An abandoned Angel

Yesterday moning at 8am I was walking to the school centre from the nearby staff compound. It was a normal Sunday, hot and sparse of people, with church music increasing in noise as congregations flocked in to the multitude of churches under operation at Edwenase. But this was no ordinary Sunday morning. Just 2 1/2 hours earlier one of the housemasters arose to open up the gates of the Centre. After a rainy night you may find a puddle outside. Other than that you will just find broken asphalt caused by passing cars that use the school yard as a turning point, much to the disadvantage of those who are wheelchair bound and must travel on a rocky surface to and from their living quarters to the school workshops.

Sunday, March 29th, 2009, was extraordinary for a 8/9 year old girl called 'Angel'. Prior to the descent of dawn, her mother had travelled from some unknown point and decided to leave her daughter on Edwenase's doorstep. She was found by our housemaster lying on a blanket hlding a note in her hand. "Please don't think bad of me my little Angel. I'm leaving you where I think you can be best taken care of. For those who find my beautiful daughter, please take good care of her".

What drove a woman to abandon her kid on some stranger's doorstep. Well, the fact that her daughter suffers from sever cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or verbalise is a large part of the answer. Despite the fact that she was left on her own with just a piece of paper, hides the fact that she was actually well dressed and seemed to be well taken care of before she was found.

Did a desperate mother accede to the demands of a husband tired of fending for the child. Did an already abandoned wife/woman decide the child would be better of in the care of the State and that she could just not cope with the 'burden' of a disabled child any longer?

It appears to have been an act of desperation by a woman not thinking straight. She could have easily have waited for some hours, spoken to the Centre Manager, who would have arranged for the child to be sent to the Department of Social Welfare's children's home, also in Kumasi.

But now, she has obliged the school authorities to inform the police and try fill in the missing information on the child's medical and family background.

Angel will be taken care of by the State, but it is no replacement for even the occasional love of a family member. There is never a day without surprises at Edwenase, and this incident goes to prove that community based rehabilitation and much more family support for the parents and extended family of the disabled is urgently needed to avoid such abandonments in the future.

Photo-essay - Ghana from various angles

The slave trade carried countless millions (estimates range from 13-16 million over 250-300 year period ending in the mid 1800's) to their deaths on perilous voyages across oceans and plantations. For those who survived initial capture, imprisonment in brutally inhumane conditions, even worse transportation without basic amenities for life, a life full of hard labour and maltreatment faced them. Recently I visited both Cape Coast and Elmina forts on Ghana's coast, former bastions of the Portugese, Dutch and British where they carried out their misdeeds. The tours were excellent and the museums very educational.

Dungeon passage at Cape Coast where the male slaves spent their days with little nourishment or water. Here, many last breaths were gasped in under the gaze of colonial soldiers.

A fetish priest pours libation in commemoration of the deceased who spent their last days at Cape Coast and for those whose suffering at the fort was coupled with more hardship once they left to be sold to help build America (North, Carribean and Brazil mainly).


'Door of No Return' at Cape Coast castle. An unsubtle reminder for those who passed through it during the slave trade era that there was no coming back once you saw this gate. To break this cursed door the bodies of two former slaves were taken back from the US and through these gates, so that it has now become a 'Door of Return'. Local fishermen can be found on the seaside part of the door, unravelling their nets and making a living for themselves. Their new nemeses are foreign trawlers that sweep up the best produce the sea provides through pair-trawling exercises using massive nets.


Many school tours like this one pour into Cap Coast fort every day to learn more about Ghana's history.

Wreaths left nearby the dungeons at Cape Coast by the descendants of 'slaves'


School children waiting to go to 'The Door of No Return', but to exercise their passage through it and back through the same 'Door of Return', helping break the terrible history that this door evokes. Cannons facing seaward warded off enemy combatants seeking to gain their foot in the door of the lucrative but wicked trade in human beings.




Elmina fort with a thriving fishing scene in the background. The guided tour at Elmina is excellent, as is the museum. The local historian gives a very insightful picture of how life was for the victims of Elmina's trade masters and soldiers. Similar to Oswiecim (or Auschwitz/Birkenau) in Poland, it is very difficult to imagine the horrors that have taken place at such sites. The preservation of Ghana's history seems to be in good hands both at Elmina and Cape Coast and thousands of school children, descendants of former slaves, foreign tourists converge to learn about how things really were (without the Hollywood dramatisation) and to be challenged to stand up for the downtrodden in today's society upon their departure.

