The Scramble for Ghana: Christmas in the midst of Politicking

Christmas in Ghana came and went. Feliz Navidad seemed to be played in heavy rotation on a lot of radio stations this year and the Accra mall is definitely redefining the Ghanaian Christmas experience with mass consumerism and heavy traffic. On Christmas eve, I arrived at the mall early in the morning to avoid traffic and to do some last-minute shopping. Sadly, half of Accra had the same idea and the traffic was not a pleasant sight! The Harmattan has also arrived adding an eerie, gothic smog to the Accra landscape and covering everything with dust.

My Christmas day was well-spent. I arrived for mass on time at 10am but I soon realised that I had mixed up the time and was *sigh* one hour late. In the end, I had to find a suitable standing spot in the Church car-park along with other late-comers/time mixer-uppers. Christmas lunch with family was deep-fried and delicious. Ice-cream and cupcake rendered me catatonic and I settled into Christmas television only to be hit by the reality that we are indeed reaching the crescendo of the political high season and that the run-off election slated for December 28th is still very much "too close to call".

Source: www.ghanaweb.com
As I attempted to find some merry feel-good Christmas movie on the television, the two political parties in contention for the run-off ran alternating television ads that made my head hurt. At first it was entertaining and interesting to watch but lately political ads have lost their sparkle. Outside, Ice-cream vans in the neighbourhood have been replaced by vehicles patrolling the area playing campaign songs for the two parties.

Suddenly, for some reason, the fact that the race is too close has got me worried. Will the losers accept the results? Will the winners rub it in their opponents face? Will Ghana still remain calm and peaceful? Anticipation has now become nail-biting.

It has meant that for two nights in a row I have been up all night watching news from Al-Jazzera, Deutsche Welle (English), BBC and CNN.
It is amazing how different news source report the same news and how you can critically assess these differences at 3am. I was sad to hear about the passings of Eartha Kitt and Harold Pinter. Ironically, I was just reading about Eartha Kitt still going strong at 81 in the December edition of Ebony magazine. I did not follow much of her musical career but loved her in Boomerang..as Lady Eloise ("Maarrr-cusss!")
Harold Pinter I will never forget for his unforgettable turn as Sir Thomas Bertram in the 1999 version of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Many years ago when I was 10 years old, I borrowed Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker at the Manzini Library in Swaziland . This book was clearly not supposed to be in the children's section and left me a little confused but was enjoyable though.
Anyway, I'm off to pack a light travel bag for our journey into the interior to cast my vote. Unfortunately, all the movies I have watched about Saigon, Phnom Penh, Kigali, Beirut etc. etc. are filling me with apprehension at the moment. I am clinging to the belief that Ghanaians are way too mature for political unrest. Clinging.

Of Nollywood Premieres, Lounges and Chantilly Cream

I had a rare fun-filled weekend. On my previous post I rambled on about the spending time with Southern African Ghanaian (SAG) friends and indeed it came to pass. My friend S. is quite the Nigerian film (i.e. Nollywood) fan and convinced me to go to the much advertised premiere of the film State of the Heart starring the veteran Nollywood actors Richard Mofe-Damijo and Stella Damasus. The premiere was set to start at 7pm on Friday night and S. was worried that we were extremely late when we left my house at 6:40pm. Alas, she had forgotten this premiere was in Ghana and not Switzerland! We got to the National Theatre just after 7pm and were bemused to find a half-empty auditorium and a hollywood (as opposed to Nollywoood) film showing up on the screen. For the next hour and half we were subjected to a violent R-rated film without a single explanation from the event organisers. Eventually, the R-rated film went off and we were treated to Heroes Season 2, episode 1. Were these people for real?
At exactly 8:45pm, a popular radio DJ/ TV host Wolf took the stage. I actually felt really bad for the Wolf-man. The audience were understandably irate and baying for blood so gave him a hard time . He introduced some young hip-life artistes who lip-synched so beautifully to one of their tracks. Suddenly, the crowd erupted with cheers as Richard Mofe-Damijo, Stella Damasus and Segun Arinze made their extremely late grand entrance. Some photo-ops ensued and the angry crowd were at last appeased as we settled into the film. State of the Heart was a tad insipid, a tad predictable but I must say the acting was pretty good . After the film there were more photo-ops and apparently an after-party at Boomerang night-club. S. and I hurried away to look for a relaxing lounge to have a drink. Alas, I had left the directions to Twist at home so we made our way to Monsoon in Osu. The vibe was cool but the music was a little too loud for conversation. After we left Monsoon we contemplated a little dancing at Tantra before admitting the truth: it was 2am and we were darn tired! The next day S. and I met up with N. and her brother Y; my SAG childhood friends from Botswana. I had not seen Y. since 1996 and that was in Cape Town South Africa. We had some drinks at Frankie's Salad Lounge in Osu. This was my first time at "The Lounge" but had read about it from a posting by a fellow Ghana blogger Yngvild. The atmosphere was divinely mellow and we had a refreshingly intellectual conversation. It was probably one of the deepest conversations I have had in months! Fresh perspectives always make you realise how much you have become absorbed into any system.
Alas* S. departed for the US on Sunday morning leaving me a little sad. A pick-me-up came by the evening time which was well-spent knocking back glasses of wine with the big sis, big bruv, the sis-in-law and the newbie nephew Junior. Well, Junior abstained from the wine-drinking. The venue was the African Regent hotel with its "afropolitan" appeal and great atmosphere. Their apple pie and chantilly cream (fancy way of saying apple pie and vanilla ice-cream) is sinfully delicious.

In the end I did not see the cool "cousins". Apparently they found themselves at Rhapsody's on Friday night. Hopefully they dodged the cover! Alas, all good things must come to an end as family and friends leave the fair shores of Ghana until the next holiday season...*sigh* Happy Holidays everyone!

