The Adae Festival

The Drummers on the Look-out.

Greetings again from Kumasi! I've been quite busy with the research project this past week, but tonight I have some free time to share a rather unique experience.

This past Sunday I finally had the opportunity to see the Adae Festival at Kumasi's Manhyia Palace, home of the Asantehene--that is, the king of the Ashanti people. Basically, the Adae occurs every 42 days on the Ashanti calendar, and it is the occasion where paramount chiefs, who rule over smaller territories, from all over Ghana come to Manhyia to pay tribute to the Asantehene. It is a colourful, boisterous experiences, replete with praise-singing, actual sabre-rattling, drumming, dancing, more praise-singing and all sorts of ceremonial.

The Chiefs' Stools. [Yes, the blue one is a plastic Rubbermaid stool.]

According to one of my Kumasi-based friends, this festival has been going on, basically without interruption and with few changes, for the past four hundred years. The changes were quite interesting. For instance, the Asantehene's entourage is preceded by the Executioner--who, as it turned out, was a really old man, who walked with some difficulty, but donned a leopard-skin cap and carried various--rusty--blades. I asked, "so does this executioner still execute?", to which the answer was, luckily, no. I read somewhere that under a previous Asantehene anyone who tried to take a picture of the Asantehene would be prevailed upon to surrender his camera--and then he would happen to be decapitated. The current Asantehene appears to be a bit more lenient: you don't have to surrender your camera. (Only kidding).

Schnapps for the Asantehene. [Notice the huge royal umbrellas in the background.]

Under the current Asantehene, the Adae Festival has become more open to foreigners, and we are allowed to take as many pictures as we want, so long as we don't interrupt the proceedings, something that was made known to us several times. I was certainly fine with that, seeing how this was an actual traditional ritual and not some Disney attraction, but that realization was unfortunately, sadly lost on many of the other obrunis (about 15 of us, total) attending. Quite a few of them rode in to Manhyia in SUVs owned by a not-to-be-named multilateral development agency. These people carried multiple, higher-end DSLRs (i.e. a D300 loaded with an 18-200 zoom) as well as video cameras, etc. Basically, I think they felt entitled to walk around as they pleased, get as close to the action as possible (wait, what about that zoom lens?), tell people to move around and disobey orders from the various attendants, even a few chiefs, to step aside. Honestly, I was a bit disgusted with some of their brazenness.

Preparing the Drums.

As for me, I had my trusty prime 35mm lens (still saving up to buy that 18-200). A fixed lens in this situation, where we aren't supposed to move around, presents a few difficulties in terms of composition. The Crimson photographer who advised me on my camera and lens purchase told me that a fixed lens (in her case, a prime 50mm), while not having the obvious advantages of being able to zoom in on a subject, challenged her to give more thought to her composition. Having used this lens for the past few months, I've really come to appreciate that sentiment and think more of how to portray people and life in Ghana.

All Eyes on the King.

I spent most of the festival hanging out in the drummers' gallery, towards the back of the Manhyia plaza, a gallery filled with drums of various sizes, including talking drums, that the Ashantis used to communicate, especially during war time. This was my first experience with talking drums, and all I basically knew about them was that they were used during the Stairs Expedition by Katangan spies to gauge the size and capacity of the encroaching European forces. Such a crazy story. I think for this festival those drums were used to augment the praises to the Asantehene and announce the arrival of various chiefs.

The Talking Drums.

One major highlight of this particular festival was that it was also attended by John Kufour, former president of Ghana. Given that Kumasi is the stronghold of the NPP, the current opposition, most people were ecstatic to see Kufour, and the line to shake his hand (no, I was not included) took about half an hour to cycle through--before another line started. His attendance was interesting in that chiefs and traditional leaders are not supposed to get mixed up with 'formal' government, but Kufour was given the seat of honour, directly facing the Asantehene. Furthermore, when greeting the Asantehene, it is traditional for men to lower the left shoulder of their 'toga' outfit to signify that they are not hiding a weapon; I don't think Kufour had to do that. But, in any case, certainly a cool experience to see him there.

