Slave Castles & other thoughts

The more dogs and goats I see, the more I wonder if it's possible for them to crossbreed. Really, the more I see of these creatures the more it seems that the only difference between one and the other is that one has paws and the other has hooves and horns! If anyone knows if crossbreeding is possible, please let me know!

On a more serious topic, we've seen two slave castles this week: Cape Coast Castle on Sunday and Elmina Castle on Tuesday. The tour at the latter was much better, but it's sobering to see either one, and they're different in structure and size and up-keep, so I'm glad we went to both (Jefferson had been to Elmina twice before, but never to the Cape Coast castle). Visiting each was a very emotional experience, one that's hard to really confront as you're quickly being led from one room to another by a chatty tour guide. What got to me the most were the descriptions of the women's dungeons, and the graphic reasons why so many more women than men died before making it onto the transatlantic ships. The tour guide at Elmina was shockingly clear about these details, and I left feeling like there's no amount of modern-day grieving that could possibly match the suffering of those millions of women. Interestingly, the only life that lives in the Elmina castle today is of a very awesome sort: Bats! One of the former female dungeons is now home to a colony of bats. (See photo, below.)

My work progresses slowly and steadily. Learning Fante well is not going to happen on this trip, that's clear. But getting the data for a phonology paper, well, I hope so! For one, I bought a cheap ($3.33!) portable radio to record call-in talk shows, which are fun to listen to and potential data. And for the most part, the people I approach on the street have been very helpful, when I'm brave enough to actually approach them. The professors at the University of Cape Coast, on the other hand, have been sadly absent (I had two appointments this week that were both no-shows). Another problem is that a couple people have gotten a little too excited about teaching me Fante (which is how my questions are always interpreted, regardless of how much detail I go into about my research). By "too" excited I mean that they either want to follow us around for half the day and establish a friendship strong enough to that we'll send money from the U.S., or worse, want to just sit and talk for hours on end and practice using Fante in little elementary "scenarios" that I actually already know well (e.g., at the store, getting a taxi, meeting someone, etc.). I'm getting quite tired of practicing this basic "How are you?" again and again.

Taking the tedious situation further, a man who was engaged in this language-learning role-play with me yesterday somehow brought up the topic of politics, and as soon as I said one critical word about how the U.S. doesn't give enough money to African nations, he shut me up. Like a few other middle-aged Ghanaian men I've met, he apparently adores George W. Bush. Adamantly! Another fellow I met showed me his pirated CD: "The World According to George Bush" which he said he loved to listen to, because he so much enjoyed "listening to that man talk." Okay, so there are a few things about Ghanaian culture that I find hard to swallow.

To end on a positive note, there are many things about Ghana that are absolutely beautiful. Here is one of my favorite pictures so far (besides the one from Akaa river). I took it on Tuesday as we were walking around the Elmina streets. In front of this vibrant pink house you'll see a little bundle on the ground; it's a baby, taking a nap underneath a small kente cloth. To the left is a tiny baby goat (or goat-dog!) which was circling the baby and sniffing it gently as we watched. No shouting children, no hissing salespeople - these street moments are the best.