Invasion of the Cross-Cultural Ghanaians

Christmas is always a fascinating time of the year in Ghana. Mainly because a lot of the Ghanaian people resident outside of our fair nation tend to come down to spend time with friends and family.
There are the Londoners, New Yorkers, Canadians all of whom are Ghanaian. Occassionally there are the German burghers, Italian burghers, Amsterdam burghers...all illustrious countrymen and women living in that fabled place called "abroad". You can always tell the Ghanaians coming in from "abroad" at this time of the year. As the plane touches down at Kotoka International Airport, they emerge usually clad in a winter jacket and can be often heard lamenting about the shocking levels of heat being emitted by the Ghanaian motherland.
However, there is a small but undocumented breed of Ghanaians who are often overlooked; they are the Southern African Ghanaians (SAGs). SAGs are individuals who have spent most of their lives outside of Ghana living specifically in various countries in Southern Africa. You would be surprised at how many SAGs there are out there. Some grew up in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, some in Namibia, others were born in Lesotho or even Swaziland. This group remains widely unknown in Ghana because they tend to either live in Southern African or migrate to the US or Europe completely bypassing Ghana! These are my peoples! Well, this particular end of the year I'm excited because suddenly, it seems we' re invading Ghana en masse.

It all started with my big sis. announcing last week that she would be coming into Accra from South Africa for some high-brow work meetings. On her flight, she found she was travelling with Uncle B and two of his sons. Uncle B. was my late Dad's really good friend from the days when bell-bottoms and platform shoes were a la mode. My big sis, big bruv and I all grew up together in Southern Africa with Uncle B's kids who we dubbed "our cousins in Lesotho". Unfortunately, I had not seen them since afros were still in fashion back in 1988. Although Uncle B.'s sons are well into their 30s, this was actually their first visit to Ghana! So last night was the surreal reunion. Uncle B. and my mum shared embarrassing childhood tales about who used to cry the most. In the meantime, I admired my cousins' heavily tattooed bodies and their fascinating "Suuth Eferican" accents. One of the cousins had some Adinkra symbols (similar to the picture above) tattooed into his forearm. At some point the big sis declared that there was not much to do in the fair city of Accra. Of course, at that point I slipped into defender of my city mode and alas, the dreadful onus is now on me to prove just how hip Accra is....*Yikes*

I'm currently racking my brain and compiling a list of cool places to hang out at that may impress these Johannesburg-esque hip types...*Alas* the list is looking pretty sparse: Honeysuckle, Monsoon, Aphrodisiac, Bywells, Tribes, Rhapsody's, ...oh dear I could not possibly take'em to Accra Mall could I?!

The SAG invasion continues; my buddy S. is also in town from the US. She is Ghanaian but grew up in Sierra Leone and we lived very close to each other in Swaziland for some years. We often lament that our Southern African language skills should really not be this appalling..How come my big sis could win any argument in Zulu or Setswana when I can barely remember how to say hello....*sigh*. S. has the most Ghanaian credibility. After all, she went to school and university here.

Just when I was realising that we could really start a small army of SAG invaders. My friend N. calls to say she is in town! She grew up in the US and Botswana and we both went to college very close to each other in Western Massachusetts. Her big brother Y. is another Christmas returnee based in South Africa. So forget Christmas Election blues, my peoples are here! Now, back to entertainment ideas....anyone got any? Even one? Half an idea would do!

Survivor Gabon: Culinary Delights Part 2

What a crazy past couple of weeks it has been. Between the Ghana elections, post-election excitement and work, blogging has been on the back-burner. Anyway, I saw on google news yesterday that the American Television show Survivor Gabon had come to a close. I must admit that I'm quite the reality TV freak and love the whole Survivor concept. They basically stick a bunch of strangers into some remote area somewhere without basic essentials and to 'survive' they have to do various feats, form alliances, back-stab while living off wild animals and berries. Alas, there can only be 1 "survivor" and this year it was a 57 year old physics teacher. Each Survivor season starts off with contestants looking pretty good but by the end they have been transformed into hungry cave-people...it is all quite Lord of Flies' esque.

Anyway, I had the surreal experience of being in Gabon from June to August this year while they were filming Survivor in some remote part of the country. Gabon is indeed a beautiful and fascinating place. Unspoiled beaches, thick lush equatorial forest and an *interesting* approach to hospitality. I spent most of the time at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in the small town of Lambarene.The most interesting part of the Gabonese adventure was the delicious cuisine. I learnt very quickly that one had to be a "surivivor" to navigate through the dining out experience. For one of our fancy official dinners we had lovely aromatic meal available. I asked what it was and was told it was "crocodile". *Yummy* ...alas, I politely declined. Some weeks later, after a hard day of work, we headed to a quaint restaurant on the banks of the Ogoue river. The menu was narrated by a waitress but luckily, we went with someone who spoke better French than the rest of us!

MENU

• Carpe: Bony fresh water fish similar to tilapia
• Antilope: Antelope but unfortunately I stopped eating meat in Dec '03 so that would have had to be a pass
  
• Crocodile: Croc again?
  
• Singe: Monkey...Say whaa????? A primate? I don't think so!
  
• Python: #$#%#$ For a moment I thought you said "snake"....oh... you did! Oops... @#$@#
  

I had my own rule of thumb for dining out in semi-rural Gabon; when in doubt, stick with carpe. In fact, I think I ate so much carpe that I could have sworn I was starting to sprout fins!







*Alas* in the end, I was not the sole survivor in the bushmeat avoidance club; I gave into the python and I must say it was really delicious.

African Python + My Dish of Cooked Python, rice and fried Cassava