University-Los Angeles.

In two surveys reported this year by Pew Internet Research — of 700 and 935 teens, respectively — 38 percent of respondents ages 12 to 14 said they had an online profile of some sort.

Sixty-one percent of those in the study, ages 12 to 17, said they use social-networking sites to send messages to friends, and 42 percent said they do so every day.

The data in the study was from 2006, so it’s not a stretch to assume those numbers are higher this year. Research on younger children is limited, but anecdotal evidence shows that many of them are also logging on.

CNN iReport: How much do you let your kids reveal on social networking sites?

“Of course they are,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at Pew and one of the report’s authors. “They’re using them because that’s where their social world is. Because there’s no effective way to age-verify … children very quickly realize, ‘I just say I’m 14 years old, and they’ll let me use this.’ ”

Marc Bigbie, a software salesman who lives near Savannah, Georgia, said he has three children — 14, 12 and 11 — who all have accounts on at least one social-networking site.

His oldest daughter, then 11, was the first in the family to create an account, on MySpace. And it was without her parents’ permission.

“It was kind of a negative thing at first,” he said. “We kind of took it away from her. But, finally, we said, ‘You can have it, but we need the password so we can be on there at any time.’ ”

Since then, all three of the kids have gotten Facebook accounts, with their parents even agreeing to fudge their ages.

Bigbie said he makes sure his children’s accounts are set to provide as little personal information as possible, and they allow their activity to be seen only by confirmed friends. He and his wife monitor the pages to make sure they know the friends that their children have added.

He said the oldest daughter is the only one who uses the account almost every day, while the younger children log on briefly every now and then.

In the past couple of years, some scientists have voiced concerns that children are spending too much on these sites and that such online socializing could have lasting negative effects as they mature.

“My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment,” Susan Greenfield, an Oxford University neurocientist and director of Britain’s Royal Institution, told London’s Daily Mail in February.

“I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier [online] screen dialogues,” she said.

Other scientists criticized Greenfield’s comments, calling them speculation, not science.

Subrahmaynam said a study of high school students showed that in most cases, the people they interact with most often online are people they also socialize with in person.

Children today have spent their whole lives on computers, and their brains are better adapted than those of adults to integrate online activities with their offline lives, she said.

“You’ll always have the small minority of kids who are not using it appropriately,” she said. “I do think you’re going to have a few people that are doing things that kids probably couldn’t do with telephones a generation ago.

“But we don’t want to get swept away by the general fear. It’s here, and it’s pretty harmless.”

Many parents also worry that younger users of social sites could be targets for online predators. While there are some concerns that kids aren’t mature enough to make good decisions about their privacy, Subrahmaynam and Lenhart said most are savvy enough by their early teens to know what, and who, to avoid. Younger children, they say, need more parental supervision.

Alternately, a growing number of networking sites are geared specifically toward younger users. Sites such as Disney’s Club Penguin — mainly a game site, but with limited social functions — WebKinz and Whyville feature more restricted and supervised networking.

Such kids-oriented sites are “sort of a training ground” for future use of mainstream social networks, Lenhart said.

Children as young as 5 have accounts at KidSwirl, a kids’ social-networking site patterned loosely on Facebook, said creator Toby Clark.

Clark said the average user spends about five minutes on the site per visit — far less than Facebook’s average of more than 20 minutes.

He said he limits the amount of time his two children, 9 and 6, spend on the site, but that any parent who bans their children from such sites isn’t facing the facts.

“The reality is that we’re a technology-driven generation,” said Clark, who launched the site in February and said it has about 10,000 users. “That’s not going to change.”

So what long-term effect will social networking have on children? Scientists say it may be hard to know for sure.

“We’ve lost the control group,” Subrahmanyam said. “How do you find a group of kids that are not using the computer?”

Source: CNN

The Benefits Of Summer School To Students and Parents

G.O — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:34:40 +0000

June every year is graduation month for most students at the Elementary and High School levels. The following month often sees some students including elementary and high school graduates going back to school with other students. Such school is called SUMMER SCHOOL.

Before I come back to the topic of summer school, let me use this opportunity to congratulate all students, especially Ghanaian Canadian students who made us proud by successfully graduating from elementary, high schools, colleges and universities this year.

Summer school will begin for elementary students in Ontario Province of Canada on July 6, this year. It has already begun for college and university students in the province since May/June. Every year summer school is organized for students. Is it necessary for some students to go to school during the time that the school year has ended and schools are officially on holidays? What benefits does summer school offer students and parents? Is summer school the best option for students instead of holidays? I will try to address the above questions in this brief discourse on summer school.

