Thou Shall not Steal...

These words are not taken lightly in Ghana. Although Ghanaians do not constitutionally practice the "eye-for-an-eye" type law, there is a brutal unspoken process that occurs when someone dares steal from his fellow man. I have been able to observe and hear about many examples of such brutality and I think it is the hardest cultural barrier I’ve had to face. Although crime is not exceptionally grave in Ghana compared to some of its Sub-Saharan African neighbours, theft continues to penetrate society out of what I feel is a result of desperation amidst extreme poverty. The most commonly stolen good here is the cell phone from which most of my experiences here have shown. Many of you remember that my friend Jody’s phone (along with her camera) was slit from her bag and taken at a tro tro station back in September. She always said that although she found it very difficult to deal with the loss (especially the pictures on memory cards in her camera case) she said it would have been more difficult to deal with what might have happened if she had realized at the time and yelled thief.

The thing is, if she had realized her belongings were gone before getting on that tro tro and had yelled 'thief!', the man might have died. In Ghana, if you steal something you will be lynched. People will immediately raise alarm, catch the suspect and begin beating them, most often to death. One might ask why someone would not just arrest the suspect and send them to prison, but most Ghanaians would reply that putting them in prison means they will only steal from someone else once they’ve been let free. Ghanaians feel that proper justice is achieved if they take matters into their own hands. Something tells me that even the authorities don’t mind this approach because they are already overwhelmed by a system that lacks capacity.

A month after we arrived there was a brutal killing down the street from our office, because thieves in a stolen taxi drove by a woman and snatched her purse. She immediately called for help and aid came in the form of a car crash. Someone crashed the taxi and then dragged the four men from the vehicle. The one with the purse managed to escape by firing shots from his gun, while the others were beaten brutally, stripped of their clothes and burned to death.

Another incident involved my housemate Caitlin who was on a tro tro and waiting at a stop. She put her phone on her lap to do something and someone came by the window and grabbed her phone from her lap! Someone beside her noticed and yelled “thief” at which time everyone piled out of the tro tro, chased down the man, gave Caitlin her phone and then she began pleading with the witnesses to stop beating him. She was briskly ushered back onto the tro tro, when the crowd started to pick up rocks and the car took off without her ever knowing what the man’s fate or punishment would be.

And just after Christmas, someone came into our office and when the secretary left her desk to go to the store room, her phone was swiped from the desk. Unfortunately the man was not caught, but one can imagine what might have happened outside our office walls had he been discovered.

I’m not sure how to answer to this behaviour. I am aware that many people don’t trust the authorities to see justice through and for that sake feel the need to take matters into their own hands. However, I cannot see how one can follow the commandment “thou shall not steal” so fervently but then disobey the commandment “thou shall not kill”? Who are we to decide the life of another? I think this ultimately the hardest cross-cultural difficulty that I have and I also find it a conflict of faith. My faith teaches me to love my enemies even if they are sinners and to pray that God will grant them mercy and pardon. My faith does not say I can judge another man or take his life in my hands, because that can only be left to God.

CAN 2008

I’ve never read Franklin Foer’s book, How Football Explains the World, but after living in Ghana during the African Cup of Nations, I am beginning to understand his hypothesis. CAN 2008, which culminated this Sunday with Egypt’s victory over Cameroun, brought 16 countries together to 4 cities in Ghana for the 20-day tournament. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a football buff but you could find me on match days with my face painted, waving the Ghanaian flag and cursing the opposing team. In fact, I even surprised myself at how excited I got about the whole thing. I even lost my temper at the Guiness Fan Park last week when Cameroun scored Ghana, a goal that cost Ghana a trip to the finals. Mind you, it was difficult not to get carried away, what with all the 24-hour whistle-blowing-horn-honking-flag-waving-Ghana-cheering action.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that football reveals any Earth-shattering truths about the world, but it has highlighted a number of interesting aspects of the way society works. I also feel it has gone a small way to explain aspects of Ghana’s politics, development, cross-cultural relations that I had not thought too much about. For instance, never have the feelings of Ghanaians, towards their former President, J.J. Rawlings been more evident than during CAN 2008. The former President was offered VIP tickets to the matches, which he refused and opted rather to sit in the popular stand with “his people”. He even received a warm welcome at the airport when he flew from Nigeria in economy class for the opening match. While he was sitting in the stands hooting and hollering with is fellow Ghanaians, President Kufuor was sitting demurely in the State box. The sentiment of Ghanaians was obvious. Somehow football managed to explain the intricacies of Ghana’s federal political parties.

Apart from politics, CAN 2008 has also opened a whole can of worms on corporate investment and development. Ghana has received a major tourist boost from the tournament with accompanying investment in hotels, transportation, sporting facilities and beautification. The major sponsor of the tournament was surprisingly Pepsi, which seems strange in a Coca Cola frenzied environment. However, Coca Cola did manage to make its presence known amidst a strong Pepsi presence by creating one of the catchiest fads in beverage advertisement. Coca Cola coined the slogan, “It’s Brrrr on the Coke side of life”, inciting a domino effect of people saying “Brrrr” at games, in the bar and on the streets. Somehow football managed to explain the competitiveness of corporate rivalry.

And of course, there is the obvious explanation that football can offer about the world, that sport can somehow ignite that Olympics-style optimism and hope that all society’s ills can be forgotten, if only for a short time. Football has some magical way of fostering global unity and cross-cultural understanding. A tournament that brings together cultures as north as Cairo to as south as Cape Town with numerous religions, languages, and races in between is bound to nurture some form of Pan-African unity. If you saw Ghanaians putting aside their animosity towards Cameroun for wiping out their team in the semi-finals or the Ghanaians waving Egyptian flags at the finals you would think the same. Or maybe that's my own optimism coming out? But even the fact that the finals brought together teams representing French- and Arabic-speaking Africa in an Anglophone country, must symbolize some form of unity, right? I know that this sense of euphoria will go as quickly as it came and many people will return to the daily struggles in their lives. The Sudanese must turn their focus again to conflict-ridden Darfur, Nigerians will turn away from their Super Eagles to face ongoing corruption and oil challenges, South Africans will turn to hosting World Cup 2010 and facing the challenge of trying to lose their title as the crime and rape capital before the world comes to its door. This is to mention only a few of the challenges that the continent currently faces. Despite these challenges, I still want to believe that there is one thing in this world that can bring people from different cultures together to laugh, cry, share and learn. Football somehow manages to do just that. So I won’t let my Ghana flag fall to the floor, nor will I let anyone dispute the fact that football somehow explains how a little black and white ball can bring joy to this world.

Happy Birthday Betty and Jody!

This year I spent my 24t birthday salsa dancing around a pool and eating chocolate cake on January 30th. Six days later we celebrated Jody's birthday on February 5th eating pizza on the beach and bowling. Yes, there is bowling in Africa! Thanks to all my Ghanaian friends who made my day special. (The staff at HelpAge Ghana, my roomies, Aaron, and the boys that sang me Happy Birthday in tenor voices at Coconut Grove...Kwesi, Sammy, Akiem and Jay). I am also grateful for messages from friends at home and a nice call from mom and dad.