Uncle Phillip is the caretaker of both
The construction of
A narrative for my family and friends to follow while I travel to Ghana and make my way from Accra to Anomabo in the Central Region for the next 43 days. The goal of this expedition is to aid in the interpretation of historic Kormantse, a colonial fort which played a major role in the African Diaspora and African Diaspora societies of the present and recent past in the Americas, particularly the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
Uncle Phillip is the caretaker of both
The construction of
Just in case you don’t know, I’m a human bone expert. I am a physical anthropologist and an archaeologist that specializes in archaeological human skeletons (in the
Some people might call it glorified grave robbing, and that’s fine. I call it answering questions as to what life might have been in the past.
During the 2009 excavations, two intact burials were exhumed. I proceeded to unpack and clean the first burial. I noticed the bones of the legs were very small, short, and not fully developed. This told me that this individual was likely between 5-10 years of age at death. I then took a quick peak at the teeth, and sure enough, this individual was likely 4-8 years of age at death, mean 6 years.
Tom had to take Aimee back to the airport early in the morning and I slept in until Tom arrived back at the Jempat. Peter drove Tom and Aimee to the airport and then Tom picked up our Dodge Voyager that we will be cruising around in.
We went to another part of Adenta where the leader of the project. Dr. E. Kofi Agorsah. has a house. There we grabbed a number of artifact boxes, tents, and mattresses. After I leave, Tom and Kofi will continue to run the excavations with a number of student volunteers from both
After Tom and I loaded up the van we were off to the Central Region; back to the Gold Coast, back to Anomabo, back to life as usual at
We left
We stopped for lunch at a place about 45 minutes from our destination. I wanted to have more banku and ordered it. The waitress was taken aback by a white person ordering banku and she proceeded to tell me that I had to eat it all; banku and tilapia…no problem, all gone.
We still made great time back to
We arrived at
Today we head back to
We got up early in the morning and headed to a junction about 20 minutes west. To get to
The other option is to take a small 9-person van known as a cho cho that escorts people to many places around the area. The cho cho drivers in
Another interesting thing is the hand motions that are used while in the cho chos and on the side of the road. Most often there is someone with their arm outside the cho cho window making hand signals as well as those on the side of the road communicating with the cho chos and drivers hopefully willing to pick up a hitch-hiker. When zooming by, Ghanaians in the cho cho and the side of the road will point to the sky meaning that the cho cho is going a far distance (and making less local stops) or the hitch-hiker wants to go far. Conversely, if one points down, this means that the person would like to only go a short distance; a little more complex than just a thumbs up for a ride.
We made it back to the Jempat in Adenta, dropped off our things and headed straight to the
The museum appeared fairly well kept with artifacts, pictures, and recreations from many tribal areas of
There are some examples of bark cloth and a number of ceremonial seats for chiefs. There were also some amazing instruments made of wood and wire including a lyre and yes a xylophone! One of my favorite pieces was a necklace made of human teeth. A number of other pieces included wood sculptures depicting everyday events and a recreation of a tribal kitchen, which included a mortar and pestle presumably to pound cassava and plantains. Other areas of the bottom floor had a history of the slave trade with many captions about places that I have already been like Elmina and
Upstairs were some displays of archaeological excavations that had been conducted in the recent past in areas just north of
I love museums, but they always drain me of energy. After a long day of travel and nerdiness, I relaxed in my hotel room yet the museum actually motivated me to do more nerdy things by conducting some more background research on the history of bioarchaeological research in the
Early this morning I could not sleep. I’m not entirely sure why. So at about 2:30am I decided that I can’t go back to sleep and I should do something to pass the time; maybe it will make me feel tired enough to go back to sleep. I thought catching up on my blog for a few hours was the perfect thing to do. And I did so for about two hours.
Two hours later I turned off my computer and headed back up the steps and toward my tent. Tom and Aimee were sleeping in a tent nearby and I wanted to do my best to keep quite.
