We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Made in Ghana Limousines, TVs and much more... there.
He didn't win the presidency, but Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom did ride in a Made in Ghana vehicle: the "Kantankan Obrempon". Kantankan is the brand name and Obrempon means "great person" or "greatness" in Twi. The Obrempon is a limousine. Yes, a limousine made in Ghana by Great Kosa Limited, the company established by...
The man behind the car, and the stereos, the speakers, the tractors, and the televisions: one Dr Apostle Kwadwo Safo, founder of Christ Reformed Church, where he often showcases his latest creations made by the 400 individuals trained to specialise in a specific area of assembly, from the beginning to the completion of a product.
Dr Safo is a trained welder who has designed and produced flat screen televisions which are constructed from the components--including the motherboard!--up at a factory at Gomoa Mpoto in the Central Region and which switch on with a clap!
These televisions look like they're from The Jetsons. Their casing is made from plywood which is carefully crafted into bubble-shaped cases or more traditional square cases and then primped and preened with the craftsmanship of a 16th Century Italian--buffed, sanded, and sprayed--until they're done and dried. And they work. So do the stereos with speakers which also increase in volume with a clap of your hands.
Maybe this is nothing new. Maybe this happens somewhere else. But he designed it here, and made it here, in a country where it's hard to find a car that won't break down after fifteen minutes on the road.
Dr Safo is garnering support among Ghanaians who are beginning to recognise that innovation has a place, and perhaps a more useful and exciting place, than the trend of acquiring pieces of paper--university degrees--that often prove useless in an atmosphere of few jobs for graduates.
After riding in the vehicle, Dr Nduom said that "Apostle Safo's feat was a clear testimony of the fact that Ghana could develop to where countries like Korea and Singapore were today." (ModernGhana.com)
Dr Safo is in discussions to build a large-scale manufacturing plant in Ghana. Perhaps the stability of recent elections will give investors confidence to put their money into this inspiring enterprise.
A Good Relationship is like Fufu
We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read A Good Relationship is like Fufu there.
You may be asking, what on this bountiful blue planet is fufu?
It's a staple of the Ghanaian diet, and other parts of Africa besides, that involves mashing boiled vegetables--plantain, cassava or yam--in a huge wooden mortar with a 4-foot long blunt-ended pole hewn from a tree until the vegetables become a sticky pale ball. It takes two people. It takes a long time. (Sounds like a relationship). The ball is then dropped in a spicy soup--palm, light or groundnut--and scooped up in the right hand and swallowed (not chewed - heaven forbid) whole.
And many humans could be forgiven for asking what makes a good relationship too?
Well, I was privvy to this tidbit of wisdom a couple of weeks ago at the marriage between a Ghanaian and Canadian couple of friends.
The analogy in Ghanaian folklore follows that creating a good relationship is like making fufu: one partner is the cassava and the other is the plantain (or yam if you're up north).
When you pound cassava and plantain into a sticky ball of fufu, which ain't easy, like you're average long-term relationship, you hit lumps, like you're average long-term relationship.
So, what next?
Ghanaians believe that it is the sole responsibility of the two to address the issues--those lumps--in the relationship. In other words, to discard those things that don't help the relationship, and keep pounding away at the rest. And to solve it yourself...
"So we are the caterers in the kitchen of relationship fufu, then..." I said out loud.
Culture and language - endless balls of fu....fu....n!!!
(Oh, and I chew my fufu...)
You may be asking, what on this bountiful blue planet is fufu?
It's a staple of the Ghanaian diet, and other parts of Africa besides, that involves mashing boiled vegetables--plantain, cassava or yam--in a huge wooden mortar with a 4-foot long blunt-ended pole hewn from a tree until the vegetables become a sticky pale ball. It takes two people. It takes a long time. (Sounds like a relationship). The ball is then dropped in a spicy soup--palm, light or groundnut--and scooped up in the right hand and swallowed (not chewed - heaven forbid) whole.
And many humans could be forgiven for asking what makes a good relationship too?
Well, I was privvy to this tidbit of wisdom a couple of weeks ago at the marriage between a Ghanaian and Canadian couple of friends.
The analogy in Ghanaian folklore follows that creating a good relationship is like making fufu: one partner is the cassava and the other is the plantain (or yam if you're up north).
When you pound cassava and plantain into a sticky ball of fufu, which ain't easy, like you're average long-term relationship, you hit lumps, like you're average long-term relationship.
So, what next?
Ghanaians believe that it is the sole responsibility of the two to address the issues--those lumps--in the relationship. In other words, to discard those things that don't help the relationship, and keep pounding away at the rest. And to solve it yourself...
"So we are the caterers in the kitchen of relationship fufu, then..." I said out loud.
Culture and language - endless balls of fu....fu....n!!!
(Oh, and I chew my fufu...)
I say: "Afehyia paaaaa" (a-fish-i-a-paaaaah!)
We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read I say: "Afehyia paaaaa" (a-fish-i-a-paaaaah!) there.
And you reply: "Afeenko mbe tuyee daa!"
That means I'm wishing you: "Happy New Year" in Twi, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Ghana.
And you're optimistically replying, as you do at New Year, unless you're thinking about resolutions: "The year will go and come and meet us again."
My Resolution 1: Stop having to be the one who says Afehyia paa because you've learnt how to say the response.
My Resolution 2: be able to pronounce "Afeenko mbe tuyee daa!" by next new year, as you resolved to do last new year.
And you reply: "Afeenko mbe tuyee daa!"
That means I'm wishing you: "Happy New Year" in Twi, the most widely spoken indigenous language in Ghana.
And you're optimistically replying, as you do at New Year, unless you're thinking about resolutions: "The year will go and come and meet us again."
My Resolution 1: Stop having to be the one who says Afehyia paa because you've learnt how to say the response.
My Resolution 2: be able to pronounce "Afeenko mbe tuyee daa!" by next new year, as you resolved to do last new year.
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