The Mistake Unresolved

The problem with Africa is western education. The fact that development is stalled, access to water, electricity, professional health care attendants and teachers are social menaces all stem back to western education.

Not resolving the problem of education is the biggest mistake of the founding leaders of so many African/Diasporan countries. While many sought political and economic freedom, few thought to unshackle minds from the mental slavery of western education. And fewer revolutionaries realized that western education, already limited in its scope to train colonized minds as opposed to free minds, cannot be tools for Africans to develop Africa.

There are two major problems with western education. One is that it’s western and the second is that it’s in a foreign language. No people can development themselves with models of only how the other operates. Western education in Africa teaches about the west. Exam questions ask children about snow, chimneys and sleds. They know about Luxembourg, but not Johannesburg. Students are rejected from schools and dejected for not having mastered foreign languages and information that will not serve their nations.

Countless children are unable to proceed into high school in Ghana for not having passed an exam written in a language they have not mastered. These exams are also written by “experts” who haven’t either and graded by teachers who are barely literate. See the problem? They don’t. Students are being labeled “dumb” instead. They are being sidetracked into what is constructed as inferior fields because they did not master English.

Where are the English experts? There are no none. Functional illiteracy is a big open secret in Ghana. Few want to discuss it because they don’t realize it. The reason why few want to discuss it is the same reason why many founding leaders inherited western education literally unchanged. And this reason is that few believe Africa’s languages are worthy of bringing development or helping Africa to be part of the global community. Some believe that stuttering with English is still better than being fluent in Twi, Ewe, or Ga at the UN meetings. This is a problem that only Africa and its children share. No other group feel the need to develop using foreign tools that don’t apply to their local needs.

And the founding leaders knew this. They did not want whites to lord over them, but they wanted to control whiteness in their own countries. They wanted to become ministers of western education, renamed but unchanged. They were top students in western geography, literature and philosophy. Others argued, quite eloquently, about Africa’s lacks.

And they were not wrong to assume Africa had no great philosophers, thinkers, mathematicians, scientists and writers. How can they learn about Africa with tools of the west? How can they “read” ancient African literature when they can only “read” English, French, Portuguese or Spanish? What foundational knowledge did they have to discuss, express, analyze or critique Africa’s gains?

Foreignness kept them blissfully ignorant and proud. It worked as a cloud, shielding them from the reality. They obtained degrees from western schools in hope of gaining big positions at home. They studied the west to critique home. They argued there was nothing to study at home. To progress, they had to know was the west. And yet, here we are 50 years later….and in the case of Haiti 200 years later. The foreign languages are not helping us develop. They are creating more outsiders, more drop outs who are made to feel like social pariahs.

And what can be done about this? Educate students in languages they know. Provide materials and trained teachers in those languages. Introduce foreign languages as subjects. Sounds simple enough and yet, it’s the most difficult thing to implement in Africa.

I worked with some of the best mathematical minds in Ghana. These young girls can complete the most complicated math transactions standing in the middle of traffic with loads on their heads. And yet when we tested them on “one plus one” they did not know the answer. And why should they? Would I understand what was needed if I was asked this problem in Japanese, Arabic, German or Swedish? Why are we penalizing our children on how western they are? And why is no one in power in Ghana angry enough about this?

Women’s Power is in motherhood

Research confirms that women are more powerful than they know. However, what they fail to mention is that women’s power is intrinsically tied to their role as mothers.  Women’s empowerment is not confined to the school buildings or high end offices. Their power lies in the most basic form…taking their role as mothers seriously and actually mothering, raising and caring for their boy children as they do for their girls. The slogan to free and empower women tomorrow can only be realized if women raise their boys today.

Homeschooling has taught me a lot. And what I recently learned is that when parents provide their children with the time and energy to raise them, your children will become exactly what you raised. If you put time and energy in providing materials for your children, they will grow to become people who value materials. It’s that simple. All the ancients said it. An African proverb states “kasava leaves cannot grow from the plantain tree.” This means that your children cannot bear fruits which you did not plant and nurture within them. Women cannot be free tomorrow if no one is making sure not to create potential tormentors today.

The old adage that women are their worst enemies is true in this context. We can either raise children who will respect and listen to us tomorrow, or leave them to persecute us tomorrow. By not raising our boys, we endanger the lives of other women around the world. Rape is the most common form of violence against women during turbulence.

It might seem anti modern or Western for a woman to applaud motherhood above a career, but this framework obviously has not helped the world. Let’s take a look at all the violence we are seeing: young boys ganging up to rape young girls on trains in India, boys beating and killing elders in their communities in Congo and other parts of Africa. And the list goes on.  Who raised those boys? What seeds were planted in those boys? I know from personal experience that no seeds were nurtured in my brothers. This is why they are all one bad move away from a prison sentence today. But they are not alone, that is why from America to Zimbabwe, the topic of boys causing violence is gaining attention. But the solution is not in providing them employment and getting them off the streets. The solution is in mothering.

