Telling Our Stories

“If you are really going to move to Africa and live and work, please, please go and do your best. Our homeland has enough problems to contend with. Promise me you won’t be another one for them to deal with.”

These were the sage words of advice given to me by mother before my husband, two children and I packed up and moved to Ghana. She was a person full of humor, joy and profound wisdom. My husband, Albie, and I had talked about moving to Africa to live and work for years. We both had always had the dream of Africa in our hearts and minds. We had read extensively about the African continent and both had a wish to know more about the lives of African people before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and what was happening in contemporary times. We both had wonderful experiences through the Operation Crossroads Africa program in the Gambia, Liberia and Tanzania. We were participants who lived and worked in rural villages for six to eight weeks and did small scale community development projects. These experiences helped to deepen our commitment to one day return and help with the building and development on the continent. After we got married, every time we could save up a month of vacation time, off we went to explore another country or to visit old friends in a place we knew well, such as the Ivory Coast, Ghana or Kenya.

Years went by and our family grew to include two beautiful children, Jamal and Mya. When the children were 5 and 7 years old, we started to revisit our dream of living and working in Africa again. When was the best time to move? How would the children adjust? How easy was it to find work there? Would we be subjecting the children to health issues that would jeopardize their life? The threat of malaria loomed large in my mind. I slowed down and again began to research. Almost 400,000 people died annually on the African continent from malaria according to the World health Organization in the late 1990’s. Why? Not because there was no cure, but because people could not afford the treatment. Other childhood challenges with access to nutrition, water and healthcare were serious, but all things I knew would not impact our children, because I knew they would have access to a good home, water, food, doctors and healthcare. This is the security that money can bring. We had more than enough to survive. So, we decided to do a trial run. We rented our home, sold our possessions and moved to Ghana, the one country we both liked, and we planned to live there for a year. Albie and I both resigned from our jobs and off we went. People thought we were crazy. We both had jobs that paid well, had a nice home, lots of friends and were heavily involved in social and political activities. We were not suffering in America, we were doing well. But we had this dream wanted to see through and it had to be on our original land, Africa.

Luckily, we had a friend from my former Operation Crossroads Africa Program that had offered to host us in his home until we got settled. He linked us to a real estate agency that showed us three potential homes to rent. We asked to be in a typical working to middle class neighborhood with Ghanaians and not a community of foreigners. Our hosts, the Nyarko’s were wonderful. After three weeks with them, we were in our own home which we had cleaned, furnished, and stocked. I came prepared with school books, the state curriculum and commenced with home teaching our children. I had filed a note with the Recorder of State (as required in St. Louis) that I would be home schooling. We covered two school years in 12 months. We did classes 5 hours a day and home work was not needed. One on one school work with Mom was like having a personal tutor who addressed your weaknesses and built upon your strengths. We hired someone to come to the home to tutor the children in Ga (the language of Accra) and to teach them drumming. Life in our home was busy because we had bikes, roller skates, balls and computers. Soon our yard was filled with children every day after school. Albie taught all the children computer skills and would help with Math. I helped children with English, social studies and science. We became very popular and parents in the neighborhood thought we were teachers. We explained we had come to Ghana to live, look for future work possibilities and to learn. Soon we were involved in various neighborhood and community causes connected to development, Pan- Africanism, education and our community theatre group. We traveled across Ghana (having shipped a pickup truck) and often were in the company of about ten children and a few other adults.

I wish I would have known before coming:

1. That in Ghana, you must pay rent for the entire rental period of 1, 2 or 3 years up front with deposits before moving in;
2. That the costs of the best international schools are more expensive than college tuition in the US, unless you have a Ghanaian spouse;
3. That there are great private doctors, hospitals, and dentists in Accra at one half to one third of the costs in the USA;
4. Finding a job is a challenge if you want to try to earn your US salary, so get ready to earn less or start your own business; and
5. 1. The steps to get a resident permit are predicated on your employment, registered NGO, retirement or marriage and are strictly enforced if you want to live here legally.

After learning our family could adjust and live in Ghana, where we could work (we set up a consulting firm and I eventually also got hired by the University of Ghana-Legon); we could support others (we started an NGO called AFRICA); and we could integrate into the community; we then returned to the USA. We spent the next three years living on one salary and saving the other. So the second time we moved to Ghana, we had enough to buy our home, ship our new vehicle, start our business (visit Ghana Investment Promotion Centre online to learn the requirements), furnish our home, pay school tuition and set aside money for emergencies and living expenses. We knew it would take time to get our business going.

Returning to Ghana was different the second time. We now had to work at jobs, enroll the children in school and return to a more structured existence. Having the children may have been the best part of the reintegration effort. Once school started, we were back to sleepovers, after school activities, PTA, school projects, clubs, and etc. I became the parent doing carpools because of my flexible work schedule as a professor and consultant. We provided lots of homework assistance to neighborhood children because of our love of reading and our extensive home library and computer system. At one point, we also had three children, because we adopted a niece who lived with us for a few years. What a great way to expand our small family. Working with our NGO for 16 years kept me tied to and busy doing fundraising (largely in the USA) for Ghanaian causes. I am forever indebted to the AFRICA board in St. Louis that helped us to assist thousands of children with school fees, university scholarships, new business development, land acquisition for schools and for distributing over a half million dollars in cash and resources over 16 years.

Ghana is not perfect. Really, I know of no place that is. There are still challenges with roads, slow internet, a developing infrastructure and clashes over land ownership. This is far outweighed by the beauty of nature, friendly people, and the ability to build things that you can own and call your own, the warm weather, the opportunities and the possibilities. My all-time favorite experience I share with friends is the ability to be black and walk into a room here, and have people think only the best of you or nothing at all! Goodbye daily micro-aggressions. Welcome to Ghana!