The Crowd Going Wild for Kufour.

After the Adae I decided to take a stroll around Kumasi, and happened to find a lively game of street soccer. More pictures of the Adae and of the soccer game below.

The Crescendo.

The Apprentice Drummers.

The Royal Umbrella.

Kumasi Street Soccer. [Yes, despite the open drain, that ball is still in bounds.]

A Break in Play. [Yes, that taxi actually stalled and the players had to push it to get it moving and off their pitch. Oh, Africa.]

The Star.

"If you kill a thousand, you must kill a thousand more."

I have decided that Kumasi is now one of my favourite cities in the world. Unlike Accra, Kumasi actually feels like what one would expect a colonially significant, West African city to be: noisy, cramped, energetic, historical. As the seat of the Ashanti empire, Kumasi is by no means lacking in tradition and history--a tour around the Kumasi fort will yield countless pictures of the Anglo-Ashanti wars, the Gold Coast Regiments of WWI and WWII, scenes of struggle and regality. It's a place that's hard to describe, but you can certainly feel that there is something special about it. Even today, with modern democracy, Kumasi holds strongly to its historical Ashanti roots, with the King of the Ashantis (the Asantehene) being one of the most recognizable national figures. Hopefully I'll be back in Kumasi next weekend for the once-in-six-weeks Adae festival, where all the chiefs in Ashanti Region (and even beyond) come to Kumasi in their full regalia to bring tribute to the Asantehene: apparently there's a lot of kente majesty, dancing, drumming and goat slaughtering. Should be fun. Except for the goats, that is.

Continuing on the politics line, Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti Region, is the stronghold of the New Patriotic Party, who lost the elections to the National Democratic Congress. Though things are starting to change, the NPP has historically been associated with the Ashanti region and ethnic group. On the six-hour STC bus ride up to Kumasi, I found myself caught in between opposing sides of a rather heated political debate literally between one side of the bus and the other. STC bus rides are typically loud, either because of screaming Nigerian movies or the radio at full blast, with a mixed arrangement of hip hop, Nigerian pop and American country. This time, however, the driver made the critical mistake of turning on a political radio program, which pitted politicians from both parties in a debate about, I think, Ghanaian citizenship (i.e. how does one become a citizen? economic activities/taxation of the diaspora, etc.). The argument was half Twi, half English, so it is possible they were talking about something entirely different. But a lively bus ride, nonetheless.

Kumasi is home to two famous institutions: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Kumasi Asante Kotoko (perennial soccer champions). This past trip, I had the chance to visit both. My university-campus experience here in Ghana has largely been confined to Legon and University of Cape Coast, so I was definitely happy to see the third part of the triumvirate. Billing themselves as the premier science and technology university of West Africa, "Tech", as everyone in Kumasi calls it, has produced many of Ghana's finest scientists, engineers and leaders across many different fields. Founded in 1961 by, you guessed it, Kwame Nkrumah, Tech already has quite the history, complete with intra-university rivalries.

I find it quite interesting that these big three universities in Ghana follow a residential system similar to that of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, wherein students are assigned to particular halls (aka colleges or houses) and loyalties to one's hall (Harvard's houses, for instance, consist of Lowell and 12 others) run just as deep as loyalty to the school itself. Well, maybe more to the halls. I toured Tech with a Kumasi-based colleague, and he described the history behind the various halls, sporting such names as Unity, Continental and Republic. I think my favourite rivalry was that between Unity Hall and another hall popularly known as Katanga. Made me wonder if secession was a big problem over there. But, yes ,the Katanga residents do have the reputation for being pranksters.

Tech is also quite interesting for its arts school, which trains artists from all over Ghana, who then sell their crafts at places such as the National Cultural Centre in Kumasi (highly recommended) or at various locations in Accra. My favourite part of the Tech arts school was the makeshift sculpture garden displaying various works in progress. Most works showcased a decidedly African theme, revolving around pan-African unity, tribal royalty and so forth. Here are some fun pictures, all shot with the prime 35:

The Tech Main Gate. Note that it is shaped like an Ashanti stool.

