Features
Summer picnics among Ghanaian migrants in Finland
Today, I focus on interactions among Ghanaian migrants here in Finland. One of the ways Ghanaian migrants here interact is through picnics organised during the summer period (one can say that summer months here are usually from June to September).
Recently, the Mfantseman Kuw in Finland organised a summer picnic in Helsinki. They invited many other groups, such as the Ghana Union Finland, the Asanteman Kuo, and other members of the Ghanaian community.
Ghanaian migrant groups in Finland, such as the main group, the Ghana Union Finland (GUF), and other smaller ethnic groups do organise similar events.
Members of such groups bring together all Ghanaian migrants in Finland and aimed at promoting cultural activities for better intercultural and multicultural understanding. They also strive to uphold the good image of Ghana abroad, and create avenues for Ghanaian migrants to come together and interact.
Ghanaian dishes served
In the picnic organised by the MfantsemanKuw, there were lots of food and soft drinks to enjoy. Usually at such picnics, jollof rice, rice and stew, waakye, Gakenkey (Nkrandokono), fried fish and shito (chilli sauce), fried yams and ripe plantain are all popular dishes served.
Equally popular are roasted or grilled chicken, beef and sausages, alongside soft drinks (including the Ghanaian-type of ginger drink).
Ghanaian folk games
Initially, the organisers had expected to compete in fun games and other activities, including tug-of-war football,ludo,ampe, draughts playing cards, and races for the children,but it rained intermittently that day and only a few activities were organised, including some traditional Ghanaian folk games.
Regarding to the folk games, we did “KyeKyeKule” moves, played “Ampe”, and performed “Anntoakyire”. The reason for these traditional Ghanaian games/play was two-fold, that’s to do physical exercises and keep physically active for good health as well as to show part of Ghana’s culture to the kids at the event and children who had been born here in Finland or who did not grow up in Ghana to have ever witnessed those Ghanaian physical activities.
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and enacting “KyeKyeKule”: It was similarly with the “Ampe” and the “Anntoakyire”.
Portraying Ghana’s culture to children born in Finland
I have written something about how Ghanaian migrants in Finland live and organise their lives in everyday practices within the Finnish society and culture.
Actually, while Ghanaian migrants in Finland make efforts to integrate into the society where they live (here in Finland), they also try to portray the culture of Ghana, their original country.
An example is the cooking and eating of certain kinds of food (or an improvisation from food combinations) that are deemed typically Ghanaian (or African). Aside the various dishes, the Ghanaian migrants in Finland also display Ghanaian culture during funeral events where people mostly wear Ghanaian funeral clothes and styles made with fabrics from Ghana.
Summer picnics and sociality
Some time ago, I wrote about how participants at a summer picnic organised by a Ghanaian association here in Helsinki allowed a group of Ghanaian migrants to be outdoored after the lockdown in Finland was eased.
It is obvious that the advantages of physical activities concern considerations of sedentary lifestyles and health. Lack of exercises can lead to cardiovascular problems, even among children, and especially those who are obese.
At the same time, we should also consider that picnics and the physical activities create social bonds or sociality. I must say that despite the fact that it rained intermittently that day, the picnic was very much enjoyable. Thank you!
By Perpetual Crentsil
Email: perpetualcrentsil@yahoo.com
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
