Ask a Ghanaian, Part II

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A couple of months ago, I sat down with a couple of Ghanaian friends and interviewed them about their lives. The other day, I got the chance to sit down with another friend and do the same thing. Here's what he had to say. Just as a reminder, the views that he expresses are entirely his own and do not reflect my opinions nor Peace Corps'.


Israel is a 20 year old kente weaver and farmer who lives in my community. He finished SHS (the equivalent of high school) last year, and since then has been working to grow his small kente business.

Israel at work.


Can you tell me about this community?

As you know, we all are farmers. If it's dry season, some people won't be going to farm because of the lack of rain to produce their products. Sometimes I go to farm. I have a farm. I grow maize. My parents grow maize, groundnuts, yam, and okra.

What is the best part about living here?

I like how this community works together. For example, if someone is sick, he can get people to go to his farm and work on it for him. They are always working together, and they are working hard.

What is the best part of being a Ghanaian?

Me, I like Ghana because of their rights in politics. If your age is [...] 18 years, you have the right to stand for a political party. You can stand to be an assembly man or to be any organizer. In Ghana, you have the right to vote. The right to an education. In Ghana, they allow you to choose any political party that you want. The one that you like most, you can choose to be a member of that political party. I may say we are also a peaceful country. If people have trouble in their country, they can come here and we will show them hospitality. Everybody can come here and be welcome here.

What do you think Ghana will be like 50 years from now?

Okay. In Ghana, in 50 years, I hope we will generate knowledge. We need to use that knowledge so that we can produce everything here--tractors, and whatever the people need.

What is something that you wish Americans knew about Ghana?

For my opinion, I wish Americans should learn farming from Ghana. For here, we use our manual labor. But for Americans, they use machines. In terms of production of foods, we are ahead of America. We here produce food items like rice, maize, yams, garden eggs, okra, tomatoes, etc. Even fruit.

What do you do when you are not working?

If I am not working here--for example if my thread [for weaving kente] is finished and I don't have money to buy thread again--I will be thinking about football. But with football, the money that I use to put myself higher, I will not get. So I go to work for someone else to get a little money so I can buy thread. I can go to someone's farm or even in his house, I will clean there. I will earn a little money, and keep that money, and then I will go and add to it and buy thread. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge for this community?

For my opinion, firstly, lack of water. Secondly, education. Third, a clinic or hospital. And I may add something to it: sports or activities. Every community wants to have water and some sort of school or hospital. Without those three things, you cannot survive.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for Ghana?

It is different from the challenges for this community. First, I may say, misunderstandings. For the politics, if you say something, your opponent may call you a liar, or say that you are deceiving. He will say different things, and you may call him a liar. If you say this, someone will say this. It causes a lot of problems.

Another problem is in the schools--for example, we want the students to come at 6:30, but some will come at 7:00, 7:30 because of lack of car or transportation. The school is far and the students cannot come to school at the time given by authority.

What do you think is the biggest difference between Ghana and America?

I may say the difference between Ghana and America--Americans, they don't tolerate bribery and corruption. In Ghana here, they are doing bribery and corruption. They are trying to stop it, but they can't find any short way to cure that sickness or disease concerning corruption and bribery. For me, my opinion, in America, they don't like those things. And if you do it and they [catch] you, they would jail you.

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