Culture of the Ghanaian Child

Dear Stranger,

I am up on another early morning (well 3 am to be exact) with some worrisome thoughts on my mind. As usual, I checked my horoscope (first thing I do daily) and decided to take advantage of my “persistent” aura and write a dogmatic letter about my worries over the culture of the Ghanaian child.

It is sad to think day in and day out, we throw away what little we have of our culture in us. Growing up, I always took for granted and even demeaned whatever came out of the country, whether it be food, clothes, movies, music, clubs, etc. Being in the Diaspora for a couple of years straight with no contact to home except via the internet and the telephone, however, has given me a different outlook to a lot of things but most importantly the culture of my own people.

Out here in college, I am a very proud Ghanaian girl. I love to wear my bead jewelry (take into consideration that I made them myself, one of my many talents), wear print clothes and there is always Ghanaian music blaring in my room or through the earphones of my iPod Touch. Some people refer to it as homesickness but I refer to it as a case of “you never know what you have until you lose it”. Well in this case, it is not in the traditional term lost, but in a sense it is…well maybe “out of reach” is a better phrase.

It is sad how this generation of Ghanaians (myself inclusive) are dying to incorporate westernized views into everything we do! We make a huge fuss over all these western jargons and sing their songs, prefer their foods, would even want to wear their clothes over ours. Quite frankly, half of the jargons used in the West are not even understood by the people themselves.

Walk down a street and ask 5 different people what “dead”, “slow” or even “honk”. You will have at most 5 different definitions or at least 2 or 3 or them. And most often than not, most of the definitions are not even right. I am beginning to believe in the need for trend setting. I believe in the ‘Culture of the Ghanaian Child’ and its importance in all our lives as Ghanaians.

In effect, this is the trend I am going to start: I am going to wear as much as I can from Ghana, eat as much indigenous (pardon my use of the word, even I personally hate it but for lack of a better word I struggle to use it) dishes as I can, use my own jargons (I already make up my own words anyway), listen to as many Ghanaian songs as I can and basically bring out the all-round Ghanaian in me.

I do not promise that I would refrain from criticizing when I feel the need to improve what we do or how we present ourselves (after all, image is everything, no?). Whoever cares to take up this mantle and join me is more than welcome to. Together we can all make it a better country and not desert the ‘Culture of the Ghanaian Child’ for greener pastures and no identity.

On a last note, I salute “Wanluv the Kuborlor” whose image, on a daily basis, reminds me of how proud it is to be a Ghanaian.

Thanks for listening,

MzYayraTay

Horoscope

Dear Stranger,

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was check my horoscope, as usual. It has become more or less very routine to me now, my morning ritual, that is. For some reason, I managed to coax sleep to me in the space of a few hours instead of the usual sleepless nights I am so used to having. You can imagine my happiness then, even though I woke up 4 times between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am when I finally realized that was all the sleep I was going to get.

After reading my horoscope this morning, I realized one thing! My horoscope has never been off the mark. Call astrology and birth signs'/stars superstition, pure nonsense or whatnots. I will always strongly maintain that horoscopes are not a bunch of crap like others would want to believe. Every time I read my horoscope, it tells me what my mood is and how my day is going to go.

Let me establish this though. I have an extremely forgetful memory so after reading my horoscope, I forget what it said in less than 5 minutes. I am a very spontaneous kind of girl so I do not think I let my astrological forecast run my day, just clarifying that! This makes it even more surprising that my horoscope could be dead on target. Where am I leading to with all of this?

I have realized with increasing interest how a lot of females, as opposed to males are getting attached to astrological signs day in, day out and how it basically defines their life. this certainly would pique anyone’s interest…..or maybe it is just me. Anyway, i had a conversation with a couple of males who did not believe horoscopes were anything but a pack of fantasies while some girls vehemently stated that horoscopes give you an insight to how the day was going to go…sort of like telling the future.

I am wondering though, do we take horoscopes too seriously as humans and basically let them run our lives? I have no appropriate answer for that. I cannot tell because while my horoscope has always been very accurate, others claim the exact opposite for themselves.

If you asked me if I believed our astrological signs defined our personalities, I would whole heartedly agree. That, I have no doubt about. In every single person, if you are not very perceptive or attuned to these kind of things and you ask for a star sign, you automatically start seeing traits of the sign reflected in the individual once you are told which sign it is exactly. Quite doubtful? Do a test run and I bet you I would not be lying.

I ponder over the mysteries and intricacies of our belief in horoscopes and the astrological signs as I get my day started with a quick shower and a long class on Buddhism. You can ponder with me as well if you would like to.

Thanks for listening,

MzYayraTay

A New Calling

Dear Stranger,

I think I have received enlightenment. I know this is a weird and different from most of my letters but this is actually exciting stuff. I was engaged in a conversation with a friend about music and I have never had anyone approach me head on like that before. I was very impressed to say the least. I am probably making it sound even weirder and weirder am I not? I always seem to have my head all over the place in my letters and I apologize profusely.