The Organisation of African Unity.

Point Taken.

[I can't think of a title for this one. And so begins the first Out of West Africa caption contest. Winner gets a free subscription to this blog or something. Losers get outlines of my future papers.]

Our turn to eat yet?

Focus on Africa.

The Dedication.


The other highlight from Kumasi was watching Kumasi Asante Kotoko play Kpando Hearts of Lions in the Ghana Sports Writers Cup. Kotoko is probably the most popular team in all of Ghana, and it is very likely that every other taxi you pick up in Ghana will sport a Kotoko flag. My Kumasi colleague explained to me that Kotoko had a rather interesting, warlike motto (the title of this post) that stemmed from Ashanti folklore. Basically, if you are terrible enough to kill a thousand people, you better stay on your guard because a thousand people from the village will come hunt you down, so then you have to kill them. And so forth. Until you get tired. In other words, stop at 999. Rather violent motto to have, no? Hearts of Lions ended up winning the match, much to my surprise, but luckily we didn't see anyone carrying out this motto after the match.

Before the match, the stadium jumbo screen displayed the Chelsea match, a team that might actually be more popular in Ghana than Kotoko given the fact that Michael Essien plays for them. It took me a few minutes to figure out why people were jumping up and screaming when there was clearly no one on the actual soccer pitch. Ah, yes, Essien and Lampard on the screen. Makes sense.

Chelsea scores.

The other cool thing that happened to me last week was that I got to fly back from Kumasi to Accra! I have to say I'm a bit of an aviation enthusiast, and this CityLink Saab 340, perhaps my third flight in a prop-jet, provided no shortage of fun. Thirty-five minute plane ride versus seven hours on a bumpy bus? And they served sandwiches. Heaven.

Saab 340 at Kumasi Airport.

"Heroes get remembered, but legends never die..."

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks--I got back from meetings and data gathering in Kumasi last Tuesday (I'll write the Kumasi-specific post after this one) and dived right into the maelstrom that is interviewer training, a process which took the full week. In short: training 75 interviewers to understand a 65-page English-language survey, with correct, uniform translations into Twi, is not an easy task. Training will get its own post after the Kumasi post. In any case, I finally have a day off, and am spending the afternoon listening to jazz and blues at one of my favourite restaurants in Accra (it has wireless, too!), finishing off a plate of spaghetti bolognaise, to be chased soon after by chocolate mousse and espresso. Glorious.

A couple weekends ago, I had the opportunity to join David and the baseball NGOs to see Ghana's premier little-league team practice. This team is actually in Cote d'Ivoire this weekend for a national-level tournament, possibly some kind of West Africa Little-League World Series. Having grown up with youth soccer, I am a huge fan of youth sports, and it was great just watching these kids have a good time. Two of my favourite movies as a kid, which I would still watch without hesitation today, were The Sandlot and Little Giants, movies that I feel every American-raised kid must see. Or something. "You're killing me, Smalls!"

The coaches, who were members of Ghana's national baseball team, were very dedicated and worked the kids hard to develop their skills, while also ensuring that they had fun. This team had been built up by Ghanaians, which I had found especially encouraging, and it seemed like the number of kids wanting to play far exceeded the spots available on the roster--but that seems like it will change as more teams get added in Tema (for some reason, Tema is baseball central in Ghana). Even just driving around the city, we noticed quite a few fields with backstops, and another group of kids playing baseball.

I, for one, have not dedicated a lot of thought yet to the role of sports in development--though this is one of David's areas of keen interest. For me, I think it's an interesting intersection to explore from the social-capital angle: can youth team sports generate lasting, positive externalities in terms of the ability to form social networks and cooperate through difficult times? does baseball do a better job at this than other sports like, say, soccer? how do more individualistic team sports, like baseball (where players have more uniform chances of scoring) affect mentalities related to creativity and daring relative to more group-oriented sports? I just had an interesting conversation with my colleague, Noah, about baseball statistics: he argues, and I am inclined to agree with him, that baseball players can be "greedy" in their individual statistics in that another successfully stolen base, another home run, another strikeout (for the pitcher) helps the team, whereas attempting to score more in, say, basketball and soccer could be detrimental to the team (i.e. you should have passed it to the open guy, etc.). (I guess being more "selfish" in baseball could be risky to the team if you increase your likelihood of injury--capital depreciation, eh?) Given the dominance of soccer here in West Africa, it might be difficult to assess the impact of baseball on youth cooperation, but I think some cool cooperation-based field experiments--perhaps tracking these kids over time--might be possible on this front.

