The current “war on terror” even has rich men exploiting the illiterate and poor in order to advance their own greed. Muslim ‘terrorists’ tell their goons to do terrible things in order to gain favor with their god. Christian leaders like Bush do exactly the same thing….americans may not be literate, but most Americans lack a comprehensive understanding of the world and are more often entertained than educated. It isn’t hard to find poorly educated Americans who can be convinced that killing Muslims in the name of god is appropriate….I remember bumper stickers 45 years ago in Chicago that said, “Kill a commie for Christ!”

Slavery, oil exploitation, and all the rest are extensions of historical traditions of robbing the poor to serve the rich. Maybe that is why the legend of Robin Hood is so attractive to so many people.

I am impressed and find many of your impressions to be accurate. This is because I get a bit frustrated because of supposed African stories I hear or read which almost sound made up, or like the story a hungry child will tell if you give them $20 so that you can feature them in a documentary. Of course you can make sound impressions even if neither you nor the Ghanaians you saw could understand the other’s language. I am not sure how much interaction you had with Ghanaians who could communicate with you in your language, I would like to shed some like on the “you’re lucky to be from America” theme. It is almost a corollary to the “thank God my grandpa was on that boat” theme. It is an economic reaction more than anything. The image of America is one of plenty and comfort and the people who tell you how lucky you are to be in America are referring to just that. The land of plenty and comfort where you almost always have electricity and running water, a television and corn flakes (it was a coveted breakfast item in my school when I was about 12 years old). Of course they say this with no practical understanding of the realities of the other challenges. And rightly so. Dred Scott or “Plessy v. Ferguson is a ridiculous case to a person who has not experienced life in multi racial America and even if this person understands the time and the season of America, the lack of experience means that this issue never comes to the forefront of his/her mind when he thinks of America. Even if it did, it becomes a utility issue. S/he would place more weight to the ability to get the “luxuries” of comfort, and assume that racial issues are no problem if s/he can find these comforts. Of course if s/he finds these comforts, then s/he will begin to see the place of race, or better yet, s/he may never find these comforts and rightly or wrongly attribute it to race. It is only the good story of the opportunities that they know. The same frustration is what drove many blacks that came to African countries to thank God that their ancestors were slaves. They could not fathom the poverty and the reality of economic depression. For them, the opportunity to find a job when they graduated from college, to have running water and bathrooms in their home, was important, and could exist with racial tensions, rather than the existence of no racial tensions, but several economic problems. The truth, when any black person goes to another country which is just about 100% black, is that the only thing you have in common is color. There are some dormant yet strong things like culture that bind all the black people, but time and distance have weakend these ties and it can be rekindled only through consistent and true education. Having said that, this is a very refreshing piece in contrast to Maya Angelou’s “All God’s Children Need Walking Shoes.” Which is a sad reaction to cultural confusion where she compares her negative experiences in Ghana to racism in America. Race is not an issue in Ghana though things like education and class are more significant derminants of social standing. Anyway, it is good to hear the experience of a black person who visits an African country and is able to see it for the simple place that it is, without superimposing the unfortunate social complications of America onto every experience. Yes, every foreigner is an Obroni to a number of people. It does not necessarily mean “white” like you said, nor foreigner. It is an Akan word, that is now used by any and everyone. However it is a word to that means “hey stranger!” most of the time. The person using this word has the dual purpose of calling for attention to himself (for fun, to ask for money, to get to talk to this foreigner) and bringing attention to this foreigner. It is difficult to find a meaning for it. It changes in place and time.

Your experience in Ghana in a limited but significant manner can be likened to that of an American White in Lapland or Finland. Your color brings you together with the people (by an American definition, although you laugh to remember that they call you “white”), but it ends there, unless you and them learn and understand each other’s culture and where it connects if so. Your stories are not the same. The story of slavery told in America (your brothers sold you) is not the same as the story told in Ghana (they captured your brothers in the many wars for natural resources that plagued and still plagues the continent.) I went to school in Capecoast and I heard of the castles just once when I had a tour for one of my classes. I returned a couple times to show American family members around. The history is mixed. What is interesting are the churches on top of the dungeons. Some blacks that reject the western religion do so because they find it incompatible that the missionaries co-existed with the slavemasters in the castle or did they not? Others have a “reject the sin and not the sinner” approach (not very on point here) and so are ok with the religion. By and large there is not a sentiment that is close to uniform in the country. However the important thing is to learn about the people and the culture if you are interested. Also, it is good to try, even when difficult, to look through clear eyes and not through the spectacles of American society and history, otherwise your vision will be distorted. Ghana, America, Canada, Nigeria, Togo Senegal are all different countries and our experiences in anyone of those countries become a part of us, but we should allow a pure understanding of each culture, untained by whatever impressions we gain from the other. Sorry for this “too much information” response to your article. I liked it and I hope that other people who visit will come close to understanding some of their experiences better. We are after all one people.

Freedom Rider
Henry Louis Gates and the Times: Unfit to Print
by Margaret Kimberley
Printer Friendly Plain Text Format

On December 27, 2005 the New York Times printed an article entitled
“Ghanaians’ Uneasy Embrace of Slavery’s Diaspora.” The New York Times
rarely delivers on its claim to give its readers “all the news that is fit
to print.” Even white politicians like John Kerry get biased coverage when
they dare to challenge the established order. If a white presidential
nominee can’t catch a fair break from the Times, then black people are
definitely out of luck.

According to the Times, black Americans should just forget about visiting
Africa or forging any links with Africans. Like people in poor nations all
over the world, many Ghanaians seek to emigrate to the United States. The
Times tells us that Ghanaians envy their American cousins for being taken
into slavery.

