Unexpected Indians
on The Ghana Experience (Ghana), 31/Jul/2010 17:18, 34 days ago
24-25 July 2010After spending the Saturday cleaning the house I decided to spendSunday by exploring Bolgatanga on my own. Till date I always hadsomebody accompanying me while I went around Bolga or even while I wasin Accra.Cherith (from UK) helped us as she accompanied us from Accra to Bolga.Jason (from Canada) accompanied me and took me to the VSO office inBolga when I first decided to go there from Bongo. Rose (from India)alongwith Eden and Better (from Ghana) helped me to do shopping.Richard (from Uganda) helped me to find a taxi back to Bongo when Igot stuck up in Bolga. I mentioned their names because I am reallygreatful to all of them. Being a first timer in an another country andculture, they helped me a lot. I am mentioning the countries whichthey come from, because it strikes to me and really touches me, thatthere is a representation of four different continents here and theydo it out of the same intention and compassion of helping somebody.In spite of all of the help, I thought I have started to feel that itis becoming like a small child so that every time somebody is guidingme around how and where the things are. I strongly felt that it is nowhigh time that I become an adolescent in this area and start doing myown exploration and start developing the skill of getting throughunknown area and people.While I was walking on the road in Bolga, a vehicle on the oppositeside of the road started honking trying to catch my attention. Thepeople were showing some signs which I could not understand. The twoof the people in the vehicle were Indians. I did not expect to findany Indian here as by that time I had made an assumption that there isnothing of commercial or trade interest in Bolga which can attract atypical Indian worker or trader. (I have to mention here that there isa large number of Indians in most of the major cities in Ghana. Mostof them are either working as skilled personnel or managers in Indianowned companies or own small businesses mainly shops and tradingfirms. Majority of the Indians in Ghana are from Tamilnadu state orfrom Sindhi and Gujarati trader communities. Notably some of theIndian run firms are being run in the country since 100 years.)I crossed the road and met them. These two guys Mani and Pradeep workfor an Indian company which is in the business of timber and scrap.Then there was brief introduction and they asked me whether I wasbusy. I said"no." Then they asked me whether I could come with them.I said"yes, I would like." I had an afterthought that this was notwhat I had planned for today and that I wanted to do everything on myown. But I had to drive the thought away as something was happeningwhich I did not expect to happen and I had got into this experiencewithout anybody's introduction or help.We went to an area few kilometers outside the town in an area which ison the fringe of forest. There were many teak logs cut down. It wasobvious that they were into logging activity. Their company obtainslogging permits from the local forest departments. The logs areprocessed in a timber factory near port city of Tema. The teak slabsare then exported to India. I was told that company also operates inscrap metal especially lead. They import dead car batteries fromaround the world in Tema, process the lead in it and export to Indiawhere it is again used for various purposes. Presently the company isexploring and has started exploiting forest reserves in the Northernparts of the country.Afterward they took me to their house where I spent the day chattingwith them on various subjects and viewing three Hindi movies one afterthe other. They had found this CD of the movie in Bolga. All themovies were south Indian movies and were dubbed in Hindi. All themovies had single pattern, a clean uncorrupt police officer fightingthe corrupt politicians by revolting against the system and thenappraised by the court for doing good work before being released. (Ihope somebody in India will make a movie sometime on changing thesystem and making it more transparent and people friendly.) There wasno way I could like the movies but what I liked was the food. Theyhave this maid servant Dora, who had prepared delicious Indian food.Mani has trained her in preparing Indian food. It was simple affairbut it was a surprise to get it cooked by a local person.They came to drop me at Bongo. While driving back, Mani told somestories about the chiefs which they have to manage.Here I shall first explain the system of rule of Chiefs present inGhana and which called as chieftancy. There are chiefs (and in manyareas sub chiefs) who still have lot of control over the issues in thearea. They control the ownership of the land and the forests in thearea which falls under their control. All the people are permanenttenants of the chiefs. But interesting thing is the chiefs areselected from the community and it is not passed down from onegeneration to the other. So for obtaining logging permits in theforest, Mani's company has to obtain permissions from chiefs inaddition to the permissions from forest departments. Here comes themost interesting parts of the story. It is the managing of the chiefsthat is important. Most of the chiefs first of all do not speak withforeigners directly and there is always a middle man in between aforeigner and the chief. Then while interacting with the chiefsometimes you can't address the chief directly (these days at manyplaces you can.) and you have to follow some manners. These mannersmay include that you can't sit in front of the chief or you have togift them some Schnapps (It is some kind of a drink but don't knowwhat exactly it is) and Kola nuts. After getting it correctly done youcan start your discussion i.e the sum which one has to pay to thechief for his signature on the letter giving the permission. So dueto such powers, chiefs are able to provide very big houses for all oftheir wives. In the areas where mining operations take place, chiefshave became very rich due to such powers. But in many areas which arepoor in natural resources very few people bother about chiefs and thechiefs themselves are poor living in traditional mud and thatch houseslike the other people do. (मला एक मराठी वाक्प्रचार इथे आठवला. तोम्हणजे ओसाड गावचा पाटील, तो ह्या चिफना लागू पडतो. ) It seems Ghana hasnot been able to get rid of this feudal system even if it is makingprogress on many fronts especially political and economic reforms. Infact there is a central government department which deals with thechieftancy issues.I remember my first day in the office when I was introduced to thechief who had to came to the office for some work. I did not know howI should have behave with the chief. But I bowed down bit more as wedo in India when we meet a person with higher authority or age andthen greeted him"Good Morning". It worked perfectly fine with him andin fact he had held my hand in his hand for quite a long time fromwhich I could sense that he has approved of my greetings. But the mainproblem is I was introduced to so many people during the day. Aftersome point they started to look all the same to me as all the men hadvery little hair on their heads and all were dark and wearing brightcolourful clothes. Here one can't make any difference about thepeople, there is so much of variety in the way people dress and onecan't identify a high official or a person of high traditional classor rank from the general class. So today if anybody asks me if I wouldbe able to recognise the chief of Bongo, my answer would be"I amsorry but no."Coming back to the happenings of the day, I have to say that I cameback to Bongo without achieving a single outcome from my original planbut making two friends on the way. Or may be, I have achieved theoutcome without following my plan fully, as had I gone there withsomebody, I would not have made those friends. For now I can't sayanything for sure!