Anyways, I am theorizing too much for this blog post. Here are the fun pictures. All shots on the D60 with the prime 35. Yes, that means I was close in on the action--nothing like having the camera in one hand and a baseball glove in the other (for self/camera-defense from wayward foul tips!).

Warming up.

Criss-cross runs.

The ladies, practicing the softball toss.

The dugout.

Michael, the coach, assigning positions. (NB: He has the correct uniform on. I can forgive him for the St. Louis hat.)

The Cy Young Contender.

Perfecting the lunge.

The Slugger.

Working the count.

Batting practice.

The Delivery Man.

Aid and Local Justice in Africa

Rahim Kanani at the Justice and Human Rights Domain at Harvard's Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organizations has recently published an insightful interview with Amaka Megwalu on the intersection of the international aid industry with the delivery of justice in Africa. Megwalu, at grad student at Harvard Law, is the first author of "Dilemmas of Justice and Reconciliation: Rwandans and the Gacaca Courts", which is forthcoming in the African Journal of International and Comparative Law, and is a veteran of international aid and post-conflict resolution in Africa.

Megwala highlights the importance of locally driven approaches in effecting meaningful change, whether for justice delivery or aid, in general. My experiences conducting research with Ghanaian NGOs and civil servants certainly backs up this assertion. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

While there are no easy answers, we may perhaps learn from our observations. In my experience, the development industry is more successful where there are fewer expatriate staff members and development agencies are smaller and focused on one or two programs. It is more successful where national staff members are given more management responsibility for development programs and expatriate staff members serve in more support/advisory roles.
~~
I definitely think that local systems of justice should be institutionalized within the broader system of international justice. Often, international justice mechanisms are better than local initiatives at recognizing faults on both sides of a conflict. However, local initiatives are much better at encouraging public participation and fostering reconciliation.

From my conversations with Ghanaian farmers over the past few weeks, it seems like there is a bit of resentment towards aid agencies that put naive foreigners in local-management positions and leave out national staff--a situation that often breeds broken promises and makes future work for researchers (i.e. me) all the more difficult. In particular, these farmers have become skeptical of forming cooperatives because so many foreign aid agencies have tried to deploy this approach but then back out of their commitments. However, it is the actors (whether NGOs, universities or the government) who understand the grassroots needs, usually with the assistance of local staff, that are able to implement the lasting programs and cooperatives and get farmers to appreciate them.

Institutionalizing local justice within national and international law processes is another approach I certainly agree with. Ghana's national law system, particularly with respect to land, is quite complex, given its combination of traditional and common-law systems. When it comes to land disputes, people have the option of going to the police or the official law courts in each district, but most attempt to settle at the village level, whether through a council of elders or another traditional body. Such solutions are effective: they swiftly bring social pressures to bear on the offender and compliance is typically higher. For the international-law perspective, I direct you to my colleague Shelby's blog; she has been writing prolifically on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the apathy that many Liberians are feeling towards Charles Taylor's trial, which is being conducted at The Hague.

Kumasi, take two

I'm off to Kumasi again for research assignment, so I won't be attending to my blog regularly. But I will get the backlog of pictures and posts up as soon as I can. Bus leaves at 7.30am tomorrow from the other side of Accra. Argh.

"A man with one eye is a king amongst the blind."

