Akwaaba!

I feel a bit guilty because I’m in my hotel room when I should be downstairs participating in Gabrielle Civil’s performance workshop. But I ran into G on my way upstairs and she said I was overdressed so I decided to change and then realized I was starving and so ordered room service instead. My first day in Accra has been wonderful–there was some randomness at the terminal but Rashidah Ismaili herded us together, we got our visas stamped, and we all boarded the plane ready to get some sleep. The flight was fairly uneventful except for some serious turbulence on the way down, but we landed with no problem and made our way through customs without a hitch. There was a disturbing sign at the airport–I couldn’t decide whether or not to take a photo, but it basically said “Welcome! Unless you’re a pedophile or other sexual deviant, in which case you should go someplace else.” There’s a sexuality panel at the conference and I’ll be interested to know just who qualifies as “deviant” in this country. We piled into the van that was waiting for us and our guide chatted amiably as we drove to the hotel. She asked everyone which country they were from and then noted our race–or mine, anyway, which she declared to be “white.” Rashidah went off and reminded us all of Nkrumah’s message on Pan-Africanism: “We are all African!” Here, except for Rashidah (below, right) who was born in Ghana, we are all “obruni”–maybe not white, but foreign. And we’re all hyphenated–born in one place, living in another. The guide explained that she only meant to say I was “bright,” and I wasn’t offended. Frankly, we were having too much fun–imagine being in a van full of black women scholars, artists, and writers! This is heaven for me. When we got to our rooms we cleaned up and then joined the conference organizers Rosa, Kinna, and Jaira in the lounge. They promptly ordered food for us (Ghanaian food is delicious but SPICY) and we relaxed for a while before filling the goody bags for participants and VIPs. The warmest welcome came from Kinna Likimani (below, left) who blogs at Kinna Reads (she’s also the daughter of Ama Ata Aidoo and director of Mbasem, a foundation founded by Aidoo that promotes African women writers). I was amazed and honored to learn that *I* was the person she was most looking forward to meeting! Today we spent an hour talking about the challenges promoting literacy in Ghana. I think Kinna’s onto something when she talks about the need to collaborate with churches. One church here gathered 5000 children for a discussion on “developing good habits.” And, of course, one such habit is reading books! And buying books, and treating them like the valuable tools they are. We also talked about the need to get quality books into the schools—books that aren’t holdovers from British colonial rule but rather reflect the contemporary realities of African children. I also met Deborah Ahenkorah (right) this morning–this amazing Bryn Mawr graduate was at her booth promoting her organization Golden Baobab, which also promotes literacy and African writers of children’s literature. It’s inspiring to see women here in Ghana tackling the very same issues we face in the US and Canada–there’s so much to learn and share!

Ok, my lunch arrived and I stopped to devour it (joloff rice with vegetables and fresh pineapple, which is white here, not yellow, and much sweeter), which left my lips burning (pepper!) so I went in search of more water. Then the power went out for a moment so I think I better wrap this up and head back downstairs for the first panel on Identity and Creativity. Then it’s time for the opening plenary, which will feature Ama Ata Aidoo and Angela Davis in conversation! And then we have the reception hosted by NYU Ghana. I’m pacing myself—woke with a headache this morning and so skipped breakfast and slept a while longer. I went downstairs to the terrace and bought some books and a cool t-shirt from Deborah, chatted with her and Kinna, and then came back up for lunch. International travel is daunting in some ways, but I’ve got an awesome support team and already feel motivated to do *more* when I get back to NYC. Yesterday Rosa asked for suggestions—what do you ask Angela Davis before she receives a lifetime achievement award? I said, “If Assata Shakur is now a terrorist and a threat to national security, what does that say about the rest of us?” It means women writers of African descent are DANGEROUS! The world better watch out…