Let me say what summer school isn’t to begin with. Summer school is not the place or time to “baby-sit” students. It is not fun time for students and teachers who participate in it. Neither is it “meet-me-there” opportunity for buddies!

What Summer School Is:

Summer school for elementary and secondary school students is organized each year as a remedial program. Many of the students who attend this program are recommended to it by their teachers with the support of their parents. Remedial Academic Summer School Programs: This program provides students in grades 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 with summer school assistance.

For grades 3, 6, 7 and 8 there are 2 programs: 1. Remedial Assistance for students who are achieving at Level 2 or below in mathematics and/or English; 2. English as a Second Language for students acquiring English as a new language who require help in speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. For students in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 the summer remedial program provides an opportunity to develop literacy or numeracy skills and concepts in preparation for success at the next grade level or on mandated tests. This is a non-credit program.

Summer School at College/University Level:

However, summer school courses for college and university students are designed as credit program to assist to acquire credits to either shorten the length of their academic programs or catch up with some credits they need before the next academic year. Unfortunately, not all courses are available on the summer school programs. Students need to check with their faculties for the available courses. Some Ghanaian Churches and Summer School in Toronto:

It is gratifying to note that some Ghanaian Churches in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) such as the All Nations Full Gospel Church and the Toronto & Heritage Ghanaian SDA Churches have taken upon themselves to run summer school for Ghanaian children living in the GTA from July to August.

These churches do not want your children watching TV or playing video games 24/7 or roaming the Malls during the summer. They are therefore providing great learning cum fun opportunities for your children to get the needed head start towards their next school grades at a reasonable price! Interested parents can register their children for the summer school at 285 Attwell Drive, Etobicoke (call 647-868-6624) or at 4401 Steele Avenue West, Downsview (call 416-665-9964).

The Truth about Summer School:

Whatever level you look at the academic summer school program, one fact stands tall. It is very intensive. The workload is heavy and it requires the student’s prompt attention to completing and submitting all assignments on time. Teachers at summer school have very short time within which to teach the prescribed curriculum, assess students’ performance and report on students’ achievement. Summer school therefore places a heavy responsibility on students to work hard in the short time frame to achieve goals set for the program. There is the need for students and teachers involved with the program to take summer school serious.

Students should be focused on the program. They should therefore seek out those who are helpful not destructive. Watch your behavior and attitude towards learning! Respect your teachers and other students. Be prepared to lend a helping hand to the other student who needs your help. It will be better to stay away from summer jobs during the time that you are in summer school. To our summer school teachers, teaching is still teaching! Remember, teaching is not just about impacting knowledge. It is also about changing lives. So endeavor to make a difference in the lives of students you teach this summer. You must allow students and parents too to teach you during this brief period of facilitating the learning and teaching process.

Parents, you must be the parents you have always been to your children even if they are at summer school. Take summer school as serious as regular school and help your students to achieve success. You are the stabilizing factor in the lives of your children so continue to parent them as usual, setting the boundaries and making sure they use their time profitably for a successful summer school this year and always.

Great benefits-head start for your next school grade; keeping you away from the ‘summer youth troubles’; engaging your minds and hands meaningfully; Having fun and peace of mind- await students and parents at summer school. Happy summer school to all!

Source: Joe Kingsley Eyiah, Teacher, Brookview Middle School, Toronto

Ghanaians in Canada: A Special Report

G.O — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:27:04 +0000

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong in Ottawa

Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle(photo), 65, a former Ghana air force officer, is an associate political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

He worked as an airforce engineer, servicing airforce and presidential planes. Under Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council(PNDC), a hardline military junta, he had been a director of the Ghana Civil Aviation for two years and Greater Accra Regional Minister for two months. When he fell out with the military regime on matters of principle, he escaped from attempts on his life and came to Canada as a refugee in 1986.

“I came here penniless with only US$10 in my pocket. I was alone and had to struggle…My loneliness was informed by the fact that I found the Canadian society individualistic against my Ghanaian communalism. I didn’t know anybody here…I led a lonely life for some time before my wife and children joined me,” recalled Osabu-Kle. He took advantage of Canadian opportunities and went to Carleton University for a master’s degree in public policy and administration, and later read for a PhD in political science. After his completion of his PhD in 1994, he got work as tenure track professor at Carleton University.

