The Narrative of cloth

When Leah, Kris and I went to Adanwomanse, the weaving village, I bought a large “old Kente” cloth from one of the shops (old Kente uses a very soft form of rayon that is no longer available). The cloth was made in 1924 for the return of Prempeh I, the then Asantehene, from the Seychelles Islands where he had been exiled by the British in 1900. The cloth is a large (six yards long) man’s cloth that consists of 24 4-inch vertical strips hand sown together (newer cloth uses 5-inch wide strips). The 6-yard vertical “warp” is made from many dozens of individual 3-inch patterns. It is a thing of great beauty.

I brought the cloth to my color symbolism teacher and sat fascinated for the next two hours as he told me the story behind many of the small 3 x 4-inch motifs. One section uses a pattern that symbolizes an Akan proverb that “the head of the snake contains knowledge.” The wearer of the cloth will assume the affect, fate or whatever characteristics are woven into the cloth, so in this case, it’s implied that the wearer has the knowledge of the snake head. But there’s more – the fact that blue is used in the snake motif means that the knowledge is not of this earth – it is heavenly. And because there is only one blue area in the section, the weaver is saying that this type of knowledge is rare. Nearby is a complementary area that uses the same pattern but this time with red in place of the blue. This means that the knowledge is hard won, as red implies courage and perseverance (and in many contexts, blood). All of the above is indicated by only two of the hundreds of sections of the entire cloth – there are many such stories found elsewhere.

Given this great discovery, I looked into the meaning of other patterns and have made some decisions about the cloth that Gyase and I are weaving. Though I don’t think I’ve done enough planning for the colors, I have a much clearer idea about what sort of meanings I want to imbed in it.

No Show
I went to a lecture this morning that was part of a series commemorating the centenary of Kwame Nkrumah. The Asantehene was expected but didn’t show up. As I waited outside on the courtyard for the event to begin, a traditional drum ensemble performed a series of Ghanaian dances. Every time they took a break, the University choir, which was rehearsing upstairs, took the opportunity to work on sections of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, which they will perform next month. The juxtaposition of the two worlds was surreal.

I was very disappointed not to see the Asantehene, especially since the day before, my Performing Arts Traditions class watched and discussed a video of a historic durbar in which gold relics stolen from the Ashante in the late 19th century were returned to their proper place at the Asantehene’s Palace. Among the things we learned is the fact that there are different practices for political versus traditional events. For example, the Asantehene will not speak at a traditional event - his words will be conveyed by his linguist. And he will also not walk (his feet must not touch the ground) at a traditional event but will do so at a political one. I’m working on a chart of the Ashante chieftaincy structure, which dates back prior to the 14th century and which was retained when Ghana gained independence in 1957. I’ll post some notes when I get a better understanding of it.

There were two lectures – one was by a Ghanaian Nkrumah expert and the other was by Gamal Nasser, grandson of the Egyptian leader, who is also an expert in the field. (Nkrumah was a friend of Nassar’s, married an Egyptian woman and named his son “Gamal.”) Both agreed that if Ghana had followed more of the economic models set forth by Nkrumah, it would look today more like Malaysia and Singapore, which were both in a similar state of development as Ghana when they achieved independence. They also both acknowledged the hugely contradictory qualities of Nkrumah’s character. Fascinating stuff.

Church and slate
Sue’s very good buddy Angela is head of the Optometry and Visual Services department, and graduates of their 6-year program were inducted as D. of O. at a ceremony this past weekend. Like all events, this one started and ended with a prayer. A student-directed play we saw recently also began and ended with same. In fact, every official school function we have gone to includes some sort of religious gesture, as do all the major political events; there is clearly no division between church and state that I can see.

Ghanaians also seem to have no problem reconciling Christianity with “traditional” beliefs. One of our security guards saw a snake in our backyard and when I asked him whether it was poisonous or not, he said, “If the man who sees the snake is not cursed, the snake will pass him by, but if the man is cursed, the snake will bite him and he could die.” On a recent visit to a nature reserve (see below), we were told by our guide that the sap from a liana (vine) has medicinal powers. But he warned us that if you cut the liana while your shadow is over it, you will actually get sick. He also told us that the way to tell if a mushroom is poisonous or not is to try and feed it to a turtle. If the turtle refuses to eat it, then you know it is not safe (seems reasonable!)

I also read a very cute letter to the editor in the Graphic recently entitled “What’s with all this Spiritualism?” The writer began by pointing out that people having difficulties, such as students who are not passing their courses or mothers having trouble with their pregnancies, tend to blame the spirits for their ills, and that instead of taking that course, they should accept responsibility (study harder, get pre natal care) for their actions. She then went on to say, “Look, I believe in spirits, both good witches and bad, as much as the next person. But you can’t blame them for everything!” wonderful…

Cultural Events
We went to a small festival of French-speaking countries last weekend that was the final event in the weeklong Francophone festival. All of the West African nations had modest booths but very proudly displayed their flag and a picture of their president or prime minister and also posted facts and figures about the country. Each also provided samples of the local food and dress and eagerly answered questions about their homelands. The D. R Congo booth, on the other hand, had a couple of guys dressed in jeans pushing flyers on passers-by promoting a new computer accessories store in Kumasi. They were also selling USB devices at a discount. (What a country!)

