A few rambling observations
*****
I was thinking the other day about individuality, how greatly it’s valued in the United States (and other western cultures) and how it’s sort of an unrealized luxury that we’re born thinking we’re entitled to. I started thinking about how one can assert their individuality or preferences and the structures needed to be in place to do so.
One example is being picky with food - simple, I know, but it’s what triggered the entire strain of thought. When I first got here, I tried to carry over my pickiness and utter hatred of onions, but it wouldn’t work for several reasons. One chiefly being that everyone cooks with onions here so I’d have to cook everything I ate if I wanted to avoid them. The other is that assortments of food simply don’t exist. In the village, if you’re going to make a soup, it’s going to be the same as every other soup minus one or two key ingredients. It’s going to have water, onions, salt, a Maggi Cube (sort of like bullion but not quite) and possibly a tomato or a can of tomato paste. After that, the added ingredients are the key to whatever the soup is actually called (groundnut soup gets groundnut paste and so on).
You can’t afford to be picky when there are no alternatives to turn to. If you hate McDonald’s, there’s always Wendy’s, Burger King, Rally’s, Arby’s, etc. If you don’t enjoy Starbucks, you can get a cup of coffee and Highland or Java or Sunergos (mmm…). Here, if you don’t like someone’s rice and beans, you’re just…not eating rice and beans that day. There’s only one rice and bean lady. There’s only one bread lady, jalof lady, plain rice lady, plain bean lady. There’s variety in that there are alternatives to what you want to eat, but none within the same realm.
So my hatred of onions is slowly dissipating because I had no choice in the matter - it’s pretty much the only readily available (and storable) vegetable I can cook with. At least I have the luxury of being able to switch up overall dishes every night, whereas most people eat the same thing, three meals a day, every day of their lives.
Side note: my switching up isn’t all that magnificent; every meal is either rice or pasta and then some sauce (or not) added. But that’s my decision because I hate cooking and my cookbook is propping up my table leg.
Tezed. Sahim. Corn porridge, whatever you wanna call it - it’s the staple food in this part of the country. From the time babies stop breast-feeding to the last meal they ever eat, it’s tezed. They’ll mix up the soup sometimes (a lot of the time they don’t), but the base is always the same. Why is that? Corn is the most readily available food in this part of the country - it’s the base of all farming ventures and whether or not the corn comes in determines whether your family will eat during the rest of the year.
Even past that, tezed has become a staple of the culture here. If you’re not eating tezed at every meal, culturally, it’s because you don’t have money or your crop was poor. People don’t want to be looked down upon so even if they have food to eat, they will go and borrow someone’s corn flour so they can also cook tezed to eat that night. It sounds bizarre, but I guess I likened it to not having a turkey (or ham) for Thanksgiving dinner. Even if you have all the trimmings, will the meal feel complete if there’s no turkey? Most people would say no.
Another thing that had me thinking about individuality was that of people’s general dispositions here. Everyone’s friendly. Most people are happy. And crime is almost out of the question. It’s not an Sinclairian universe that I’m living in, things aren’t perfect by any means, but consider how people can get away with not being happy or friendly in the States, how they can commit crimes and not expect any consequences.
To commit a crime here (in the village setting) has to take some serious forethought. There needs to be a foolproof alibi and/or, depending on how serious the crime is, a way out of the village after the deed has been done. I honestly think it’s because you can physically beat the crap out of someone to avenge the wrong committed against you that keeps things down. And you’re not only justified, but encouraged to beat said offender. Ostracizing is another tool that’s used. Once you become an outcast in a community, it’s almost better to pack your things and leave. For a person living in a culture that values relationships and family so highly, to suddenly have that cut off would be akin to losing one’s life because essentially, your identity has been taken.
Because the village is so small, you can’t just move to the other side of town, so to speak. There is no blending in and people forgetting what you’ve done like you can do in a larger country. You can’t even (for the most part) move to another part of this country and stay hidden for long. Your story, your family, where you’re from and what you’ve done is so much a part of who you are, if you can’t share those things with new acquaintances, then they won’t accept you into their circle. And soon, your past will catch up with you. You know how I mentioned the importance of relationships? Well, this country is like Mayberry in that everyone knows everyone. From the desert to the coast - there’s nowhere to hide.
