It is amazing how development can change the status of subsistence groups so quickly. One minute, you and your group of herdsmen are labeled a ‘subsistence rural population’ who live off of the resources of say, a forest, and are the subject of intense anthropological study, your experiences heavily romanticized. The next minute, you are branded a bunch of ‘illegal loggers’ who are encroaching in the forests belonging to the government. Academics make so much out about the debate between traditional and commercial rights. But is there really any debate to speak of? The reality is, if there is little hope for the aborigines of Australia, whose lands are being ploughed by mining interests, and the First Nations of North America, whose livelihoods have been disrupted by an array of commercial interests – groups based in developed countries with significant NGO representation – what hope is there for the groups in say, the Niger Delta?
The most amazing thing about subsistence groups is how they become the topic of intense criticism for doing nothing - or more specifically, for doing ‘their own thing’. Groups, for example, who have been living in a patch of forest or in a wetland area for centuries, deploying the same hunting, foraging and gathering skills as their parents and their parents before them. It as if there is a multimillion dollar propaganda facility aimed at swaying public opinion about these subsistence groups. As soon as there is a mine that has been sited or patch of forest that is to be harvested, the articles start to be churned out by the hundreds about how these groups are ‘resisting’, are ‘encroaching’ on government lands, or are ‘criminals’.
This is what is happening throughout Ghana, and it extends well beyond the small-scale mining sector, whose operators, despite being branded as criminals, are making significant contributions to national coffers. It includes the Ewe fishing communities of the Bui area, which, despite having been there for a hundred years, are now being pushed aside to make way for the Chinese-funded Bui Hydroelectric Dam. And, the Fante fishermen of the Western Region, who will no doubt be pushed aside and whose interests will be ignored because of newly-discovered oil reserves offshore. Their inevitable resistance will no doubt get the propaganda machine going.
So a warning to all subsistence groups: beware of commercial interests. They could be in your backyard next and soon, you too could also be branded 'a bunch of criminals'.
Thursday 31 July 2008
Wednesday 30 July 2008
Random thoughts on today’s travel
If you want to surround yourself with some of Ghana’s elite, take an internal flight from Tamale to Accra. Whilst the flight costs about 90 pounds, it is certainly beyond the budgetary means of the average Northerner, who must resort to using shared buses to get to the country capital. I took a shared bus up to the north on the way up to Bolgatanga, and the differences in the people you encounter and their attitudes – whilst perhaps obvious – are striking: conversations are no longer conducted in Twi but rather English; people drink bottled water, not the sachet water prevalent along the roadside; and people are seen drinking herbal teas before boarding as opposed to the Milo that I thought was a staple of every African’s breakfast.
The conversation you hear in the Tamale airport lounge is too predictable: personal competitions about accomplishments. One woman, whose suitcases were carried for her from her car through customs, and onto the plane, seemed to be having a competition with another man about who had been abroad the most. ‘I hate going through London when I go to Canada,’ the woman said. ‘It means that I am in transit for nearly four hours.’ To this, the man responded: ‘Just go through the States direct. Delta has a direct service from Accra to New York, and you can connect to Canada. First class is not as good as they say, though…’ The discussion soon turned to where their children were educated.
The most noticeable difference between taking the bus and the plane is people’s sense of time. Whereas time is a non-issue for people on the bus, many of whom appear glad when it breaks down, in the middle of nowhere, eager to share their stories with one another, people boarding the plane are highly conscious of the time. ‘I hope this plane leaves on time,’ another woman said, after looking at her watch for the 45th time and to no one in particular, ‘because I have a meeting in Accra at 9.’ The time consciousness stems largely from where these people were educated or where they have spent significant portions of their lives: in Europe or North America. The obsession with deadlines, though, seems almost forced: I mean, who in Accra actually shows up for a meeting on the day, let alone at 9 o’clock?
These same people have likely never seen the inside of shared transport in Ghana, have drivers to take them to the Lebanese-owned grocery stores in Accra, have a house with 10 bedrooms, and have children in the country’s top private schools. I attracted frowns from many of them, likely because I was the only one boarding the plane who was not wearing a suit of some sort. In all likelihood, I would have attracted even more frowns had they known that I occasionally drink sachet water, that I take tro-tros regularly, that I eat food cooked at the roadside, that I don’t have a driver, and that the only reason I was taking the plane was because I discovered 100 pounds in my bag that I never knew was there.
Boy, to be rich in Africa…
The conversation you hear in the Tamale airport lounge is too predictable: personal competitions about accomplishments. One woman, whose suitcases were carried for her from her car through customs, and onto the plane, seemed to be having a competition with another man about who had been abroad the most. ‘I hate going through London when I go to Canada,’ the woman said. ‘It means that I am in transit for nearly four hours.’ To this, the man responded: ‘Just go through the States direct. Delta has a direct service from Accra to New York, and you can connect to Canada. First class is not as good as they say, though…’ The discussion soon turned to where their children were educated.
The most noticeable difference between taking the bus and the plane is people’s sense of time. Whereas time is a non-issue for people on the bus, many of whom appear glad when it breaks down, in the middle of nowhere, eager to share their stories with one another, people boarding the plane are highly conscious of the time. ‘I hope this plane leaves on time,’ another woman said, after looking at her watch for the 45th time and to no one in particular, ‘because I have a meeting in Accra at 9.’ The time consciousness stems largely from where these people were educated or where they have spent significant portions of their lives: in Europe or North America. The obsession with deadlines, though, seems almost forced: I mean, who in Accra actually shows up for a meeting on the day, let alone at 9 o’clock?
