“Weizo!” (Having and Giving in Ghana)

Kim sitting on Salome’s porch with the children.

A friend, fellow English Major and blogger, Kim Clune, is someone who has done a lot in her life. This makes for a lengthy resume, a varied life experience and some great stories to tell.  I’ll just start with roughly a year ago. Kim graduated with B.A. in English – summa cum laude, mind you.  Shortly after graduation, she packed for Have, Ghana to volunteer for a month, a trip she had been planning throughout her senior year.

I decided to interview Kim for many reasons:
    1) Interviewing someone is a great way to catch up!
    2) One of the reasons I started to write again in this blog is because of the Who Is the Native? posts inspired by my studies regarding post-colonialist topics. These posts help me to challenge my own, and perhaps others’, preconceptions of native/indigenous peoples around the world.
   3) To acknowledge the work of Kim and volunteers like her. (See here for a similar article written about student volunteers from my college.)
   4) A bit of cross-promotion. Just a little.

In this interview, Kim explains her reasons for volunteering, what she learned during her time in Ghana and her understanding of socio-political relationships between Ghana, the continent of Africa and the Western World.

 

 

(the ones who are mad to live / Alex T.)
Why volunteer?

Kim Clune:
After watching a PBS documentary, Columbia, The Coca-Cola Controversy, I began to research the horrid practices involved in making Coke. I learned that Coca-Cola consistently reaps the benefits of murder and torturous union busting at their Columbian bottling plant. It sucks 600,000 liters of water per day from the Indian ground while, according to NPR, farmers commit suicide because they are unable to honorably support their families. Coca-Cola also sells the product back to Indians containing a high rate of pesticides while offering contaminants as fertilizer.

On a hot summer day in 2007, when my thirst was peaked at an outdoor concert, I watched attendees toss half consumed beverages with no regard to where they came from or at what cost. I thought of the villagers drinking rain from gutters on Free Speech TV or drinking Coke, a beverage with no healthful benefits, because the local water isn’t safe.

Since our culture won’t break its addiction to fetish commodities like Coke and pays no heed to the fact that our purchases have the power to do harm, I decided I could at least be accountable for my own behavior. It was at that previously mentioned concert when I turned to my husband and said, “I want to go to Africa. I need to dig a well.”

Why travel?

Many people are willing to concern themselves with issues close to home, and I certainly count myself among them. To reach beyond our borders is simply not as common and yet we all need to consider the hunger, thirst and wages of every world citizen. When we stop caring for a nation’s people, they fall prey to exploitation and corporate greed which simultaneously takes jobs from Americans. This serves nobody well. We must become global citizens in order to work together on this ever shrinking planet.

Did you work with any organization in planning this trip?

It was important for me to team with an organization respectful of cultural preservation while empowering people to help themselves. Village Volunteers, a Seattle based non-profit, provided everything I was looking for and more. Our philosophies gelled wonderfully, philosophies best demonstrated in a short film called They Come in the Name of Helping by Peter Brock. I highly recommend this to anybody involved in cross-cultural work.

Why Have, Ghana? 
 
I wanted to team with people of another culture in order to empower them. My goals were to seek no personal gain but for denouncement of the negative cultural aspects I was born into. African resources have been ravaged throughout history, a practice that continues to this day. The ever illusive blood diamond market and paying below standard prices for gold are just some of the ways Africans are still exploited, so I wanted to start there.

Village Volunteers serves village programs in Ghana and Kenya. My first choice was Kenya, a country in greater need. Tragically, at the time I needed to purchase airfare, Kenya’s stolen presidential election stirred horrific civil unrest. I waited as long as I could with the hope that Kenya would stabilize quickly. Although this did eventually happen, the violence lasted several months and took place near where I planned to stay. My trip simply wasn’t meant to be. I signed on for Ghana at the last possible moment.
  
Did you have any goals in volunteering? 
 
In Kenya, since water filtration projects were already underway, I had decided to work on the Memory Box Project. I was to work one-on-one with a family head suffering from HIV/AIDS, preparing them and their children for the unthinkable end. The idea is to preserve family history, photographs, voice recordings and parental advice, the things that are often lost when a child is orphaned in Kenya. I still hope to do this one day.

In Ghana, HIV/AIDS is not as prevalent, nor does it carry the stigma it does in Kenya. Family support is far more common and the focus of the Memory Box Project does not transfer as well. Because of this, it was unclear where I would be needed most. I remained open to opportunity, letting the needs of the community determine my placement while keeping my personal goals small.

What was the process like in preparing to travel? 
 
For the year leading up to my departure for Kenya, I studied the culture, followed the politics, sat in on an African literature class, learned a bit of the language and planned for my program of choice.

