The Cradle of Civilization

My first week in Ghana was predictably loaded with cultural adjustments, meeting new people (both Ghanian and American), homework, and a whole lot of other stuff I can't name off of the top of my head. The program held our hand for the first few days, but once we got with our homestay families, culture shock definitely kicked in. It's not that I was unprepared and ill-equipped to handle the immersion. It's just that when you enter a new country with no roots or knowledge or local customs, you truly are an infant within that society.

The word for white person here is "obraunie" (oh-brawn-eee), and our Academic Advisor told us that this is a word that is not negative but is affectionate and only meant to identify white people in a crowd. This is one of the more blatantly misleading things we have been told about Ghanian culture. It is true that Ghanians (and most non-Americans) are not as sensitive about racism as Americans, but being an American nonetheless exposes you to rather shocking assumptions about Ghanians.

I went to a World Cup qualifier (Ghana versus Sudan), which was a crazy experience in itself. There was one man who was heckling me, the only obraunie in the section, throughot the entire game. I grew up a white boy in Oakland, so I can take the punishment. Yet he said something towards the end that typified his attitude, as well as many people in the so-called Third World. He said "This is Ghana! Not America! We don't invade Iraq or Afghanistan." I learned more from this moment about Ghanians' attitudes towards Americans than anything else.

I explained to him that I hated Bush, loved Ghana, and loved Obama. He literally said there "Oh, you're alright." I've spent my entire life proving myself to others, as well as to me, so it's weird to be a child in a foreign country, barely able to take care of yourself. It's even stranger to have people believe you support your government's policies when your political beliefs are defined by opposition to them, like my beliefs. It's sad that a large minority of insecure white voters increasingly represent an entire nation. That is why the election of Obama was so important.

People in Africa love Obama, and America's image in the world has improved only because of him. People still view us as an imperialist threat and a symbol of racism, but Obama's presidency is undeniably changing that. Hopefully he'll continue to do so, but until then, fuck it, I'm telling people I'm from Mexico.