GHexpat

I had known Natural Langdon almost my entire life.  His mom and my mom were colleagues and furthermore besties.  Due to that relationship, even though we weren't neighbors, we did spend a lot of time together.  I even stayed with his family for a couple of weeks back in my early teens but had pretty much lost contact with him throughout the entire 1990s and aughts. Then, circa 2013, Nat reached out to me on Facebook.  By then, both of our lives had changed significantly.  I was now living in Ghana.  And Natural, though still based in Brooklyn, had become a globetrotter.  Furthermore, he had also, surprisingly to me, transitioned into something like a Rastafarianism, though he didn't smoke trees or anything like that, nor was he overly religious. Nat expressed a desire to come and visit me in Ghana.  I was all for the idea, considering that encouraging other people to come and see the Gateway to Africa was one of my inspirations for expatriating....

The titular conflict is a good example of how what's relayed in the mainstream media between the two hemispheres - or let's say between the First World and the Third World - isn't always an accurate or holistic understanding of what's happening on the ground.  A blunter way of putting it, from the outside looking in, is that the American public tends to take a defensive, politically-correct stance when choosing sides in emotionally-charged, consequential debates.  And this is despite the fact that they may only have a cursory understanding of the matter at hand, without knowing or particularly caring for facts outside of their immediate observation. WHY DOES IT MATTER? No matter what part of the world you live in, people have opinions, and how we feel about certain subjects doesn't always agree.  But why it tends to matter more when it comes to Americans is due to the way they dominate the (international) media.  Furthermore, public opinion stateside can and sometim...

The ever-outspoken US President Donald Trump recently made statements - which I'm pissed off the likes of Afrocentrists and pan-Africanists - about American slavery.  Said statements were issued a coule of months ago, and basically, his argument is that slavery in the United States was not as detrimental or cruel to Blacks as it is usually presented.  That's a powerful sentiment for someone so prominent to express publicly, and you would expect some major backlash from the Black community.  But I have yet to come across news of any African-American celebrity,  besides Spike Lee , addressing the matter. WHAT WAS AMERICAN SLAVERY? My understanding of capitalism is that slavery always exists within such systems, even if not officially.  Ideally, regardless of what part of the world you're referring to or what type of socioeconomic system respectively extant, measures would be in place to ensure that workers are not ruthlessly exploited, and said measures woul...

Most Ghanaian fraudsters aren't bad people.  The likes of romance scammers may have ethical issues when it comes to the pursuit of money, but they usually aren't the type of people you would describe as the epitome of evil.  They aren't the types of hardened criminals you more commonly find in places like the United States. AMBITION & SURVIVAL IN GHANA In anthropology, there's this concept called cultural relativism .  As a (cultural) anthropologist, one's job is to study foreign cultures by actually living within them - as would a native - for an extended period of time.  One thing I've learned living in Ghana is that people want and need money just as they do stateside, but the access to that type of cash just isn't here.  For instance, the government of Ghana doesn't have the wherewithal to borrow trillions of dollars, as its American counterpart does. In the U.S., young, disenfranchised men who want to make money like grown-ups tend to get into e...

I always find it funny - for lack of a better word - how historically the American media has depicted Africans as being primitive or intellectually inferior, yet now, in the information age, some Americans      are so intimidated by African fraudsters that some don’t trust any netizen from the Motherland.   I’ll admit that the fraud situation is a lot worse in Ghana than it was a generation ago.   But to help put things in perspective, look at it like this.   In the U.S., disenfranchised and disillusioned youth tend to get into drug dealing in the name of generating income.   But in this part of the world, those same type of people take up fraud, most often via the internet. I was inspired to write this post by a Ghanaian friend who recently told me he came across a video whereas an African-American couple, apparently with their children, decided to move to Ghana, got beat in the head by fraudsters and responded by damning the entire country.   ...

I remember when I was a child, growing up in the 'hoods of New York City, witnessing hordes of women, including my own mom, struggle with single motherhood.  Back then, I was naive and unlearned in the ways of the world.  In fact, it wasn't until I got into the college and began formally studying social sciences that I really came to appreciate how important responsible fathers are to the upkeep of a family. Later, upon moving the Africa, I also began to understand the role that actual patriarchs play.  But even as a child, I was able to gather that something was wrong, that single mothers were under an inordinate amount of pressure, especially financially. In my naivete, I was under the impression that my generation was the first and also would be the last composed of a high population of single-parent children.  My mother, Gloria Hayes, grew up under a committed dad.  Moreover the television, arguably the most powerful form of socialization in American society...

I had written before about how one of the most difficult adjustments to living in Ghana has been in terms of dietary changes.  More specifically, the foods I grew up enjoying in the United States tend to be either difficult to find, uncomfortably expensive or outright unavailable in this part of the world. And I know, from chatting with a couple of friends, that Ghanaians face similar challenges stateside.  For instance, one homey from Ghana told me how when he's in the States, he makes groundnut soup from peanut butter. Normally, groundnut soup is made from groundnut (aka peanut) paste, which itself is produced naturally.  Meanwhile, peanut butter is a processed supermarket food, besides being sweetened, thus meaning it's not an ideal alternative for groundnut paste when it comes to making soup.  But you do what you have to do when you're living in a part of the globe you're not accustomed to. PROLIERATION OF WESTERN-LIKE SNACKS IN GHANA When I first came to Ghana,...

There are two basic life lessons I've learned living under the sun in Ghana .  One is that the sun affects everything that it touches.  And second is the first rule of fashion being practicality. I'm currently residing in a city up in the mountains, a part of the country which for years I've heard Ghanaians refer to as being "cold", specifically during the nighttime.  I'll admit that sometimes, it is noticeably cooler up here in the evenings than other parts of Ghana I've resided in at lower altitudes.  Occasionally, I may even turn off the fans at night before going to sleep.  So the relatively-chilly air is real, but Koforidua and other places like this definitely aren't "cold" at night, at least not be Western standards.  But that said, I have yet to reside up here during the harmattan, which is actually the coldest time of year in this part of the world. NO COATS IN THE RAINY SEASON Back when I decided to relocate to Ghana, I was doing a...

A homey recently sent me pics of marijuana being openly sold and used on the street in the Bronx , and I was in a state of shock. My homey Seriez Premiere recently took a trip up to New York City and sent a me couple of pics which verified what I've reading about a lot in the New York Post of late, that marijuana has indeed been legalized in the Big Apple, and New Yorkers are out and about, smoking freely. THE 20TH CENTURY NYC WEED SCENE As someone who grew up in NYC but hasn't been there for a long time since, it's difficult to fathom this.  When I was a child, virtually everyone I knew who smoked weed were known outlaws.  I only had one homey, this dude named Dale , who I knew of that blazed but wasn't a bad boy.  He's the one who put me on to Stevie Wonder , who went on to become my favorite musician. One day I was at his crib, and, being the unusual youngster that he was, Dale was listening to Songs in the Key of Life while smoking away, which was the first ...