Yemi's Hat
Yoruba - fìlà
Tilt meanings:
Left-bent (to the wearer): gentleman
Right-bent: available to women
Front-bent: laughing to everybody
Back-bent: things are not going well; not balanced
While I was in Ghana, there were two occasions during which I was able to stay in houses made out of mud. They had been plastered and painted, had electricity, and usually had cement floors. They were not very surprising looking at all.
I enjoyed staying there, although there were times when a mud wasp would try to make its next in the walls and while walking around the village you could see places where goats would nibble away at the external corners of houses (a few hot peppers might help with that!). Very interesting - this video shows a bit about how it is done, how durable they are and what kinds of materials were traditionally used.
The houses I stayed in were not round like some of the ones shown in this video. They were rectangular compound houses. I can't remember exactly what the roofing material was made out of. I think the first place I stayed at had a plaster or cement roof, and the second had a type of cross thatching with wood (I vaguely remember being concerned about spiders).
This video mentions that one traditional method of making a concrete-like material was through using leaves from the dawadawa tree. I believe (based on a google search) that this is the same as the West African Locust Bean tree, or carob tree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carob_tree
I would definitely like to go back to Ghana and learn more about these kinds of uses of plants!
A 99-year-old Ghanaian graduates from business school, encourages other Ghanaians to return to Ghana rather than seeking higher-wage jobs elsewhere.
Thanks to Clement Appah for the link.
A look at Ghanaian beads, including the famous "boyfriend beads" as we dubbed the beads worn around a woman's waist to make her hips more shapely.
Finally, my 4-pin to 4-pin Firewire cable arrived and I was able to upload the long-awaited Addyeboat video! Enjoy.
In this video, Addyeboat, a respected (but always tipsy) farmer in the Asaam village of Ghana's Ashanti Region, shares his knowledge of basket weaving (traditionally only done by men) with Claire for her mini Independent Study Project. Simón is there to interpret, and Jessie and I pop in to see how things are going. Addyeboat ambitiously informs us that he will complete two baskets that day! Including the two he has already begun. You just wait!
For anyone interested in hearing what the language Logba/Ikpana sounds like, listen to Peter Ladefoged's two recordings at the UCLA phonetics lab archive here: http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/LGQ/lgq.html. The recordings were made in 1962 and are of a male speaker from Logba Tota (the top of the mountain). Speakers in Logba Tota reportedly have the most pronounced dialectal differences.
Also, the grammatical description of the language which was written by one of my advisors, Dr. Kofi Dorvlo, can be found here: A Grammar of Logba (Ikpana), Dorvlo 2008. It includes a word list of about 1,600 entries.
I've been back in America for a month now (I finally can stop taking my malaria pills!). I've started teaching my friend, Joe, Twi and Ikpana so I have someone to practice with. It's working well so far, but it's not quite the same as being in Ghana.
It's been fun sharing my experiences in Ghana with people here in the USA (not the United States of Obama, as one Ghanaian suggested). Several people asked me to show them what Ghanaian money looks like, so I pulled out a ziploc bag with some cedis and pesewas and passed it around. People seemed quite interested until I said, "Now make sure to wash your hands after you handle it - apparently you can get typhoid from handling money and then eating!" Needless to say the money stayed in the bag. Haha.
Here's a (harmless) photo of what Ghanaian money looks like:
I have video footage from Ghana, but not very many pictures (I've uploaded those I took using my video camera below). I finally have purchased my first laptop ever with my prize money from USC's 2009 Undergraduate Research Symposium, so once I get home to Walla Walla (where it will be waiting for me) from Los Angeles (where I'm currently having adventures) I will be able to do some video editing and upload some of that.
Until then, however, I thought I would share a few things about Ghana which can already readily be found on the Internet!
The following is one of the most popular Ghanaian Hiplife songs. As a linguist, I find the code-mixing of Ghanaian English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, and Twi pretty interesting. The lyrics can be found on the YouTube page (click the video below).
Simple by Bradez
I think the following demonstrates some small aspects of life in this Ghana (do I need to say "that Ghana" now?): how to make tea like a Ghanaian. (Note: there also exists a follow-up video - how to speak like a Ghanaian. Highly recommended.)
How To Make Tea Like A Ghanaian with Aku, Edinam and Kojo
And finally, a few pictures from my video camera. I thought for a while I had deleted all of them without backing them up, but I found them - don't worry! Click photos to enlarge:
Asaam (the Ashanti village where I stayed with Claire, Grace, Ismatu, and Jessie) with a woman carrying a load on her head and a baby on her back. I still have not learned how to do either. Next time!
Large Beetle (Asaam, Addyeboat's farm)
Large Grasshopper (Asaam, Addyeboat's farm)
Clare demonstrates how to use a plantain leaf (Asaam, Addyeboat's farm)
Close-up of Percy, Auntie Afresh's adorable little baby boy ("go Percy, go Percy! obruni, obibini! and wiggle...")
Percy, Auntie Afresh, Jessie, and Daniel Akwasi Antwi (the herbalist who taught Jessie and me during our mini-ISPs)
A path across the gutter, which has pretty ripples from the recent rains/floods (Asaam)
Goats! (Asaam)
Ismatu attempts to entertain me while I am sick in bed (allegedly with malaria - so far all tests have come back negative, though, so really, who knows?)
Our bus (aka glorified Trotro). Note the television in front, which was constantly playing music videos of Beyonce, Neyo, Michael Jackson, etc.
Drummers warming up for drumming/dancing performance in Dzogadze (Volta Region)
My research assistant, Mawuli, showing me his brother's akpeteshie distillery, which is protected by a cave in Klikpo (Logba, Volta Region)
Mawuli crossing the stream used by his brother to distill akpeteshie (the fermented palm wine is boiled in a barrel with a pipe coming out of it, which then runs down into the stream to cool, thus condensing it to drip into a container).
The cave where Mawuli's brother distills akpeteshie, as seen from the stream
