By Doreen Allotey
YOU seem to have the morning blues. You feel funny and secretly pray that it is for real. You confide in your husband that you are pregnant and he looks like someone with mixed feelings. First is that of surprise, giving credence to the fact that even though there is a scientific explanation for how a woman becomes pregnant, men recognise the power of the Supreme being in the process. Otherwise why the surprise?
Well, your husband is very happy that you are about to let the whole world know that he is a man, but deep down inside he thinks about the implications and consequences, such as the family budget and what is expected of him as a father.
He starts helping around the house, ostensibly to make the household chores lighter, and starts treating you like an egg.
Your visit to the doctor confirms that a new one is on the way and your excitement increases.
Your increase in size attracts attention and your colleagues at the workplace start teasing you.
Some call you double-decker, some ask you what you have been eating, while others just look at you and sigh, to show that they know what you have been up to.
With time your clothes do not fit any longer and you need to buy or make clothes that will give you and the growing one some space.
Pregnancy brings with it different kinds of moods. Sometimes you do not feel like talking at all — not because you are unfriendly but because if you do so your mouth fills up with saliva, a sight that nobody likes.
A simple comment innocently made can send you throwing tantrums. Your mood is at it, playing games with you. And oh, how some women take advantage of this to do and say things!
You may hate to see the very kind of food which used to be your favourite and crave for something that people around you find extremely odd. There have been real stories of women who have chewed chalk, white clay (ayilo) salt and cola nuts to satisfy these cravings, very much aware that they are not healthy.
Some husbands have experiences of travelling from, say, Tema to Dansoman in search of kelewele (spicy fried plantain) from a particular seller because that is what heavy wife is asking for. Without it, she may nag the whole night.
Every pregnancy seems unique in the sense of how it treats you. You may have nausea or morning sickness and lose appetite for one pregnancy, while another gives you an unbelievable appetite. You also find that you can neither lie on your back nor your belly. You are sentenced to lying only on your sides.
The early weeks of pregnancy do not get you attending antenatal clinics so regularly, but as time goes on and the due date draws nearer, the doctor requires you to visit more frequently.
You have the choice, during your scans, to find out the sex of the baby — male or female?
This is another exciting moment for you and your partner. Even though certain items may have been bought for baby already, the confirmation of sex enables you to buy according to some colour scheme. Most couples choose blue for boys and settle on pink for girls.
Luckily, ante-natal clinics provide a basic list of what a new born requires. This facilitates the preparation for the new one and a provisional shopping list.
As a working mother, you plan your leave in such a way that you spend most of it when the baby arrives instead of before. That puts some stress on you because the last days before it descends make walking uncomfortable. But you struggle through, going to work just to have time for the baby.
Even though you are given lessons on the signs to expect as an indication of labour and when you should start heading for the hospital to be delivered of your baby, you can be overtaken by events because you may not read the symptoms right. If you are lucky to have some experienced old lady with you, this will not be a problem. The experienced ones have eyes like X-rays; they look at you and can tell what is about to happen!
Whatever the case may be, the cramps are good enough to race you off towards the hospital. But that may only be the “comedies”. There is this story a midwife told of how one first-timer walked into the hospital and announced to the nurses at the table that she was in labour. They quickly showed her to her room, knowing very well that nothing had started. She took a fashion magazine, started reading it and touched up her make-up. When it was show time, the magazine went flying across the room, while she hang onto the curtain railings in the room like a bat. What a strategy to cope with pain! The room where she was reading had become too small to contain her.
Now the baby arrives and this opens another chapter of your life — the sleepless nights as baby cries for what you will believe as no apparent reason! You may never find out the cause of baby’s cries and will keep guessing all kinds of things in a bid to stop the crying.
Your husband comes to the rescue and you take turns to carry the baby around, holding it over the shoulder and patting it on the back. Sometimes you are forced to march up and down the room like soldiers because any attempt to sit draws cries from the baby.
By morning the two of you are as tired as hunters from a night’s expedition. But the morning is when well wishers, friends and family members come in to visit and congratulate you! Mother will still have to see them, with bleary eyes and a smile, of course.
It seems it takes a while for new borns to get used to their new environment outside the womb.
In no time your maternity leave comes to an end and you have to resume work. This can be quite stressful for the working nursing mother. With no alternative of a relation to take care of the baby at home, you decide to send it over to a crèche, you look out for one that is neat and where the baby can have the best of attention. But you can never really tell what happens to it in your absence, for even if it has been crying the whole day and refused to eat, he will be cleaned up and powdered up by the time you arrive to pick him.
Leaving the baby at the crèche on the first day is traumatic. You get to the crèche and the baby is received warmly, but turning to walk away towards work becomes a big emotional problem, especially if you are breastfeeding. You find tears rolling down your cheeks while the baby also cries for you!
At work, you have divided attention. In fact, you hear the baby crying sometimes and if someone inadvertently touches your filled-up breasts, your dress gets soaked with milk!
Luckily, the laws of the land allow you to leave earlier than your colleagues. As punctual as you used to be to work on a daily basis, you realise that you sometimes just cannot get it right any longer. There are times when you wake up early to get yourself and the baby ready and are about to go out the door only to find that it just made another parcel in its diapers. You have little choice but to change the diapers and that takes some time.
In such a situation, make your presence felt at work by working extra hard to compensate for your lateness and do not make it a usual excuse at all.
As a working nursing mother, you find that your time is not yours any longer.
You would prefer getting some sleep at the least opportunity to sitting at your favourite spot listening to live band music!
Your responsibilities as a wife will also take a toll on you — taking care of the baby, cleaning the house, washing, cooking and keeping yourself intact for your husband.
In spite of all these challenges, do not be too surprised if you find, in less than two years, that number two is on the way. Why should you be surprised if you have not visited the family planning clinic? That old lady’s tale of breastfeeding being a contraceptive is not true.
So you start another cycle, but obviously you now have loads of experience and will, therefore, be able to cope better with the challenges. But as the number of births increases, so do the challenges.
One interesting thing is that every child has its own peculiarities. Some babies treat you kinder than others. While one would wail just because of a wet nappy, another will even sleep in his soiled nappy. Some babies want company all the time and refuse to lie in the cot except between you and daddy! Others can sit quietly for long hours while you do your household chores. Their character naturally produces for them pet names that you keep and treasure even when they have become men.
It is a great joy to watch babies grow. But with their growth comes a whole set of challenges — picking them up from school, moulding their character, the anxiety about making them responsible in future and helping with homework. Depending on your finances, you could employ a teacher to lend a hand.
There are times when the working mother has to travel because work demands that she does. She is very ready to respond to this duty but very worried about what happens to the home in her absence.
