America The Powerful

One of the most interesting things I’ve encountered while in Ghana is the perception of America here.  To compare, when I was in Paris, America was seen as a big, boisterous, gauche country.  To be fair, this was in the Bush era so we weren’t looking particularly good to the international community.  When someone heard my American accent, they would say “oh! George W. Bush! Il est terrible!” and I’d have to say “mais non, Je le detest!” to make sure the Parisian knew I was, in fact, not one of the Terrible Americans they had seen in the news. 

Ghanaians see Americans much differently than Parisians did.  I’m not exactly sure what else to call the phenomenon besides powerful: the perception is that America is an incredibly powerful country.  Here are a few examples that have lead me to come to this conclusion:

1.  In downtown Takoradi, there are multiple little booths that are covered in bald eagles and American flags.  The signage advertises a lotto for American visas.  I’m not sure how credible these booths are – perhaps they are a scam.  But they scream the American dream to everyone passing by.  Although growing up the child of an immigrant family (my mom’s side) – as everyone in America basically does – I had an intellectual understanding of the pull of America as the promise land, however I have never felt it as viscerally as I did the first time I saw one of these booths.  And it’s not that the vendors are putting down Ghanaian culture or lives here. It feels as though America is on a pedestal; a light in the dark. 
2. On my cab ride today, the taxi driver had two flags taped to the inside of his cab window (the dashboard and windows of Ghanaian taxies are all very decorated).  One was the Ghanaian flag, and the other, (you guessed it) American. 
3.  Multiple times I’ve seen women wearing headscarves made out of fabric the pattern of the American flag. I’ve never seen headscarves in any other discernable flag pattern.  Certainly don’t see much love for Union Jack!
4. Earlier this week I saw a woman wearing a dress made out of a fabric that featured a painting of Obama.  Ghana is currently in election season, and I don’t know the names of the candidates or the parties they represent or really the slightest thing about them.  And yet, here is a woman in Ghana wearing a dress featuring the American president’s face.  I wish I could have taken a picture (she was too far away and we were in a taxi at the time).  It seems as though Obama’s visit to Ghana had a major impact on the citizenry.  There is no way the Ghanaian president visiting America would have anywhere near the same scope of impact.  I wonder what the emotional repercussions of his visit were for the Ghanaian people – here is the American president, the decedent of West African slaves ripped from their homes, visiting Ghana and making proclamations about how America promises to be friend and support to Ghana and her people.  It moved me so much to see her walking down the street in this dress; I am emotional writing this post.  It reminded me of one time I was at the Ashby Flea Market in Berkeley and I saw an African American woman wearing large earrings with Obama’s face on them (this was around the time of the 2012 election).  I had tears in my eyes looking at her, at the hope this Black president represented to the community that I was (perhaps an ancillary) part of.  This Ghanaian woman, whom I saw for the briefest of moments, moved me the same way.
5.  USAID, or United States Agency for International Development.  Hen Mpoano has worked extensively with USAID in the past, and as such, has many posters and pamphlets with the USAID slogan emblazoned on them: “From the American People.”  But really – how many people in America know what USAID is?  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know anything about the organization until I started SMEA (and far be it for me to admit to not knowing something, as my ever patient boyfriend and parents can attest to).  The slogan is such an incredible misnomer to me – how can something “be from the American people” if the American people en mass don’t care if it exists or not?  There’s such a false grandiosity about it, and I wonder how much this feeds into the perception of America as powerful.  I wonder if Ghanaians, including my officemates, see that and think that the American People actually care about them.  Because Americans don’t, they don’t care, so many of us can’t even get our asses out of our seats to be upset by the brutal lynching of Black Americans by our racist police forces.  How can Americans care about Ghanaians when somehow “black lives matter” is a controversial statement?  We don’t care about our own Black citizens, how can we as a country care about Africans living in Africa?  The cognitive dissonance astounds me, and frankly, embarrasses me.  If only we were as altruistic as our agencies portray us to be.  If only we were actually as good as the Ghanaian people perceive us to be.  How can we be a city upon a hill when a sociopathic demagogue is running for the highest office? I’m an optimist (you have to be to do this kind of work that I’m doing), and I have hope that someday, American will be worth of the praise I’ve seen her receive while in this beautiful country

Finally, there’s the issue of colonialist conservationism – something the United States and US agencies (World Wild Life Fund comes to mind) has perpetuated for years. Does USAID care about whether it is or isn’t a colonialist force?  There’s certainly positive actions advocated by USAID that are grounded in good science and management, for example, the SFMP (Sustainable Fishery Management Plan) that USAID has drafted for coastal Ghana includes sound science and practices, including making the fishery not open-access, increase net size, and reduce harmful fishing practices such as light fishing.  So these pass the “sniff test” for me, as it were.  I try to be ever aware of my presence as a white woman in a previously colonized country, and hope that my venture of trying to learn, as opposed to trying to impose management techniques, spares me from being a part of colonialist conservationism.  But I don’t want to be defensive if I’m told by someone that my actions are being perceived as colonialist.  It’s a tough pill to swallow (members of my cohort may remember in SMEA 500 how on the last day of class, a non-SMEA student literally yelled at all of us who wanted to do research in foreign countries for being colonialists), but one I cannot balk from if presented with it.  I want to be aware of my own privilege and position as someone from America the Powerful and not abuse it.