Women, as mothers hold the key to not only transforming the future, but the people who make up our futures. In the hands of mothers, children learn how to be human beings. They learn how to treat others, how to be independent and the rules of right and wrong. However, Ghanaian women, like many women around the world, have been misled into believing that motherhood can be done by a Creche, a school or society. That they are not as pivotal as the Ancients stated. That women are mere carriers and not king makers. Let’s take a cue from the Asantehemaa. The king she chooses is the one who will listen, respect and always remember who made him. We are having children but not raising them to remember from where they came. No one is teaching our boys how to be human beings.

Who is raising the boys? Who teach them how to be independent? Who teach them right from wrong? Or how to live with others? Apparently no one is. We know this because during the time of every election in Ghana, politicians feel the need to talk to “boys” about not causing riots and violence. Why are they only speaking to the boys and not girls? Because they know, as we know, that boys are left to raise themselves. They are left to basically kill themselves and others if need be.

Women need to take back motherhood. We need to take it seriously. It’s the greatest job we have. To raise children who will become responsible and decent global citizens tomorrow. We do this by providing our children time to be with us. To watch us and to learn from us. But we need to realize that we have a valuable job. We need to know that our job today shapes the world tomorrow. For each child who is left to be raised by “society” we can add another potential rapist, murderer, or criminal to the list.

Children cannot be left to be raised by others. We know that. The lesson we are learning is that no one is raising our boys so they are causing havoc. It’s a cry for help like all tantrums.

Haiti@209

 It was over 200 years ago that my ancestors united to secure their freedom and that of other Africans in Haiti. The fighting started from capture in West Africa. The struggle was not just political.

The revolution started in 1791. And even before freedom was won, Africans made known that their future freedom was going to be wholistic. That freedom had to include right to healthy food. As slaves, Africans were not allowed to eat certain foods deemed “reserved” for French and other Europeans. Some of these foods were corn, beans and squash, all first harvested by the Native Indian population. The diet of slaves, of course, consisted of foods thrown away by their masters. Foods such as tripe, intestines and other garbage that was not fit for Europeans to eat. Although Africans balanced their diet by growing small gardens, that was not suffice; especially considering the kind of labor they had to perform on a daily basis. Europeans were also masters of the food.

But on Dec. 31, 1803, a day before our complete independence from the French was inaugurated, Marie-Claire Heureusse Felicite (later Empress and wife of Dessalines) made squash soup. She made it to commemorate the history that these soldiers had shared while fighting; having claimed victory over eating the banned foods.  She chose squash because there was a history the soldiers all shared with this vegetable.  Some African soldiers had taken great pride in “pilfering” this vegetable from white gardens. We know this history was important to forming a new nation. It was a way to keep the memories of that period alive. And it was a story that further marked out freedom and break from French slavery.

This soup was also a slap to the French who used it as stuffing in pigs, turkeys and other birds. Turning squash into a soup was further upsetting to the French. This was because African cuisine, as slaves, was mostly soup style. Cooking in one pot meant everything went into that pot and turned out into a soup eventually. So soup or “all boil” foods was considered as African food. Felicite had now claimed squash as African food (over 70% of the Haitian population was African born at the time of slavery.) Her choice had let the French know, way before Steven Biko, that we “eat what we like.” And that we were no longer limited by their laws to eat foods they considered garbage.

Felicite became the mother of Haitian cuisine. Haitian cuisine was born out of politics. The Africans rejected the sorts of foods limited to them during slavery and began adopting foods that defined them as free and independent peoples. Not all of these foods were borrowed by the French considering how much pork was preferred by the French, but is only an occasional dish in Haiti. Fufu became a staple for Southerners.  As a Southerner, Felicite grew up eating Fufu, similar to the way the Akans eat it. But Fufu is a luxury food during a war. It takes time to prepare Fufu. Fighting a war means you need foods that cook quick and are easy to get. Okra, Chaka, mai Moulin, bouyon, swas pwa, Pwa Kongo, Pitimi, legumes all came to form Haitian national dishes. There are well over 10 national, and that’s a conservative estimate.

Choosing to use squash at this moment, and making into a soup tells us a bit about Felicite. We know she was bold. She was a risk taker. She did not hide behind authority nor did she believe the French her superior. She is one of the most understudied and most misunderstood women in Haitian history. After her divorce from Dessalines her named was “soiled” (by his friends and later by white historians trying to create an anti Dessalines bias in their books) as having protected whites from the Massacre.  There is no historical proof to that. She was “constructed” into his antithesis. But this is the same woman who had fed and nursed the revolutionaries. She kept her dignity and refused to pardon Dessalines for this breech even after his death. She preferred to live and die in poverty than take money for having been solely the wife of Dessalines.

Squash soup is eaten by all Haitians mostly on January 1, to honor our ancestors and to celebrate our independence. It is one of our national dishes, but eaten only once a year.

A Haitian new year starts off with soup on Independence Day. It brings good luck and a reminder of what we fought so much for...freedom!