I spent this past week on research assignment in Kumasi and Greater Ashanti, so I haven't been able to attend to my blog. Kumasi is probably my favorite city in Ghana, and this trip certainly did not disappoint. As the seat of the Ashanti, Kumasi is home to so much history: just walking around the city, absorbing the decaying British colonial architecture, you really feel as if you're in a different century, a wholly different place. At the same time, Kumasi, while comprised of narrow alleys, one-way streets and a population density that rivals ant colonies, is a decidedly modern African city, complete with stereos blasting charismatic Christian messages and a market that is reputed to be the largest in West Africa. It is fun.

Kumasi, view from the Sanbra Hotel. 35/2.8 (1/40) [Yes, that is a preacher at the corner with loudspeakers and a sizeable crowd.]

One of my chief research interests is democratization and political organization, particularly at the local levels. This past week, I had the opportunity to interview a government official in charge of rural cooperatives and conduct a focus-group session with a farming cooperative in Fomena, a small village about 40 miles south of Kumasi. The government official, unlike many portraits of African civil servants, was incredibly passionate about his job, and let me talk with him candidly for more than an hour. He basically gave me an overview of the history of Ghanaian cooperatives, and furnished some rather humorous quotes, the best of which forms the title of this post.

Cooperatives are a rather interesting institution--and something of a buzzword in the NGO world. I am currently focusing on farmers' cooperatives, which vary greatly in terms of membership and quality. In short, these cooperatives are democratic groups of farmers that help each other out; such help could come in the form of information sharing, resource pooling for capital acquisition, hardship support and enhanced political efficacy. The democratic nature of these cooperatives is what fascinates me the most. How do democratic practices in these cooperatives arise, especially in the context of traditional village hierarchies? Why are some cooperatives run as fiefdoms (the one-eyed men amongst the blind)? If cooperatives can provide the benefits listed above, then what prevents them from being formed? These questions all drive at democratic capacity at the individual level--something that has important implications for governance and policy efficacy throughout the developing world.

The visionary. 35/2.8 (1/100)

The Fomena cooperative I visited showed me the pinnacle of what a rural cooperative could be. At first, I was a bit skeptical. I was with Frank, who masterfully conducted the focus group in Twi, and a local government official working with the Department of Cooperatives, who happily assembled this focus group for us. Upon entering, the cooperative--about 15 were present, all the officers (6) and other members (9)--was, for the most part, wearing their official uniforms--a white t-shirt with the co-op crest--and, as soon as they saw us enter, they all stood up, practically saluting us, and shook our hands in line. The only thing missing was the red carpet.

The charter. 35/1.8 (1/13)

However, this intense formality loosened up after a few minutes and members talked openly and freely about the issues we posed to them, even as the cooperatives official looked on--in fact, after the focus group, he came up to me and Frank, and said that he had learned so much from that exchange and would improve his work! A couple things in particular really fascinated me about this group. The first was that women took an active role in the discussions, and the treasurer for the group was a woman, a rather rare event in these kinds of organizations. Secondly, even with all the officers present, the cooperative had a flat structure, and members did not speak in fear, officers did not become upset when we passed over them. Overall, this group liked each other.

The farmers' cooperative and Joe. 35/2.8 (1/640) [Photo by Frank.]

Above all, this cooperative showed great initiative and wanted to get more things done to improve their community. The main issue, however, is credit constraints. Village-level projects can be rather slow-going in Ghana, and these farmers expressed a great desire to go beyond their own wants and address public needs. When prompted, numerous farmers chimed in and volunteered potential projects, ranging from replacing streetlight bulbs to building cocoa sheds that the entire community could use.

Talking with this farming cooperative was an incredibly enlightening experience for me, and it was refreshing to see democratic decision-making, and action, working so well in rural Africa. These people were making their lives better and doing it with their own initiative. I realize that this cooperative is basically a model one, and that most others throughout Ghana do not approach the professionalism of this one. But seeing that it could work well and that lives could really be improved gives one hope. No longer will the blind have to be led by one-eyed kings.

~~

This past weekend, David and I attended a Ghana little-league practice out at Tema with a baseball NGO, which was a really fun experience. Lots of great pictures from that outing. I hope to have a post on that tomorrow.