By: Stephen Ssenkaaba
Blow by blow, Sam Lorenzo & Payton Brookes take us through Ghana’s momentous historical events and the people behind them. From Kwame Nkrumah to Kofi Annan, they share a captivating journey of a country: one colorful step at a time. It is Thursday, April 7, Week Two of our Media in Ghana Spring term class.
Led by Professors Leslie Steeves and Senyo Ofori Parku, this 10-week seminar will culminate into a five-week summer internship for the 12 SOJC students selected this year to work with different media, advertising, or public relations firms in the Ghanian capital Accra. For now, Sam and Payton have us under some kind of spell with their well-researched and vibrant presentation. The abundant presence of gold, brown or yellow and black in their work, resonates with some key symbols of Ghanaian nationhood.
Some Africans associate Ghana with its founding president, Kwame Nkrumah. Others know it asthe first African country that President Barack Obama visited. A few, through soccer. At the FIFA World Cup tournaments, Ghana and a few West African countries hold the entire continent’s hope. From South Africa to Sudan, African fans rally behind the Black Stars (Ghana’s soccer team) – celebrating every victory and cursing every loss. My first encounter with Ghana was through a mundane high school history class on West Africa. I learn about the powerful Asantehene but forgot everything a few years later. It was the soccer spectacle during my boyhood days that brought the country closer home. From its skillful dribblers like Abedi Pele, Anthony Baffoe, Tonny Yeboah to their shiny yellow jerseys, I have since associated Ghana with flamboyance.
Yet, when I play back the different presentations, talks, Twi language lessons, skits, and everything that I have learned about the country over the course of the ten-week seminar last Spring, I realize how little I knew about this country; how my perspective has grown and how privileged I am to be part of this program. That is the attitude I carry with me as I pack up my bags and head for Accra for my internship.
Different but ONE.
After ten weeks of learning and interacting, I sense great camaraderie among the 12 of us in this year’s cohort; an eclectic group that spans academic and research interests, levels, ages, and cultures; yet bound by our scholarly place of origin: The SOJC. In what I call a “different but one” approach, we are all setting out to explore Ghana based on our disparate professional and research interests, but we remain guided by the SOJC’s key aim for this program: to providestudents with a firsthand experience of an important African country in ways that will teach, challenge, and excite them.
New lenses
The seminar readings opened our eyes to the various strands of Ghanaian history, politics, culture, evolving media landscape and the dangers of biased reporting from international media networks. My greatest takeaway was that Ghana, like many African countries is a complex, rich country that we ought to engage with through a more nuanced, open-minded lenses.
For me, the preparation has opened my eyes to new knowledge about a country that I associated mostly colorful soccer players, the Asantehene, and relatively peaceful transfer of presidential power. I go to Ghana aware that there is more to this country than what I saw on tv, read in high school, and gleaned from the internet.
Hopefully…
At CITI FM/online, I hope to learn more about radio and online journalism, perhaps even discover a new passion. I am also looking forward to engaging with fellow journalists on their online strategies in an era of disruptions.
Whatever comes our way, Ghana promises to be a great learning experience for all of us this year as it has been for those that came before us. Hopefully, we shall all be able to come together one more time to share our experiences, blow by blow, one colorful step at a time.