There was no “welcome home” ceremony or sense of “street credibility” amongst Ghanaians, nor has there been any extra attention given to me for being an African American returning to the “motherland”.
Many Ghanaians refer to African Americans as Black Americans, which distinguishes them as black people who live in America. And some Ghanaians further this point to say that the Black people who live in American are accustomed to American culture rather than traditional African based culture and are perceived to be no different than White Americans.
Being a dark-skinned African American male here has brought me a very unique experience; which differs from most of the other international students. But I must mention that my experience is greatly influenced by my background and upbringing. Some of my experiences may be troublesome for some of you to read, but I wanted to be as honest as possible about my feelings, hopefully helping someone who goes through a similar situation to mine.
The problems adjusting to Ghanaian culture and the culture shock I experienced over the first few weeks I was here were largely based on race based insecurities that I had previous to coming to Ghana.
These were some of the experiences and emotions I felt once I got here.
For the first two or so weeks I was here, I had a hard time being around people in a country of my possible family ancestry, who are the same color of skin as me, who look just like me, but none I felt I could relate to. From local dialects to social interaction to culture, I felt like I had nothing in common with Ghanaians. Although that logically makes sense since I am not from Ghana, at that time, my emotions took over, and I felt very sad and confused.
My family has not been able to trace our ancestry back to any specific country in Africa, so I had an internal desire to finally make a connection, but I just wasn’t making any.
My study abroad group, which is made up of mainly white students, had traveled together several times. I used to hate traveling with them during our first few outings because I was tired of street vendors rushing our bus while we were stuck in traffic or when we would arrive at a destination and try to get off the bus. I didn’t like to stick out and I didn’t want to feel like a tourist. It was the first time I actually had a chance to blend in, but being on bus full of White kids in Ghana didn’t make blending so easy. I disliked the extra attention our group got. But the street vendors calculated that White people = $ and always came running.
I knew that a lot of the locals couldn’t tell that I was African American. I would get spoken to in the local dialect from time to time or asked if I was Ghanaian. So I looked the part, but didn’t fit it.
Out of emotion, I began thinking that I wished that I was White or lighter skinned; so that people could just tell that I was not from here. I figured that looking like a foreigner would eliminate any possibility of someone thinking I was a local and would save me from the embarrassment of speaking in public and people laughing in my face after expecting to hear a Ghanaian accent and instead hearing my “American English” (which happened on several occasions).
And again, out of emotion, I started thinking to myself that maybe I am just a “Black American” and that I didn’t deserve to be called an “African” American … and that slavery had done its job, because I had never felt so disconnected from black people in my life.
Wearing earrings here also caused me a lot of insecurity for the first few weeks. Although more men are beginning to wear earrings here, it’s not yet culturally acceptable. Men who wear earrings here are usually presumed to be a sissy, homosexual, drug dealers, or “bad” men. I didn’t know that when I came here. So imagine people thinking that I was actually Ghanaian and wearing earrings. I got stared at as if I was an alien at most places I went to. So as I was walking to class or in public, I would get long and hard stares. Whether I noticed this because of insecurity or if I was just extremely vigilant, the stares seemed quite obvious. Most days I would wear my earrings, some days I would not … it really depended on my mood and how much attention I was comfortable bringing to myself.
Fast forward three weeks … I am adjusting to Ghanaian culture and I am enjoying my time here. Befriending local students and talking to my study abroad program advisor and other international students about my feelings greatly helped my transition through the difficulties I was experiencing with cultural adjustment. Writing my feelings also helped me sort out a lot of the confusion in my mind.
When I stopped focusing on cultural dissimilarities and started acknowledging that I was in another country with a culture that wasn’t going to change for me and wasn’t my own, and understanding that I didn’t have to lose myself to get adjusted, my overall experience started to grow and my insecurities diminished.
My experience overcoming culture shock has increased my maturity and self confidence and I now feel comfortable in my own skin and I am looking forward to the rest of my experience in Ghana.
I am a proud African American man and I hope that my experiences and what I did to overcome my difficulties with culture shock, help other African American men and women who travel to Ghana for the first time.
P.S. I decided to keep my earrings on for good while I am here.
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