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