These same people have likely never seen the inside of shared transport in Ghana, have drivers to take them to the Lebanese-owned grocery stores in Accra, have a house with 10 bedrooms, and have children in the country’s top private schools. I attracted frowns from many of them, likely because I was the only one boarding the plane who was not wearing a suit of some sort. In all likelihood, I would have attracted even more frowns had they known that I occasionally drink sachet water, that I take tro-tros regularly, that I eat food cooked at the roadside, that I don’t have a driver, and that the only reason I was taking the plane was because I discovered 100 pounds in my bag that I never knew was there.
Boy, to be rich in Africa…
Saturday 19 July 2008
Rallying Call
The more you see of him, the more Nana Akufo-Addo looks the part. He is charismatic; he speaks eloquently; and most importantly, he is saying the right things. Whilst local media outlets portray Ghana as being politically polarized – which is indeed the case – the growing support for Akufo-Addo leaves little doubt that he will be enshrined as the new President of the Republic come December.
Like all politicians, Akufo-Addo is making plenty of promises, among the most interesting of which is the idea that the revenues generated from newly-discovered oil, projected to be in the tens of millions, would be used to bridge the development gap between the south of the country and the north, should he be elected. This certainly bodes well for the pockets of impoverished in the likes of Tamale, Bolgatanga and Wa, the capitals of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions – Ghana’s poorest areas. His speeches on the issue have been almost convincing. The $15billion to be derived from the oil proceeds in the first five years of the crude oil export, he explained adamantly, would be used in the development of the country and not to line his pocket or that of members of his government. “I would put one billion dollars into the Northern Development Fund as seed capital to cater for the development of roads, construction of small scale dams and harvesting of rain water to modernize agriculture,” he said.
This, indeed, is desperately needed; but Mr Akufo-Addo’s virtual denial of the way the present NPP regime has ignored the development needs of the north makes you wonder about how genuine these speeches are. Many northerners still see the NPP as a ‘Southern Party’ which has focused strictly on developing areas of the Ashanti, Eastern, Central, and Greater Accra Regions. And they argue with good reason: under the watch of the incumbent, the north has attracted only 2% of the country’s development projects, and virtually none of the President’s Special Initiatives. But to deny the reality of what has amounted to – either intentionally or unintentionally – a ‘development bias’ in Ghana is denial that there is a problem altogether. He hailed Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region, as the most beautiful in the country. There is little arguing here about the accuracy of this statement but claims that ‘It [Tamale] was not like that seven and half years ago’, in reference to the NPP’s arrival, however, are delusional: the city is still scarred with rampant poverty, and has little in the way of income-generating activities. His response to remarks about the ‘development bias’ has been that ‘Development projects under the NPP were shared equitably, its programmes, policies and interventions have national character, these include National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), school feeding programme and capitation grant that had benefited all Ghanaians’.
The pledge to develop the north, as well as ensure that public universities are in each of Ghana’s regions, were the rallying calls of the incumbent’s election campaign, in 2000; neither has happened. The campaign of Mr Akufo-Addo is effectively the same thing. But whilst he sounds more convincing in his speeches on tackling these issues, his repeated denial about the failure of his party to deliver on several fronts raises questions about the genuineness of many of his promises. For the sake of Ghana’s poor, let us hope that, should this charismatic and eloquent politician be the country’s next president, he delivers.
Like all politicians, Akufo-Addo is making plenty of promises, among the most interesting of which is the idea that the revenues generated from newly-discovered oil, projected to be in the tens of millions, would be used to bridge the development gap between the south of the country and the north, should he be elected. This certainly bodes well for the pockets of impoverished in the likes of Tamale, Bolgatanga and Wa, the capitals of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions – Ghana’s poorest areas. His speeches on the issue have been almost convincing. The $15billion to be derived from the oil proceeds in the first five years of the crude oil export, he explained adamantly, would be used in the development of the country and not to line his pocket or that of members of his government. “I would put one billion dollars into the Northern Development Fund as seed capital to cater for the development of roads, construction of small scale dams and harvesting of rain water to modernize agriculture,” he said.
This, indeed, is desperately needed; but Mr Akufo-Addo’s virtual denial of the way the present NPP regime has ignored the development needs of the north makes you wonder about how genuine these speeches are. Many northerners still see the NPP as a ‘Southern Party’ which has focused strictly on developing areas of the Ashanti, Eastern, Central, and Greater Accra Regions. And they argue with good reason: under the watch of the incumbent, the north has attracted only 2% of the country’s development projects, and virtually none of the President’s Special Initiatives. But to deny the reality of what has amounted to – either intentionally or unintentionally – a ‘development bias’ in Ghana is denial that there is a problem altogether. He hailed Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region, as the most beautiful in the country. There is little arguing here about the accuracy of this statement but claims that ‘It [Tamale] was not like that seven and half years ago’, in reference to the NPP’s arrival, however, are delusional: the city is still scarred with rampant poverty, and has little in the way of income-generating activities. His response to remarks about the ‘development bias’ has been that ‘Development projects under the NPP were shared equitably, its programmes, policies and interventions have national character, these include National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), school feeding programme and capitation grant that had benefited all Ghanaians’.
The pledge to develop the north, as well as ensure that public universities are in each of Ghana’s regions, were the rallying calls of the incumbent’s election campaign, in 2000; neither has happened. The campaign of Mr Akufo-Addo is effectively the same thing. But whilst he sounds more convincing in his speeches on tackling these issues, his repeated denial about the failure of his party to deliver on several fronts raises questions about the genuineness of many of his promises. For the sake of Ghana’s poor, let us hope that, should this charismatic and eloquent politician be the country’s next president, he delivers.
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