Said goodbye to our hosts, Charity and Chris Scott. Charity is Ghanaian, very sweet and a good cook. Chris is Canadian, a former teacher, I think, and runs the business of the Inn. He said that if they operate at 50% capacity they are doing well. Over the past six years, the Kipharts have been their biggest customer.
We set out from the Inn on what we were told would be a two or two and a half hour drive to Sefwi Wiawso, where we learned through the website of Kulanu, that a small group of Jews lived. Because the drive from one side of Kumasi to the other took an hour, the entire trip took about three hours. The drives afford an opportunity to see the roadside Villages, with their odd signs, and the bizarre assortment of goods sold along the way. It also allows time for discussion. We talked about how the Ghanains have a word for deep, heartfelt gratitude, papaapa, and we Americans do not, perhaps because, having so much, we rarely, if ever, experience those feelings of deep gratitude. We also spoke of the hospitality of the Ghanaian people.
We asked Peter where there was an outlet for art and music in the small, rural villages, and he seemed to think there really was none. We asked about the history of The Prophet and were told that his father had been a prophet and, after he died, there was a split between The Prophet and his uncle. The Prophet left Kumasi to live in the village, and has achieved considerable notoriety and a big following. As we drove into the Western District, where the village is located, the landscape became hilly and green, a great difference from what we'd seen.
Missed the turn off we wanted slightly, but doubled back, drove up the road and on a corner Alex Armah stood waiting for us, a welcoming smile on his face. I had been in touch with Alex through Kulanu and had exchanged quite a few emails with him from where he was studying in Uganda. More recently, Peter had been in touch with him to arrange the logistics of our visit. Alex hopped into the truck, and we followed him to his house, which he shares with several others, and sat in the living room to talk.
Alex asked us "what is your mission," the traditional start of a conversation with visitors, and I explained how we had come to learn about his community. Alex answered all of our questions enthusiastically. He is trying to learn and study the history of how his people came there, but does not know much for certain. Before Catholic missionaries arrived in the 19th century, people celebrates Shabbat there freely, but the missionaries convinced (bribed) the chief to prohibit that worship. Thereafter people converted to avoid persecution, or at least did not practice openly. In the 1970's, the founder of the new community had a vision that they were Jewish and began to practice again, but not openly, because of government oppression.. Some years later, they began to practice openly, and the new Ghanaian constitution guarantees everyone freedom of worship. Alex said they have no problems with the Christians and Muslims, and some of them are interested to know about their religion.
Alex, now thirty-two years old, was introduced to Judaism by a brother as a teenager, and has followed it since. The community now numbers a hundred, from thirteen families. About 30-40 attend Shabbat services every Saturday. Services are conducted in English and in the local language, as Alex is now the only one who reads Hebrew. They have prayer books, donated by a synagogue in Des Moines. They keep kosher, nobody works on Shabbat and they celebrate all of the Jewish holidays.
Alex has gone to Uganda four times, the first time for four months, and the last three for ten months each. He studies in a yeshiva run by Rabbi Gershon, a Ugangan in his early forties, who was ordained in the US. Alex studies everything from Hebrew to history to theology. His dream is to become a rabbi and for his community to grow and become a self-sufficient community that can live and work in the area. He plans to marry later this month, and he and his wife will go back to Uganda.
Alex served us lunch, and then we drove with him to the synagogue. The synagogue is a simple structure with a podium and table with two chairs up front and rows of benches. Nthey have a small Torah. There are bookcases on the sides with books, and a shofar that I noticed. Alex said that he does not blow the shofar, but there is a member of the congregation who does. They are building a guest house nearby, but, unfortunately, we did not see how the work there is progressing?
From the synagogue, we drove to near the tailor shop, where beautiful challah covers are made. We trudged up the dirt hill road to the shop. Clearly, they don't get a lot of walk-in business. I had bought many challah covers through Kulanu, before we left and they have become cherished gifts for those we've given them to. The Kipharts and Valerie each bought four challah covers. We made a combined cash gift to Alex for the synagogue and left, having spent some two hours with Alex. The future of the Jewish community seems to be in Alex's hands. He appears to be very serious and dedicated, so stands a good chance of realizing his dreams.
From Sefwi Wiawso, we had a somewhat nightmarish, or at least very unpleasant, drive, through heavy traffic over a terrible bumpy, uneven, pocked road, encountering a delay for a market day, and ultimately the breakdown of the truck with Jonathan, Joseph and all of our bags, due to overheating. Our supposed five hour drive ended almost eight hours later at the Elmira Beach Resort, a very nice hotel that we'd stayed at last year. There we were met by Joe and Ida Kwarteng and Tully McLoughlin.
Joe and Ida run an NGO that promotes farm schools and Joe, on sabbatical from Cape Coast Ubiversity, where he's dean of the Agricultural School, is Dick's business partner in a pineapple venture you'll hear more of tomorrow. Tully, the son of a former consulting client of mine just completed Yale and is spending a year in Ghana, working with Farm Radio, an NGO funded by Bill Gates to promote farming through radio. Tully is quite delightful (I have to say that, because he will probably read this blog) and has an adventurous spirit, having previously served as a clown in South Africa, with a group called "Clowns Without Borders," which attempts to add joy and laughter to the lives of people in crisis.
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