Sea Urchin Hunters

These hunters are not diving into the sea for the sea urchins, a delicacy but rarely consumed by the locals. They are standing and bending over near the water level to quickly uproot the prickly creatures using a 6 inch iron stick with a hook in the top.

The waves from the Gulf of Guinea are strong and sometimes exceed the hunters height, as they were focusing on locating their "crops", they also had to make sure not being sucked away by the strong current. Another peril is the sea urchins themselves, as they can sting and make human skin itchy and hurt.

Coastal Erosion in Ghana

Yesterday I witnessed the first hand coastal erosion in Till's No.1 beach, a popular beach front getaway located 1.5 hour driving from Accra. The rocky formation is relatively new, as the last time I was there, around two month ago, the section was still sandy. However, possibly due largely to the prolonged rain season of this year, the sandy section has now become more of a rocky coastline.

According to Wikipedia, "On non-rocky coasts, coastal erosion results in dramatic rock formations in areas where the coastline contains rock layers or fracture zones with varying resistance to erosion."

Ghanaians working for Chinese

Yesterday was Friday, and I went to the Chinese Embassy in town to get a document done. While some embassies have already closed down shops around 12:30PM, the consular section at the Chinese Embassy opens until 5pm on every Friday. Their hours opening to the public are Monday, Wed and Friday, three hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.

Entering the waiting area, two young Ghanaian ladies were manning the two windows, one on the left is for document submission, on the right is payment and collection. There were three people in total in the whole waiting room: two customers stood at the left. Was it due to the fact of Friday afternoon close to five or that less Ghanaian interests in going to China?

While since there are actually no seats available, so I flipped through a local Chinese language papers while on my feet. My turn came, and I walked up to the window and turned in my document. However, besides the files they listed on the website, the lady asked for additional documents, such as identification for my relatives, invitation letters. The obtaining of the documents will require substantial back and forth communications. I determined to present my case, remembering well it's a Chinese run facility and even she is a Ghanaian, after all, she is working for the Chinese.

After much explanation, and after she had to go back to her Chinese boss to explain my case, finally, the lady asked me to write a letter in Chinese, instead of the document. Something like an application but with all the information on where and how long for my stay, who I see and their address and contact information.

I then was told to pay a fee for the document, which is higher than the fee charged for the same document in Washington, USA. When I inquired about the extreme of the fee, given the income condition in the country as Ghana, the lady said, they charge more for people to go to the U.S. I have yet heard the reasoning. China is now the It place to visit, even for Ghanaians?

Then I realized that next Friday will be Dec. 24th, the Christmas Eve and here is very religious, 75% of population are Christians. Yes, I was told that the two ladies will be here and the office will be open, just as another Friday workday.

Wow, when did the Ghanaian working for the Chinese become so much more like Chinese, workaholic and effectively intense?

Gomoa Oguaa, Ghana Central Region

During the week of Nov. 20, a group of us set foot in Gomoa Oguaa, a town located in the Ghana's Central Region. The people entertained us as much as our presence entertained them. Kids were excited, following us around. The locals not only told us their folk stories, but accompanied them with songs and dance. The following video clip captured the scene.

Agbogbloshie, E-waste

Agbogbloshie market is surprisingly closer to the center of Accra than I thought. It is only a few hundred meters away from ever-expanding Makola Market, which is in the very center of Accra.

With the smokes and flames, and thick toxic air filled with fumes from burning tires, electric wires and computer cases, the area is also densely populated. It is crowded even on a national holiday mid-morning. The market vendors, most are selling tomatoes, yams from the Northern part of the country and plantains, market goers and many scrabble metal collectors and workers that burn the e-waste to get them.

On this day, I talked to a boy named Maxwell, who claimed he is 15 years old. Coming from Bolgatanga, the center of Upper East region close to Bukina Faso border, Maxwell is the most vocal and thus the de-facto leader of seven boys from the same village.

A typical day for the boys start from 8 am and go to 4pm, most of them work six days a week. Some work every day. The burning process takes place in the morning, and then in the afternoon, they will sort out the metals and pieces, the most valuable is copper, which is sought after by vendors talking to the boys where I was there.

Maxwell has stopped going to school since last year, so are the other boys. He earned 10 cedis ($8) a day, sometime less. He sends most of them to parents to support siblings at home.

To these boys, the most exciting thing is to go home to visits families. Maxwell said he will be hitting home on 26th.

"But I will come back."