Like Dr. Osabu-Kle’s story, Ghanaians’ immigration to Canada is a recent one unlike the Italians whose arrival dates back to 1665. Because Canada wasn’t a colonial power like Britain, Portugal, or France, it hasn’t had close relationship with Ghana though both did belong to the (British) Commonwealth of Nations.

However, according to Charity Agyei-Amoama, a former teacher at Dufferin Peel Separate School Board in Toronto and who came to Canada 30 years ago, “a small number of Ghanaian students in the 1960s came to Canada.” Ghanaians have been part of Africans who comprised 3 percent of new Canadian immigrants from 1946 to 1950. Over the next 20 years that figure rose to an average of 1 to 2 percent.

A 1966 Canadian government White Paper on Immigration opened the door for an impartial screening process for African immigrants. This process saw a reasonable percentage of African immigrants rising to an average of 2 percent from 1968 to 1970, an indication that the new system, despite being selective in relation to Africans, was a bit fair.

As with many African states, the 60s and 70s were a period of drastic economic and political changes that also signaled that “those who had taken power in Africa had failed to build viable political structures to replace the old colonial systems.”

Ghanaians began to migrate to Canada because of economic and political troubles in the 70s and 80s, where a totalitarian one party system and brutal military juntas held sway. The biggest influx of Ghanaians to Canada began in the middle to the late 1970s and latter part of the 80s.

As Mrs. Agyei-Amoama, a member of the first generation of Ghanaian-Canadians of the 70s recollects, the influx comprised largely of unskilled workers and a reasonable number of educated people who had clashed with Ghana’s failing emergent social and political system.

“People were finding it very difficult to live, life was very hard, and you could see people lining up along streets for sugar, soap and bread, especially during Gen. Kutu Acheampong’s regime. Ghanaians reasoned that there was no future for them in their own country. So they decided to look for greener pastures,” recalled Mrs. Agyei-Amoama.

Their migration opened up Canada to more Ghanaians to come to Canada. As a result of the Ghanaian influx, from 1972 to 1973 the African population in Canada rose to 6.8 percent. Apart from the Somalis, the second largest African group in Canada is the Ghanaians. Most Ghanaians immigrants settled in Toronto and Montreal, and a reasonable number in Manitoba. Today, over 60,000 Ghanaians call Canada their home.

The influx of Ghanaians to Canada slowed down at the end of the 80s when Ottawa introduced a Green Paper on Immigration in 1976, which effectively restricted entry of potential landed immigrants in the independent class.

This was worsened by the fact that potential Ghanaian immigrants have to go to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where Canadian Citizenship and Immigration offices was located and which served the entire West Africa, to process their documents.

Aside from Abidjan, the other two Canadian Citizenship and Immigration offices in Africa at the time were located in Nairobi, Kenya and Pretoria, South Africa. Nevertheless, the 1978 Immigration Act had the positive effect of allowing Canadian citizens to sponsor close relatives. This provisions helped Ghanaian migrations into Canada. It saw an increase in the Ghanaian population in the 1990s. Ghanaians call this batch the second generation, including those born in Canada, whose contact with Ghana is not great but and have great attachment to Canada. Though Ghanaian immigrants are not coming to Canada in huge numbers as in the 80s and 90s, Ghanaians are still immigrating to Canada.

Aside from racism, the early Ghanaian immigrant population faced myriad problems. The new Ghanaian immigrants found the dominant Anglo-Saxon Canadian culture incompatible with theirs, especially at a period when misunderstanding was widespread and Canadian multiculturalism was developing.

“With the Canadian culture being different, the support system they have in Ghana such as the extended family system was not here in Canada. We faced anguish, racism and ridicule. Some ran into problems with discipline. While some form of Ghanaian disciplinary rules are not accepted in Canada, others were. These created problems for Ghanaians in Canada. They had problem rearing their children in a different culture in Canada, yet want to be Ghanaians in Canada where the level of communalism isn’t as that in Ghana,” explained Mrs. Agyei-Amoama, whose husband, Charles, currently Ghana’s Deputy High Commissioner to Canada, is a well-known Ghanaian-Canadian community development activist for the past 30 years. Most Ghanaians came toCanada with different skills such as the doctors, engineers, mechanics and nurses, and a lot of unskilled workers including assembly line and factory hands.

“Even some of those who were skilled find it had to get work in their professional areas because of demand for Canadian experience and so have to work in factories in order to put food on the table and help their people back home,” said Mrs. Agyei-Amoama.

As the Ghanaian population expanded and they mastered the Canadian system, they are increasingly learning to negotiate not only racism but other issues they had found difficult at first. Unlike the first generation of Ghanaians, there are now many Ghanaian organizations throughout Canada that not only receive new immigrants but help develop their skills so as to fit into the Canadian society.

