The Science Club

I initiated an after school science club at an American school in Ghana. This school is the most expensive school in Ghana. Children are chauffeured in accompanied by their nannies. The parking lot is crammed with cars too big for the space and for Ghana’s streets. It could easily pass for an elite school in LA and other such cities where parents and children stroll about with eyes fixated on Blackberries or Ipads. This school is not a Ghanaian school and nor was it founded to provide education to Ghanaians. Its mission was to provide quality American education to children of American diplomats in Ghana.

Why did I initiate such a program in this school?  I wanted to see how the other half lived. I had an idea, but I wanted to be sure. I assumed that they were an elite school by definition. I assumed that the school had top notch and dedicated teachers. That labs, classrooms and libraries were stocked up with quality and updated materials. In fact, I had assumed that this school would provide its students the quality of education of Obama’s children school.  I further assumed that these children would be so exposed to quality education that they might surpass their peers in the US and of course those in Ghana. But boy to assume does make an “ass” of “u” and “me.”  

My colleagues assumed the same things that I did. That this “rich” school was rich in passion, access, materials, teachers, intelligent students and an active parent-teacher association. They assumed that the students have high end instruments to experiment with. They said I was lucky to be part of such a group of serious educators, unlike the Ghanaian schools where students don’t even know what science is let alone to get a science club. Ghanaian schools, do nothing they say. But then again some private schools are charging 20GHC per term. It’s understandable why those schools would provide nothing to their students, they agreed.

Another reason why I decided to do the science club was that I wanted my son to see the competition. As a homeschooler, he is not in class with other students. I wanted to see how he reacted and behaved around “those” students. Would he be shy? Feel awkward? Or automatically notice the class differences?

There was no problem. He was not shy. He was his usual outgoing self, introducing himself to everyone. He played freely with anyone who would play with him and in class his hand was always up. I had to tell him to give the other children a chance to answer. I wish I had not said that because we soon learned that unless my 7 year old answered a question, no one else knew the answers. What were some of those questions?

1.     Where does our food come from?

2.    What is a magnet?

3.    Why do we use peanut butter to make the bird feed?

4.    What makes volcanoes erupt?

I was looking for basic and general answers to see if any of this was familiar. It was not.

I learned that these children are no better off than their “lower class” peers in the US and in some degrees to those trained under trees in Ghana. They were not exposed to science.   

The class had 10 students and only 3 Africans…which is the norm in such schools in Africa. In fact, only the Ivorian boy had an idea of anything scientific.  He had ideas on concepts of science and would ask questions related to the topics or remember something he had read on his own. The other “elites” did not. I asked what makes volcanoes explode during our first week and the Ivorian boy mentioned pressure. One other boy raised his hand to ask if it would be safe to be in the class if a volcano would be exploding. I had to explain that it would be an experiment and not a real one.

Must rich people be intellects? Of course not. I’m only analyzing what students in a school that cost $20k/annum knows in comparison to students in the same country who pay 20GHC/semester/term. Somehow these students have more in common than most would like to believe.

A few weeks later after an experiment I asked everyone to clean up.  A white boy refused and asked if I was not his servant. I explained to him that although he lives in a country where his driver, nanny, housekeeper, gardener, cook, and garbage men look like me that this did not mean that I could ever be his servant. And that did not mean that everyone who looked like me could ever become servants to people who looked like him. I further explained that if I was in Sweden that my housekeeper and possible gardener would look like him, but that did not mean all white people are servants by mere fact of their skin color.

He did not get it. I discussed the matter with some other teachers at the school and other such schools. Here are the responses I got.

·         “As for white children, that is how they are. You cannot change it.”

·         “Oh, as for them, this is to be expected. Do not worry about it.”

·         “Oh yes, that is how it is.”

·         “If I tell you what they say to me. Do not worry.”

·         “This is what we are dealing with here.”

When I asked if something was done, everyone agreed there was nothing to be done. Luckily my supervisor was not one of those people. She made sure something was done. But I am more alarmed at how not much is done to correct children or train them on race politics by some African teachers who think “this is how they are.”

Unfortunately, the idea of how they are is not limited to race. Ghanaian children in expensive schools are often not corrected by teachers who think this is
“how they are.”  Because their parents are so and so, they are trained on how to mistreat others and because of that, we accept it “as it is.”

This idea of otherness does not end at one level. Poor children trained under trees are being “left to their whims” because that is how “they are.” They don’t deserve anything better because it’s a waste of time and energy and “as for those people” they don’t expect anything better.

These students have more in common than the way they are perceived. I realized that an American school which cost $20k is not really considered elite or expensive in America. And the standards for that school would not be high. I expected an expensive school to have enough resources and passion to permit its students to reach for the sky. And that means having science as part of the curriculum from day one, according to me and some other researchers.

But why is an expensive American school not providing anything better for its students? The answer lies in race once again.  American schools all over the continent realize that they don’t need to be more than the others, they just need to exist. They know that Americans would prefer to send their children to those schools as opposed to others. It has nothing to do with what they are learning but with whom they are learning. The other lesson I learned was that because these schools are in Africa, the parents are not expecting anything great from them anyways, regardless of American or not. As children of diplomats, these children will get ahead partly because of whom they know. They can also develop a narrative on their college applications to transform their difference into interesting. The non diplomat student can also get ahead by whom they know and the social capital of having attended that school.

To be continued.

Stolen phone

Cell phones in today’s Accra are what Jordan sneakers were in the US in the 1990s. Anyone risks potentially losing his life or limbs over a cell phone. They are being stolen by everyone: the house girl, the driver, the usher or the taxi driver. A taxi driver ran off with my phone in broad day light in front of the Lincoln Community School in Abelenkpe last week and here is what I learned.

1.     Always pay the driver when you get to destination and pay him while you are outside of the taxi. This gives you time to browse the seats and make sure that nothing was left behind. But have the money ready before hand.

2.    Try not to wear expensive jewelry in taxis. Taxi drivers will assume you have money if you are heading to an “expensive” part of town, wearing particular clothes, wearing expensive looking jewelry and holding particular phones. Everyone knows the value of phones. A friend took me to Madina market last week and she was annoyed that the beggar on the street was carrying a more expensive phone then she was. People know the brands, the make and the prices of phones so keep yours hidden.

3.    Always have children enter the taxi last and exit first. Just in case this sans ave would like to run off with your most prized possessions.

4.    Always take the taxi number down or the license plate. It can help to trace the madichon.

5.    Always exit taxi in area where there are people. Not down the street from them but exactly in front of them. He will have more people chasing him that way or he would shy from doing so. Exit especially in front of security guards. This is not to assume that they would do something, but their presence might keep the potential malfrendeng from running off with your stuff.

6.    Make sure he drives on main roads or roads that you know. Always look for potential exit in case.
7. File a police report.
8. Take that report to the brand maker/company main store and have them block the phone. Yes, you can!

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!