The play mentioned above was produced by several of the National Service personnel assigned to the Cultural Center in conjunction with the English Department. The National Service is a program for recent college graduates intended to “provide trained manpower to supplement and improve existing levels of manpower in mainly the public sector” and to “instill in the youth the sense and spirit of nation building and integration through positive programmes.” Speaking of national service, I saw an announcement in the paper that said the Ghanaian Army had just reopened recruitment after a hiatus of several years and that in only a few weeks, they had received over 40,000 applications for just under 1,000 spots.

We also went to the Master’s recital of the man (Reggie) who gave us our dance lesson and who occasionally subs for the prof in my drumming class. It was an epic performance. For nearly two hours, dozens of dancers worked on and off the stage in a seamless series of numbers, each accompanied by a drumming and vocal ensemble. The show mixed traditional and modern dance practices, which is the subject of Reggie’s thesis, and the costumes and choreography were inspired. Before the program began, there was some Fante music playing over the loudspeakers and I found out that Reggie had recorded this with a group.
Here's a link to an excerpt: http://www.dennismiller.neu.edu/reggie_audio.mp3

At the home
I found some great Ghanaian themed puzzles at a store during our visit to Accra and brought them out to the children’s home this week. One was a flag of Ghana, another was a map of the country, and the third was a huge 100,000 CEDI (the local currency) bill. The kids and I were working on the puzzles when a huge rainstorm came. We went inside – the compound only has four rooms (girls’ dorm, boys’ dorm, matron’s and senior’s brother room), and I sat with the boys on the floor where we told stories and jokes. One of the boys asked me if I could sleep over sometime so we could “talk all night”; I was really touched. When the rain stopped, some of the kids were pushing each other around in a wheelbarrow, and when I was about to leave, one of the boys jokingly told me to get in the wheelbarrow and he’d give me a ride. When I did, the entire group pushed me up the long, extremely rocky and bumpy 300-yard path to my waiting cab. It was a great moment.

Nature’s Way
The rains have brought an outbreak of spectacular color in the flowers and the trees. My favorite is a tree of unknown name that has bright orange flowers superimposed on rich green leaves – the contrast is fantastic. There are mangos hanging by the dozens from trees every few hundred yards, and the markets are full of paw paws, pineapples, and mushrooms, all of which are ripe and ready to eat.

Our farm is coming along nicely – the cow dung obviously did its job, and we can see the sprouts for everything we’ve planted, but I’m not sure which will be ready before we leave.

Acting on a tip from a man who runs a high end guest house in Kumasi and a meat shop associated with it, we ventured to an unfamiliar part of town to check out the wares. We managed to get burgers, chops, chicken and sausage – all of which were fresh and overall outstanding – and have given us a greatly expanded choice of meals. Unfortunately, the rib eye steak was “finished,” but maybe it will be back on a return visit.

Modern Culture
It appears that the entire loop of Fox in Africa programming has restarted. Every one of the three or four shows we watch is running episodes we have already seen. Fortunately, I found a great Nigerian station that broadcasts historic cultural events once a week. Our PVR has a great function where I simply stick in a USB device and I can record anything off the air. I’m building a library of some interesting stuff.

Speaking of TV, I have to quote (mostly in full) the following letter to the editor of the national newspaper, entitled “TV presenters must dress well”:

I have watched in awe the gradual degeneration of the code of dressing of our local TV news presenters. The earlier this creeping negative phenomenon is condemned the better. Ironically, the culprit is one of my favorite female presenters… She is now offering more than viewers have asked – cleavage – due to her unbuttoned shirt or low cut garments worn during the news presentation. The sad news is that this cleavage is growing bigger per every news presentation. (editor’s note: implants??)


This appalling practice must be vehemently discouraged by the managers of these TV stations as viewers attention and focus tend to be misdirected, leading to a loss in the significance of whatever news is being presented. This, I believe, will also halt the degeneration of virtues in TV news presentation.

(Note to self: watch more news this week.)

Favorite phrases of the week:
The MC at a concert addressing the crowd: “thank you for your cooperacy.”


As we were leaving for dinner one night, our guard asked us to “off the light.”

Sign on a store on the Accra Road: Panacea Pharmacy

One of our security guards was wearing a t-shirt that said “Iraq Fire Department.”

We visited an amazing nature reserve some 30 minutes from campus that we were told had been virtually untouched for 100s of years. There was a huge array of trees with medicinal properties and also an area with a tremendous number of butterflies. The butterflies apparently like a mineral that is found in the soil, so they gather and remain in place making them easy to photograph. We also saw more of the beautiful beetles that we have spotted near our bungalow.

Unfortunately, despite my best precautions (high concentration DEET spray and daily malarone tablets), I was bitten by a mosquito and got an intense case of malaria. Symptoms started in the middle of the night with acute stomach pains then devolved into a massive headache. I didn’t go to the hospital until later the next day, and the blood tests showed the little bugger in a “1+” stage, which is actually a very mild form. Sue got a kick out of looking into the scope to see the bad cells – I wasn’t much interested in seeing them. Our excellent doc saw us right away and prescribed the usual meds, and after 48 hours I’m back to about 70%. I would say that I felt about as bad as I have ever felt for a 12 hour period and that this disease is to be avoided at all costs. If you happen to be heading to a malaria-infested area, you might look into larium, which the local doc says could be more effective, plus you only take it once per week.