Update Number Two

The vibe in Ghana is of peace and stability. Stability here is so consistent, it almost can be taken for granted and life can become predictable. And just as I do when I'm in England, I do feel very safe here.

On the news yesterday was the report about the two dozen or so students murdered in cold blood by "unknown gunmen" in Nigeria, and it was easy for me to see immediately that such an incident could hardly occur in Ghana, where issues surrounding upholding the rule of law and maintaining law and order seem to have been worked out exquisitely.

First off, the Ghana policeman is the best looking policeman on the African continent by a mile. Gosh, you cannot but admire him in his ultra smart uniform. But the Ghana Police Service do not only have the smartest uniforms, it is also one of the more well disciplined and effective police forces in Africa, and certainly more so than their Nigerian counterpart. I make comparisons with Nigeria because of the similar histories both countries share, sister countries with much in common.

Then there is also the fact that in Ghana things are better organised generally. I watched and listened to what was a very impressive parliamentary debate yesterday relating to the creation of additional constituencies in the run-up to the country's forthcoming elections in December. The arguments put forward by the MPs for and against were not only compelling, they were extremely well articulated such that it was impossible to not come away from  viewing this thinking that in Ghana, they are bang on target, and have really got the fundamentals and basics perfectly right. They have developed a system of democratic government that actually works, and they seem to have put in place a solid foundation for a prosperous and successful future, with revenues from oil soon to be pouring in too.

The outcomes are in the figures and the numbers. As of 2011, in the UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI) Ghana was classed as a Medium Human Development country, in the same category as countries such as Botswana Egypt South Africa and India. Nigeria on the other hand and despite her immense wealth, languishes in the Low Human Development country category, in the same category as countries like Chad, Liberia and Mali. Even when expressed as a percentage of the population, in Nigeria there are significantly more people living below the international poverty line (which is roughly about $1.25 per day, as revised by the World Bank in 2008) than there are in Ghana. This is a clear indication that Ghana manages her resources more carefully and much better than Nigeria does, given that Nigeria is the significantly wealthier of the two. And this all said I know which of the two countries I would think of as safer to invest my hard earned resources, meagre though they may be, if faced with having to make that choice.

Before I end this update I will just add that for the last three days the electricity supply to the place where I am staying was cut off. Only this morning after two hellish sweaty nights without the joys of having a fan lull one to sleep has the power been restored.

Yes, I know its been all serious and full of praise for Ghana in this update, but no, what I have in my mind concerning my experiences so far in Ghana is certainly not all praise. More updates to come.

Update Number One

It's nice to be awoken in the early morning by the sound of a cock crowing. It's refreshing and remarkably earthy, and reminds of just how close to nature one has been in the last few days. It becomes even nicer when one realises shortly after waking that the cockerel was only performing a brief solo, and that he's in fact the lead singer in an orchestra of birds, with the amazing dawn chorus in full flow that follows.

It's not that pleasant, however, to be brought round prematurely from one's afternoon nap by the loud 'poom, poom' of next door's lady-of-the-house pounding foofoo, with a mortar and pestle, and with gusto, almost as if how delicious the foofoo will turn out depends upon just how vigorously it is pounded in the mortar.

Another thing, I'm pretty glad I gave up smoking, because, had I still been a smoker, I would be tearing out my hair in frustration by now. I have not seen a single person with a cigarette in their hand since I arrived in Ghana last week, neither have I seen a single cigarette sold in any shop or store. I've even gone so far as to search with my eyes for discarded cigarette butts by the roadside, but have not discovered a single butt as yet. Oh, of course I know there must be some people here who do smoke, but they must be very few indeed, next to being almost completely unnoticeable, invisible. What a far cry from Europe, a continent where the smell of tobacco smoke mixed with perfume hangs heavily over entire city districts; where housewives hang out of windows in high rise apartment buildings puffing away at a cigarette held daintily in one hand, mobile phone clutched to ear with the other, (for that gossip must continue, even while making the effort to spare the toddler in the flat from inhaling second-hand smoke); a continent where workers routinely skive off their duty posts when at work, to go for that "crafty fag".

I've been at a place that thinks of itself as a suburb of a regional capital city, but which in fact is little more than a small rural village that just happens to be located geographically a few miles from that regional capital city. The thought that came to my mind immediately upon arrival here was of the similarity of this place to my own ancestral hometown of Twon Brass, in far away Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The pervasive smell in the air in both places is the aroma of woodsmoke, from the open-air wood fires commonly used for cooking, which is how I remember that place when I visited it for the first time in the 1970s. Unlike in Twon Brass though, where the woodsmoke smell is flavoured with the aroma of smoked fish, because the prevalent occupation there is fishing, here in this place in Ghana where farming is the main occupation, the woodsmoke is complimented by the musty aroma of milled maize and cassava. The woodsmoke aside, the aroma of the homemade alcoholic spirit akpeteshie, also known as ogogoro, kaikai, (or atuwoh in Twon Brass) hangs in the air in both places.

Another point of similarity between the peoples of the two places is in their fondness for a big, noisy, raucous funeral, or "finral" as they say in Ghana.

Let me conclude this update by saying that since my arrival here I have been searching, but in vain, for red bell peppers - 'tatashe'. I have been wanting to surprise my host with my culinary skills by preparing a Nigerian red stew. Alarmingly, I was unable even to convince the lady who sold me some fine large green peppers at the market that there are in fact peppers of that size and shape, but which are red in colour. She was incredulous, she said she'd never seen nor even heard of such peppers. So there I was standing in the middle of the market, confused, bewildered, scratching my head. But I'm now determined to get to the bottom of this and find out why in Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region there appears to be no knowledge of the existence of red peppers. 

So later.