Mediocrity is killing Ghanaians

There are two main criminals in Ghana; teachers and nurses. But now I must add the average Ghanaian to that list. The average Ghanaian consists of the pharmacists, taxi drivers, caterers, and builders. These are people who would more likely take decisions to harm another rather than not. Let’s take builders. Builders or those who work on the construction sites take decisions on a daily basis to steal materials from the site that they are paid to develop. But they don’t just steal cement. They steal iron rods. The iron rods are needed to keep the buildings erect, strong and safe. There is no building without the rods..it’s only a matter of time until the building collapses.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this blog today. Last night I read that an 11 year old boy has lost his life in the Brong Ahafo Region after his school wall collapsed on him. The title of the article read, “The Price of Education.” This title is fitting. Not only did that boy have to worry about his teachers not showing up, lack of materials, lack of space, but now parents must also worry about walls collapsing on their children while at school.

Who will answer to this boy’s parents? Or the parents of the little girl who was hit by lightning while schooling in an uncompleted building. Or the parents of the children who are waiting for the contractors to complete the school they were paid to build.                                              There will be no answers because the “average” Ghanaian does not respect the ones he is paid to work on behalf of. The parents will get the casual “I beg” and the “authorities” would have called it a day. The school has continued lessons under the tree. It has not closed down for reparations and further construction.

This is not the first time this year that a building collapsed in Ghana. We have all heard of the Melcom Supershop disaster. That mayhem claimed more than 20 lives. Those numbers may be even higher since the initial numbers of possible victims was false.

Chi@7

My wonderful Sun, Chiemeka, is 7 years old. Here is a page from his gratitude notebook on what he is most grateful for this year.
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"I'm grateful that I'm 7 now. That means I'm going to be a big boy. Mawuvi (his brother) is a boy who is very thankful to God about me. I'm very very thakful that God created me and my family. God made things that we wanted forever like food, shelter, water and of course our greatest star, the sun."
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Chi's first book, based on this journal, will be published in January 2013. Look out for it.

Why I love Kwanzaa

I love Kwanzaa. I started celebrating this holiday in 2008 when my eldest son was 3. I wanted to start a tradition and build a family culture that celebrated Africa and community togetherness. I also wanted a tradition that involved activities and doing something to make the community better or reinforce our family’s mission/vision. I wanted my children to learn that those days require that you do something. And most importantly, I wanted to begin the process of establishing roots and tradition building for our family.

I did not want a holiday focusing on gifts and presents. My husband and I are very particular about providing our children our presence as opposed to presents.

But most importantly, I did not want to repeat the mistakes my mother made with holidays. We did not celebrate Christmas. Never had the tree or the hoop la made about presents and that time of the year. We were given presents, but as an afterthought. There was no shopping, no preparation, no lists. My mother thought it was a pagan holiday and not Christian. Sounded great to me even then, but where was our alternative? What do we have if the pagans have Christmas?

I had wished we were given the opportunity to create our own tradition as a family or as non pagans. I would have taken any chance to understand who we were and why we were not pagans. But like many parents, she did not have the time to be that creative or to recognize that building culture compels you to be creative especially to children who just want to perform an activity/event with their parents.

Culture and tradition is founded on performance and repetition. Someone thinks of an idea of what makes us “different” or “better” and acts on it. Instead of just taking their (often his) word for it, he spends some time on constructing and creating this difference. It often includes food and music. And why not, tradition is to be celebrated.

Becoming a parent also turned me into a quasi performance artist. I dance, sing and clap at a drop of a dime. My children expect that from me. I dance and sing to get children to sleep, eat, use potty instead of soiling the floor, and to learn.

My repertoire also included arts and crafts. And because I was performing and doing crafts on a daily basis, I searched for a tradition that would permit me to combine both.

Imagine my excitement when I began researching Kwanzaa. It had everything that I searched for. It centered Africa, based on African culture, about family, community and was flexible to permit me to do it my way. The way my family celebrates Kwanzaa is most likely different from most people.

My interest was further peaked when I found a set of Kwanzaa worksheets online which included various forms of word games, puzzles, and coloring pages. We did about 3 pages a night during the week and learned a great deal about Kwanzaa. This permitted us to know more about the holiday and got my son excited about this activity. I loved this link even more because it merged learning with fun games and activities. Here is the link to my favorite Kwanzaa worksheet activity.  http://p6.hostingprod.com/@holidaycrosswords.com/nonfiction/KwanzaaWorksheets.pdf

Kwanzaa has been the major holiday in our family ever since. It is an exciting time of the year because we plan community activities that reinforce our commitment to each other and our community. We also celebrate with our community by having activities that bring us all together as opposed to staying at home. Last year the children were given a chance to weave Kente.

Kwanzaa also compliments homeschooling in Ghana. It provides the children a communal reinforcement of what we do daily. We learn about Africa, how to make the world a better place, how to plant trees, grow food and how to keep our bodies fit. Sounds great to me!

Now on to designing this year’s program.

30 Steps to Homeschooling Successfully in Africa

Here are the links to my new book entitled, 30 Steps to Homeschooling Successfully in Africa.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/356709097756956/

 http://free.yudu.com/item/share/641606/30-Steps-to-Homeschooling-Successfully-in-Africa