The working mother faces a stiffer challenge when she attempts to improve her curriculum vitae through further education. The decision to go back to school is a tough one for her knowing very well that what she is about to put her self through would increase her responsibilities. She is about to combine her assignments in school with helping her children with their home work and a lot more. Her responsibilities at home don’t change at all. Once again she is prepared to juggle, knowing very well that it is a temporary challenge that will make her a better person for the benefit of her family. She sometimes has to run from the lecture hall to pick her children at school. She continues with lectures while the children wait in the car or somewhere more comfortable and they drive home after the lectures.
At home, there is no time for rest, as her husband is waiting for his food.
Balancing your responsibilities at work, at home and to your husband and children as a working mother remains a challenge that one should plan and manage. You learn to juggle on the job.
After all is said and done, a real mother stands up to these challenges as they come, remains prayerful and does not give up her children for anything else in the world!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Has the new been better than the old?
Asks Doreen Allotey
FROM the songs of old, we get the idea of what things used to be. The song, Serwaa Akoto, paints the picture of a lady with remarkable beauty who would not raise her voice in public, how much more wash her dirty linen there. She is a symbol of what society expected the ideal woman to be at that time. The call for affirmative action, gender equality and mainstreaming were obviously not so dominant at that time.
From A. B. Crentsil’s song, Juliana, we get the idea of how men used to woo ladies. The approach was not so direct. They could call the lady they wanted, and try to strike acquaintance by mistaking their semblance for that of their sister and then go on to admire their beauty all the same. What the response to that formula used to be was: “I will think about it”. Now it is more direct. “I love you.” Just like that, in the face. No beating about the bush and gradually women are getting bolder and assertive enough to see men and go after them.
Before this phenomenon, we even had arranged marriages where a family decided for a girl, who her husband was to be, did an introduction and then married them off. Sometimes the marriage was aimed at creating a stronger bond between both families for historical reasons, other times it was for the economic reason of keeping the family wealth within the family. In this case, we could have cousins getting married etc. etc. This is not common anymore.
The classic movie, I told you so is a great one. This film is normally shown on Independence Day. Apart from making meaning of the saying: All that glitters is not gold, we get the opportunity to see the fashion of those times, different kinds of wigs, kerb and slit , ear rings etc. Interestingly, some of them are very much in vogue today. Fashion just revolves and comes back with little variations. Still it will be very surprising if the hair style “Shark “ and “Bushy” or “Afro”, make a strong come back even though we spot them among the very common low haircuts or “Sweat” which have dominated the scene for quite a long time now.
The movies of old show how man’s greatest companion today— the telephone — without which life would be nightmarish for many, has evolved. From 1876 when it was invented in Boston by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone has gone through several transformations with the aim of making it more portable and stylish with a clearer sound quality. At a point in its evolution, people had to wind the phones like is done to the corn mill machine, all that effort to make a call at a stipulated time, and the ringing tone was deafening. Now there are all kinds of ringing tones especially for cell phones with some sounding like a whole orchestra while others mimic the sounds of animals, wow, meow and moo. Interestingly, these sounds now seem so irritating to some matured ears that they prefer to keep the cell phone permanently on silent with only the vibration on to alert them or a beep. Others have gone back from the different high tech sounds of night club music to the grriiiiiiing griiiiiiiing reminiscent of Charlie Chaplain days.
The refrigerator also arrived to gradually displace the cooler which was made of clay. Mechanical refrigeration became widespread during the 1920s but obviously much later in Ghana. Water from the cooler was a delicacy; it was so nice because of the smoky flavour effected by placing the cooler over burning palm fruit husks before being filled with water.
There have also been changes in the way music is played. The first practical gramophone was invented in 1877 by the great American inventor, Thomas A. Edison. However, earlier that year, a Frenchman, Charles Cros, had drawn up a plan for a similar machine. Cros’s gramophone never advanced beyond the planning stage any way.
In modern times the Compact Disc (CD) has been the in thing; Sleek and portable than the record which was quite big and heavy too. For a while, CDs made records look very unwanted. Now there are homes with a thousand and one CDs which cannot be played because they are full of scratches and they just freeze during play. During the days of records, we could change the speed from 33 to 45 and 75 . We could lift the pin and move it to the song we wanted to play. And we could still pile up the records and watch them drop one after the other for continuous play. The audio cassette which is becoming extinct enabled us to turn front and back, side A and side B. We could rewind front and back on the cassette player or even twirl on our finger or a pen to forward or rewind. If there was some damage to a part, we could cut the damaged part and mend it with cellotape and then back to play.
Watching us go front and back through many transformations prompts the question: Has the new necessarily been better than the old?
FROM the songs of old, we get the idea of what things used to be. The song, Serwaa Akoto, paints the picture of a lady with remarkable beauty who would not raise her voice in public, how much more wash her dirty linen there. She is a symbol of what society expected the ideal woman to be at that time. The call for affirmative action, gender equality and mainstreaming were obviously not so dominant at that time.
From A. B. Crentsil’s song, Juliana, we get the idea of how men used to woo ladies. The approach was not so direct. They could call the lady they wanted, and try to strike acquaintance by mistaking their semblance for that of their sister and then go on to admire their beauty all the same. What the response to that formula used to be was: “I will think about it”. Now it is more direct. “I love you.” Just like that, in the face. No beating about the bush and gradually women are getting bolder and assertive enough to see men and go after them.
Before this phenomenon, we even had arranged marriages where a family decided for a girl, who her husband was to be, did an introduction and then married them off. Sometimes the marriage was aimed at creating a stronger bond between both families for historical reasons, other times it was for the economic reason of keeping the family wealth within the family. In this case, we could have cousins getting married etc. etc. This is not common anymore.
The classic movie, I told you so is a great one. This film is normally shown on Independence Day. Apart from making meaning of the saying: All that glitters is not gold, we get the opportunity to see the fashion of those times, different kinds of wigs, kerb and slit , ear rings etc. Interestingly, some of them are very much in vogue today. Fashion just revolves and comes back with little variations. Still it will be very surprising if the hair style “Shark “ and “Bushy” or “Afro”, make a strong come back even though we spot them among the very common low haircuts or “Sweat” which have dominated the scene for quite a long time now.
The movies of old show how man’s greatest companion today— the telephone — without which life would be nightmarish for many, has evolved. From 1876 when it was invented in Boston by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone has gone through several transformations with the aim of making it more portable and stylish with a clearer sound quality. At a point in its evolution, people had to wind the phones like is done to the corn mill machine, all that effort to make a call at a stipulated time, and the ringing tone was deafening. Now there are all kinds of ringing tones especially for cell phones with some sounding like a whole orchestra while others mimic the sounds of animals, wow, meow and moo. Interestingly, these sounds now seem so irritating to some matured ears that they prefer to keep the cell phone permanently on silent with only the vibration on to alert them or a beep. Others have gone back from the different high tech sounds of night club music to the grriiiiiiing griiiiiiiing reminiscent of Charlie Chaplain days.
The refrigerator also arrived to gradually displace the cooler which was made of clay. Mechanical refrigeration became widespread during the 1920s but obviously much later in Ghana. Water from the cooler was a delicacy; it was so nice because of the smoky flavour effected by placing the cooler over burning palm fruit husks before being filled with water.
There have also been changes in the way music is played. The first practical gramophone was invented in 1877 by the great American inventor, Thomas A. Edison. However, earlier that year, a Frenchman, Charles Cros, had drawn up a plan for a similar machine. Cros’s gramophone never advanced beyond the planning stage any way.
In modern times the Compact Disc (CD) has been the in thing; Sleek and portable than the record which was quite big and heavy too. For a while, CDs made records look very unwanted. Now there are homes with a thousand and one CDs which cannot be played because they are full of scratches and they just freeze during play. During the days of records, we could change the speed from 33 to 45 and 75 . We could lift the pin and move it to the song we wanted to play. And we could still pile up the records and watch them drop one after the other for continuous play. The audio cassette which is becoming extinct enabled us to turn front and back, side A and side B. We could rewind front and back on the cassette player or even twirl on our finger or a pen to forward or rewind. If there was some damage to a part, we could cut the damaged part and mend it with cellotape and then back to play.
Watching us go front and back through many transformations prompts the question: Has the new necessarily been better than the old?
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Skin to skin contact can cause cervical cancer
By Doreen Allotey
THE room where a group of media personnel had gathered became very silent as the resource person, Dr Lynda Decker of Franklyn Medical Services , gave some startling information about Cervical Cancer.
The media had been invited by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana and GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company for the purpose of making as advocates. The two institutions wanted to give the media personnel information about the disease for them to educate the public .
The media learnt that “Just by shaking hands with a person carrying the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) , a woman could finally get cervical cancer and die . The very name of the disease shows that only females can get it since they have cervixes and not males but the virus that causes the diseases can be transmitted by both males and females. The manner in which their bodies have been made for reproductive functions, women do facing many challenges and cervical cancer is one of them.
Dr Decker dwelt on “skin to skin contact” as one of the mode of transmission with a simple hand shake as an example . Eversince I have been very wary of those i shake hands with since I cannot tell by facial expression who may or may not be carrying the HPV . I wonder how long I can maintain this attitude in a society where refusal to shake hands could mean that all is not well with you and the one offering his or her hand.
The startling details given by Dr Decker that every sexually active woman is at a risk of cancer infection the HPV type throughout her lifetime and that it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of women will acquire a HPV infection by the age of 50, and up to 50 per cent of these infections will be from a virus type which has the potential to cause cervical cancer.
Dr Decker explained that cervical cancer occurred when abnormal cells on the cervix grew out of control.
“You get HPVnot only by having sex with someone who has it but by having skin to skin contact with the person” she said.
There are many types of the HPV virus but not all of them do cause cervical cancer. Some of them cause genital warts but other types may not produce any symptoms at all.
This means that one can have HPV for years and may not know it. It stays in your body and can lead to cervical cancer years after you have been infected.
There are factors that may play aid the growth of cervical cancer:
Smoking or history of smoking. As Dr Decker explained, smoking seems to make protract HPV infections .
A study shows that one’s risk of cervical cell changes may also increase if the person stays around someone who smokes.
Cervical cell changes are more likely vanish on their own in women who do not smoke.
Having an impaired immune system such as HIV and the use of birth control pills for more than five years also increases a person’s susceptibility.
Dr Decker said cervical cell changes in the cervix develops as a result of persistent infection from the HPV virus. The virus is extremely common and is easily transmitted from skin to skin especially the genital area. This means that the virus could be acquired without penetrative sex or full sexual intercourse and this also means that condoms may not do much by preventing women from acquiring the virus.
In a society where same sex is not strange, an infected female could pass the disease on to another female.
The sad part of the story is that abnormal cervical cell changes in the cervix rarely causes symptoms until it is getting late. The symptoms may only appear when the cell changes grow into cervical cancer.
These symptoms may include bleeding from the vagina which is not due to a change in menstrual cycle that can be explained, and bleeding when something comes into contact with the cervix such as sexual intercourse . Pain during sex and vaginal discharge tinged with blood are some of the symptoms of cervical cancer.
Fortunately there is a way of detecting the disease. This can be done by a test called the Pap Smear test. This means that the only way to prevent the disease from causing havoc is regular tests.
The Pap smear would 80 per cent of the time, show the cell changes before they turn into cancer so that if you have a problem early treatment could be done.
Since condoms are of little help when it comes to prevention of the disease, Dr Decker recommends abstinence or limiting the number of sex partners.
While Pap smear tests play a vital part by detecting the abnormal cells, the screening does not prevent infection of cancer-causing virus types. It is very helpful however because it is only when you have the disease that treatment can commence.
The treatment for cervical cancer includes cryotherapy , hysterectomy, cone biopsy, and laser treatment.
There is however hope for prevention — vaccination. There is a vaccine that may protect a woman against the disease in up to 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.
According to Dr Decker, evidence from clinical trials had shown that vaccination alongside regular screening could reduce the chance of developing cervical cancer by 94 per cent, compared to no intervention.
Even though Dr Decker is preaching abstinence as a preventive method and the limitation of the number of sexual partners, regular screening seems to be a more helpful approach especially when a common handshake can also transmit the disease.
It is important for women to regularly go for pap tests and seek more information about the vaccine from their doctors in order to save their lives.
THE room where a group of media personnel had gathered became very silent as the resource person, Dr Lynda Decker of Franklyn Medical Services , gave some startling information about Cervical Cancer.
The media had been invited by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana and GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company for the purpose of making as advocates. The two institutions wanted to give the media personnel information about the disease for them to educate the public .
The media learnt that “Just by shaking hands with a person carrying the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) , a woman could finally get cervical cancer and die . The very name of the disease shows that only females can get it since they have cervixes and not males but the virus that causes the diseases can be transmitted by both males and females. The manner in which their bodies have been made for reproductive functions, women do facing many challenges and cervical cancer is one of them.
Dr Decker dwelt on “skin to skin contact” as one of the mode of transmission with a simple hand shake as an example . Eversince I have been very wary of those i shake hands with since I cannot tell by facial expression who may or may not be carrying the HPV . I wonder how long I can maintain this attitude in a society where refusal to shake hands could mean that all is not well with you and the one offering his or her hand.
The startling details given by Dr Decker that every sexually active woman is at a risk of cancer infection the HPV type throughout her lifetime and that it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of women will acquire a HPV infection by the age of 50, and up to 50 per cent of these infections will be from a virus type which has the potential to cause cervical cancer.
Dr Decker explained that cervical cancer occurred when abnormal cells on the cervix grew out of control.
“You get HPVnot only by having sex with someone who has it but by having skin to skin contact with the person” she said.