Ghana Reaches Out To Bosai's Hometwon For Investment

If you are not a news junkie, Bosai may not be sounding familiar. However, as the historical loan agreement signed between China and Ghana, the Chinese company is getting more attention. Its name was mentioned by the Ghanaian Minster of Industry and Trade, Ms. Hanna Tetteh in her speech to the Parliament of Ghana in explaining the loan agreeement.

Bosai is the largest stakeholder, owns 80% of Ghana Bauxite Co.

Out of the largest loan agreement for Ghana, $3 billion will be developed as a joint venture by Bosai, Government of Ghana and China African Development Fund.

Now, Ghana government is also reaching to Bosai's backyard. The Chongqing based company brought the attention back to the largest Chinese city, created by combining several megacities.

According to Chinese media report, a delegation from Accra visited Chongqing looking for investment in Coco processing and Chololate making, (not that Chinese are known for), but also in hotels, agriculture, ICT, infrastrcture.

People in Chongqing is known for eatting spaces, Sichuan cuisine also enjoys popularity here in Accra. Maybe more Bosais will be emerging?

Where will the $10 billion go?

The recent loan agreement between China and Ghana has generated a lot of interests. The focus, obviously, is on the sheer size, but more importantly, where will the money spent on?

Due to a nature of combination of giant loans and smaller ones, the money maize is not evidently easy to crack. Here is my initial research:

The largest part is $5.9 billion committed by China Export-Import Bank. The money will fund around 19 projects identified between Ghana and China. They include health, agriculture, railway, roads and education sectors. Ghana has the right to propose alternative projects.

$3 billion will be from China Development Bank, which agreed to fund gas commercialization in the Western Ghana Region, including a gas processing plant in Bonyere, to utilize gas discovered at Jubilee and Sankofa oil fields.

At least $262 million will be used for water and sanitation. They include $250 million to support on-gong rehabilitation of Kpong Water Works and $12 million for building boreholes for rural communities and a modern sports complex and Kotokraba Market in Cape Coast.

Additional $20 million interest free loan will be used to construct fish landing sites in coast areas in the Central Region. The Ministry of Industry and Trade Tetteh said the loan comes with 2 percent interest rate and repayable over 20 years.

Ghana President In China, Applauds Brotherhood

The President of Ghana is in China on his state visit to Beijing. As a part of agreements signed by the both sides, China is going to give $10.4 billion loan to help build railway system, energy and water projects.

John Atta Mills have chosen Beijing, instead of going to New York for the UN General Assembly focusing on Millennium Challenge Goals for developing countries. The UNGA is well attended by U.S. President Obama, Chinese Premier Wen and other world leaders.

According to a Ghana News Agency report, the Ghanaian President commended China for maintaining its ties with Ghana "at a time when many nations would not have anything to do with us.""Our Chinese brothers stood behind us and showed that they cared," President Mills said, attracting an applause from the audience.

Another GNA report quoted that President Mills said China has been generous to Ghana, adding: "China points to the way what can be achieved with sacrifice, hard work and discipline."

He said: "if African leaders are flocking to China, they want to see the source of your magic," he said in Shenzhen, the economic hub of China's Guandong Province on the fourth day of his five- day state visit to China.

Made in China, Good or Bad for Africa?

There are a lot of talks over the flooding of Made-in-China goods in African markets. The center of the debate, is the goods are meant to benefit the Africans or take away local industrial jobs?

This afternoon I met a young walking sales men in his 20-30s, in the beach road close the three-story art gallery. When I fist saw Kobena Kofi, he was just emerged from a beach front shacks and basically constructed huts. When I met him again later, he was sitting on a roadside wood bench counting the day's worthy of sales. From our conversation, Kobena bought a large box of Chinese herbal essential oil from a wholesaler, he then walk door to door selling the small box of the oil. Acquired for 4 cedis ($2.5) for 24 boxes, the oil is sold for 0.5 cedi ($0.35) per box. It sounded like a good business model.

Except for a shortage of good brand name of the Made-in-China oil, which was sold fast and finished by now. Currently, Kobena only has another "generic" oil and it had been selling slow, he said. For men who usually don't buy the oil, Kobena has something else to offer, plastic one-time-use shaver. I suspected that people won't throw them away after the first use.

Kobena also told me that he has a certain route to run, depending on each date of the week. Tomorrow, he will be Tema, and then Teshi the next day, etc. Although proud of what he is doing to make a living, Kobena is also modest young man, when asked about today's sales, "small, small", he said.

