Aloha from Ghana: Independence DAY March 6th

3/6/11

Ghana’s 54^th Independence

Sunday the 6^th of March was Ghana’s 54^th independence celebration. We woke up real early because people had told us that the traffic gets terrible on the way to Independence Square, where the celebrations would be held. Alarms went off around 5 am, but due to darkness and tiredness, we postponed till about 6:30. Andrew and I stumbled out of Legon Hall in the early morning light and met up with our friends Eliza, Eryn, and Carissa. We were able to find a cab relatively easily, and the traffic turned out to be no big deal. We made it to independence square by around 7:30 with festivities starting around 8 (Ghanaian time- meaning 8:45 or 9). As we walked around the crowded grounds, we met these women selling Ghana Schwag out of the back of their car.

Most of the stuff was left overs from the African Cup of Nations, which was hosted by Ghana in 2008, but it was all really cool and VERY Ghanaian. We each ended up with a red yellow green umbrella hat, a couple Ghanaian flags, some sweat bands, and I don’t know how, but I ended up with a pair of Ghanaian cuff links haha.

The ladies were also selling bottles of warm red wine -delicious! (not) – which we were obliged to purchase in order to celebrate the Independence in the proper Amurican style. As we made our way into the crowded stands, we realized that the entire place was packed with Ghanaians, and the celebration was about to start. We walked up into the back row, and I asked an usher if we could sit in the stairs. He looked over at the back row, said something to them in twi and people squeezed together, magically creating enough room on the bench for us 5 obronis.

So there we were in prime, shady seats, decked out in our Ghanaian gear, with two bottles of wine, and oops, no bottle opener. Luckily, there were 5 American college students present who were able to offer assistance and MacGyver them bottles open. That’s when the parade started.

Hundreds of Senior High School and Service Academy students were arranged by school, and marched out into the center of the square to stand at attention in the sun for the duration of the Ceremony. –Of all the hundreds of students, there was only one white guy, standing proudly with his classmates. Andrew and I decided that after we needed to talk to this kid. –

Although it was only 9 AM, the sun was already high overhead and burning hot. Within five minutes of taking up their positions in the square, students began dropping to the ground. The first one was bad. A girl in blue at the side of a line facing us just crumpled to the ground unconscious. Guys with stretchers immediately ran out and scooped her up and carried her off to the side. We were all shocked and extremely worried, but the Ghanaians around us didn’t even seem to have noticed. Before the men had put the girl in blue down, another girl a few schools over slouched to the ground. Again, two guys with stretchers sprinted out and took her off to the side. At this point I asked a Ghanaian man sitting in front of me what was happening. After laughing at me for a second, he cheerfully greeted me and said “Oh, the fainting? It happens every year. We are very prepared for it and have plenty of people to take care of them. The sun is just very hot, you know?”

While he was explaining this to me a guy from a red school dropped. I couldn’t believe that all these people were fainting; yet every year, they didn’t change the program. The guy had a point though; they had done a great job as far as treating the symptoms of the problem went. There were probably 5 stretcher teams, 3 ambulances, and 4 recovery tents. Some students were smart and, before fainting, would slowly kneel down, then get up and walk off to the side. Impressively, most people who fell or ran off eventually ran back into the sun before the finale.

After a demonstration by some Taekwondo students, a dance drumming demonstration, and a long speech by Atta Mills, of which I understood about 17%, the victory cannons began firing. There were probably about ten cannons and each one shot around 5 deafening shots. The shock waves must have been too much for a lot of the students because during this salvo, about 5 people dropped to the ground, triggering a whole flurry of rescue activity. Two Ghanaian fighter jets, buzzed the Independence Square, causing a few more casualties, and then it was over. All the students began marching out, while Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings’ Mercedes convoy RACED out, closely followed by Atta Mill’s BMW convoy. We made our way out of the stands and down into the Square to join the jubilant crowds. Being quite jubilant ourselves, we had a great time cheering and talking with excited Ghanaian students. We even found the lone obroni kid, and found out that he is a 16 year old exchange student from Germany. Andrew and I agreed that the kid was pretty much DA man already at 16. He didn’t even faint during the ceremony!

Eventually a local TV station found Andrew and I and asked us if they could interview us. We, of course, obliged and answered their questions with gusto, raving about how awesome Ghana is and how cool the ceremony was. They kept trying to change the subject, however, when they asked what the most memorable part of the Ceremony was for me. I had to be honest, all I could think of was the 50 or so people we watched faint! They thanked us for out time and the interview, but for some reason, couldn’t tell us what channel their news program would be on. Oh well.

At this point we met up with some other friends from the University, and decided to follow some of the crowd to a beautiful restaurant and bar located right on the water.

It’s the same place where Adjeyte used to rehearse his band, and where I’d had a few drum lessons, so I know the place, pretty well. The shore line at Osu Kain reminds me a lot of home in Hawai’i, especially the rocks, which are very similar to China Walls.

While some of our friends sat at the bar, we went out and climbed onto this really cool rock outcropping. We also went swimming down at the beach, which was awesome, despite the tremendous amount of plastic pollution.