Today is a very special day. It's Ghana at 50! On March 6, 1957, Ghana became the first African nation to gain independence from colonial power by kicking British rule out of its borders. This was a very influential event. This sparked many more independence rallies and successes all over the African continent, ensuring Africa's right to rule itself. And today, March 6, 2007, Ghana is free and celebrating 50 years of independence! AHHH!!!
Yesterday was the warmup for the celebration. At 1:30, we had a little "Ghana at 50" reception. We sang Ghana's national anthem and read the pledge of allegiance, neither of which I had heard before yesterday. Then they gave us all "Ghana at 50" fabric (yellow, with green, yellow, and red stars (Ghana's colors) and the "Ghana at 50" logo, with gye nyame and everything). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine. I'm not sure I want to make any clothing with it, but what else do people do with fabrics? They also gave us little Ghana flags. Little Ghana flags are awesome. After the gifts, we had a cake, some dancing, and then it immediately died afterward. But whatever, it was fun and I got a flag and some cake.
Last night, at around 9:30, a bunch of us went to the Kwame Nkrumah Memeorial Park where the real warmup began. When we got there, we discovered only invited guests and performers were allowed inside the park... bummer. But we had a great time. There were tons of people outside the park. There was also a stage setup for some highlife and hiplife performers, but I didn't really get to see much of it, and the music wasn't really what I came for. Two FanIce's and a fried dough ball later, we were all growing impatient waiting for the fireworks to start. They had started the show inside, but of course, those of us outside couldn't really experience it.
Discouraged, we went back to the van to rest our weary bodies. Before long, by some stroke of amazing luck, the guys at the gate let us into the park. I'm still not sure why - maybe the driver talked to them - but we were in and just in time. Right when we got in, a few actors from the Actors Guild of Ghana began reenacting Kwame Nkrumah's famous speech. For those of you who don't know, Kwame Nkrumah was the leader in the fight for Ghana's independence, Ghana's first president, one of the founders of Pan-African philosophy, and for Ghana, he is the hero of a nation and stands on a pedestal only lower than that of Jesus. (Of course, people don't worship him, but you get the point). There's a lot more to know about him than just those factoids, so I recommend everyone out there look him up and read about his life. So anyway, the reenactment was quite enthralling and impassioned. Immediately after the speech, the fireworks set off and the music playing through several enormous amplifiers. I wasn't sure how good the fireworks were going to be, but I must say, I was quite impressed by the spectacular fire and light display. I enjoyed the fireworks, danced a bit, chatted, shared the joy of Ghanain independence with all around me, and then headed home.
This morning, there was a parade at Independence Square. Well, I heard it was more of a little show - the army did a little thing, there were some dancers, and President Kufuor greeted all the chiefs from around the country. I wanted to get up and see it, but it was really early and the morning, and I was pretty exhausted from the night before. I've still had quite a great day though. I woke up around 1:00 (AHHH!!! Today is seriously the first day I've woken up past noon here), and soon heard Tania and Rahsheed chatting outside. I went out to see what they were up to. They told me they were about to go eat at Rahsheed's mom's restaurant, and they asked if I wanted to come along. (Of course I went).
The food at Rahsheed's mom's place is AWESOME!!! It was quite possibly the best meal I've had since I've been here. For all three of us, there was one large bowl with pasta, rice, black-eyed peas, gari (dried, grainy cassava), beef, fish, a boiled egg, coleslaw, and some sort of spicy sauces. We washed our hands, mixed everything up in the bowl, and then gobbled it up with only our hands (it's so fun to eat messy things with my hands!). I've been told that this is the Ghanain way of eating, just one large plate or bowl that everyone grabs from. After eating, I was feeling an amazing satisfaction from having eaten such delicious food. This was enhanced by the environment, lots of people eating, dancing, chatting, just having a great time. It was also great because you could tell everyone knew everyone else, a big family affair. I danced with Tania and some delightfully large over-50 women who were having the time of their lives. We hung around a while, danced, chatted - Tania tripped over the chord that connected the speakers and the music. Rahsheed went to pray at 3:00, and when he got back, we took a cab to Independence Square to see how the city was doing.
I've been outside Independence Square before, seen the big arches at the back and the seats surrounding, but this was my first trip inside of the square. The square basically looked like the fair just left town, but the people didn't. There were a few kids painting faces for money, tons of people selling street food and bags of water, lots of trash left behind (mostly plastic water bags), and tons of people roaming about the square and being happy about the occasion. Tania took pictures of the whole scene as Rahsheed and I served as models, Rahsheed with his big smile and me waving my little Ghana flag around. We walked out of the square to the beach (Independence Square is right on the beach). I've never seen so many people on one beach. It was pretty ridiculous, and pretty awesome. We walked along the beach for a while, and then we decided to go back to the main road and walk down to the lighthouse in Jamestown. We took our time with the walk, enjoying the moment and the crowds. We talked about how Rahsheed used to kill bats with a slingshot when he was little and then eat them. (He tells us the chest is really meaty). We also talked about my hiking trip over the summer. Rahsheed couldn't understand why someone would want to walk 600 miles for fun. "You would have to pay me, and even then I might not do it," he said. I think he'd like it though. During the walk, I had my first bag of water. Up until today, I had only drunk bottled or boiled water, but I thought, why not be adventurous. Well, it's not really so adventurous. It's just water in a bag.
We hung out the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park when we came to it. Usually you have to pay to get in, but today is a special day. The park was pretty packed, especially with kids. The three of us just laid around in the grass and contemplated how deep the water in the little pools in front of Nkrumah are. (I'd say no more than a foot or two - what's the point in making a pool intended solely for aesthetics deeper than that?). After leaving the park, we finished up our walk. I gave my flag away to a little boy who asked for it. "Why should I give you the flag?" I asked. "Because I like it. It is beautiful," he replied. Fair enough, I thought. I told him to take good care of it, otherwise I'd have to keep it. Once we got to the lighthouse, we went down to the beach to see if a few friends of ours were there. They have marked off little piece of beach which they cleaned well (all the surrounding beach is filthy) and turned into a bar/hang out spot. They weren't there, but we hung out on the beach for a while. Tania and a little boy named Richard dug for crabs. Tania didn't get any, but Richard got two. We discovered that Rahsheed is afraid of crabs when we tried to hand one to him. We also discovered that Richard likes to rip crabs' legs off and throw them back to the water. We told him not to do that ever again.
And so I now sit here, writing about Ghana at 50, while I'm just Drew at 20. What does this day really mean to me? After all, I've only been here 2 months (!!). Well, I've had a great time and I'll probably cap off the night with some dancing at a place unbeknownst to me. And still, it's a great occasion, and it celebrates not only Ghanain independence, but also African independence with an eye (and Kwame Nkrumah's finger) toward the future.
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