Monday, August 22, 2005
Kumasi, Ghana
While I remembered the rough plan of the city and recognized some roads, the drive into Kumasi at midday when the market was in full swing was overwhelming for all of us. This sprawling market, which spills out into four commercial districts surrounding the city center, is the largest market in West Africa. The road we had chosen to navigate towards the guesthouse in the center of town, put us in the thick of it. We shared the road with women balancing their day's trading goods on top of their heads, soapbox preachers who use the word of God to sell aspirin as a miracle drug, aggressive taxi drivers that blocked the road so as to be able to maneuver for the best spot to pick up customers, endless lines of tro tros that run the road like mafia gangsters, shoeshiners banging on their boxes to attract the weary workers that walk by, hawkers that tempt death with their endless games of human frogger through lanes of traffic (all while balancing a pyramid of oranges or peanuts, making change with their hands, and chasing after the car in which their customers sit with fat fingers hanging out of the car window and haggle over the price). It was hard to concentrate on the road itself.
Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, the politically and economically powerful royal family in Ghana. The Ashantis sit on some of the most resource rich land on earth, land that yields the famed Ashanti gold. The kingdom is ruled over by the Queen Mother who sits on a golden stool, and each town is overseen by secondary Queen Mothers. It is these women leaders' opinion that is requested to solve argument and quarrels. It is her blessing that the people seek. We learned that Queen Mothers are also active in organizing social groups to discuss the threat of AIDS in their communities.
While I remembered the rough plan of the city and recognized some roads, the drive into Kumasi at midday when the market was in full swing was overwhelming for all of us. This sprawling market, which spills out into four commercial districts surrounding the city center, is the largest market in West Africa. The road we had chosen to navigate towards the guesthouse in the center of town, put us in the thick of it. We shared the road with women balancing their day's trading goods on top of their heads, soapbox preachers who use the word of God to sell aspirin as a miracle drug, aggressive taxi drivers that blocked the road so as to be able to maneuver for the best spot to pick up customers, endless lines of tro tros that run the road like mafia gangsters, shoeshiners banging on their boxes to attract the weary workers that walk by, hawkers that tempt death with their endless games of human frogger through lanes of traffic (all while balancing a pyramid of oranges or peanuts, making change with their hands, and chasing after the car in which their customers sit with fat fingers hanging out of the car window and haggle over the price). It was hard to concentrate on the road itself.
Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, the politically and economically powerful royal family in Ghana. The Ashantis sit on some of the most resource rich land on earth, land that yields the famed Ashanti gold. The kingdom is ruled over by the Queen Mother who sits on a golden stool, and each town is overseen by secondary Queen Mothers. It is these women leaders' opinion that is requested to solve argument and quarrels. It is her blessing that the people seek. We learned that Queen Mothers are also active in organizing social groups to discuss the threat of AIDS in their communities.
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