There are many types of the HPV virus but not all of them do cause cervical cancer. Some of them cause genital warts but other types may not produce any symptoms at all.
This means that one can have HPV for years and may not know it. It stays in your body and can lead to cervical cancer years after you have been infected.
There are factors that may play aid the growth of cervical cancer:
Smoking or history of smoking. As Dr Decker explained, smoking seems to make protract HPV infections .
A study shows that one’s risk of cervical cell changes may also increase if the person stays around someone who smokes.
Cervical cell changes are more likely vanish on their own in women who do not smoke.
Having an impaired immune system such as HIV and the use of birth control pills for more than five years also increases a person’s susceptibility.
Dr Decker said cervical cell changes in the cervix develops as a result of persistent infection from the HPV virus. The virus is extremely common and is easily transmitted from skin to skin especially the genital area. This means that the virus could be acquired without penetrative sex or full sexual intercourse and this also means that condoms may not do much by preventing women from acquiring the virus.
In a society where same sex is not strange, an infected female could pass the disease on to another female.
The sad part of the story is that abnormal cervical cell changes in the cervix rarely causes symptoms until it is getting late. The symptoms may only appear when the cell changes grow into cervical cancer.
These symptoms may include bleeding from the vagina which is not due to a change in menstrual cycle that can be explained, and bleeding when something comes into contact with the cervix such as sexual intercourse . Pain during sex and vaginal discharge tinged with blood are some of the symptoms of cervical cancer.
Fortunately there is a way of detecting the disease. This can be done by a test called the Pap Smear test. This means that the only way to prevent the disease from causing havoc is regular tests.
The Pap smear would 80 per cent of the time, show the cell changes before they turn into cancer so that if you have a problem early treatment could be done.
Since condoms are of little help when it comes to prevention of the disease, Dr Decker recommends abstinence or limiting the number of sex partners.
While Pap smear tests play a vital part by detecting the abnormal cells, the screening does not prevent infection of cancer-causing virus types. It is very helpful however because it is only when you have the disease that treatment can commence.
The treatment for cervical cancer includes cryotherapy , hysterectomy, cone biopsy, and laser treatment.
There is however hope for prevention — vaccination. There is a vaccine that may protect a woman against the disease in up to 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.
According to Dr Decker, evidence from clinical trials had shown that vaccination alongside regular screening could reduce the chance of developing cervical cancer by 94 per cent, compared to no intervention.
Even though Dr Decker is preaching abstinence as a preventive method and the limitation of the number of sexual partners, regular screening seems to be a more helpful approach especially when a common handshake can also transmit the disease.
It is important for women to regularly go for pap tests and seek more information about the vaccine from their doctors in order to save their lives.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Rejected ballots
Budget for rejected (GN)
December 16, 2008
By Doreen Allotey
The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) is expecting GH¢160,000 from the Ministry of Finance to enable it to carry out more public education to reduce rejected ballots in the December 28 elections.
The amount would be a supplementary budget to GH¢ 622,000 spent by the NCCE for its activities from January to December 7, this year.
For the year’s activities, the NCCE had made a proposal for GH¢830,000 from the Ministry of Finance but it received GH¢622,000 out of the amount.
Figures for the 2004 elections were not readily available.
Mrs Augustina AKosua Akumanyi, Deputy Chairperson of the NCCE, told the Daily Graphic in an interview today that the NCCE made the request for the supplementary budget from the ministry following a request for assistance from the Electoral Commission to assist it to educate the public on rejected ballots.
She said that the NCCE had limited time for the education but would quickly contact its regional offices to link up with presiding officers and political party agents to find out the exact reasons for the phenomenon and the areas where they occurred most.
“ When we get this information, we would mount vigorous education campaigns through the media with messages designed to address the problem and we would use a lot of audio -visuals ”, she said.
Mrs Akumanyi said however that the NCCE would have to know from the EC the definite steps to be adopted for the voting this time round in order to make its education programme successful.
“ We would have to know whether we will be dipping fingers into ink before the voting or after for instance” she added.
On some of the challenges she observed in the December 7 elections, Mrs Akumanyi said it related to the availability of the voter transfer lists at the various polling stations.
She said that the EC had assured this time round that the lists would be made available at the various polling stations.
She hoped that the EC would also provide lanterns at the various polling stations to facilitate the counting of votes saying that at some places , they had to resort to the head lamps of vehicles to see.
Mrs Akumanyi appealed to Government officials not to interfere with work at the polling stations adding that they are not part of the administration of elections.
In the December 7 elections, there were 205,438 rejected ballots out of the 8,671,272 votes cast . This represented 2.4 per cent of the total votes cast. There were 12,472,758 registered voters.
December 16, 2008
By Doreen Allotey
The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) is expecting GH¢160,000 from the Ministry of Finance to enable it to carry out more public education to reduce rejected ballots in the December 28 elections.
The amount would be a supplementary budget to GH¢ 622,000 spent by the NCCE for its activities from January to December 7, this year.
For the year’s activities, the NCCE had made a proposal for GH¢830,000 from the Ministry of Finance but it received GH¢622,000 out of the amount.
Figures for the 2004 elections were not readily available.
Mrs Augustina AKosua Akumanyi, Deputy Chairperson of the NCCE, told the Daily Graphic in an interview today that the NCCE made the request for the supplementary budget from the ministry following a request for assistance from the Electoral Commission to assist it to educate the public on rejected ballots.
She said that the NCCE had limited time for the education but would quickly contact its regional offices to link up with presiding officers and political party agents to find out the exact reasons for the phenomenon and the areas where they occurred most.
“ When we get this information, we would mount vigorous education campaigns through the media with messages designed to address the problem and we would use a lot of audio -visuals ”, she said.
Mrs Akumanyi said however that the NCCE would have to know from the EC the definite steps to be adopted for the voting this time round in order to make its education programme successful.
“ We would have to know whether we will be dipping fingers into ink before the voting or after for instance” she added.
On some of the challenges she observed in the December 7 elections, Mrs Akumanyi said it related to the availability of the voter transfer lists at the various polling stations.
She said that the EC had assured this time round that the lists would be made available at the various polling stations.
She hoped that the EC would also provide lanterns at the various polling stations to facilitate the counting of votes saying that at some places , they had to resort to the head lamps of vehicles to see.
Mrs Akumanyi appealed to Government officials not to interfere with work at the polling stations adding that they are not part of the administration of elections.
In the December 7 elections, there were 205,438 rejected ballots out of the 8,671,272 votes cast . This represented 2.4 per cent of the total votes cast. There were 12,472,758 registered voters.
Give unto caesar what is Caesar's
By Doreen Allotey
Many people were getting ready to celebrate Christmas in grand style. They wanted to add victory at the polls to Christmas (call it two-in-one) and celebrate big time. This was not to be.
