I'm still in Ghana. This past week, it was Homecoming Week at the University. In the US, I think Homecoming week usually has something to do with sports teams, I'm not really sure.
Here, it was a chance for everyone at the University to show off what they do. I thought it was going to be very annoying, but really a lot of it was pretty fun!
Also, every day during the week, I told my students that I'd be in my office all morning, in case they had questions about the exam they have. Only one came! I hope the rest do OK on the exam. A lot of teachers don't mind if their students don't do that well (not most of the ones I know! But I hear!), and think it's all the students' fault for not studying enough or working hard enough. But I feel bad any time people don't do well - it's my job to teach them and help them learn!
Anyway, the homecoming started on Monday with a faculty durbar. We set up in the gardens where you and I played while Grammy and Grampy were in the Botanical Gardens one day.
All the departments in the Faculty of Arts had big banners talking about what they did. Here's ours!
The symbol on there that looks like a bird standing on a house is actually an adinkra symbol. The bird is "sankofa," which means learning from the past; the thing that looks sort of like a house or a fork underneath it is "hwemudua," the measuring stick, which means careful examination. Together, they are supposed to mean that you should look back to history, but always ask questions instead of just listening to it. I think it's a pretty good symbol for a Philosophy & Classics department!
Of course, things got started late... so I talked a little with Dr. Hudu and Dr. Ani until the durbar started. It wasn't a real durbar - the king and queen were played by students from the dance department. But it was still pretty cool to watch!
After the durbar there were speeches from alumni (people who already finished school) about how much they had enjoyed and learned here. Plus, there was music! I wish that we had more drummers at meetings I have to go to when I'm at home.
Then some students from the English department did some songs and poetry.
Tuesday, we started our department's own thing. There was a talk from Dr. Helen, who is in charge of the department, and then some students started the main thing we were doing - a marathon reading of Plato's dialogues! Most people who do philosophy now (like me) write books that are just like explaining things to someone. But a long time ago, not everyone wrote that way! Some people, like Parmenedies, wrote their philosophy as long poems or songs. And some, like Plato, wrote little plays and stories that talked about philosophy. So our students read the stories and plays so that anyone could come and watch - and I was a little surprised, but people did!
Wednesday, it was my turn to read - I was reading the part of Socrates, who was Plato's teacher, from part [Book II] of a story of Plato's called The Republic. The Republic is about a dinner party where everyone talks about what's fair, and how you should put countries together. The part I was reading was about what's so good about being good, especially if you were a good person who everyone thought did bad things - and whether it would be better to be a bad person who everyone thought did good things!
Afterwards, Mr. Kimathi, one of my students, gave a presentation about how laws work. And then I helped our students get ready for their debate the next day.
Thursday, we had a debate with the Religious Studies department. A debate is kind of like a friendly argument, or an argument that you make a game. Each person is trying to convince everyone that they're right, and then judges give you points on whether you spoke well, and how convincing you were, and whoever has the most points wins.
The debate was about something that's a little bit complicated to explain [Adults: "Resolved: the prevalence of same sex relationships is a threat to the socio-religious culture of Africa and as such the sooner it is purged from the continent, the better it will be for the African people." Yeah, sometimes the politics here are bullshit too.].
Most of the time, boys fall in love with girls and girls fall in love with boys (when you're older!), and if they get married, they get married to each other. But some boys fall in love with boys, and some girls fall in love with girls - it's called being "gay" or "homosexual" (I know, a big word). And some of them would like to get married. In America, where we live, it's not against the law [recently!] for a boy to fall in love with a boy or a girl to fall in love with a girl. And some places they're allowed to get married.
Here in Ghana, it's not the same. It's illegal for a boy to fall in love with a boy or a girl with a girl, and they can't get married. Lots of people think that, in Africa, that sort of thing should not be allowed, and that it's people from places like America trying to force them to change their culture [Adults: Our students found a bunch of examples of pre-Christian homosexual acceptance, but of course the judges didn't seem to give a shit, and the Religion dept. just said we were lying.]. Mommy and I think that it should be OK for anyone to fall in love and marry whoever they want to (or not get married if they don't want to!), as long as they're grown-ups - we just think it's nice that people fall in love, and we shouldn't make it harder for anyone. Of all the things there should be more of, it should be people falling in love! If a girl (or woman) we knew - or even you, when you grow up! - were in love with another girl, it would make us very sad to think that they would have to hide or pretend they weren't in love because they were afraid it would make other people upset.
Anyway, the Religion Department - they study people going to Church and Mosque and things - was arguing that boys and boys and girls and girls shouldn't be able to fall in love, and should be put in jail if they do. The Philosophy Department was arguing that it should be OK. I thought our students did a very good job, but the judges said that the other people won. That's how it sometimes goes!
[Adults: Then there was supposed to be a joint faculty lunch, but the Religious Studies profs had lunch with the two of the three judges who were Religion alums and wouldn't say two words to the Phil & Class folks.]
Finally, on Friday, some of our students put on part of an ancient Greek play called Lysistrata, about a woman named Lysistrata who gets together with the other women in Athens and Sparta - two ancient Greek cities - to stop them from fighting each other. It's an old play, but pretty funny! But probably you'd understand it better when you're bigger [Adults not familiar with the play: Of course, it's an ancient raunchy sex comedy about ending a war - and really, funnier than you might think an ancient Greek play would be. We need more raunchy anti-war sex comedies. If Zach Snyder had wanted to make something "feminist" after working on the fascist 300, he should have done Lysistrata instead of Sucker Punch!]
Then, yesterday, I mostly worked. There was a big funeral going on near the flat - when people die here, there are often big celebrations so people can remember how much they liked them when they were alive. This one had bands, and music, and big tents for hundreds of people.
And I stopped by Miss Gloria's, because my second shirt was ready!
It's made from the cloth you helped me pick out when we went to Madina Market before you left - I really like it, and I'm glad you helped me find it!
I miss you, but I'll see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment