in-class insight

Just in case you were concerned I’d signed myself up for a six-week vacation I should tell you there is school involved – it’s just in Africa. Tomorrow our team will be leaving Accra for Dzelukope (pronounced Je-lu-co-pay). There we’ll be living with a host family and working on my research.


Today we had a lecture that included some interesting discussion. The most interesting was a point from one of our host professors: don’t confuse the culture of poverty with the culture of Africa. This struck a chord with me, as I wonder how often I do this. I know there have been times when I have seen African men wearing Western style clothing, or seen foreign restaurants and said “That’s not African! Why would they do that?”. It’s crazy, when I compare this with Canada. At home, we have the choice to take part in whatever we want, and going for Chinese food, or wearing clothes bought from wherever we want to buy them is a part of our culture. Why should it be any less part of African culture than Canadian culture? Maybe I sometimes mistake the culture of poverty for the culture of Africa.

That’s all for now! Looking forward to updating you from the village.