Stories

The following are news feature articles that I have written for my class while in Ghana.

EDUCATION IN GHANA

When he grows up, Frank Sackey wants to be an airplane pilot. The glare in his grey coal-colored eyes proves that this fearless 15-year-old won´t let anything interfere with his plans for the future. With an innocent smile he reveals that, while he has yet to step foot on a plane, he has been intrigued by them since he was 6 years old. Frank recognizes that in order to achieve his goal of one day becoming a pilot, he must first finish his high school education at the Li Yahoushua public school in Accra.

In Ghana, where schooling is seen as a luxury rather than as a rite of passage as is frequently the case in the USA, most children share Frank´s attitude, fervently valuing their education.

“I like school because that´s where you get your knowledge and you need knowledge to succeed,” said Victoria Togbe, a 16-year-old student at Li Yahoushua school. While waving at her classmates, who are walking over the sewage walk-way which serves as the entrance to their school, Victoria said she deems herself lucky because “kids that don´t go to school are suffering because if you don´t study you can´t go anywhere.”

For some of the less privilege kids in Accra, going to school is not an option. Even though Li Yahoushua is a public school and classes have no cost, some cannot afford to buy books or the proper uniform that is required.

Francis, a 13-year-old boy, is one of the fortunate ones who can meet the expense. He takes advantage of his privileged position because he believes that “without school you can´t be someone in the future.” Francis hopes to become a doctor.

Michael Sackey was one of the less fortunate ones. Now 29, Mr. Sackey works as an engineer to help his nephew, Frank Sackey´s, dream come true. While he hopes that Frank will one day become a pilot, he believes that his nephew must educate himself first: “learning will allow [him] to teach other people in the future.”


ELMINA CASTLE

In the dark dungeon, light became the enemy - vomit, excrement and dead bodies were best kept in the shadows. Rape and the lack of food and water propagated suicidal thoughts; neither the body nor the brain could endure more inhuman treatment. The few who survived the hardship were sent to faraway lands to continue with their ordeal. Black African slaves were never to come back to their homeland. The last they saw of Africa was the Door of No Return inside the white walls of the Elmina Castle.

Enslavement of black Africans has long ceased. Today, the Door of No Return invites people from all over the world to remember the tragedy. Once feared by West Africans, the 527-year-old Elmina Castle is now one of the most visited sites in West Africa.

“It’s important people do this tour because it’s important people know our history and know what happened,” said Amarteifio Isaac a tour guide, originally from Accra.

Alyssa Amponsah, an African American and a teacher of African Studies at the University of Massachusets, understands the importance of visiting the Castle. As a professor she felt it was crucial for her to experience first-hand this part of history and bring the information back to her students in the USA. Her lineage, however, also played a big role as in how she felt.

“This is a lot more personal when you can connect it to your great great grandparents,” Amponsah said.

The events that took place at the castle were nothing short of a tragedy, with horror stories of women being forced to sleep with white men or the malaria pandemic infecting and killing the already tragically malnourished Africans.

But its with these tragic memories in mind, that Cape Coast, as well as the rest of the country, push for people to visit the castle and understand what truly happened there - as tour guide Gideon Amissah said, “Ghanaians hope that history will not repeat itself.”