Impressions of Ghana

By Ellie Schimelman, Director, ABA Tours

“Wofre wo den?” They call you what? “Wo fre me Aba.” They call me Aba. This always gets a smile. My full name is Aba Broni Kakraba, “small Thursday-born white woman.” This always gets a laugh. When I took a local name many years ago it was considered amusing, but now the custom has become more common. Especially among African-Americans who attend special naming ceremonies to welcome them back to their homeland. The Ghanaian government has established an Emancipation Day Festival that brings people from the Black Diaspora to Ghana to reconnect with their ancestors and the highlight of this event is to receive an African name. Some Ghanaians, impressed by the interest of outsiders, are also beginning to use their African names in place of their Christian ones.

Ghanaian names are wonderfully descriptive. By knowing people's names you already know a lot about them and their place in the family. For example, you know that Tewia was born after twins, and that Kakra and Pane are the twins. Many Ghanaians are named after the day of the week on which they were born. Outsiders comment that this limits the parents to only seven boys’ names and seven for girls, but that isn't the case. There are always nicknames and descriptive names, or birth order names.

Some children do not have the same surname as their fathers. They may be named after a deceased relative taking both that person’s first and last name. When I found this confusing, my informant didn't understand why. He said, "Everybody knows who your father is."

And bless the missionaries who randomly attached anglicized names to entering school children when they couldn't pronounce or spell the African name, thus creating another way for someone not to have a father’s surname. [see below for children's name's by day of the week]

DAYS OF WEEK:

Monday - DWODA
Tuesday - BENADA
Wednesday - WUKUDA
Thursday - YAWDA
Friday -  FIDA
Saturday - MEMENEDA
Sunday - KWASISA

The exact date of birth has never been as important to Africans as it is to Westerners. There was a time when mothers didn't record the date of birth and might have calculated the birth of her child by how many festivals have passed since his birth or by remembering something else that happened in the same year. There is a reluctance on the part of some Africans to reveal the exact birth date because of a superstition that someone who possesses this information can do magic that will harm you. Also birthday celebrations are a western concept. The year of birth might not be important, but that is not true of the day.

Kwame Nkrumah – the first president of Ghana – tells us in his autobiography, "Great importance is placed by the Akan (one of the major ethnic groups of Ghana) on the day of the week on which a child is born for this determines his platonic soul. They believe that a man is possessed of three souls: the blood soul transmitted by the female and considered synonymous with the clan, the ntoro, which is transmitted by the male and the okra, or platonic soul. In order that there should be no mistake about the okra, a specific name is given to the child according to the day of the week on which he is born. There are other superstitions surrounding the child's birth. For instance, the first child is supposed to be less bright. . . .Whilst I can claim to fall into the pattern of things by being born on Saturday and bearing the name of Kwame, it is surely disheartening that I was the first and only child of my mother and am therefore, according to tradition less bright than average."

In Ghana don't try to figure out family relationships. It is impolite to give your aunt and uncle less status than your parents, so they are introduced as mother and father. I have a terrible memory for faces and names so it took me awhile to catch on to this, but one day I arrived in a village and my host family was standing in a row to receive me. As we worked our way down the reception line, Kwamina introduced me to three women as his mothers. Everyone knew I was confused, but confusing foreigners is fair game. In Africa when calling a female name it is customary to preface it with sister or auntie or mami. Sister is used if you don't know someone very well. When I first went to Ghana I was called auntie. Now I am called mami and I commented that this change made me feel old. I was told that it was meant as a sign of respect. Older people are presumed to be more mature and wiser. I still don't like that greeting, but that's my western preoccupation with age.