By the command of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, we have to go to the polls again on December 28, 2008. And that will be after Christmas. The inability of any of the presidential candidates to get more than 50 per cent of the votes cast is what has caused all this.
What was good about it, any way, was the silence that ensued. Even though some party supporters had, on the day before the announcement of the results, went into hasty and premature celebration, claiming victory for their parties, Dr Afari-Gyan’s announcement went like: “Let there be silence”, and there was silence.
Bars that had been stocked to the brim in readiness for the victory celebrations became quiet and drivers who were getting ready to blow their horns as they drove through the streets found something else to do, not necessarily better, though.
God did not give us the one-touch result that we had hoped for. He is the only one who knows why. But I guess it was to give us the chance to think again and settle on what we really want as a people. At a cost to us, anyway. We have to spend more money on the run-off. But this is something we are prepared for. From the day we decided to toe the line of democracy, we indirectly signed a silent pact to go along with all that multi-party democracy entails.
The December 7 stalemate is quite significant. It showed that the Ghanaian voter had become sophisticated, complex and therefore not so predictable. It also confirmed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) remain the two dominant political parties in the country. The rest still have a lot of work to do to make an impact. Their presence, however, spiced the menu and gave the electorate more choices and that was all. Another lesson is that incumbency is not a panacea for success at elections and that political parties will have to do more serious work to win elections. It also tells our leaders that they must constantly and continuously identify with us and listen to us ! Our next Parliament promises to be interesting. Parliamentary proceedings will be different, with a few new faces here and there and may be fewer walk outs!
The run-off has come as good news for some businesses, especially advertising agencies and their partners in the media. They are bound to make more money from the politicians who will definitely repackage their campaign messages for the final combat.
But run-off or no run-off, Christmas, the Mass of Christ, is approaching. We will celebrate the birth of Christ before we face the second round of voting. As it stands now, some who voted in the first round may not vote again. They may have lost that mood for travelling to do so or the excitement and motivation that kept them standing in long queues for the purpose of voting on December 7.
Those long queues certainly call for an increase in the number of polling stations, but, of course, that will come at a cost. Some who did not vote in the first round may have regretted staying away and would now want to, while those who spoilt their ballot papers and, therefore, made their candidates poorer and the opponent richer may have learnt their lessons and are ready to do the proper thing this time.
These, and the expected participation of the die-hard and fanatical supporters of the candidates, will make the difference.
For now, the celebration of Christmas occupies my mind. It sends my mind way back to how it used to be and how it is now.
In my part of the world, over 30 years ago preparations for Christmas meant, among others, that children would have the privilege of lining up to have their hair dyed. The dye was called yoomo, a Ga word which means old woman. It was quite messy and after application it dribbled down the forehead. That, however, depended on the expertise of the one doing the application. Somehow, some parents thought that the use of yoomo gave children a neat look!
Surprisingly, I still see some old people around whose hair has virtually refused to take on the yoomo, leaving the hair some kind of reddish-brown shade — not black and not grey! You may say the hair has become immune to the dye. And this is in spite of the fact that it now looks noble to keep the grey hair and even enhance it with grey dye, not black!
In those times, children got so excited about Christmas because they would have rice and chicken to eat. And they got the opportunity of drinking Portello, Vino and Lemonade (Lamley). Those names are now history and only Fanta and Coca-Cola are still on the shelves. We would sometimes add some water to our drinks to increase the quantity and eat Gem biscuits. Children made chains from those gem biscuits by stringing them together and wearing them around their necks. Luckier children got new dresses and shoes or sandals which they invariably wore until the next year. They also got the opportunity to go round from house to house to eat and drink in the spirit of unity and good neighbourliness.
I don’t see many of those things anymore. With the city riddled with fast food joints selling fried rice and chicken and at very affordable prices too, chicken which we occasionally ate, has become an everyday food. In fact, it will cost you more to buy fufu and smoked fish (Akosombo fish) soup than it will to buy you chicken and fried rice, irrespective of the fact that the chicken may have been sleeping in the cold stores (mortuary) for close to 10 years! As for rice, we eat it almost every day now so it’s no big deal.
With stories of children being kidnapped for ransom, how many parents will allow their children to go round the homes of neighbours in that spirit of unity?
Whatever it is, I am still excited about Christmas. Let’s release some tension. Let us give what is Christ’s to Him and show the same enthusiasm in choosing between Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Professor John Evans Atta Mills on December 28.
Many people were getting ready to celebrate Christmas in grand style. They wanted to add victory at the polls to Christmas (call it two-in-one) and celebrate big time. This was not to be.
By the command of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, we have to go to the polls again on December 28, 2008. And that will be after Christmas. The inability of any of the presidential candidates to get more than 50 per cent of the votes cast is what has caused all this.
What was good about it, any way, was the silence that ensued. Even though some party supporters had, on the day before the announcement of the results, went into hasty and premature celebration, claiming victory for their parties, Dr Afari-Gyan’s announcement went like: “Let there be silence”, and there was silence.
Bars that had been stocked to the brim in readiness for the victory celebrations became quiet and drivers who were getting ready to blow their horns as they drove through the streets found something else to do, not necessarily better, though.
God did not give us the one-touch result that we had hoped for. He is the only one who knows why. But I guess it was to give us the chance to think again and settle on what we really want as a people. At a cost to us, anyway. We have to spend more money on the run-off. But this is something we are prepared for. From the day we decided to toe the line of democracy, we indirectly signed a silent pact to go along with all that multi-party democracy entails.
The December 7 stalemate is quite significant. It showed that the Ghanaian voter had become sophisticated, complex and therefore not so predictable. It also confirmed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) remain the two dominant political parties in the country. The rest still have a lot of work to do to make an impact. Their presence, however, spiced the menu and gave the electorate more choices and that was all. Another lesson is that incumbency is not a panacea for success at elections and that political parties will have to do more serious work to win elections. It also tells our leaders that they must constantly and continuously identify with us and listen to us ! Our next Parliament promises to be interesting. Parliamentary proceedings will be different, with a few new faces here and there and may be fewer walk outs!
The run-off has come as good news for some businesses, especially advertising agencies and their partners in the media. They are bound to make more money from the politicians who will definitely repackage their campaign messages for the final combat.
But run-off or no run-off, Christmas, the Mass of Christ, is approaching. We will celebrate the birth of Christ before we face the second round of voting. As it stands now, some who voted in the first round may not vote again. They may have lost that mood for travelling to do so or the excitement and motivation that kept them standing in long queues for the purpose of voting on December 7.
Those long queues certainly call for an increase in the number of polling stations, but, of course, that will come at a cost. Some who did not vote in the first round may have regretted staying away and would now want to, while those who spoilt their ballot papers and, therefore, made their candidates poorer and the opponent richer may have learnt their lessons and are ready to do the proper thing this time.
