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hi all I'm here in Wa, in the upper west region of Ghana. I thought I had posted another blog, but I guess it didn't go thru...oh well. Anyway It has now been about 3 weeks that I have been in Ghana, and the last week and a half has been the craziest. Every day is another day to learn more about traditions and the culture. However, living with my aunt and uncle and meeting both of their families has also taught me A LOT about inter and inner family relations and affairs. All I can say is - my goodness, things can be really complicated. I remember reading someone else's blog and they were mentioning that everyone's dirty laundry is always being aired (for everyone to see) and that could not be a truer statement. Of course, with every good there must come something bad, so if you are sick, lonely, hungry, there is no doubt that ur family will come to ur aid.
Just to mention a lil more about family affairs and traditions, there are some kind of clauses or conditions u a wife must oblige to when they get married, and they differ depending on the village u come from. My auntie said that this is the way it is for all of africa...so I'm going on her word, but it's the first I heard of it. so for instance, when she married my uncle, the elders of his family told her she could no longer eat chicken. its not like chicken is the best and only meat in the world, but why chicken? !!! if it were me, I think I would have declared myself dead that day hahaha :) So if she eats chicken, it is considered taboo, and she has to go back to the elders so that they can do some kind of ritual (what we call ju-ju...some kind of voodoo) by cutting fowl or a goat and putting the blood on her!!!!!!!! u can just imagine the look I gave her when she told me all of this. But of course, with more and more globalization and westernization, these things are becoming a thing of the past (and I couldn't be happier) but if u ask her today to eat chicken, she wouldnt d o it.
Another thing, is, unforunately, the female genital mutilation stories I had heard are not myths. When a girl is born, one week later they will name her by tradition, and then another ritual will happen where they will cut a thin layer of skin from the clitories. This is done to prevent the girl from having sexual thoughts and thus getting pregnant early. The daughter getting pregnant would not only be a taboo (where she may be disowned by the family and community) but also a loss of profit for the family.
You see, the way people mate and marriage down here is through middle men. If a man likes a young girl, he will tell the family but they will not take him seriously until he has presented them with a dowry. A dowry used to be cowries (thousands of them) but now because of their scarcity, a dowry is paid in cedis (the ghanaian currency). Then, they will basically save the girl for him and she cannot talk nor be seen with another man. Also, I think they have some way that they check if the girl is a virgin, and if she proven to be a virgin, then u can imagine the loss in "profit" again... It sounds like the victorian era to me, but it is life here. Once again, my uncle has explained to me that ppl are becoming more western and that some ppl don't marry off their daughters like that anymore. And laws have been implemented to prevent people from circumcising young girls (mostly because some insane ignorant people performed the circumcision ritual when the girls were 14 or 15!!!) and hopefully the dagaarti people are learning that sometimes these customs are not in the best interest of the child.
So as you can see...this is just a small bit of the information I have learned about the family rituals and affairs here. So it makes me understand what life would have been like if I had grown up here. However, just because I don't support some of the customs doesn't mean I don't respect the people, it just means that if I was to have relations with some of them, I would have to be wary and very careful. You never know, someone could be performing some kind of ju-ju on u!! For example, my aunt owns a shop in wa, and the other day when her sister was working there, a lady came and bought something and when she went to pay for it she had putting some herbal concoction in between the bills...so for some reason (jealousy) this woman had come to curse my auntie's shop....complications, complications, complications I tell u.
but what I love most about being here, is sitting together at night, the children playing (not with toys but with rocks), laughing, looking at the clear sky and stars, maybe doing a one-one (taking a beer or smirnoff with someone), and just relaxing. I have to say, thats one of the things I do best - relax hahahaha! It will help me to prepare for another trip we will be making to bolga, an area where the fra-fra tribe live, and supposedly, from what I have heard, they have a very rich culture and can weave and make the most beautiful clay pots, baskets and other things I will have to scoop up to take back to Canada with me!!
Hope everyone back home is doing well, and I will be updating the blog maybe in a week's time. (by then maybe I will have bought my bicycle to ride around town)
Ciao xoxoxo
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