Traditional clay fish ovens can be found all along the coast of Ghana. Here are some from Elmina.


Crocodile looking for prey around Hans Cottage Botel between Kakum and Cape Coast.

Don't worry, he's only breathing before he goes looking for his wife and kids

This Nigerian journalist we met on our travels got a bit of a shock (as we all did) when the crocodile decided to jump back into the water spilt seconds after this picture was taken.



Kwame Nkrumah was imprisoned at St. James fort under Governor Charles Arden Clarke before becoming Ghana's de facto leader upon release. He had to wait a few more years though before Ghana managed to kick the Brits out totally. This photo is taken from James fort looking towards Ussher's fort and a harbour full of fishermen's pirogues.




Kakum National Park and its famous canopy walk that gives you a great perspective of the surrounding environment

Diving into waves near Green Turtle Lodge. A well managed project has begun to conserve the green turtles from ending up on dinner plates to being a source of eco-tourism.

Ghana's coast has a litany of unspoilt beaches. Let's hope it remains that way.

The path from Busua to Butre is a beautiful 5 km walk through tropical forest and beaches as clean as a whistle.


The day before Ghana turned 52 - March 5th, 2009. I have no idea what the symbolism behind the construction is.


It certainly seems that this is the unknown soldier at Independence Square in Accra although there is no plaque or information around the monument.


Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Gardens in Accra - interesting museum, well worth a visit.



Ghana's Independence Leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, is buried alongside his Egyptian wife Fathia in Accra. One of their daughters is currently a Member of Parliament and the only MP of the former leader's Convention People's Party (CPP)
The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Gardens in Accra with the burial monument in the background.

Fair Trade pineapples like this one can be found in a huge supermarket in Accra mall on the airport road. Fairtrade bananas are also on sell. They sell at a low price of 80 pesewas, about 20 pesewas cheaper than those sold by street traders. So what is fairer – increase the profit margin of a foreign owned supermarket (Shoprite) and its' bosses by buying an officially 'fairtrade' pineapple or purchase one from your local street trader outside the glamorous mall and help then eke out a living?

Ivan Illich and Vacationing Salesmen and women

Was the Austrain social critic and former Catholic priest Ivan Illich correct when he called development policies, as practised by the Western banks and governments, 'planned poverty'?

Was he also correct to call those American university student-volunteers like those he met frequently in Mexico 'vacationing salesmen (women)' for US styled middle-class lifestyles?

Illich passed away 6 years ago but his radical thoughts on developmentalism have continued to attract disciples. Debt crucifies the poor while Aid provides a smokescreen for western concern.

So should all volunteers pack their bags and get the hell out? Should Bono and Geldof stop representing the continent of Africa during the World Economic Forum and
G8 conferences? Tim and Holli, both ex-pat bloggers based in Ghana have addressed the issue of volunteers living and working in Ghana.

If you are an Obroni living and sweating in Ghana I'd like to hear your thoughts either by email or by comment. I tend towards Illich's perspective, but think there have to be distinctions between different types of volunteers. To be continued.

Photo report on Ghana

The door of return - the Cape Coast (former slave) fort guide explains how Ghanaians have reversed the curse of the infamous 'Door of No Return' where thousands of human beings weere shipped off to the Americas in brutal conditions.


Former president Kufuor had his priorities in place. I read that at least US $40 million was spent on this new presidential palace. From my previous blog you would have learned that he also spent $40 million on Ghana's 50th anniversary Independence
celebrations. US$80 million fizzled away on stuff that has little or no lasting impact for the Ghanaian people's welfare. No wonder Ghana joined the Heavily Indebted Countries initiative of the WB/IMF in 2002. And with ever increasing trade liberalisation rules being forced upon the public Ghana's days of debt are going nowhere fast.


Visually appetising enough for you? I've never seen a cow looking so happy promotinh himself as Sunday lunch! And what's with the name of the butcher? Well, as the hairdressing teacher at our centre explained to me yesterday we are all covered with the blood of Jesus and this is what protects us from harm's way. Let me give you some advice, if you are strictly vegan then you may find it hard going here!


Kwame Nkrumah, lionised in the 50's, demonised in the 60's, is regaining his head as visionary leader of pan-africanism and a leading light in Gha's history. The left want to make his birthday in September a national holiday. The right would rather that a national holiday is announced to commemorate independence leaders from both sides of their political history. This statue of Nkrumah was decapitated in 1966 when he was overthrown by a military coup. It now stands in the Kwame Nkrumah memorial park in Accra.


