Isaac Israel. Portrait of a Wounded Soldier (1882) Rijksmuseum. Depicts a Belanda Hitam (Zwarte Hollander) originally from Elmina, Ghana When I was deciding on a European break this summer, I purposely decided against Barcelona or any other locale that I envisioned I could be mistaken for a prostitute simply on the basis of my dark […]
Exploring the Arts in Amsterdam
Collage of holdings at the Rijksmuseum I’m not much of an art connoisseur but my sister N’ku was hell bent on seeing iconic Dutch paintings. She was rattling off names like Vermeer and “Night Watch” and I felt like I must have missed some part of vital education somewhere along the line. I mean since […]
Public women and prostitutes in pre-colonial Ghana
So while scouring the internet for more information regarding the African prostitutes of Europe I learned that some of the Ghanaian prostitutes are not actually Ghanaian but Nigerian women who have secured Ghanaian passports and that a lot of the Nigerian women involved in this trade in general come from Benin City, Edo State. I […]
It’s 12/12/12. So What?
Well nothing really, aside from this being the last repeating number date of the century! I partied like it’s 1999 in college in 1999 and survived the Y2K scare of the Millennium that had us thinking all computer systems would shut down on 12/31/1999. I actually spent the Christmas holidays and Wintersession that year in […]
Ghana’s Presidential Election 2012 – What’s so novel?
Ghana held elections this past Friday, December 7th 2012 with extended voting into Saturday, December 8th to accommodate technical problems with biometric voting. The current president, John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who became president of Ghana in July after the unexpected death of President John Atta Mills was re-elected president with […]
Talking about “One Day I Too Go Fly”
A Ghanaian-Ukranian friend of mine who came from Ghana to attend MIT, one of our “sibling schools”, is in the process of directing a “coming of age documentary about young Africans on a quest for knowledge at an elite American university”. It chronicles the life of five students from Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe […]
GhanaProNet Inauguration & Fundraising Luncheon
Click to enlarge Back in March, I waxed poetic about the plight of witches ie. marginalized women in northern Ghana unfairly brandished as witches and banished from their homes. I got really riled up thinking about the women even though I wasn’t able to make it to New York City or to Washington DC for […]
My first memories of the United States
I was fourteen. I had taken the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) stress-free with the knowledge that the results wouldn’t matter. That exam that would determine whether I would end up becoming a tomato seller at the market with a baby on my back or a smartly dressed Senior Secondary School pupil couldn’t faze me. […]
Neglected & forgotten spices & seasonings of Ghana
Summer in New York City is synonymous with a whole cadre of street festivals where artists and vendors sell their wares and one can usually buy something cool like the magic wrap skirt. I recently went on an outing with my mother and sisters to the Lexington Avenue Street Fair and came across a display […]
Ghanaian Favourite Dishes by Alice Dede
Ghanaian Favourite Dishes: Recipes that are loved best in many Ghanaian homes – collected and tried by nutritionists all over the country published by Alice Dede in 1969 is a tiny book that came into my possession in 1991 when I was twelve. It was bought by my father at the Legon bookstore and even […]
A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.