Chew, pour, pass, and forget

After a long night of salsa and sweating on the dance floor, we started our fifth day in Ghana with a lecture from Kobina Ankomah Graham (professor for 10 years, 8 of which were at Ashesi University). During his lecture, Professor Graham spoke on the importance of art within a country’s culture and how art nurtures creativity. In fact, one of his critiques on the modern-day educational system is that it fosters a mindset of “chew, pour, pass, and forget”. This can be seen in all forms of American education where students are taught a subject to learn (chew), given opportunities to show knowledge on the subject (pour), expected to pass standardized tests (pass), and inevitably forget the subject they were initially taught due to the lack of creativity within the learning itself (forget). Professor Graham further mentioned that schools in Ghana are beginning to capitalize on this educational revolution by requiring less homework, fewer standardized tests, and asking students to declare a “mission statement” instead of a subject matter.

After our guest lecture, we took a short break to enjoy homemade boiled yams and plantains with a side of spinach stew. All washed down with my personal favorite - fresh pineapple juice!

After our lunch we were introduced to Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang (Ghana’s Vice Presidential Candidate for the NDC party), who is actually the mother of our program director here in Ghana. During this discussion, we asked several questions regarding the political environment in Ghana and specific topics Professor Opoku-Agyemang is campaigning on in preparation to the Ghanaian election cycle in 2024. Questions ranged from the economy, education, nationalism, national security, and even how she managed to accomplish all of these tasks given her responsibilities as a mother. The biggest takeaway I learned from Professor Opoku-Agyemang is that the government should be a discussion of humanities and not a matter of politics. She ended her talk by saying, “people are people everywhere” and should be treated as such!

Transitioning to our last formal event of the day, we took the bus to Soronko Academy. ReginaAgyare is the CEO and founder of Soronko

Academy with a mission to develop technological skills in young women with the hopes of closing the gender disparity in a male-dominated industry. Starting off as a software developer at a local Ghanaian bank, Regina took a leap of faith to pursue her passion of encouraging young women to pursue careers in technology in a country where less than 19% of women have access to technology. After an outreach program in Nima (urban slum in Accra, Ghana), Regina and her non-profit received international attention that boosted funding, furthering the Academy’s ability to provide young women with education on technology.

During our conversation with Regina, we discussed the massive problem surrounding access to technology in Ghana, specifically women. Furthermore, the stigma that women should not be given similar opportunities to access technology. Given that the majority of the Ghanaian labor force is women (63.36%) and that the salaries of women increase by 67% when transitioning to a male-dominated industry, Regina believes that Soronko Academy is uniquely positioned to provide women with a life-changing opportunity.

Once returning to the hotel we were given a few hours of free time followed by dinner. This night we were served pasta, which thankfully allowed our stomachs to recover from an adventurous week of Ghanaian cuisine!

We then used the meal to fuel our bodies for an energetic night of karaoke!

While I was writing this journal and reflecting, I wanted to think of a word or phrase to summarize our fifth day in Ghana. After a while I remembered Professor Graham’s statement of “chew, pour, pass, and forget”. Although this phrase appears negative, it can also be used as an admonition: not to go through the motions in hopes of getting by, but to take full advantage of every moment. Whether it has been watching Nick sweat through his entire shirt on the dance floor, seeing Ben capture Ghanaian beauty on his film camera, or celebrating Sophie beating David in cards, everyone on this trip has taken a step to grow outside their comfort zone to truly take advantage of this trip. And there are still 13 days left to go!

Y3behyia biom (till next time),

Sam Dufault