Day 8 - More preparations, meetings and local food

Much of the first half of the day was spent securing Fort William in Anomabo and also making preparations for a display of the past archaeological excavations for VIPs and dignitaries in the coming weeks. This included meeting with a local carpenter and getting new locks on some of the doors and making a request for more tables and some easels for displays.

After this was done we headed to Cape Coast Castle to meet with the Director and Head Curator about making more improvements to Fort William and plans for our future digging.

For fun I thought I would discuss some of the languages that are spoken in Ghana.

Fante is the language predominantly spoken along this part of the coast, but not the entire coastline of Ghana. Ashanti is the main language spoken just north. I have been told that Fante and Ashanti are similar with only a few differences. In Accra most people speak Twe.

Quick beginners Fante lesson:

Good morning (Moh-wah-chay or Mwah-chay)

Good afternoon (Moh-wah-hah or Mwah-hah)

Good evening (Moh-wah-joe or Mwah-joe)

These greetings are for one person only. To greet a group of people one can add Mem-may before the greeting.

Sleep well (Dah-yee-yay)

How are you? (Wah-poh-may)

God grace or given God’s grace (Nah-meh-ah-doom); this is a response to Wah-poh-may

Thank you (Mah-dah-see)

No thank you (Mee-soo mah-dah-see)

White person/stranger (Ah-broh-nee)

This last for white person is great. Little kids roam the village streets in Anomabo and once they see you they shout out AH-BROH-NEE! Some of them in groups will start chanting it and clapping. It makes for some fun and I try and greet them. Some of them become very shy and are a bit startled once I start speaking Fante to them. But they love to wave and of course ask for Ah-broh-nee cash cash cash. They also will use their bit of English that they know such as “Ah-broh-nee how are you?” and I will ask them the same thing and they will say “I am fine.” It is very cute.

I was very excited for dinner tonight. There is a corn meal based food known as kenkey that the locals eat and I have been asking our driver Peter about is incessantly…probably to the point that it was getting on his nerves. So while on the way back from Cape Coast Castle, Peter asked us if we should stop and get some. There is a strip along the main highway en route to Cape Coast that has a ton of women selling kinkey on the side of the road. Many of these women have consistent clients and likely attract new ones, but mostly they are referred to by word of mouth. Peter knew exactly which stand to stop at and he recommends her to anyone that desires kinkey if they are in this area. We stopped by Mama Joyce’s stand and purchased kenkey and another woman gave us a sample of fried shrimp. The shrimp wasn’t peeled and the head was still on it, but I just ripped the head off and went for it. The shrimp shell isn’t that bad if it’s fried people. You might want to try it like this…nice and crunchy.

Kenkey is not really consumed alone but rather with a stew of some sorts and some type of meat. Stew in Ghana is not a thick soup like Americans think it to be but more so just a thick sauce. Peter informed us that we could find a spot in town that would make the stew, and also prepare some fish, likely some type of red fish or snapper, it would be ideal.

A local bar/shop in town that we have given a lot of business in the past, known as Ma Lizzy’s, was just the place to ask to prepare the food. Ma Lizzy is very nice to us Ah-broh-nees and was extremely happy to take on the task.

We went back to Fort William for a few hours to take a load off because the stew takes some time to prepare. It is made with tomatoes, onions, crushed red pepper, and probably palm oil, and cooked on high until most everything is boiled down to a pulp.

We ate the kenkey just like banku, with our hands, picking off pieces and dipping it in the stew and clumping it with fried fish. The kenkey tasted like moist, condensed corn bread. Pretty tasty. A full belly makes for a fair night’s rest.