You need this song playing in the back of your mind. It makes the storytelling so much more arresting. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpBP9dALcWw] South Africans like to think they are immeasurably different from other Africans; when in fact, they are not. There is a wide spread and indoctrinated belief that all Africans north of the Limpopo are […]
In my bathroom at home we have a three foot tall stack of magazines. Architecture Digest, Essence, Relevant, Time, you name it – it’s in there. And in one of these magazines, it was suggested that readers venture off the beaten vacation path and give a try to ‘serving vacations’ or whatever the term was. […]
You don’t come to Africa empty handed. You can try that mess if you want to, but it doesn’t bode well for a good experience. At some point, you will pay for that decision. It’s one of the themes you’ll often hear foreigners and White folks in South Africa discussing: This damned entitlement culture that […]
Greetings from windy South Africa! I’ve been on the road and in the air since May 25th and I’m ever so grateful to have my feet on the ground. The last time the family went to South Africa I believed it was the most grueling experience I would ever endure. Seventeen hours in the air […]
Consider a pimple – a whitehead to be exact. Over the course of time – a week perhaps – you see and feel it erupting slowly, breaking through the surface of the skin with powerful stealth until it blooms and settles on your face with opaque grotesqueness. Frantically, you begin to stab at it, vehemently […]
Hmmm… I think Ambolley wants me to write about Monsanto. Done! Does Ghana – or Africa as a whole, for that matter – have anything to fear from Monsanto? The short answer is “yes”. Anytime a huge US conglomerate takes an active interest in developing nations or any geographic area perceived as being bereft of […]
I always wait too long to talk to my father. The last time we talked was – what? – two weeks ago? It’s to imagine I went a full two years without talking to the old man… “Yes… Abena Owusua. What do you want?” “Kwasi Gyekye. How are you this evening?” “Hmmm. I’m okay. My […]
Is it too late to talk about Mother’s Day? Is there a threshold after which the topic becomes banal? I don’t know… so I’m going to tell you about my Mother’s Day weekend anyway. Plus, I want to hear about some of the Mother’s Day adventures of the moms in the M.O.M. Squad in the […]
I opened my inbox today and found a note from my favorite teacher. I was all at once excited. We have a pretty decent bond and have managed to keep in touch, even though I have not been under his tutelage in seventeen years. I tore into his message, which read this in part: Howdy? […]