Elmina, Cape Coast, Karkum Park

Civil Society Coalition on Land ("CICOL") Conference

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to a one and a half day conference, but staying in a semi-fancy hotel for three full nights and almost four days. That was a miscommunication. Apparently, it’s the style in Ghana to only put half of the activities on the agenda, and make the rest up as you go along. So that’s what we did- an agenda with one and a half days worth of activities turned into a three day conference. As with any conference, there were some people who were actively engaged in the proceedings and others who there for the swimming pool and elaborate meals. Being the one of only two lawyers at the conference (the other was a Ghanaian law professor who, from what I gather, teaches criminal law), I was recruited to write the organization’s constitution. Or rather rewrite the organizations constitution—someone had put together a first draft, although no one knew who. In the end, we wrote a first rate constitution (if I may say so myself) that incorporated all the concerns and needs of the various organizations. It’s a “bundle of compromises” but I hope a workable one. Whether or not its actually followed is any one's guess, but the amendment procedure is easy enough that it can be reworked with little effort. At one point in the conference, I found myself giving a presentation on my vision of how the organization was supposed to work. Here is a picture:

It was a really rewarding experience and I hope I was helpful.

Slave Castles

One of Ghana’s few tourism attractions are the Slave Castles/Slave Forts, built by European powers from the late 15th Century through the 18th Century, which dot the Ghanaian coast. They were used for a variety of purposes, but most notoriously, they were where slaves were collected and imprisoned before being shipped off. The forts are actually quite nice buildings, and are far more substantial and grandiose than almost anything around them. Here is a picture of the fort at Cape Coast (“Cape Coast Castle”):

I visited two of the forts this weekend, one at Elmina (the oldest one in Ghana, originally built in 1463- 29 years before Columbus hit up the Americas) and the other at Cape Coast. Both had tours, which are sort of compulsory for anyone visiting Ghana (especially since the rooms in the forts are not really marked). Both forts are very interesting architecturally, and contain a mix of Portuguese, Dutch and English buildings. A lot of important European history was determined in those forts, not to mention a lot of Ghanaian history. The tour tells you almost nothing about that. Rather, it concentrates on the horrific conditions which the slaves were kept in before their transport to America. They were awful, and, after taking the tour, you can't (thanks Hahn!) disagree that that getting sold into slavery really, really sucks. Unfortunately, the tours are long on emotion and short on facts, which is a pity, since there is so much more to say about the colonial system that began (economic and political), for all intents and purposes, in those forts.

Here is a picture of me in at the fort in Elmina, and below it, a picture of the tour. That is one of the slave dungeons behind the guide:

Cape Coast Castle has a small museum (it’s a little underused- the guards were watching a soccer game on one of the TVs that plays some type of interpretive movie). The museum does a pretty good job of placing the slave trade in context, and concentrates on the two million Africans who were transported directly to the British Colonies, part of which were later the United States, between the early 1600s and 1808. For law and history people, in 1808 the United States banned the importation of slaves (Article 1, Section 9 of the United States Constitution did not allow Congress to ban the importation of slaves before 1808).

The exhibit explains the triangular trading system that existed at the time, under which guns were shipped to Africa and were given to certain favored tribes, on credit. The credit was repaid with slaves, captured by the tribes using the guns. I assume the tribes also benefited from the overall conquest of their neighbors and were not just capturing slaves to get more guns to capture more slaves, since that makes little sense. The slaves were transported to the Americas (the majority went to Brazil and the Caribbean, not to the United States) to work in the cotton and sugar plantations, among other places. That cotton and sugar was then shipped back to Europe and provided the raw materials for the industrial revolution, which allowed European powers to conquer the world. Since all Africa got was guns in exchange for its slaves, while Europe got raw materials and industrialization, its easy to see that Africa got the raw end of that deal. A lot of Africans believe that they are also on the raw end of the current economic system, which has western (and now Chinese) companies extracting resources, producing finished goods, and selling those goods back to Africa (I know, its allot more complicated than that, but you get the idea). In addition, western governments support corrupt African governments with guns. Those governments, now well armed and ensconced, allow the sweetheart deals which strip Africa of its resources but provide no benefit to Africans. That’s the problem. The solution is a good deal harder to figure out.

Kakum Park

Kakum National Park is about an hour north of Cape Coast. The park’s biggest attraction is a "canopy walk" which is more of an amusement park ride than a nature experience. There was no attempt at all to talk about the flora below our feet, and no animals to speak of. Here is a picture of me on the walk:

There were dozens of people on the canopy walk, but only me and two American women went on a hike in the park after. You have to take a guide with you, and the guides are paid by the hour, ($4 for the first, $2 for each additional hour, per person) so no guide would take us for more than one hour, since they are incentivized to do as many one hour tours as possible. That was annoying, because the hike was pretty cool- its a tropical rain forest, teeming with life, although the large mammals stay safely away from the hiking paths (we saw some monkeys, but they scattered too quickly to take a picture). The guide was very interested in talking about all the uses of the trees- he made it very clear that but for the park and its revenue, he would be happy to chop down the trees, plant something nice, and go hunting from time to time. I guess he was going to sell the forest one way or another. Its understandable- Ghana is a poor country, and anything that can be used or sold generally is, especially if it is owned in common, as rain forests tend to be. Economists identify this as the problems of the "commons." Thus, beach=toilet, tree=canoe and endanger species=dinner. Hey, its free! I'm happy to spend $15 for a few hours in the park, and give the local people some income. But in the long run, true conservation is going to require a change of mindset, and that’s hard.

After the hike, I went to lunch at this guest house near the park and nearly tripped over this alligator. Careful!

Saturday night I went to a party at the University of Cape Coast, said to be Ghana's best, hosted by some people I met at the beach a few weeks ago. A good time- the campus is nice and the people were too.

On another note, my 30 day visa expired and I officially became an illegal immigrant in Ghana. Anxious not to run afoul of Ghanaian law, on November 6 (yesterday) I went to the Ghana Immigration Department to extend my visa. I was accused of being one day late in the extension (well, I was actually two days late because October has 31 days, but I was not about to tell them that) and, due to my delinquency, had to pay an unspecified "fine." I negotiated the "fine" from 30 dollars to 10 dollars. The helpful "assistant auditor" insisted on keeping my passport so he could personally process the extension which he explained, usually takes two weeks, but he can do it in a week. I'm sure that means I am going to have to pay another "fine" when I pick up my passport, lest it get lost. Seeing as there is no problem with Americans coming in and taking jobs from Ghanaians and, for that matter, I’m a freaking volunteer, this whole system is set up for the simple purpose of making some government minister very rich. I should not complain: U.S. immigration authorities don't treat Ghanaians with expired visas very well, no matter how important their work is to the overall economy. Seen that way, I was illegally in Ghana for one day, and a $10 dollar fine and some future bribe to get back my passport is getting off easy.

This weekend I’ll be in the Volta region, in the far east of the country. I have a meeting in the town of Ho, the capital of the Volta region, on Friday, and then I will spend the weekend in the area. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing at the Ho meeting, but I hope its as rewarding as the CICOL conference (where I also had no idea what I would be doing). As for the weekend, one of the guys I work with has set me up with a friend of his from the area, and he offered to take me on a few hikes. Hope that works out. I’ll report back next week.