Diary of an Obroni...

I started off 2010 by spending three months in Ghana with 18 strangers from the UK. We spent the majority of the trip in the village of Kasapin. We built classrooms. We taught in schools. We helped in clinics. At the end of each day, we would return to our lodgings which had become a kind of hang-out for the kids in the village. No doubt that the main attraction was the group of Obronies (fair skinned/white people) that had taken up residence in their back yard. We spent afternoons teaching – or in many cases, trying to teach – our classes and evenings playing football, dancing or just watching and laughing with the many kids that we’d very quickly grown attached to.

Spending so much time with young people was a lesson in itself. I learnt to spot the difference; not just the difference in their uniforms - but their homes, their manners, and their smiles. You could quite easily split the kids of Kasapin into two distinct groups – Public vs Private. But in and amongst the groups, it is clear that the children who receive a better standard of  education will leave the village one day to embark on the faster pace of city life. For example, the children whose fathers are pastors, private school teachers and the owners of small but successful businesses, their children exuded the perfect level of coolness and intelligence…

'They won’t be able to afford higher education and so will settle for the village life they have always known'

You talk to this group of kids and you can imagine the options that they will have in the future. Then there are those children whose futures are unlikely to change, and will continue to resemble their present day lives. They go to their public schools. They will stay in Kasapin. They might get jobs but even then they’ll be limited to the very few options available to them – farm work, market work and taxi work. They’ll attend primary and secondary school, never learning quite enough to gain certain jobs, for example despite learning English at school, for many, they are unable to structure a full sentence in English at the age of 12. They won’t be able to afford higher education and so will settle for the village life they have always known. And as beautiful and serene as that life may be, it is limited. 

At first glance, the contrasts between the Ghanaian and British education system do not seem so great. They are similarities, but put into context - the consequences of turning 20 without a full and proper education in Ghana are far more serious. For example, in the public schools, you learn I.T. from a text book. Students also draw a keyboard instead of using one. In the school I was working in, students even had to deal with teachers who would rarely show up, and when present, they would return after break-time smelling of the local homebrew. The kids buy exercise books decorated with images of a smiling Barack Obama and they proclaim that, “This is good because he will help us and we will learn bigger.” Unsurprisingly, the tipsy teacher does not tell the class that their education is not going to be improved by the White House’s handsome, half black fella.

Ghana is one of the most stable African countries. It was the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence from British colonial powers. It is a country rich in natural resources. This plus many other factors has led to Ghana being regarded as an example for political and economic reform. In spite of this, many public schools in villages across Ghana are still neglected. The teachers adopt a ‘copy and repeat’ form of teaching, and schools also lack fundamental resources and equipment.

This is a country that in many ways is failing its rural youth; a country which is also meant to be an example for other African countries.

Words: Mahta Hassanzadeh
Photos: Zeenat Azmi