Sustainability

The people of Ghana have a really beautiful way of staying grounded...close to the earth and close to their roots.

This past weekend and the whole week prior there was a huge celebration in Cape Coast that is called Fetu Afahye, the festival of adorning new clothes (appropriate for my journey!). It is a harvest festival, recognizing the circular nature of things, the returning to a starting point. Afahye stems from Afehyia (calendar). The city is filled with people in brightly colored costumes and masks. Saturday is the high point where all of the chiefs are paraded in with music and more costumes. Unfortunately I missed the big parade on Saturday...but it turns out that it may have been best as there was a brawl during the parade between the two major political parties. I was sad to have missed it, but glad that I got to experience the excitement, the noise and colors during the week.

This returning to a starting point, returning to your roots holds a lot of weight here...they even have an adinkra symbol that sums up the concept. It's called Sankofa...look it up! Returning to your roots has a broad meaning when I consider it and how I have encountered it here. Returning to your roots is not only the idea of going back where you came from (ashes to ashes), but also the idea of returning what you have taken, as well as taking care of those/that which have taken care of you, and not to mention retaining all that has been ROOTED in you from your experiences (knowledge and love...etc.).

I have seen examples of this in everything from very close family circles to how designers use every possible scrap of fabric waste. People try to avoid waste here. When I witnessed the adinkra process I was quite impressed at the tedious process where the dye is extracted from the root of a medicinal tree. The roots were even heated on "re purposed" engine blocks-turned- fire pits that were probably dumped in Ghana from the US or Europe.

The country has made many efforts to close the circle of production...returning to their roots. During Nkrumah's reign the fabric production process was developed to such a level where the cotton is grown in the Northern Region, shipped down the Volta River to processing plants in the Eastern Region, then woven and printed in the Central Region and bought to create clothes by small seamstress businesses all over the country! Talk about sustainability!!!!

Since the overthrow to Nkrumah's rule (a US supported coup no less!) the country has not been able to keep up the highly efficient process' and they have been working to regain the massive production levels they once held. I am hoping to visit a couple of the factories while I am here.

This is only a small peek at the amazing things that are being done in this country (most unintentionally) to take care of their people and reduce their impact. Just consider the tiny "carbon footprint" (I love this silly trend) that people in the US would actually have if you made your houses out of clay and thatch from the mud and palm trees in your yard..and of course the felled trees would be used to make palm oil and palm wine and fire wood...etc. Then, everything you ate came from less than a 5km radius and you cooked on coals (from the felled trees) and you probably walked to work or take a SHARED taxi or tro and washed yourself with about a bucket of water!!! WOW.
If only...............