These, and the expected participation of the die-hard and fanatical supporters of the candidates, will make the difference.
For now, the celebration of Christmas occupies my mind. It sends my mind way back to how it used to be and how it is now.
In my part of the world, over 30 years ago preparations for Christmas meant, among others, that children would have the privilege of lining up to have their hair dyed. The dye was called yoomo, a Ga word which means old woman. It was quite messy and after application it dribbled down the forehead. That, however, depended on the expertise of the one doing the application. Somehow, some parents thought that the use of yoomo gave children a neat look!
Surprisingly, I still see some old people around whose hair has virtually refused to take on the yoomo, leaving the hair some kind of reddish-brown shade — not black and not grey! You may say the hair has become immune to the dye. And this is in spite of the fact that it now looks noble to keep the grey hair and even enhance it with grey dye, not black!
In those times, children got so excited about Christmas because they would have rice and chicken to eat. And they got the opportunity of drinking Portello, Vino and Lemonade (Lamley). Those names are now history and only Fanta and Coca-Cola are still on the shelves. We would sometimes add some water to our drinks to increase the quantity and eat Gem biscuits. Children made chains from those gem biscuits by stringing them together and wearing them around their necks. Luckier children got new dresses and shoes or sandals which they invariably wore until the next year. They also got the opportunity to go round from house to house to eat and drink in the spirit of unity and good neighbourliness.
I don’t see many of those things anymore. With the city riddled with fast food joints selling fried rice and chicken and at very affordable prices too, chicken which we occasionally ate, has become an everyday food. In fact, it will cost you more to buy fufu and smoked fish (Akosombo fish) soup than it will to buy you chicken and fried rice, irrespective of the fact that the chicken may have been sleeping in the cold stores (mortuary) for close to 10 years! As for rice, we eat it almost every day now so it’s no big deal.
With stories of children being kidnapped for ransom, how many parents will allow their children to go round the homes of neighbours in that spirit of unity?
Whatever it is, I am still excited about Christmas. Let’s release some tension. Let us give what is Christ’s to Him and show the same enthusiasm in choosing between Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Professor John Evans Atta Mills on December 28.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Kwabi Hanson......the barber chosen for the Belgian twin documentary
April 7, 2008
Story and pictures : Doreen Allotey
A Belgian crew working on a documentary that would compare the lives of people who have spent the same time on the globe have chosen Kwabi Hanson, a barber in Accra, as part of the project. He was born on October 5, 1968.
The crew have only made contact with Hanson on phone so far but intend to visit the country to do more. The interesting thing for the crew is that Hanson has a job( barbering), which is very recognisable to the Belgian audience, even though there may be little differences as a consequence of where Mr Hanson lives —Ghana.
I traced Hanson to an area in Accra popularly known as Abuja and found his wooden kiosk situated on what can pass for a hill in a little settlement near one of Accra’s markets known as Agbogbloshie. His shop is almost opposite a pile of firewood for sale and among many other kiosks that serve as workplaces and sleeping places for most travellers from other parts of the country, who arrive in Accra in search of jobs. His shop has “No money , no woman” boldly inscribed in front of it.
Hanson says he loves this saying very much because he has found from his experiences in life that women, whether wife, sister, friend, girlfriend or daughter, love to go where there is money and that women could easily disown you in the absence of money. Guided by this saying , Hanson is not married but has a 16 -year- old daughter— Dorothy Hanson— who is living with his relatives in Aflao, the border town between Ghana and Togo.
Hanson charges 70 Ghana pesewas for a haircut, but at the end of it all, the earnings are woefully inadequate to take care of his basic necessities.
In his barber’s shop sat a huge black box serving as a loudspeaker that has the notice ‘For sale’. To complement his earnings, Hanson makes these boxes himself for sale. He makes them one after the other as they get sold out and advertise this ware when he blares music out of it.
He has another love, which is acting. He has been working with Prime Media in Accra on a number of productions and showed me an album of himself in various acting scenes.
One of his favourite movies is “Finished man”. On a daily basis he responds to demands of carving out a career and hobby in film acting. As soon as he hears of places where auditions are taking place, Hanson dresses up and heads there.
His daughter Dorothy and one of his six siblings were in the album. The picture showing his siblings was taken at Osino, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana, where Hanson hails from.
His father, Mr Awuah Hanson, a retired teacher and his mother, Joyce Ama Serwaa, a trader in foodstuffs, live in his hometown.
Hanson has travelled widely across the country. This is because he followed his father anywhere he went on transfer to teach.
Hanson did not train to be a barber; it was something that came naturally to him while in school. He found himself being asked by friends and mates to give them a hair-cut. With time and practice, he perfected the art of barbering.
This act was to become a major earner of his daily bread.
Hanson’s real dream of becoming an accountant was cut short when he was involved in an accident a few days to writing his final examination at the Rans Business College at Osino. He stayed in hospital for six months waiting for the injury to his leg to heal. At that time, he didn’t believe he could walk again.
Hanson explains that his time in hospital disrupted his whole direction in life, and because his father had as many as seven children, including him, resources at home were always very little. He is sometimes very angry with his father for having many children.
“ Wishes are not horses for me to ride; sometimes I feel like giving up but what would I eat if I don’t go on,” Hanson urges himself to go on.
“ But I will never take part in any illegal business. I like my freedom very much, maybe as much as I love reggae music.”
Before going into barbering, Hanson was doing some work as a draughtsman in the very kiosk that is his barber’s shop today. He took part-time classes at the Super Techinical College in Asylum Down in Accra in that field of study. He learnt to do that manually and with time, this became outmoded, causing his customers to leave him.
Even though Hanson lives in Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region, he often goes home at the weekends because he cannot afford to use all his earning on transportation from his barber’s shop in Accra to Amasaman everyday. He attends a Pentecostal church and even though he does not attend very regularly, he believes “that is where my salvation is”.
Hanson is not very clear about the objectives of the documentary and how beneficial it would be to his life but is keeping an open mind.
On what the documentary seeks to achieve, an editor on the project, Annelore De Donder, says “It has to do with an interest in other customs and traditions”.
“The responses to the search from Ghana by the project in Belgium were so many that I even had to stop accepting people who kept on calling. Strangely, most of the people who called were born on May 3, 1981,” she said.
In all, 20 responses from Ghana were received by the project. Other people chosen for the project are two other men living in Chile and Canada. The episode will result in parallel portraits of these three men and their Belgian counterpart— but in very different places all over the world. All four of them were born on October 5,1968.
The interesting questions the documentary will seek to answer are : What have been their life experiences? Did the cultural context in which they grew up influence those experiences? Are there similarities in the lives of these people? Does it really matter where you are born?
Story and pictures : Doreen Allotey
A Belgian crew working on a documentary that would compare the lives of people who have spent the same time on the globe have chosen Kwabi Hanson, a barber in Accra, as part of the project. He was born on October 5, 1968.
