Day 3 - Meet the AEA’s

Friday was my first semi-official day at work because the director in this district MoFA holds a meeting with all the AEA’s and staff each Friday. He basically just introduced me and I talked for about 2mins introducing myself and mentioning why I’m here, to help get the program Agriculture as a Business up and running. It went ok, I didn’t know what to expect because I’m still trying to figure things out here. I even have to work at fully understanding people because of the different accent and expressions. I think next week when I run a workshop explaining in depth who I am, why I’m here, and the what the program is all about I’ll hopefully break the ice. But I did get to talk to a couple people after the meeting and I think I’ll be able to go with one of them to their meeting with a farmer group next week. While a couple of us were talking outside the office, a funeral procession was making it’s way down the street. Now I’m not sure if any of you have heard about funerals in Northern Ghana but you can probably guess that they’re nothing like funerals in Canada. This is what I saw. There was a group of about 25-30 guys from old to young dressed in different outfits, what we would probably call costumes, and at the front there were drummers (the medium size hand drums) and at the front there was a man leading the way. They were sort of dancing or marching to the rhythm which stopped frequently at the call of the leader, and most of them had fake weapons like bow and arrows, or spears. It almost seemed like the leader was leading them into battle or something, because they would mimic the use of the pseudo weapons at certain times. Anyway, they came right up to us and performed for us, and the man to my right gave a little money, which apparently is the custom.

I’m hesitant to label this funeral procession as “traditional” because it evokes meaning that can be misleading. For instance, traditional is often used in comparison to “modern”, and traditional usually refers to something of the past. Now I don’t know much about the cultures up here in Paga, but I do know that the majority of the people dressed up in the funeral were more than likely carrying cell phones, and some of them were going to hop on their motos after it finished and might head home to watch the football game on tv. The funeral performance may have some links to the past but I’m guessing remains tied to modern life in Paga. Nevertheless, it was an interesting activity to witness, and next weekend there’s a funeral in the neighbouring town of Navrongo which I was invited to and will taking many pics and videos of, so keep an eye out for a future post of the funeral/party!