One such organization is the Toronto-based Opportunities Centre for Ghanaian-Canadians (OCGC), a community based non-profit organization that helps Ghanaian immigrants to settle in Canada. Among its activities are youth programs such as after-school tutorials, employment training and counseling, recreation and sports, basic computer assistance, and art and cultural enrichment. In July 25, 2003 Western Union Financial Services Limited, which has been helping Ghanaian-Canadians transmit money back home, donated four personal computers and one laser jet printer at the cost of $6,604.55 (CAN) to the OCGC. The donation was Western Union’s educational support for the centre to advance its community services.

Thomas Y. Owusu, a Ghanaian social scientist at William Paterson University in USA, who did a study using information collected in a questionnaire survey of the Ghanaian community in Toronto, reveals that Ghanaians have established a relatively large network of township, ethnic, and national associations. The associations fulfill a wide variety of economic, cultural, social and political functions related to the needs of the immigrants in Canada.

Ghanaian-Canadians are part of Ghanaian diasporans who send over US$1.5 billion annually to Ghana. Ghanaian traditional food is found in specific shops. Ghanaian tailors, traditional hair stylists, mechanics, shippers, salons, seamstress who cater for Ghanaians abound.

Traditional outdoorings, funerals and other engagements are marked phenomena at weekends. Most of the 56 ethnic groups that make up the Ghana nation-state have their ethnic associations in Canada that serve their needs back home. Owusu reveals that the Ghanaian immigrants use their associations to contribute to community development efforts, sometimes with homeland chiefs coming to Canada to lobby their ethnic groups for development assistance. Still, the associations fight for political rights back home, and maintain ties with their homeland. Owusu’s analysis showed that the extent of residence, education and income level, and residential location were the most important determinants of membership in Ghanaian associations.

Ghanaian-Canadians have been helping in the development of their communities back home. The Agona Association in Canada (AAC) presented $550 (CAN) to the Our Lady of Grace Hospital at Breman Asikuma in the Central Region of Ghana to settle medical bills of a 19 year-old boy, Isaac Oppong.

The AAC saw the boy’s story on the internet and raised money and sent it home for the payment of the bills so that the boy and his parents could be free. Oppong, who was suffering from typhoid perforation, went through a major operation in May, this year, and could not go home because his parents could not afford to pay the medical bills. The boy had been discharged by the doctors since June this year but could not go home because he owed the hospital.

Over the years, as the Ghanaian population expands, their rich culture is increasingly coming into the forefront of Canadian multiculturalism, helping to enrich Canada’s cultural mosaic. Most Ghanaian ethnic groups stage various cultural festivals throughout the year. Eddie Peprah, treasurer of the United Ghana Association of Ottawa (UGAO), said like most Ghanaian-Canadian associations, the UGAO seeks to unite the Ghanaians in Ottawa and team up with other Ghanaian associations throughou Canada.

“Our aim is unite Ghanaians in Ottawa, promote Ghanaian culture, provide an avenue of assistance for Ghanaians in need and educate the growing number of Ghanaians born in Ottawa who have not been to Ghana to absorb the richness of Ghanaian culture.”

Ghanaians think their culture could be used as a uniting cord, and that their numerous national and ethnic associations function as family in times of problems and joy. To do this, the associations’ stage cultural activities annually such as the one in Ottawa called Ghanafest that brings Ghanaians together and create healthy networking over the years. At a recent Ghanafest at Ottawa’s beautiful Vincent Massey Park, Ghanaians showcased their rich culture to Canadians in the form of dance, proverbs and poetry, songs, drumming, fashion and food, drawing a large crowd.

Though part of recent immigrants, Ghanaian-Canadians, hardworking, deeply religious and law abiding, have come to see Canada as their second home, and are taking advantage of the opportunities afforded them. Canada now boasts of a sparkling and pulsating Ghanaian population whose members contribute admirably to their old homeland and Canada.

Dilapidated Ghana Railway Company – Who do we blame ?

G.O — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:37:36 +0000

The virtual collapse of the Ghana Railway Corporation is indeed a sad indictment on the managerial capability of our institutions and the people in charge of them. The Railways Company though set up for the benefit of the colonisers in 1903 was left in reasonably good working condition. At its peak of performance in the late 50′s early 60′s it carried over 2 million tons of freight and 8 million Passengers in a year. Is the dilapidation of Ghana Railway Company, yet not another sad example of people who were supposed to be responsible for an institution causing financial loss to the state, but have not been held to account.