The crew have only made contact with Hanson on phone so far but intend to visit the country to do more. The interesting thing for the crew is that Hanson has a job( barbering), which is very recognisable to the Belgian audience, even though there may be little differences as a consequence of where Mr Hanson lives —Ghana.
I traced Hanson to an area in Accra popularly known as Abuja and found his wooden kiosk situated on what can pass for a hill in a little settlement near one of Accra’s markets known as Agbogbloshie. His shop is almost opposite a pile of firewood for sale and among many other kiosks that serve as workplaces and sleeping places for most travellers from other parts of the country, who arrive in Accra in search of jobs. His shop has “No money , no woman” boldly inscribed in front of it.
Hanson says he loves this saying very much because he has found from his experiences in life that women, whether wife, sister, friend, girlfriend or daughter, love to go where there is money and that women could easily disown you in the absence of money. Guided by this saying , Hanson is not married but has a 16 -year- old daughter— Dorothy Hanson— who is living with his relatives in Aflao, the border town between Ghana and Togo.
Hanson charges 70 Ghana pesewas for a haircut, but at the end of it all, the earnings are woefully inadequate to take care of his basic necessities.
In his barber’s shop sat a huge black box serving as a loudspeaker that has the notice ‘For sale’. To complement his earnings, Hanson makes these boxes himself for sale. He makes them one after the other as they get sold out and advertise this ware when he blares music out of it.
He has another love, which is acting. He has been working with Prime Media in Accra on a number of productions and showed me an album of himself in various acting scenes.
One of his favourite movies is “Finished man”. On a daily basis he responds to demands of carving out a career and hobby in film acting. As soon as he hears of places where auditions are taking place, Hanson dresses up and heads there.
His daughter Dorothy and one of his six siblings were in the album. The picture showing his siblings was taken at Osino, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana, where Hanson hails from.
His father, Mr Awuah Hanson, a retired teacher and his mother, Joyce Ama Serwaa, a trader in foodstuffs, live in his hometown.
Hanson has travelled widely across the country. This is because he followed his father anywhere he went on transfer to teach.
Hanson did not train to be a barber; it was something that came naturally to him while in school. He found himself being asked by friends and mates to give them a hair-cut. With time and practice, he perfected the art of barbering.
This act was to become a major earner of his daily bread.
Hanson’s real dream of becoming an accountant was cut short when he was involved in an accident a few days to writing his final examination at the Rans Business College at Osino. He stayed in hospital for six months waiting for the injury to his leg to heal. At that time, he didn’t believe he could walk again.
Hanson explains that his time in hospital disrupted his whole direction in life, and because his father had as many as seven children, including him, resources at home were always very little. He is sometimes very angry with his father for having many children.
“ Wishes are not horses for me to ride; sometimes I feel like giving up but what would I eat if I don’t go on,” Hanson urges himself to go on.
“ But I will never take part in any illegal business. I like my freedom very much, maybe as much as I love reggae music.”
Before going into barbering, Hanson was doing some work as a draughtsman in the very kiosk that is his barber’s shop today. He took part-time classes at the Super Techinical College in Asylum Down in Accra in that field of study. He learnt to do that manually and with time, this became outmoded, causing his customers to leave him.
Even though Hanson lives in Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region, he often goes home at the weekends because he cannot afford to use all his earning on transportation from his barber’s shop in Accra to Amasaman everyday. He attends a Pentecostal church and even though he does not attend very regularly, he believes “that is where my salvation is”.
Hanson is not very clear about the objectives of the documentary and how beneficial it would be to his life but is keeping an open mind.
On what the documentary seeks to achieve, an editor on the project, Annelore De Donder, says “It has to do with an interest in other customs and traditions”.
“The responses to the search from Ghana by the project in Belgium were so many that I even had to stop accepting people who kept on calling. Strangely, most of the people who called were born on May 3, 1981,” she said.
In all, 20 responses from Ghana were received by the project. Other people chosen for the project are two other men living in Chile and Canada. The episode will result in parallel portraits of these three men and their Belgian counterpart— but in very different places all over the world. All four of them were born on October 5,1968.
The interesting questions the documentary will seek to answer are : What have been their life experiences? Did the cultural context in which they grew up influence those experiences? Are there similarities in the lives of these people? Does it really matter where you are born?
Informal training...Story of Philip Aidoo, the sucessful carpenter
March 13,2008
By Doreen Allotey
` Ghana’s education has been organised along two main lines—the formal and informal.
Informal vocation takes place in the form of apprenticeship agreements with craftsmen and trades people. Training is on the average, a period between two to four years but this depends on whether the “master” thinks that the apprentice has learned enough to become a senior and carry his good name wherever he or she goes.
The master also determines how long an apprentice who qualifies to be a “senior” would serve under him/her and whether the senior can work with him or her on commission or what is termed “work and pay” basis.
Thousands of Ghanaian youth are engaged as apprentices in the private or informal sector throughout the country. While some of these apprentices have formal education of some sort, others have never stepped into the classroom but are making it their own way through hard work, determination, discipline, humility and patience.
Apprenticeships available include fitting, spraying of vehicles, hairdressing, tailoring, masonry, welding, plumbing, shoemaking or how to mend shoes, catering and carpentry.
In the carpentry business, one of such persons is Mr Philip Aidoo who started his apprenticeship in 1984. He left his parents’ home in Mankessim in the Central Region to become an apprentice at the Akan Centre of Furniture in Mateheko in Accra for three years, after which his master graduated him as a senior. With this new status, Philip served his master for a couple of years.
He then worked at the centre, supervising some of the new apprentices for another couple of years. When he left the centre, it was to enable him work for different companies on different contracts for three years, gathering experience as he worked. He has since 1992 established a furniture shop at the Awudome Estates with the name Green Wood Furniture Works, opposite the famous Bongo Bar. He obtained his certificate of registration in 1993.
For the apprenticeship agreement, Philip’s parents paid ¢2,500, the equivalent of 25 Ghana pesewas today, to the master at the Akan Centre of Furniture. They also gave two crates of soft drinks, known in Ghanaian parlance as minerals, and a bottle of schnapps. But this was after he had completed a probation period of some weeks to enable his master to assess his character. He had just completed middle school form four then.
Philip had no one to stay with in Accra and, therefore, slept in his master’s shop, bathed and ate there.
“ It was quite difficult in those days. Money for food was hard to come by”, Philip recalls.
The furniture shop doubled as the classroom and a sort of boarding school for him. His determination to learn the trade was what kept him going. The other apprentices had places to live in Accra but out of the 24 of them, three dropped out along the way; they could not take the regiment of learning under the feet of their master.
As a master himself, Philip tries to maintain discipline at his shop and has trained more than 100 young men as carpenters. Currently, he has nine boys under his tutelage.