I met a guy in Tamale the other day that had family in the Eastern Region. We began talking and in only a few minutes it was decided that yes, I was the white Abena who stayed with his aunt near Koforidua. I’m no less than twelve hours away from that town I trained in, but even here, people know who I am. It’s not because I’m a white outsider either. I see it happen all the time with local people.
I’m not saying it’s the best way to go about things, but for here, in this setting (strictly speaking of the village, for towns and cities, it’s much different), it’s the system that works. People don’t really steal from one another, they don’t get cheated in business deals, you can leave stuff on the side of the road for days knowing that no one will touch it. The consequence is so horrible that the crime isn’t really worth committing.
Along those same lines, being friendly with people and greeting and smiling is very much a part of the entire country’s culture (some in more places than others). Ghana even calls itself the friendliest nation in Africa. If someone’s not friendly to another, whether they’re an outsider or in the same family, there has to be a reason. Is that person angry with the one he didn’t greet? Is he jealous? Does he want to bring harm to that household?
To not be a friendly person here can have grave consequences for that person and their family. I think I mentioned it a little bit in another post, but the traditional beliefs are still very much alive, even in the more Christian or Islamic parts of the country. They just refer to it as juju here which is kind of the joke name for it where I come from, but I think for some people it’s legitimate - they do believe in juju and turn to it on many occasions. But for a lot of other people, especially younger ones, it’s seen as sort of a tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink sort of thing. But belief aside, it’s still a part of the culture enough that it’s constantly mentioned.
Even if you don’t like someone, you can’t really afford to let it show because who knows what that person will say about you in private. I haven’t been here that long, but I’ve been able to see the effects of rumors and hearsay on people and work. (Example: some people’s mango farms almost went under because they stopped taking care of them. Why? Because they’d heard a rumor that ITFC was pulling out of the project. They didn’t bother to confirm or contact anyone with any authority. The rumor itself was strong enough to make people angry and stop farming. There’s a whole other argument that could be made about whether people wanted to do the farming, but the surface point was the rumor was to blame.) And then there’s the threat of the previously-mentioned juju. You don’t want a curse put on your family, do you? Well, you’d better stay in line with things
My point in this jumbled rupture of words is that, if you want to be successful here, you need to stay within the realm of convention. For someone like me, that’s counterintuitive because all I’ve heard is “think outside the box,” “break the mold,” or “color outside the lines.” That doesn’t work so well here. It’s foreign and, therefore, not trusted as much.
I tried to convince someone the other day that they should start selling Alvaro in my village. It wouldn’t work. Why? Because it won’t sell. How did they know that it wouldn’t sell if it’s never been tried? Because people like Coke and Fanta. And that’s a good enough answer here. There’s not a niche market for anything. You’ll see rows of shops all selling the same thing. Why? Because the first person that had a shop made a lot of money selling their things, so why shouldn’t someone else try the same thing?
I’ve driven through a town in the south where for at least one mile, all I saw was pillows. I mentally named it Pillow Town because that’s what it was - a town that specialized in the sale of overstuffed pillows. Every street vendor had the exact same pillow for sale, same colors, same styles and most likely the same prices. It was bizarre. But somehow it works. The people wouldn’t continue selling the pillows at every stall if there wasn’t any kind of profit would they? Every shop in my town (all three) sells the same thing for the same reason - it worked for someone else.
I almost liken it to my fear of trying new things, especially when it comes to food. If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it. If I know without a doubt how something is going to taste - and I like it - then why would I want to try something else that I might not like only to end up with disappointment instead of a belly full of satisfaction and habit? Or why would I try a new shampoo when I know that my Pert Plus is going to leave my hair silky soft and smooth and free of dandruff? The tried-and-true method is not only tried, but true.
I don’t know if this post ended up being so much about individuality and personalities as it was general observations about things that all melded together in one rambling three-page essay. I guess you don’t mind. Then again, if you did, you wouldn’t have read all the way to this point, now would you?