We all remember when the last substantial rolling stock arrived from the former GDR in 1985 and received with funfair and razzmatazz. How long can we afford to acquire expensive foreign loans to build infrastructure and running it down with criminal neglect ?

No subjects are of greater concern to the effectiveness of government machinery and individual public officers than those affecting appointments, promotions and discipline. Are we there yet ?

By: S Nyarko

Source: Ghanaweb.com

Are Ghanaian Children Less Intelligent?

G.O — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:33:16 +0000

Mr. Kwame Alorvi, President of National Association of Graduate Teachers, has argued that the solution to improving the quality of education in Ghana does not lie in extending course durations.

He said there is no reason to subject Ghanaian school children to four years Senior High School when Liberia and Sierra Leone, among other members of the West African Examinations Council, are taking the same programme for three years.

“Ghana belongs to a sub-regional grouping, WAEC- Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia Liberia. If you look at the history of Liberia and Sierra Leone, for Liberia, for over 10 years Charles Taylor’s war devastated the educational structure of that country; Sierra Leone, the structure was destroyed, even children’s arms and legs were amputated by Foday Sankoh. In spite of that predicament, Liberia and Sierra Leone are doing the WASSCE in three years and you are telling our Ghanaian children that they cannot do it within three years.

“Are we sending a signal to them that they are less intelligent than their colleagues in those countries? With even those war-torn situations, all the sub-regional countries- Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia can do it for three years and our children cannot do it for three years, I don’t believe so.”

He said NAGRAT also served on the Anamuah-Mensah Committee charged by the former government headed by President Kufuor to research into the suitability or otherwise of the four years SHS which recommended that the then-three-year duration was ok. He said when the current education system was started, Ghanaian universities conducted entrance examinations for SSS candidates but later curtailed that because the institutions realized the quality was improving.

“We have produced engineers, lawyers, doctors during the three years, serving the system now,” he said.

Mr. Alorvi also doubted the ability of the government to foot bills for the four-year programme.
He said between the well endowed and deprived schools, student failures are recorded mainly in the deprived areas whereas very limited, if any, come from the endowed schools.

“They are failing from Mepe Secondary School where the headmaster and assistants share the same bungalow, where there is no hostel facility for the children, where there’s no classroom facilities for them, no library, no electricity in that area, a weak PTA, a weak old students association. Compare Wesley Girls and Mfantsipim- strong PTAs which can contribute and give the headmistress or the heads good offices, well furnished, air-conditioned, can provide infrastructure in the school. Even now that the programme is for four years, go round the schools and see; the structures are being put in the same schools because the big men have their children over there – Wesley Girls, Holy Child, Mfantsipim School, Opoku Ware. My village school has not got even an infrastructure added.”

According to Mr. Alorvi, addressing the problems require that teachers are properly motivated and resourced, while infrastructure is improved for the less endowed schools.

Rastafarianism and Reggae Music in Ghana

G.O — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:04:18 +0000

Around the late 1960s and early 1970s, we began to see the infiltration of reggae music into the West African Region, particularly as a result of Bob Marley’s powerful presence in the music scene. Many young Africans began to view Marley with much awe; additionally, they began making linkages between reggae music and Rastafarian culture – Marley’s religion of choice.

The growth in adoration of reggae music, principally in anglophone West Africa may be directly linked to the fact that reggae had emerged from Jamaica, which is also an anglophone country. Along with reggae music came a change in fashion trends such as the adornment of Rasta’s prominent colours of red, gold, and green, the development of new social habits (i.e. smoking of cannabis), as well as the decision to wear dreadlocks: a largely abhorred hairstyle in Ghana and many other African countries.

Moreover, given that rastafarianism’s religious teachings are of Old Testament Judeo-Christian origin, makes adopting Rastafarianism an easier feat for young Africans, since the core principles of Christianity are also embedded in Rastafarianism. In fact, roughly 90% of all Rastafarians come from Christian homes. Today, in Labadi Beach, Accra we are able to find the headquarters of the Twelve Tribes – the largest group of Rastafarians in Ghana. The twelve Tribes of Israel was established by Prophet Gad of Jamaica, who travelled to Ghana in the 1980s to institute the organization.

The entire Rastafarian movement has many positive prospects, specifically in terms of the ways in which it propels Africans both in the continent and abroad – to cherish their ancestral homelands and to create unity in the face of neocolonialism. Big up Rastafarianism!

Article written by: Nicole Seck (Ghanalinx contributor)