After we shake hands and snap fingers, Kobena reminded me of his name again with a assertive tone, "My name is Kobena Kofi", and then he walked into the setting sun. I, however,didn't stop thinking, young entrepreneurial Ghanaian like Kobena is making a living from selling the "Made-in-China" products, and he is offering something to meet the demand at locally affordable price. There must have hundreds of Kobenas around Accra at any given time of the day. It's hard to blame them or the products for the problems in Africa.

Do you see a Kobena around you? What would you say? Please leave your comments

China Rises To World's No.2, What about Ghana?

The biggest news of the week is China decisively surpassed Japan and took over the No. 2 spot in global GDP ranking.

Many people have predicated long ago about the coming of the day, it has nevertheless generated a lot of media attention in the U.S. The NYT put out a feature on the news.

However, people in Beijing and elsewhere in China seem care less to none and official media even tried to play down it, New York Letter from China blog reports that Chinese Global Times said the GDP glory won't stop disasters hitting China and U.S. Congress's aggressiveness toward China.

How about reactions from Africa?

Ghana News Agency reported a story, which has attracted comments urging the continent to learn from China. In the case of Ghana, people need to "change attitudes" in order to move ahead, a reader commented.

On the same day, China also opens research center for Sino-African economic and trade co-operation in Beijing. The center "aims to provide a theoretical basis for the Chinese government’s Africa-related decision makings. It will also provide consultation services for companies with plans to expand their businesses to Africa".

“Japan is always strangely inward-looking,” he said. “And nobody is doing anything about it.” one analyst quoted in the article.

Jeff Bezos Princeton Commencement Speech

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave a commence speech at 2010 Princeton graduation. He reminds us: between cleverness and kindness, which choice do you make and which life story do you want to tell?

I enjoyed the speech so much and hope you will enjoy it too!

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.” My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car, and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.

At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I’d calculate our gas mileage — figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can’t remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”

I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.” That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans — plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we’ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life. In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but we’ll engineer it to specifications. I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton — all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles — something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world — was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!

Followup on Guangzhou Medical Team in Ghana

My exclusive report a while ago on a medical team from Guangzhou, China was struggling to get its established in Accra, Ghana has caught much attention. One local Ghanaian has left comment expressing his concern towards the fate of these medical doctors sent by the Chinese government to help out but found themselves "not needed" and "not supported" in a foreign land thousand miles away from home.

How are they doing now? I checked in with neurologist Dr. Song's blog to find some updates.

There are signs of improving. Dr. Song has since got assigned to a particular post with Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where he is now working along with a Ghanaian medical doctor and attended regular meetings. An avid sports fun, Dr. Song is obviously caught the favor of the World Cup, he was joyful with the Ghana Team's performance and wrote about the day when the Black Stars failed to advance further.

However, there are also signs of frustration, or even agony. The place Dr. Song and his 8 teammates stay are now in the center of a dispute between its landlord and the Ministry of Health, where the team collaborated with. The landlord has restricted the Chinese doctors making necessary repairs, even to water pump which provides water to the team.

The team also found themselves helpless facing bureaucracy and inefficiency, they tried paying money to speed up a procedure in order to purchase a car, but months pass by, the process is still ongoing and no time of getting it in sight.

"I found myself speechless, the upset feeling is almost beyond control!!" Dr. Song wrote, " I hope one day the Ghana Immigration Service will catch us for illegal staying and deport us. It will be a greatest joke!!!"

Ghana and Africa Heartbreak, Accra Falls Silence

The moment the last Uruguay player scores the penalty kick while the two Ghanaian players missed the kicks, the streets in Accra felt quite, you literally could hear a pin drop.

I bet everywhere in Africa, whether in Nigerian cities or South African townships, the silence were widespread. The hope of Africa just exit from the 2010 soccer World Cup.

People had been in a celebrating mood here, especially when Ghana scored the first goal. The cleanness and beautiful angel lift the hope up like a rocket, the noise were heard miles away.

However, the missed penalty kick by Gyan is a turning point. Every player of the Black Stars must have felt the lofty pressure on their shoulders when they stepped up to kick the PK. Two of the players, who chosen to shoot easy angels got their balls saved by the goalie of the Uruguay team.

The fans in Accra have been silent after the game, compared to the carnival like street parties after Ghana's 2 to 1 win over the U.S. team, the streets in Accra were much quite.

Even without the win, Ghana team had gone far and made their marks on the first ever World Cup hosted in Africa.

Chinese Crew Arrested in Ghana

The biggest news of today is Ghana newspaper Daily Graphic with front-page headline:
Cruelty on high seas as Chinese vessel captain drowns 3 Ivorians

The story takes most of the front page, with large photos showing the ship MV Run Ning 3, another photo shows that one of Ivorians is angrily making a point with a Chinese crew member, and a group of Chinese crews, all wearing their safety hats.