In the one short month prior to my new destination of Ghana, I learned a bit of Ewe (ay’-way), the local dialect in Have (Hah’-vey) and what was considered polite in their culture. I practiced never touching food with my left hand and placed my left hand under my right elbow when shaking the hand of an elder or chief. I gathered lesson plans for several grades and educated myself on organic farming, worm composting and environmental preservation. Coordinating with my family and friends, we collectively supplied donations for the clinic, farm and school (you can watch the children receive their gifts), I delivered a total of 140 pounds of items in two giant bags – including my clothes, which were to be donated when I departed. Of course, there was also the bureaucratic preparation: applying for a visa, registering with the embassy and renewing my passport.

Salome and her sister-in-law Grace explain the drying process of Moringa tea.

How were you received by the townspeople/villagers?

From the moment I set foot in Have, I was greeted warmly by Emmanuel, a prominent family man in the village who introduced me to his mother, wife, sister, children, nieces and nephews. All cheered “Weizo!” or “You are welcome!” with warm smiles and added hugs.

An hour after my arrival, I had unpacked, changed into work clothes and went to offer my help at the Moringa Tea House run by Emmanuel’s family. I was told later by his wife Salomé that, “Your effort earned you a great deal of respect. Volunteers typically sleep their first day. You are a good worker.”

I didn’t win everybody over so easily. Salomé instantly took me under her wing calling me “sister,” but the younger women at the tea house initially chided me in Ewe for my lack of earrings, a clear sign of distinction between boys and girls at birth. According to their jests, I was deeply confused about my gender. Once I understood the source of their laughter and joined in, we all shared a terrific joke that spanned both cultures. From then on, the young women quickly followed Salomé’s lead, accepting me and making me feel welcome.

Was there anything that out right surprised you? Anything seem completely foreign to you? Anything seem very familiar to you?

Kofi learns to paint.

Surprisingly foreign was the sight of elementary students, not 3 feet tall, giggling their way down the school path carrying logs spanning 2 feet long and 6 inches across – on their heads. Once, a boy about seven passed me holding a soccer ball under one arm, a steel bowl on his head and a machete in the other hand. Children with machetes were not a rarity. Adults often sent young children to clear overgrown paths. When I taught 15 kids to paint, a knife lay among the paint brushes. I was through feeling protective by that point. Children have the capacity to gain a healthy respect for dangerous objects when they are part of everyday life.

As for familiarity, Have reminded me of my childhood. I grew up on the eastern shores of Lake Erie when the beaches were still wild and community bonfires ruled the night. It was a cottage town where accommodations resembled summer camp. Streets were paved in dust and stone. Lawns weren’t always mowed, trash was burned in a barrel and well worn paths led from one house to another. Dust and sand would layer upon one’s skin mixed with the sweet scent of a BBQ or burning driftwood as we sat on porches laughing and sharing conversations well into the night. Experiencing these things again felt like home.

Did you ever feel that you were being invasive, even when trying to introduce positive changes to the village (like recycling)?

I found it nearly impossible to be invasive as long as I actively observed what was expected. Near the end of my stay, Denise (another volunteer) and I were invited to the palace to meet the regional chiefs during a special ceremony held in our honor. We were invited to speak traditionally through an interpreter, although all the chiefs did speak English, and to offer insight into what might be beneficial to their area.

We spoke a great deal about the dangers of plastics, whether heated for food, burned in trash heaps or left strewn about the village, particularly since water comes in plastic bags and is preferred over boiled water. My suggestion of collecting and recycling the water bags to plant seedlings or to shred for packing seemed well received. Denise, a nutritionist, suggested a return to the village’s own healthy, homegrown crops rather than processed food which was, in Ghana, a symbol of wealth. The chiefs found this both observant and funny. They eventually dropped the formality of using an interpreter and spoke with us directly, asking a great deal of questions. I felt that the interaction went respectfully well on all sides.

On the other hand, a group of raucous volunteers in their twenties created quite a stir at the nearby orphanage by demanding their own rooms, baring their behinds in pubic, dropping the F-bomb in front of the orphans and drinking every night in town. Seeing this firsthand both angered and embarrassed me, but it also inspired me to better demonstrate that not all Americans are so disrespectful.

What are some of the things you learned about the specific area you were in?