I was thinking the other day about individuality, how greatly it’s valued in the United States (and other western cultures) and how it’s sort of an unrealized luxury that we’re born thinking we’re entitled to. I started thinking about how one can assert their individuality or preferences and the structures needed to be in place to do so.
One example is being picky with food - simple, I know, but it’s what triggered the entire strain of thought. When I first got here, I tried to carry over my pickiness and utter hatred of onions, but it wouldn’t work for several reasons. One chiefly being that everyone cooks with onions here so I’d have to cook everything I ate if I wanted to avoid them. The other is that assortments of food simply don’t exist. In the village, if you’re going to make a soup, it’s going to be the same as every other soup minus one or two key ingredients. It’s going to have water, onions, salt, a Maggi Cube (sort of like bullion but not quite) and possibly a tomato or a can of tomato paste. After that, the added ingredients are the key to whatever the soup is actually called (groundnut soup gets groundnut paste and so on).
You can’t afford to be picky when there are no alternatives to turn to. If you hate McDonald’s, there’s always Wendy’s, Burger King, Rally’s, Arby’s, etc. If you don’t enjoy Starbucks, you can get a cup of coffee and Highland or Java or Sunergos (mmm…). Here, if you don’t like someone’s rice and beans, you’re just…not eating rice and beans that day. There’s only one rice and bean lady. There’s only one bread lady, jalof lady, plain rice lady, plain bean lady. There’s variety in that there are alternatives to what you want to eat, but none within the same realm.
So my hatred of onions is slowly dissipating because I had no choice in the matter - it’s pretty much the only readily available (and storable) vegetable I can cook with. At least I have the luxury of being able to switch up overall dishes every night, whereas most people eat the same thing, three meals a day, every day of their lives.
Side note: my switching up isn’t all that magnificent; every meal is either rice or pasta and then some sauce (or not) added. But that’s my decision because I hate cooking and my cookbook is propping up my table leg.
Tezed. Sahim. Corn porridge, whatever you wanna call it - it’s the staple food in this part of the country. From the time babies stop breast-feeding to the last meal they ever eat, it’s tezed. They’ll mix up the soup sometimes (a lot of the time they don’t), but the base is always the same. Why is that? Corn is the most readily available food in this part of the country - it’s the base of all farming ventures and whether or not the corn comes in determines whether your family will eat during the rest of the year.
Even past that, tezed has become a staple of the culture here. If you’re not eating tezed at every meal, culturally, it’s because you don’t have money or your crop was poor. People don’t want to be looked down upon so even if they have food to eat, they will go and borrow someone’s corn flour so they can also cook tezed to eat that night. It sounds bizarre, but I guess I likened it to not having a turkey (or ham) for Thanksgiving dinner. Even if you have all the trimmings, will the meal feel complete if there’s no turkey? Most people would say no.
Another thing that had me thinking about individuality was that of people’s general dispositions here. Everyone’s friendly. Most people are happy. And crime is almost out of the question. It’s not an Sinclairian universe that I’m living in, things aren’t perfect by any means, but consider how people can get away with not being happy or friendly in the States, how they can commit crimes and not expect any consequences.
To commit a crime here (in the village setting) has to take some serious forethought. There needs to be a foolproof alibi and/or, depending on how serious the crime is, a way out of the village after the deed has been done. I honestly think it’s because you can physically beat the crap out of someone to avenge the wrong committed against you that keeps things down. And you’re not only justified, but encouraged to beat said offender. Ostracizing is another tool that’s used. Once you become an outcast in a community, it’s almost better to pack your things and leave. For a person living in a culture that values relationships and family so highly, to suddenly have that cut off would be akin to losing one’s life because essentially, your identity has been taken.
Because the village is so small, you can’t just move to the other side of town, so to speak. There is no blending in and people forgetting what you’ve done like you can do in a larger country. You can’t even (for the most part) move to another part of this country and stay hidden for long. Your story, your family, where you’re from and what you’ve done is so much a part of who you are, if you can’t share those things with new acquaintances, then they won’t accept you into their circle. And soon, your past will catch up with you. You know how I mentioned the importance of relationships? Well, this country is like Mayberry in that everyone knows everyone. From the desert to the coast - there’s nowhere to hide.