He has his own entry requirements which he says is similar to that of other masters of his status: A prospective apprentice has to attach himself to Green Wood for three months during which Philip would assess his character to find out if “he can really learn the job” and the apprentice must be above 16 years but not as old as 40.
“ It is quite difficult to teach the older ones”, Philip explains.
“ I once had a 40 year old man as an apprentice but he could not cope and fell out”, he said.
The apprentice then pays GH¢100 and presents two crates of minerals.
On acceptance of these, the apprentice has his colleagues to deal with; those who started learning before him; to them he owes GH¢20. That money is referred to as “Anbantem sika” for the new apprentice would surely learn something good or bad from them too and their co-operation would be invaluable.
Then comes the tools for the trade. “The apprentice should come with the basic; a hand saw, pincers, a hammer and planner”, Philip requires.
Philip does not countenance obstinacy and disrespect to seniors. Theft is an abhorrence and speaking politely is a must. Disregard for any of these attracts caning, suspension for a period or both.
Learning is by observation in stages.
“If it is making a table, I ask the apprentice to observe me making one. At another time I guide him to make the legs of the table and then we move on and on”, he said.
If after three years Philip is not satisfied with the progress of work, he adds on another year to make sure the apprentice is well baked. He has a name to protect.
During training, Philip occasionally fetes his apprentices when business is good. He makes sure they get health care during illness, but “ if it is a serious one , I send them to their parents,” he said.
On graduation, the apprentice turned “senior” pays to Philip another GH¢100, presents two crates of minerals a sheep. Graduation parties are optional but if the graduation coincides with a festivity like Christmas, the celebration is grand.
The challenges of the job as enumerated by Mr Aidoo include the high taxes to the Accra Metropolitan Authority, Internal Revenue Service, payments for utility services and the collection of waste products generated by the trade. At the end of the day almost every earning goes into such payments.
Mr Aidoo suggests that there should be some kind of assistance to enable carpenters acquire new technology in the form of machinery to make carpentry less labour intensive.
Formal and informal education bears a lot of similarities. Before the introduction of formal education in the 1800s, apprenticeship as a mode of training had already started. It’s contribution to national development is obvious and will continue to be with Ghanaians for a long time.
By Doreen Allotey
` Ghana’s education has been organised along two main lines—the formal and informal.
Informal vocation takes place in the form of apprenticeship agreements with craftsmen and trades people. Training is on the average, a period between two to four years but this depends on whether the “master” thinks that the apprentice has learned enough to become a senior and carry his good name wherever he or she goes.
The master also determines how long an apprentice who qualifies to be a “senior” would serve under him/her and whether the senior can work with him or her on commission or what is termed “work and pay” basis.
Thousands of Ghanaian youth are engaged as apprentices in the private or informal sector throughout the country. While some of these apprentices have formal education of some sort, others have never stepped into the classroom but are making it their own way through hard work, determination, discipline, humility and patience.
Apprenticeships available include fitting, spraying of vehicles, hairdressing, tailoring, masonry, welding, plumbing, shoemaking or how to mend shoes, catering and carpentry.
In the carpentry business, one of such persons is Mr Philip Aidoo who started his apprenticeship in 1984. He left his parents’ home in Mankessim in the Central Region to become an apprentice at the Akan Centre of Furniture in Mateheko in Accra for three years, after which his master graduated him as a senior. With this new status, Philip served his master for a couple of years.
He then worked at the centre, supervising some of the new apprentices for another couple of years. When he left the centre, it was to enable him work for different companies on different contracts for three years, gathering experience as he worked. He has since 1992 established a furniture shop at the Awudome Estates with the name Green Wood Furniture Works, opposite the famous Bongo Bar. He obtained his certificate of registration in 1993.
For the apprenticeship agreement, Philip’s parents paid ¢2,500, the equivalent of 25 Ghana pesewas today, to the master at the Akan Centre of Furniture. They also gave two crates of soft drinks, known in Ghanaian parlance as minerals, and a bottle of schnapps. But this was after he had completed a probation period of some weeks to enable his master to assess his character. He had just completed middle school form four then.
Philip had no one to stay with in Accra and, therefore, slept in his master’s shop, bathed and ate there.
“ It was quite difficult in those days. Money for food was hard to come by”, Philip recalls.
The furniture shop doubled as the classroom and a sort of boarding school for him. His determination to learn the trade was what kept him going. The other apprentices had places to live in Accra but out of the 24 of them, three dropped out along the way; they could not take the regiment of learning under the feet of their master.
As a master himself, Philip tries to maintain discipline at his shop and has trained more than 100 young men as carpenters. Currently, he has nine boys under his tutelage.
He has his own entry requirements which he says is similar to that of other masters of his status: A prospective apprentice has to attach himself to Green Wood for three months during which Philip would assess his character to find out if “he can really learn the job” and the apprentice must be above 16 years but not as old as 40.
“ It is quite difficult to teach the older ones”, Philip explains.
“ I once had a 40 year old man as an apprentice but he could not cope and fell out”, he said.
The apprentice then pays GH¢100 and presents two crates of minerals.
On acceptance of these, the apprentice has his colleagues to deal with; those who started learning before him; to them he owes GH¢20. That money is referred to as “Anbantem sika” for the new apprentice would surely learn something good or bad from them too and their co-operation would be invaluable.
Then comes the tools for the trade. “The apprentice should come with the basic; a hand saw, pincers, a hammer and planner”, Philip requires.
Philip does not countenance obstinacy and disrespect to seniors. Theft is an abhorrence and speaking politely is a must. Disregard for any of these attracts caning, suspension for a period or both.
Learning is by observation in stages.
“If it is making a table, I ask the apprentice to observe me making one. At another time I guide him to make the legs of the table and then we move on and on”, he said.
If after three years Philip is not satisfied with the progress of work, he adds on another year to make sure the apprentice is well baked. He has a name to protect.
During training, Philip occasionally fetes his apprentices when business is good. He makes sure they get health care during illness, but “ if it is a serious one , I send them to their parents,” he said.
On graduation, the apprentice turned “senior” pays to Philip another GH¢100, presents two crates of minerals a sheep. Graduation parties are optional but if the graduation coincides with a festivity like Christmas, the celebration is grand.
The challenges of the job as enumerated by Mr Aidoo include the high taxes to the Accra Metropolitan Authority, Internal Revenue Service, payments for utility services and the collection of waste products generated by the trade. At the end of the day almost every earning goes into such payments.
Mr Aidoo suggests that there should be some kind of assistance to enable carpenters acquire new technology in the form of machinery to make carpentry less labour intensive.
Formal and informal education bears a lot of similarities. Before the introduction of formal education in the 1800s, apprenticeship as a mode of training had already started. It’s contribution to national development is obvious and will continue to be with Ghanaians for a long time.
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