According to BBC News, the ship has been detained by Ghana Navy and three Chinese have been arrested by Ghana Police.

The incident was initiated by the Chinese ship operators decided to throw three Ivorian throwaways into the occean, causing one of them drowened and other two were rescued.

The online story has stirred up a dozen or so comments from readers. One reader asked, " if you find a stranger in your car, that means you should kill him, right? How barbaric can we be in this 21st century. Another reader who claim to have been in China, said " it is pathetic how they (Chinese) disregard we blacks."

Bill Gates Encourages Young People To Tackle Worldwide Challenges

In a speech to Standford University students, the world's richest men said young people should devote themselves to tough issues facing the most impoverished people, such as Health and Education, which Mr. Gates said are most important problems.

"I love movies. I know people who could benefit from baldness drugs. But we need to shift those talents to bigger problems," he said. "If we do that, we might delay the next security derivatives design. Or the next baldness cure. But what we can do in return is a good thing."

While acknowledging there are nothing wrong to make money and support families, the chairman of the largest charity foundation said young people should then contribute financially to charities.

"Whatever career has the greatest opportunity, go for it. And the more money you make, the better. However, once you've met your family's needs, you will give it back to a cause. I think that is a perfectly fine model."

Gates also implied that the mid-sized developing countries and regions, such as Ghana will be ideal for the young people to get their hands dirty. The get-hands-dirty will be highly valued on their resumes.

"Not Vietnam, because it's run very well. Not Somalia or Zimbabwe,because they effectively have no government. Pick something on the cusp. Something mid-size to small. If Nigeria, pick a state. If India, pick a district."

Kayak.com Founder's Dream: Free African Wireless Internet

It caught my attention and I am so intrigued to not feature it here.

Paul English, the co-founder of one of the largest travel booking site, Kayak.com, has a plan for Africa: free wireless internet coverage.

According to Fast Company article, Mr. English aims to devote the next decade to this seemingly impossible project, considering the huge funding requirement and political as well as corruption obstacles.

A partnership between non- and for-profit entities are in the working and trials have been rolled out in villages from Burundi to Uganda and Malawi to Zambia.

Mr. English aims to scale it up to the whole content.

If you want to be part of it, you can also join the non-profit at joinafrica.org

Africa Pavilion in Shanghai

What do Chinese think of African presence in the Shanghai World Expo?

I found several blog posts and news in Chinese that highlight some impressions of the African United Pavilion:

1. Chinese officers in charge of the Pavilion told media that China donated $100 million to the African Pavilion, and all 43 African country participants were beneficiaries. (Xinhua)


2. African Pavilion is called the "Most Flavored" pavilion. It is "cute and the Africans are very welcoming". The 3-meter smiling lion statue is the most popular among all exotic things, attracting tens of thousands to take a photo under her feet. And, what's even better is compared to long lines in front of other pavilions, there is no line and visitors are easily get in and out. (Foshan Daily)


3. The statue wall with faces are the most attractive in African Pavilion, some exhibitors are still not yet fully prepared as of May 2. (Blog)

Japan Plays Catch-up After Outgunned By China in Africa

Two-day conference will be held in Tanzania between Japan and 50 African countries. However, Tokyo doesn't have diplomatic presence in a dozen of these countries.

Out of the 53 nations in the continent, Japan only 31 embassies, while its much larger and emerging China has 46 or 48 embassies, said a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affair in Tokyo.

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada will step out on his first African trip since taking office, while his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi has been all over Africa, the most recent is a four nation tour in January. While Yang's trips were mostly brief ones in each stop, Okada will be only going to South Africa before heading to Dar es Salaam.

Japan has sinced vowed to catch up, the nation announced to double aid to $1.8 billion in Africa by 2012. The amount now stands at $1.65 billion.

The aid money is important, however, the personnel on the ground and business activities will also decide who gets the influence in Africa.

Ghanaian Death in Japan

According to a Japanese news report, a Ghanaian male died last month in Narita Airport, Japan. The Japanese wife of the male is now asking for explanation.

The male was detained for illegal overstay and deported back to Ghana. However, on his back flight, he was found dead. The wife said the immigration authority has told they used handcuffs and towel to stop the man who was behaving aggressively.

"I want the truth in order to prevent such tragedy from taking place again", said the Ghanaian male's Wife.

Chinese Medical Doctor Stuck in Ghana

A doctor with a team of medical doctors from Guangzhou, China is now stuck in Accra, Ghana.

