Fathaaaaaaaaa.......Michael

Both Michael and I have got used to being called Obroni (white man in Twi) while in Accra and other parts of Ghana and Yevu (white man in Ewe) in the Volta Region. You will remember that Michael had mentioned in one of the previous blogs that even I get called Yevu or Obroni!

Recently, on our trip to Northern Volta Region, on our way from Nkwanta to Dambai, we kept hearing the word Fathaaaa..... called out by young children when we passed villages. It took a while to realise that they were calling Michael Fathaaa... as probably their only exposure to white men were men to do with church.

On these trips there were 7 Ghanaians, Michael and myself in the car. The children would spot Michael, ignore the rest of us and with big smiles call out Fathaaaaa.... Of course Michael made the most of the attention, he would wave at them at every opportunity and bless them. All of us got a lot of enjoyment out of this and would wait for the children in villages to spot him. On one trip we counted the number of times the children had spotted him and shouted after us. In all the villages the way they called out was in the same tune as if they had all been coached by one person. So we would be leaving villages with the ring of Fathaaaa... Michael started thinking of how he could be more entertaining and was thinking of getting a sceptre to wave the next time we go on that road.

Ghana turns “red”!

Last year Vodaphone took over Ghana Telecom. We had seen the headlines in newspapers about this takeover and local people were clearly hoping that this would mean that an improved service.
Over the months we have not seen any improvement in the service – both telephone and internet services continue to be the same - sporadically good but most of the time appalling. The only big difference noticed so far is that Ghana is turning “red”! This is not Ghana turning “red” politically and if you read on you will understand what I mean.
The takeover happened on a Friday and the next day when we went walking into town, and by the main Ghana Telecom building saw a few red umbrellas with Vodaphone logo on it. I said to Michael that although it is early days there is no sign of improvement in service but the umbrellas are here to show that the big multinational Vodaphone is here.
Within a few months we saw not only more red umbrellas appearing everywhere in Ghana but also buildings being painted red. Previously, there were numerous buildings painted yellow – MTN colours. Now this was being taken over by this bright offensive red buildings. What I could not understand was that even old colonial buildings were being painted red. One person said that it is getting your shop or house painted without any cost to you so you go for it. So for the locals it is a pragmatic approach with no thought being given to them advertising for the multinationals for free.
Another big surprise was seeing Vodaphone t-shirts and hats at funerals. One of my blog entries last year was about the importance of funerals in Ghana and that people wear red, shirts, scarves and headdress, for funerals. The pragmatic Ghanaian has again seen the freebees as benefiting them. So now instead of seeing traditional red dresses and scarves and headdresses, we see Vodaphone red everywhere on Fridays, the funeral procession day.Now, we get welcomed into towns and villages not only by Tigo (another telecom company) but also by Vodaphone within a few meters of each other