Things that don't fit into most people's Africa cliché but are perfectly normal in Ghana
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 |
| As easy to get by as water |
As a European living in
an African country one cannot help but realize that something is wrong with
most people’s perception of African countries or Africa in general. And that’s
also an issue: some people still tend to see Africa as one country or think
that there is something like the one African culture. Of course there are
similarities but just because something is like that in Ghana does not mean
that it has to be like that in Kenia and Malawi too.
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| My second home - Agona Swedru in the Central Region of Ghana |
So to avoid any
misconceptions: I’m an eighteen year old German living in southern Ghana.
Everything I see, I see from my perspective as a European. No matter how hard
you try, you will always tend to see things through the eyes of the culture
you’ve been raised in, so please forgive me if I don’t get something a Ghanaian
would. This post is supposed to give people in “western” countries impressions
about an African country (Ghana, West Africa in this case) that are different
to the usual ones like: “Africa is a beautiful country with an exciting nature
but unfortunately they have Ebola but no schools” I don’t have any
statistics to boast with, this is just how I experience it.
So there we go:
No. 1: Mobile Phones
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| one of my colleagues connected in the classroom |
Most people in Ghana
going up from the age of 16 have mobile phones, it’s not an uncommon thing at
all. Also it’s nothing reserved to the rich and upper classes; the taxi
drivers, the market women, the hawkers, all of them have a phone. These people
are connected: WhatsApp, Facebook…the full range.
Even the grandmother in
the family I’m living with has a mobile phone, something my own grandmother in
Germany, who is ten years younger, would never even think of.
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| Need some credit? |
Plus everything that
has something to do with phones is so easy to get by. You just have to walk a
few meters through town and you will see phones, batteries, chargers,
protective cases and SIM-cards being sold at every corner. If you ask me, it’s
easier to buy credit to recharge your phone in Ghana than it is in Germany.
- Sarah
- Sarah
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