The Volta Region is filled with beautiful treasures such as Volta Lake, the largest manmade body of water whose dam supplies all of Ghana’s electricity, and the sacred Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary where monkeys come from the forest to eat bananas out of your hands. Wli Waterfall is the highest in West Africa and is said to run stronger when more people are at the bottom making noise. The village of Amedzofe is the highest human habitat just below the peak of Gemi Mountain and the views from the top are breathtaking. Most beautiful is the strong sense of community. It can be seen day to day or at festivals like Agadevi, a village-wide celebration in June commemorating Have’s major 1933 landslide which sent boulders down Weto Mountain into a local school yard. Chiefs and villagers annually come together to thank the powers that be for saving the lives of people in the valley.

These jewels require preservation and villagers are working to do so. Environmental DevelopmentYouth Movement, or EDYM Village is the organic farm where I spent most of my days planting seedlings to reforest farmland. Here they educate the community about best farming practices and, if a farmer lives on the Weto mountainside, they teach him bee keeping or give him fruit trees to offer an alternate source of income other than burning the forest to plant crops of maize.  
 
How would you describe the Western World’s relationship to the place where you volunteered?

I believe the Western world sees Ghana as a bastion of hope in Africa, both in economic development and social stability as compared with Darfur or Sudan. This Western viewpoint is precarious though, much in the way Kenya was seen prior to the post election violence of 2007. Once Kenyans felt they had no voice and began warring in the streets, the media fell back on terms like “tribal warfare” while ignoring the complex context of political land theft and oppression. The news coverage then was very different than that of the post election violence in Tehran this year. The Western world prefers stereotypes because they are easy. Ghana looks like Western society in many ways and that makes it a favorable place. 

Have’s RC Primary School is in dire need of reconstruction.

Did your education help you to understand some of the complexities of the socio-political situations going on around you? (Heaven knows we spent a lot of time on post-colonialism studies as English majors.)

But of course. Please note that, although I now work for Village Volunteers, my opinion is my own and not necessarily a reflection of the organization’s position.

It pained me to see what I believe is colonization through Christianity. There have been so many missions established in Ghana over the years that a mass conversion (90% of the country) has demonized many of the traditional beliefs. Villagers often chastise the handful of Fetish Priests who continue to practice at traditional altars. Social schisms also exist between the many types of Christianity observed. I found this divisiveness disturbing as I witnessed the cultural price paid for economic assistance.

I am not speaking ill of Christians, mind you. Practicing Christianity creates a sense of community and extended family when practiced locally, but this practice is very different from that of spreading a single belief throughout the world. In the case of missions, Christians see the effects of their efforts through a one-way lens. To them, Ghana looks like religious progress as deemed by their own heroic goals. They come to save Ghanaians from themselves. Sadly, a belief claiming that all others are wrong, one with a strong economic structure in place to further its own cause, can have no other effect than the cultural erasure it has had in Ghana. Essentially, the Christian world has all too often said that Ghanaians were not good enough prior to conversion and Ghanaians believed. To me, this is not respectful empowerment.

Do you think that the African continent is viewed a certain way by the western world? (Perhaps as very homogenous, a primitive starving country if one were to go by some commercials…)

I suspect that social illusions about Africans are not necessarily formed by celebrity adoptions but that these adoptions may bring to mind racial stereotypes, particular those of African or even African American women. Rather than seeing African children in need born of African parents in need within the context of overarching oppression, as if oppression no longer exists, many Westerners harbor thoughts about diseased or uncaring mothers giving up their children or irresponsible women having rampant sexual relationships. Studies show that these same thoughts surround black women on welfare in the US, although statistics show that white women on welfare far outnumber blacks without bearing the same stereotypes. (Read more on this here.) I would hope that one might recognize the racial reasoning behind such criticism.

Do you still keep in contact with those from the village?

Oh yes! Salome and I became very close, spending every day together as I ate with her family and played with her children. It took months before I could talk to her on the phone without tearing up. I still keep in touch with her and others by phone, letters, photographs and email. Some of the younger boys frequent Facebook when they can from a neighboring village with internet access.

Gunadiish, the In-Country Coordinator during my stay, was also incredibly generous and kind. He ensured my safety, arranged my transport between excursions and became my friend. Sadly, after serving the young, rude volunteers I mentioned earlier, Gunadiish had taken a great deal of verbal abuse and considered quitting his job. When I returned to the US, my husband and I pooled resources with many other appreciative volunteers to fly Gunadiish to America. We picked him up at JFK and hosted him the week before Christmas, taking him from a cold and icy Niagara Falls through the political realm of Albany to the bright lights and busy streets of Times Square. From there he went on to NJ, DC, OR, IL, CA and WA. It truly made for an amazing cultural exchange, especially for somebody who has only ever been to Ghana, Kenya and Sierra Leone.

 

 

To read more about Kim’s experiences in Ghana, visit CultureTrek.

(This interview was edited by Alex Tunney and Kim Clune.)