So I did but I also did not want to shine my headlamp around and wake them up. As I finished the stairs and turned the corner, I tripped over what I now know to be the ventilation shaft of a female slave dungeon and scraped my toe, shin, and knee. My knee had by far the deepest gash and was bleeding pretty badly down my leg. I quickly washed my leg and found our first aid kit. I spent about an hour treating myself and then laid down at about 5:30am. Our team was planning to get up at 6:00am.
At around 6:15am I woke up…er simply got up from lying in my tent for 45 minutes in uncomfortable-ness as my right leg pulsated.
We took down our tents and packed up our belongings and headed just west down the road to the Anomabo Beach Resort. The Gold Coast is littered with beach resorts but this one is fairly nice with good accommodations, close to
The next two days I spent lying on the beach, tending my leg, relaxing, reading, and eating a mix of local food and Euroamerican cuisine.
I didn’t take any pics. I just enjoyed some of their accommodations, like a hot shower and a good toilet as well as some peace and quite. Since
The Anomabo Beach Resort is the perfect getaway from
Today was not truly eventful. Tom went to
Yes, at present, there is neither a toilet nor a shower in the fort itself. Ghanaian males only use the toilet when they have to take a crap. If they simply need to urinate, they will pretty much do so at anywhere I suppose. I have seen far too many people urinating where they please here. We have a super secret spot in the fort where we urinate but if we need to go number 2 there are a few options. One option is to go to one of the nearby rest stops or hotels and use their public restrooms that are fairly well kept; by far the best option and the most executed. Another option is to use a bathroom which Tom termed a “violently abused” public toilet in the village. Anomabo, like other villages on the coast, is a fishing village. When we sit on the bastion of the fort on the far south/southeasterly side, we can see a number of fishing vessels that go out every morning. So, the public bathroom is used and managed mostly by fishermen I presume.
To use the public toilet, it costs about 5 pesawas, which is about 3 cents. But since we are not from around here (that is Ah-broh-nees), the boys that manage the restrooms tried to charge us 1 cedi (about 60 cents). We told them there was no way we were paying that and we told them that it was 5 pesawas. They asked us how we knew and we pointed to the wall of the bathroom that said “5 pesawas”. Trying to swindle an Ahbrohnee huh? After you pay the fee they hand you about half a page of a 5 year old Italian newspaper. And believe me if even I could read/speak Italian, this newspaper would still not be intended for reading material. Luckily I had toilet paper with me. Next, you grab a bucket so that you can put water in the toilet bowl and flush it. I won’t go into detail of the toilets, but it was easily the most disgusting bathroom I have ever been in. And I have only used this toilet once and only once during my stay thus far, thank goodness, and hopefully it will stay that way.
The third option is to just crap on the beach, and this is what most of the locals do. This could be because most people can’t afford a toilet of their own, can’t afford the 5 pesawas to use the public toilet, or this is just how they have been taught as an acceptable means of discarding their waste. If you walk along the Anomabo beach in the morning/afternoon, you will find a number of children of all ages playing soccer, nearly three or four games going on. Up on the sand you will notice the area where high tide has made its mark on the beach. This is where you will see people of all ages squatting and taking a crap. Once high tide rolls through, it washes away the waste. I can’t wait until we have a working toilet in
And maybe a proper shower might be developed for the fort. This is how you presently “shower” in
So yes a shower and a toilet soon would be great. We are preparing to leave for the Anomabo Beach Resort tomorrow for some r and r then head back to Accra to pick up our van (it has been in the shop getting a new transmission) so that Peter doesn’t have to keep driving us all over the place.
A real shower and a cleaner toilet are on their way! I am told that the Anomabo Beach Resort has water heaters for their showers. Now this will be a treat!
Much of the first half of the day was spent securing
After this was done we headed to
For fun I thought I would discuss some of the languages that are spoken in
Fante is the language predominantly spoken along this part of the coast, but not the entire coastline of
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
Kenkey is not really consumed alone but rather with a stew of some sorts and some type of meat. Stew in
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
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.