I have a friend in the South. He is very knowledgeable in music. That is to say the least. I have heard this guy’s songs since I was in my first year of high school and he is very talented. Maybe a little tweak here and there but he has something really special. No not everyone has a calling to music like many Ghanaians seem to think. Music is something special. It is connected to the very center of you. Yes a whole lot of people can appreciate diverse music but you need that extra “uumphh” to either directly do music or criticize it.

I like to listen to a whole range of music. I am a down to earth music lover (If I do say that myself). I am used to people asking me to criticize music before it is released. I have no idea how it started though. I think I was on my high horse criticizing one of these American rappers and the next day my friends tried to pick my brain on a song they were working on. Maybe that is why I have a lot of friends in the music industry in Ghana…..or maybe not! Who knows? I am a socialite…or at least, I used to be one before I joined the group of “Africans in the Diaspora”.

That is not the point though. The point is, a friend called me out on how I was not being fair on some “up and coming” artistes in my critiques. Apparently I was being too lenient. I didn’t disagree with him because I knew his observation was on point. I explained however that I had tried being very forward in my critique and all it did was discourage a couple of “new faces/voices” and I felt very guilty. he was emphatic in letting me know that he preferred such criticism however and I was glad at least there were some people out there who did.

Later on, while I was on twitter, the topic of the new movies circulating the Ghanaian markets came up and I realize there were no harsh movie critics who spoke out on the issue of outright nudity in these movies and I decided maybe I should concentrate on that. This is the real point of my letter and it took me 480 words to get here. Anyway, I decided I was going to start writing reviews on Ghanaian and Nigerian movies since I watch quite a number of them whenever I am homesick. And frankly, I have not been impressed with any Ghanaian movie since their discovery of nude scenes. There is no concrete story line and all they seem to be focused on are the sex scenes. Are they aware media is easily accessible and we have kids out there who watch their productions? We copy very blindly from the West, i keep telling everyone, but we do not act tactical about what we copy.

it is such a shame though because we have a rich heritage. I am not totally excluding Nigeria but I can honestly say that no matter what they do in their movies, their culture shines through and if they go to far, they do have reprehensions which I have not seen in the Ghanaian movie industry yet. Maybe some of our actors need to experience probation like their Nigerian counterparts did. I boldly step into my new calling of movie critique and I will not be lenient but call out whoever needs calling out. I just hope they see the construct criticism of it and not rant and rave, because frankly I wouldn’t care if they did. This is where I rest my pen…..or in this case, my fingers.

Thanks for listening,

MzYayraTay

Relationship Status

Dear Stranger,

I realized all my letters to date have been emotionally oriented but hey, that’s the way the wind blows recently. All I do is go with it. I stumbled unto something recently and had a series of interesting conversations on the topic.

There is this big fuss about relationship statuses on social networking sites especially Facebook and MySpace. People tend to take this seriously, I have realized. And given how these sites are popular and structured, who wouldn’t?

I only recently found out I was in an implied relationship. What does one refer to his/her partner as then? It definitely isn’t boyfriend or girlfriend. Do we coin up new terms and words then?

As we get more technologically advanced we complicate our simple lives instead of the reverse. I never really saw the huge fuss about “having a title” for a relationship till I found myself in that iffy funky place.

Let me explain! I have a never been unsure about a relationship before this one. From my initial conversations with a guy I can easily tell who is going to run the relationship, how long it would last and even who would call it off even before I agree to date a guy. Call it perceptive, paranoid or even controlling, I don’t care. I just call it “facing reality”.

I suppose everyone meets that person that puts them out of their comfort zone and challenges how “the normal” is for them. I have gotten to that zone. And trust me, when you are helpless in making strong decisions, the issue of relationship status is far from mind.

What is the deal though with people creating controversies on these social networking sites anyway? Why put up a relationship status with someone when there is another individual to consider? Like seriously, take out “open relationships” and “it’s complicated” we all know they don’t ever exist in serious monogamous relationships anyway.

For real though, everyone knows an open relationship is an excuse to cheat or have multiple partners. There is nothing serious about that or is there? Neither is there anything monogamous about it. And how is a relationship complicated? It is either you are in one or you are not. What is complicated about a relationship?

I tell people all the time,  I may have fallen deeply for the guy I am talking to but I am still single. So long as I have not been asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?” I am still on the open market. Yes sure, after falling head over heels for this dude if he is not the one who asks me out I would be devastated but that would only be my fault because I shouldn’t be this smitten when I am not in a recognized relationship, blah blah blah! I have heard that speech one too many times already.

In my opinion? Relationship status do mean a great deal especially if you are involved with an insecure person like myself. Do not get it twisted though. A girl might tell you she is okay with complicated and/or open relationships but no matter how much she loves you, she is lying to you. There is a plot hatching behind the scenes so do not get tangled with that. I have said my piece and poured it all out. As usual,

Thanks for listening,

MzYayraTay