Ghana became 52 on March 6th 2009. It was colourful affair but not one you would want to stand and observe for others without shade. There was an interesting mix of Ghanaian society there - citizens, traders, military, diplomats, skaters, child labourers, les noveaux-riches, development workers, volunteers, tourists, etc.

I don't appreciate displays of war-voyeurism so when military aircraft overhead spewed out the colours of Ghana's flag instead of weapons it all semmed a little like a sanitising effort to the true nature of such weapons of violence and a means of appeasing critics of Ghana's wasteful military expenditure.

However, the day passed off peacefully and we didn't faint from the heat so that was a plus.

"Ghana is Freedom" - Made in China!

Just before I stepped into the internet cafe this evening a traffic warden shouts ecstatically at the passing white man: "Ghana is Freedom". It dawned on me that when I came to Accra 2 weeks ago the same traffic lights were also out of order. It also hit my tired brain that the traffic lights have the exact same colours of the Ghanaian flag.

Let's try link up all this trivia.

First independence leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, chose the name Ghana for sub-Saharan Africa's first post-colonial nation -state as an inspiration for the future. Meaning 'warrior king' it was to embody a great empire from centuries ago which existed in what is now Mauritania. The colours of Ghana's flag - green for the tropical vegetation; gold for the mineral-rich mines; red for the sacrifices made to achieve independence; and black for pan-Africanism - resemble somehow the current state of the defunct traffic lights outside this cafe.

A young man, proud of his heritage, shouting a grammatically incorrect statement 'Ghana is freedom' is not a laughing matter. It doesn't matter a shit that it's not Oxford English. What does matter however, is that 2 years ago President Kufuor spent $40 million to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ghana's freedom from Britain. Yet, 2 years later to the day, traffic lights on Accra's main road don't function and a man in a barely visible vest is stopping cars from one direction to let others fly by from another.

So while millions can continue to be spent on the myth that Ghana is freedom (why does it depend on so much aid if it is) every March 6th, few resources are channeled into things that really matter, like providing this traffic warden with proper equipment for his own safety and to conduct his important task for traffic.

Ghana has been strangled for decades by the West and it's own corrupt elite. It's traffic lights, as many other prominent Ghanaians have been saying over the past few weeks, are just not functioning well. So lets take off the rose-tinted glasses and let's stop the crap talk. Ghana is not freedom!

Postscript - Due to lack of time I did not write anything above which would justify the second part of the blog title: 'Made in China'

Well, wandering around the celebrations at Independence Square on Friday last it was obvious that an abundance of the Ghanaian "hats, scarves and headbands" etc. were leftovers from two years ago when it celebrated its 50th anniversary. It appears the patriotic wear had been mass produced in factories throughout China. Surprise, surprise. Nothing like abandoning your own indigenous industries when it comes to proclaiming your independence from other nations.

While warplanes spewed out red, yellow and green smoke above the applauding masses, the irony that the city authorities still hadn't fixed Kojo Thompson's traffic lights crossed my mind. If they can't afford to be bothered to fix them, it would have been far more useful if they just used these smoke theatrics on the top of the traffic lights. Green smoke unloads, traffic moves towards Nkrumah circle; orange smoke bellows, traffic slows down; red smoke flows outward, traffic ceases. The patient line of traffic adjacent can then proceed onwards as their smokey system kicks into operation.

I await calls from entrepeneurs to patent my classy idea.

Not to appear too cynical though, of course it is great Ghana can and does celebrate they day it kicked the Brits out. But as Ghanaweb point out, when your economic purse and people are worse off now than they were at Independence, some serious questions need to be asked and answers need to come fast. Nkrumah may have inherited the title of a great visionary, but it doesn't change the fact that in 1957 his gvt. had US $1 billion in foreign reserves -then, by the time he was ousted in 1966, Ghana's foreign reserves were depleted and the country primed for disastrous governance and corruption for decades after.

Sweating in Tamale

I stayed on the first floor of the Al hassan hotel last night. Never thought I would experience anything like a Finnish sauna in Ghana, but it was a close as you can get. It's 40 degrees celsius outside and I've taken cover cause I'm Irish and need extreme forms of skin hydration from a multitude of precipitation forms in order to function normally. That aside Tamale is a city of a thousand bicycles and a nice change from the southern areas of Ghana. I'll post some pics soon.