I met a guy in Tamale the other day that had family in the Eastern Region. We began talking and in only a few minutes it was decided that yes, I was the white Abena who stayed with his aunt near Koforidua. I’m no less than twelve hours away from that town I trained in, but even here, people know who I am. It’s not because I’m a white outsider either. I see it happen all the time with local people.
I’m not saying it’s the best way to go about things, but for here, in this setting (strictly speaking of the village, for towns and cities, it’s much different), it’s the system that works. People don’t really steal from one another, they don’t get cheated in business deals, you can leave stuff on the side of the road for days knowing that no one will touch it. The consequence is so horrible that the crime isn’t really worth committing.
Along those same lines, being friendly with people and greeting and smiling is very much a part of the entire country’s culture (some in more places than others). Ghana even calls itself the friendliest nation in Africa. If someone’s not friendly to another, whether they’re an outsider or in the same family, there has to be a reason. Is that person angry with the one he didn’t greet? Is he jealous? Does he want to bring harm to that household?
To not be a friendly person here can have grave consequences for that person and their family. I think I mentioned it a little bit in another post, but the traditional beliefs are still very much alive, even in the more Christian or Islamic parts of the country. They just refer to it as juju here which is kind of the joke name for it where I come from, but I think for some people it’s legitimate - they do believe in juju and turn to it on many occasions. But for a lot of other people, especially younger ones, it’s seen as sort of a tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink sort of thing. But belief aside, it’s still a part of the culture enough that it’s constantly mentioned.
Even if you don’t like someone, you can’t really afford to let it show because who knows what that person will say about you in private. I haven’t been here that long, but I’ve been able to see the effects of rumors and hearsay on people and work. (Example: some people’s mango farms almost went under because they stopped taking care of them. Why? Because they’d heard a rumor that ITFC was pulling out of the project. They didn’t bother to confirm or contact anyone with any authority. The rumor itself was strong enough to make people angry and stop farming. There’s a whole other argument that could be made about whether people wanted to do the farming, but the surface point was the rumor was to blame.) And then there’s the threat of the previously-mentioned juju. You don’t want a curse put on your family, do you? Well, you’d better stay in line with things
My point in this jumbled rupture of words is that, if you want to be successful here, you need to stay within the realm of convention. For someone like me, that’s counterintuitive because all I’ve heard is “think outside the box,” “break the mold,” or “color outside the lines.” That doesn’t work so well here. It’s foreign and, therefore, not trusted as much.
I tried to convince someone the other day that they should start selling Alvaro in my village. It wouldn’t work. Why? Because it won’t sell. How did they know that it wouldn’t sell if it’s never been tried? Because people like Coke and Fanta. And that’s a good enough answer here. There’s not a niche market for anything. You’ll see rows of shops all selling the same thing. Why? Because the first person that had a shop made a lot of money selling their things, so why shouldn’t someone else try the same thing?
I’ve driven through a town in the south where for at least one mile, all I saw was pillows. I mentally named it Pillow Town because that’s what it was - a town that specialized in the sale of overstuffed pillows. Every street vendor had the exact same pillow for sale, same colors, same styles and most likely the same prices. It was bizarre. But somehow it works. The people wouldn’t continue selling the pillows at every stall if there wasn’t any kind of profit would they? Every shop in my town (all three) sells the same thing for the same reason - it worked for someone else.
I almost liken it to my fear of trying new things, especially when it comes to food. If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it. If I know without a doubt how something is going to taste - and I like it - then why would I want to try something else that I might not like only to end up with disappointment instead of a belly full of satisfaction and habit? Or why would I try a new shampoo when I know that my Pert Plus is going to leave my hair silky soft and smooth and free of dandruff? The tried-and-true method is not only tried, but true.
I don’t know if this post ended up being so much about individuality and personalities as it was general observations about things that all melded together in one rambling three-page essay. I guess you don’t mind. Then again, if you did, you wouldn’t have read all the way to this point, now would you?