Besides all of the souvenirs I brought along with me, I truffled along an entire three months worth of experience through the airport which caused me to struggle “plenty” as the Ghanaians would say, ‘as I carried what felt like the weight of the world inside of my bags. I am embarrassed to admit that I often contemplated putting down all of my things and staying right there in the airport out of fear that “they” would not understand the things that I carried with me. “What’s the point of carrying all of this luggage full of stories, new experiences, culture, love and friendships back with me if they won’t even get it?” I asked myself.
Before my last week in Ghana, I never thought about how big of a task it would be to come back to the U.S with the responsibility of painting a picture of a place that majority of those whom I would be painting it for, would never go. Throughout that whole week, I constantly wondered how I would be able to address the stereotypical questions about Africa asked by my fellow Americans. My good friend Qwesi (meaning Sunday born) assured me that as a good storyteller I would be able to paint a picture so clear that the listener would feel as though they have lived in the moment also. “But painting a picture of Ghana to Americans is different” I told him. Qwesi had given me the task to preach the good news to the american people, encouraging me to explain to them that not all of Africa rings “poor” and that Africa should not be generalized since every country has a different culture.”
As he spoke this to me, I tried to figure out how I could paint a picture of a place so beautiful as Ghana without my Camera which had been misplaced to assist me. My sister Ekewa (Wednesday born)reassured me that my words would be enough one day when we were having a conversation about how pictures can often do more harm than good. “Even if you had your camera to show pictures of Ghana, you can’t take a picture of the Camera” she said. Confused, I asked what she meant by this. “What I mean is that a camera is only good for taking a picture, it does not reflect the opinions and insights of the photographer who had the privilege of seeing the prop in reality.” Qwesi agreed, a picture only gives room for those with no background knowledge to pass their own judgment, and usually their personal judgment is off.
Ekewa and Qwesi are both right. Although a picture says more than a thousand words, there is always room for a caption. Since I’ve been back in the U.S, I have found myself unpacking my luggage full of stories culture and experience in order to give my full insight on what it is like to live in Ghana. While telling this story, there are many times that I find myself captioning with great detail to many of my Black American friends and relatives who have a huge misconception of Ghana and of Africa as a whole. Because of their misconception, I do my best to enlighten them so that “my brothers and sisters in the U.S are not ignorant about their people in Africa” as Qwesi requested. “Make sure that they know that trouble does not only know our skin color by name, but blessings know us also.” “I will do that” I reassured him when he gave me the task. Qwesi’s request is what gave me the strength to drag all of my luggage full of culture, experience and love through the airport that day. Although I was emotionally torn and mentally beat up from my departure with Ghana back to the U.S, I am always eager to dig into my luggage and tell stories of what I witnessed this summer.
I have been telling stories of both Germany and Ghana for almost two weeks now and the more stories I tell, the better I become at telling them. One thing that I’ve noticed though is that Americans are so caught up in their own world that they really don’t have much knowledge on other countries in comparison to the great knowledge that other countries have on them. The few things that Americans do know however is based off of an idea of what someone else has told them. This puts great pressure on me to make sure that the things that I am sharing with others about Ghana are not biased. Ghana is one of those countries that knows a lot about the western world. I once asked someone why this is so, and he explained that many Ghanians long to adopt some of the ways of the Western people. As a result of that longing, Ghanaians have come to study the western world a little closer, primarily America.
As I am finding a lack of knowledge on behalf of Americans about other cultures, it is my goal to advocate as much as possible on what I know about the cultural differences and similarities in both Ghana, Germany and the U.S. In addition to these three countries, I would love to travel whenever the opportunity presents itself (soon I hope!) I also would love to become involved in many organizations on campus that are tailored toward global awareness. It is my hope to better bridge the cultural awareness gap between Americans and the many other cultural groups around the world!
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