Ghana

I was thrilled to secure four tickets for Gladys, Phyllis, Joanie, and me for “An Evening with Ayesha H. Attah,” a Ghanaian author, in a beautiful Los Angeles home with an amazing view in February 2019. Before the event, I ordered, read, and enjoyed Ms. Attah’s first book Harmattan Rain. At the event, I purchased the just published The Hundred Wells of Salaga. Harmattan Rain introduced me to current Ghanaian culture and The Hundred Wells of Salaga gave me historic perspective on the slave trade. Both the Los Angeles and San Bernardino County Libraries have the second book, but not the first.

The author event wasn’t our only Ghanaian activity that day. Wanting to make a full day of it, my adventurous friends and I first attended the Pan African Film and Arts Festival and made sure we ate Ghanaian food. If you are thinking you can’t duplicate the film festival from home in 2021, I have good news. When I post this blog on February 19, you will have plenty of time to review and select movies from the Pan African Film Festival, online this year from February 28 through March 14. You can find all the details here: https://www.paff.org/

There are plenty more books and movies available from Ghana. I will limit myself to those I have read or watched and can wholeheartedly recommend:

· Homegoing by Ya'a Gyasi is a series of stories tracing the generations from the African slave trade through the present. My colleague Sylvia recommended it to me as her favorite book and I agree with her that it is well worth reading! It is available through both my usual library systems in book form and electronically.

· Potato-Potahto on Netflix is a Ghanaian romantic comedy about the difficulty of divorce when neither spouse can give up the house. It truly deserves the awards it won, especially for the costumes! There should also be an award for best interior decoration!

· Doing Jewish: A Story from Ghana on Amazon Prime follows a Canadian Jewish woman who comes across a community of Jews with a long history in northern Ghana. This leads her to question what makes a Jew a Jew and provides a thoughtful discussion of diversity.

· Beasts of No Nation on Netfix isn’t a Ghanaian story, but it was filmed in beautiful, beautiful Ghana with several actors being from Ghana. I briefly considered spending the rest of the week watching Idris Elba movies because his mother was from Ghana, but no matter how tempting that might be, I’m going to try and keep my at-home travel as authentic as I can!

Besides books and movies, food is one of the best ways to travel to Ghana while staying at home! In April 2019, Vonnett and I went to the Vista Farmer’s Market to eat at Olivia’s Kitchen. Olivia serves great Ghanaian food and I am grateful for her kind, informative, and thoughtful conversation with us. I called her this week to make sure the Vista Farmers Market still meets every Saturday (it does) and that she is still there serving food (she is). She reminded me that she is also available for catering and that many people pick up food from her home in Sun City. Feel free to call her at 619-261-7699 with your order.

If you want to try making your own food, The Ghana Cookbook available on Hoopla is a collaboration between a renowned cook in Ghana and an American who learned to cook for her Ghanaian husband. As such, it clearly explains what is needed without assumptions about preparation that only a Ghanaian would know. If this link doesn’t work, check with your local library for access: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12246693 The following link doesn’t have as many recipes or as much detail about how to prepare them, but you don’t need to register with Hoopla through your library to get to it: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Miscellany/Recipes_from_12913.html

Music from Ghana is well represented online. Here are just a few options for learning a little more about it:

· J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer: Representing Ghana's History Through Popular Music and Puppetry showcases Ghanaian music and discusses nation building through art and culture, as well as Abbey's role in collecting cultural information from all over the country and representing it in his puppet shows for schools. I watched it on Kanopy.

· Fonko: Contemporary Africa through its Urban Music Episode 5 “Ghana” on Amazon Prime introduced me to Ghana’s urban club music.

· There is also plenty of music from Ghana on YouTube. I enjoyed listening to a 2020 mix at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi--eYkLvEQ

A friend of mine from New Zealand recently commented that he thinks Americans do a better job of putting themselves into another’s shoes than others around the world. That was a nice thing for him to say, but I’m not sure we can put ourselves into another’s shoes until we hear their perspective. These two well done videos from The Khan Academy, one on the slave trade (15 minutes) and the other on colonialism (11 minutes) were both interesting and insightful to me.

· Impact of the Slave Trade through a Ghanaian Lens https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-5-the-first-global-age/54-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-betaa/v/impact-of-the-slave-trade-through-a-ghanaian-lens-world-history-project-beta

· Experiencing/Resisting Colonialism through a Ghanaian Lens https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-6-the-long-nineteenth-century-1750-ce-to-1914-ce/63-imperialism-betaa/v/experiencing-colonialism-through-a-ghanaian-lens-world-history-project-beta

If you are heading for Ghana any time soon, options for a great trip can be seen at https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-ghana/#more-14424

Check in with your local travel advisor to make the trip the best that it can be. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive. May we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Ghana and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Hello Lightbulb https://unsplash.com/photos/Y5biRJCR-Q4