The 11 member team, including Dr. Song, a psychiatrist, were sent to Ghana in early this year to help out in medical training. With a lot of patience, other specialists have already started helping out in a hospital, Dr. Song, however, is still waiting for assignment.

According to Dr. Song's blog, written in Chinese, the team had encountered several obstacles since arrived in Accra. First, there are only two teaching hospitals in Ghana, one is in Accra, Korle Bu and one is in Kumasi, which is 4-6 hours driving distance away. The Kumasi one is also less equipped than Korle Bu. However, the hospital president has little to assign to a Chinese psychiatrist, for now.

Dr. Song wrote that the team had also hard to adjust to the always daily power outage and water shortage, when the power is out, the team of 11 mid-aged men, not a single female, had to wonder outside in a small court yard to fend off the sizzling heat amid the hay days of a dry season in Accra.

Another difficult is the high cost of living. Except certain seafoods and tropic fruits, vegetables are extremely high compared to these in China. For example, two lettuce could cost a dollar or five RMB yuans. To Chinese, vegatables are vital to dialy diet.

The most difficult thing is the slow pace and back and forth it takes to accomplish a smallest task. For example, it took them four car trips to make copies of keys. Dr. song said that it always made him a little headache and retard.

Six Keys to Understand Ghanaian Culture

As a stable and growing democratic nation, Ghana has a lot to offer. Its culture and people have traveled far and to every corner of the globe. Some well-recognized figures such as Kofi Annan are just a tip of what Ghana has offered to the world.

From personal experience, I share the following observations of Ghanaian people and its culture with you. As I have mentioned in the previous articles of How to Work Effectively with Chinese, How to Easily Speak Mandarin Chinese, and the keys are my own model of UNIQUE:

Understand, before being understood

No Presumption. Even with good intention

Inquire. ASK

Quote back and confirm

Use humor

Empathy

Let’s first dive into some key words in Ghanaian culture: Formal, a well-structured and hierarchy society, Family-oriented, Females playing relatively larger roles in society and a keen focus on Present time.

To elaborate the culture in a more detailed way, let’s take a look at some do and don’ts for living a real life in Ghana:

1. General practice:

• Dress well and formal to any functions. Living in a hot and tropic climate, it is tempting to dress shorts and T-shirts in Ghana year-round, but instead dress as nice as you can under the weather condition unless you know the host very well
• Greet people of seniority and higher position first
• Respect woman who are very capable and hard working
• Show your appreciation of the culture. People love to present and gift you with traditional Kente cloth, you are supposed to accept and appreciate the artistic beauty

2. Business Etiquette:

• People love handshakes, especially among males. It’s a way to show respect and friendliness. Ghanaian way of handshaking among themselves will hold the right hand in the normal manner but will then twist and click each other’s middle finger
• Wait for a woman to extend her hand first
• Have enough time for “small talks” such as health, family and jobs. The greetings will ensure mutual understanding between the two parties
• Honor people at higher positions. Speak more formally or conservatively if not sure of the positions.
• Don’t rush to first name basis unless quite familiar with each other.
• Use two hands or right hand to present business cards, don’t use left hand

3. Meeting People:

• Address people by their former titles, especially for people holding a higher position or having a long experience
• Respect the senior and traditional leaders such as King, Queen Mothers.
• Don’t get disappointed by people not showing up on time, traffic and road situations vary
• Business are done by people, take time to develop a relationship
• People usually talk loud

4. Gift Giving Etiquette

• If invited to a Ghanaian dinner, you are not expected to bring gift. I actually heard the locals complain about westerner culture of having to bring something to a dinner.
• Thought is more important than the value of a gift
• Give gift using right hand or two hands, never left hand

5. Dining Etiquette

• If invited to a dinner by locals, accept as a sign of friendship
• Eat with your right hand only, scoop the foods with the thumb and first two fingers
• If not skillful using hands, ask for utensils
• Formal table manners are required, such as seating and asking for additional servings

6. How to Communication with a Ghanaian

• Ghanaians are indirect communicators. They tend to prefer a harmonious relationship and flexible in implementing rules.
• Respect people but firm on principles.
• A prevailing bottom line price is respected in a negotiation. It is always important to know before going to a business talk, search around for the commonly accepted rules.
• Take time to observe and ask a local guide to show around, know the potential pitfalls beforehand and don’t fall into them.

You are welcome to quote freely from this article once you give proper attribution. (A link to letterfromghana.blogspot.com and author: Brian Yang would be appreciated.) You are also welcome to republish this article in full once you give the proper attributions.

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