Suppose, for arguments sake, that the statement is an accurate assessment
of some Ghanaian opinion. A real newspaper would then ask how much
Ghanaians know about the United States, and what if anything they have been
taught about African American history or their own history for that matter.

Ghanaians aren’t alone in seeking refuge in nations that exploited them.
Most of the southwest United States was stolen from Mexico. Mexicans know
this but still cross the border in hopes of improving their lives. The
United States military killed hundreds of thousands in the Philippines at
the turn of the last century. That unforgotten history doesn’t prevent
Filipinos from waiting years to get green cards that ensure their passage
to the country that caused their people so much anguish.

The reality is that Europe and the United States created terrible poverty
and instability around the world. So much so, that the people they oppress
yearn to live in the oppressor nations in hopes of improving their lives.

The real point of the New York Times article is to tell black Americans
that they should just get over the past, realize they are in the best
nation on earth, and stop trying to learn anything about their ancestral
home. After all, Africa is poor and its people envy three hundred years of
slavery, lynching and Jim Crow.

No other group is dissuaded from learning about its ancestry as much as
black people are dissuaded. Even groups whose ancestors immigrated
voluntarily came from poor countries. Their homelands weren’t just poor,
they were often oppressive. There would have been no immigration if that
were not the case. Yet the New York Times doesn’t tell anyone else to
forget about identifying with their place of origin. Only black Americans
are told to wise up and be grateful for what the system has meted out to
them.

Not content to make light of African Americans attempts to connect to
Africa, the times had to add the piece de resistance. They had to call
Henry Louis Gates.

Gates’ area of expertise is African American literature. He is not a
historian. He is not a mental health professional. He is not an expert on
public affairs. He is not an economist. He knows literature and that is
all. Despite his limited base of knowledge, he is continually called upon
to opine on subjects he knows little if anything about.

Gates is definitely shrewd. He has gamed a system that confers top dog
status on only a few black faces. Journalism schools teach courses like
Gates 101 and grade students on their ability to get in touch with Gates
when in need of a handy quote about black people.

Several years ago Gates proudly showed the world how little he knew in the
PBS documentary series “Wonders of the African World.” In the slave trade
segment, Gates’only moment of anger was directed at an Ashanti prince. If
Gates wants to wax righteously indignant, he should interrogate a member of
the Brown family of Brown University. The Brown fortune was made through
slavery, as were many others. Gates ought to give a Brown descendant the
third degree on camera.

In the Times article Gates gives us this nugget of wisdom. “The myth was
our African ancestors were out on a walk one day and some bad white dude
threw a net over them. But that wasn’t the way it happened. It wouldn’t
have been possible without the help of Africans.” A real historian might
have added that there would have been no slave trade without a demand from
Europe and America.

From Canada, where slavery was once legal, to the Caribbean, and all the
way to the tip of South America, white Americans developed and sustained a
voracious need for African free labor. Maybe the Times will tackle that
subject some day.

If the Times and their journalistic brethren stopped thinking of the head
Negro in charge of all things involving colored people, they might find a
useful perspective and write better articles. The New York Times can make
local phone calls and find experts on any subject known to humankind. New
York City is home to Columbia University, New York University and a 19
campus City University of New York, to name just a few.

Is it possible that some of these institutions have experts on African
history? Of course they do, but they will never be heard from as long as a
publicity savvy English professor is the only acceptable source of
information.

So, if on your next visit to Ghana, you are referred to as “obruni,” a word
usually reserved for white people, don’t worry about it. Take it as an
opportunity to learn from another culture and to teach people who may need
to learn from you. In any case, obruni has probably come to mean “foreigner
who has more cash than I do.”

—————————-
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BC. Ms.
Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City. She can be reached
via e-Mail at .You can read more
of Ms. Kimberley’s writings at freedomrider.blogspot.com.

Black Gold of the Sun

When I first visited the “slave castles” I was absolutely stunned by them. If you search, there are more of them thean people realise. The archaeological potential of the sites is immense and shamefully ignored.

The castles are an important factor in why an improbably high proportion of the diaspora choose to view Ghana as the place of their ancestry. It also helps that it is the safest, nicest and most democratic of the options to visit.

Ghana has enormous tourist potential. I always believed that the chief reason it hasn’t been developed was foolish protection of Ghana Airways – favouring the national carrier’s interest over the national interest. BA and Ghana Airways were allowed to fix fares on the route at ludicrously high prices – about three times the Lonson-New York fare, across the range, for the same disctance. You could – and still can – buy a two week holiday in the Gambia, with accommodation and food included, for half the cost of just the flight to Ghana. Now that GA has been replaced by GIA, I hope we will see real air services liberalisation.

I believe that one problem that has been exacerbated by the African-American influence is a totally warped historical presentation, in evidence at Cape Coast and Elmina.

Slavery was a terrible evil. And appalling British slave traders, and British or British descended plantation owners, were among those responsible. But at Cape Coast, for example, for the majority of the time this was a British base its express purpose was to fight slavery. For sixty years post-1832 the British government, at enormous cost in both money and dead sailors (mostly from malaria, patrolled West Africa to fight the slave trade. This part of history is similarly ignored.

Similarly, nothing acknowledges the role of Africans in the slave trade. Graphics show white men driving slave caravans to the coast – something most unlikely – and no African sellers are shown or mentioned in the Barter Hall.

Let me stress, that I am not, in any sense, an apologist for the slave trade, which was an appalling crime against humanity. But I don’t think a cartoon version of history helps anyone.

Craig

Chippla – good catch – thank you. I made the change.

Cheers