Brenda F. McGadney, PhD, Siena Heights University
AKWAABA (Ah KWAA BA)! Part I
Welcome to Ghana! This is the country where professional helpers and advocates, especially westerners like myself, return again and again and again! Why? We feel safe, welcomed and, conveniently, English is the official language. Ghana is a fertile place for volunteerism, social development, and exchanges. Also, the generosity and kindness of Ghanaians is almost unmatched by any other country in Africa. Ghanaians proudly tell the world that they represent a country of good governance, conflict-free, economically stable, with a strong commitment to universal human rights and justice through a democratically elected government. Colonized by the British during the Presidency of Kwame Nkrumah, it was the first independent African nation in the 20th century, represented by a single black star on its flag, based on the principles of freedom and justice.
Ghanaians have a close kinship to Americans. Thousands of Americans travel to Ghana yearly, and many African Americans claim Ghana as their ancestral home, making it ripe for indigenous collaborative development. President Kennedy provided most of the funding for the construction of the Volta River Dam. Launching the Peace Corps 50 years ago at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he encouraged young people to go to Ghana. Three sitting Presidents and their families have visited the country: Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Ghana’s favorite son, Chancellor of the University of Ghana Kofi Annan, served as the Secretary General to the United Nations for ten years.
Given this background, I hope you will agree that the papers in this special issue will increase the cultural awareness of the challenges and accomplishments that professional helpers and advocates endeavor to reduce disparity and make a difference in the lives of Ghanaians. The narratives are organized to support four themes beginning with Lessons Learned: Cross-Cultural Sensitivities and Relationship-Building. Rose Walls’ anchor paper, In Ghana here… is laced with humor and candid story-telling, and offers a sincere reflection of and insights to her adjustment and development of cultural awareness regarding life in Ghana, from the perspective of an African American female social worker and lawyer. Through her unique and realistic take on life, those who have visited Ghana might find themselves laughing out loud, slapping their knees or nodding their heads as they remember having similar experiences. For other readers, Walls’ narrative can be a strategic guide of what to do and not do, providing perhaps sufficient cultural awareness to start off on the right foot as a professional helper and advocate.
Two of my Ghana students, George Domfe, and Kwasi Boakye Akosah, joined me in Reflections of an American professor and Ghanaian social work students: Implementation of collaborative teaching/learning methods to assess indigenous social problems. The authors demonstrate the ability of a class of 134 students and the professor to act as cultural guides, teaching and learning from each other while developing ethical problem-solving strategies and interventions for 14 indigenous social problems. The students’ account and evaluation of the “prof’s” teaching style is unedited. Their description of the collaborative development of course content includes an unabashed and honest assessment of themselves, their peers, and social problems in their homeland.
In Ghana: A great place to be, the narrator, Montrella Cowan, shares her experience visiting the Motherland for the first time as a Study Abroad student. Cowan shares strategies of how, as a single mother, she learned to serve the global community. She is clear that a social worker’s success in working cross-culturally and internationally must stem from active engagement. This narrative, a self-esteem builder for non-traditional students, includes vivid descriptions of lessons learned and how experiential field trips and advocacy research experiences increased her cultural awareness of social issues, especially human rights and development projects for the poor.
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The next two papers that offer additional awareness on cross-cultural lessons learned were written by social work academicians who have extensive experience facilitating exchange, internships and study/tour programs in Ghana. Both papers address issues related to prejudice, racism, privilege, structural disadvantages, or oppression and resistance. The authors propose a paradigm shift to help stakeholders understand our relationship in the global marketplace and need to expand our conceptualization of cultural competence as we become more involved in international education and practice. Edith Lewis narrates Cultural differences and neo-colonialism in social work: Negotiating exchanges between Ghana and the United States, a frank critical challenge to institutions – especially social work schools – and colleagues regarding mutually sustainable professional practicum exchanges.
Lewis insists that effective exchanges are possible if there is willingness by representatives from the African Diaspora and non-Africans to work affirmatively to shift their world views. Readers are then informed that this can be done while upholding the values and ethics of social work practice through an understanding of self and willingness to distribute resources. As Director of Educational Study Tours and Internships, Sadye Logan authored Experiencing Ghana at different points and times. The narrator expands cross-cultural awareness by sharing personal experiences, perceptions, and interest in Ghana from her perspective as a sixth generation Gullah or Gheeche-speaking Sea Islander in South Carolina. In addition to her narration about the impact of the tours and internships on the participants, readers should find fascinating similarities between her life on John’s Island and that of the daily activities of Ghanaians, such as speech, hair styles, fishing, quilting, and other everyday habits.
Relative to the second theme of Social and Economic Justice, Ghanaian doctoral students in the U.S. and Ghana share their reflections on arresting disenfranchisement of women and children in the workplace. Elizabeth Nana Mbrah Koomson authored Mining communities in Ghana: Reflections on the nature and type of work for female miners and non-miners. This is an extraordinary paper as the lifestyles and working conditions of female miners have rarely been documented. The author describes these women’s experiences in small-scale mining, and discriminatory practices relative to culturally determined positions of women in Ghanaian society, including the nature and type of work and compensation, and overall impact of their livelihood on family stability and vulnerability in the mines.
Child labor: The silent thief of children’s rights in Ghana, narrated by Kwadwo Ofori-Dua, is filled with dynamic first-person narratives of exploited children, mostly in fishing communities, even though the government has policies that prohibit such labor practices. He concludes that this negative practice is endemic, especially in the informal sector, and offers lessons learned and recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to restore healthy child development.
