A slice from Ghana
Nana Adjoa took time from her short evening to share with me different aspects of Ghanaian life and culture. She also shares about when she got hurt as a child and also her proudest moment growing up.
listen
timestamped notes
~0:57 Day names. Day names are common in Southern Ghana and you can find a list on Wikipedia.
~4:50 tro tros are minibuses (or big vans). This news piece explains the origin and shows them in action along with some controversy about their safety.
~6:57 Waakye is exactly what you’d expect for a Sunday morning feast.
~16:32 kente
And some more history and standing of kente from NPR.
~18:29 anansi is a major part of Ghanaian folklore and tales. As a trickster, he is somewhat analogous to the fox or coyote and stretching the idea further might be similar to Loki in Norse mythology.
~ 19:50 chewing metal seems to be more intense than the ad hoc weight lifting we talked with Nafissa about in the Mali episode. This video has some interesting contraptions for working out that Nana would probably avoid.
~24:12 idioms
- eye red – craving for or envious of
- chale – friend
- cho – food
~26:01 foods
- Jollof – the hotly contested and variable (soft rice or al dente) dish
- tilapia and banku
- banku and kenkey, fufu
- nkatenkwan soup
thoughts on Ghana
Ghana is fun! No more dumsor!
-Nana Adjoa
Our discussion flowed all over the place and Nana was eager to give me so many details about Ghanian life. Her talking about the differences between North and South Ghana reminded me that I am only getting the tiniest glimpse into life there and for any country I talk to a native of. Maybe in the future will do a bunch of episodes just on one country….
