Reflections Of An Ordinary AfriCAN Woman Vol. 1

By Akua Djanie-Manfo

Reflections Of An AfriCAN Woman uncovers the canker that has eaten deep into African society and gives the reader issues for deep reflections that will bring about positive transformation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blakofe Media
• Release date: Jul 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9789988216177

Book preview

Reflections Of An Ordinary AfriCAN Woman. Vol.1

Akua Djanie-Manfo

Reflections Of An Ordinary Woman. Vol.1

© 2020 Akua Djanie-Manfo

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

ISBN: 9798663129831

Correspond with Akua via:

Email: [e-mail]

Twitter: @AkuaReflections

Facebook: @Akua Reflections

Instagram: @Blakofe

Published by Blakofe Media

Redesigned & Reprinted by

BUABENG BOOKS

Email: [e-mail]

Dedication

To my sister Pamela,

My most loyal supporter,

You’re the world to me.

Acknowledgements

To:

My gorgeous sons, Kwame and Nana. I love you both.

My BFFs Joyce Rupia, Fola Oworu and Deepa Thakur Masand,

My brother-in-law Kervin Marc,

My team at New African Magazine,

Mr. Kofi Nkrumah, a.k.a. Afrikatu,

Ghana-UK Society for awarding me Best Journalist 2011,

My loyal readers, supporters and fans,

Master Bright Kpoha for the artwork,

My English teacher, Mrs. Humphries, for recognizing my love for English and encouraging me,

Mr. Dan Kermah, you may be gone but you’re not forgotten,

Sun Trade (www.suntrade.com),

And to all who have supported me in one way or the other, I say thank you.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Reader’s Comments

African Music Videos

Ghana…Is This Really Democracy?

The Black Woman And The Beauty Myth Part I

Education In Africa Is Failing Its People

A Future Made In Africa?

Give Me Water, Not A Holiday Part I

Globalization And Africa

Don’t Come Back

Saving The Africans … Again

Thanks But No Thanks / Ghana Says No To Gay Aid

My Problem With Giving Children Their Rights

Where Have All The Goats Gone?

Save Yourself

Racism In Britain Today

Suarez, Terry And All That Jazz

Sugar Daddies Across Africa

What Are We Doing With Our Talents?

The African In Beauty Pageants

The African And The Culture Of Begging

The Highs And Lows Of Applying For A UK Visa

The Hypocrisy Of It All

The Power Of Delegating

White Christmas … In Black Africa

White People Are Not God

The African Personality

The Case For Pidgin English

Things Never Change

Why Did We Come?

Why Vote?

Does Africa Really Need All These Liberation Day Celebrations?

Foreword

The Lady Who Took No Prisoners

The first time I met Akua Djanie (aka Blakofe) when she visited the New African offices in London, I knew straight away that she was a rare breed, or one of the rare breeds of African female journalists, writers and broadcasters. Her mind was clear about things and matters African. And she had a determination to tell them as they were. A mutual friend of ours, Kofi Nkrumah, enamoured by the work Akua had been doing back home in Ghana, was the first to draw my attention to Akua’s work and pedigree. Kofi consistently urged me, from his base in Prague (Czech Republic), to give Akua a column in New African, because, as Kofi put it in his inimitable style, that sister is doing hot stuff back in Ghana.

Akua did not disappoint when the column was given to her. What you read here, in the next pages, is the fruit of that column put together under one roof. It was a column that drew enormous attention from readers - because of its punchy style. At times, it was so punchy that I had to use my editor’s prerogative to tone it down in the editing suite. Akua could have been a guerrilla wielding real machine guns if she had not been a journalist, broadcaster and writer first. From the copy she sent to London month after month, I sensed that it was not in her nature to take prisoners. Unbeknown to her, I made the editorial decision to force her to take prisoners by toning her copy down again and again. But to my surprise, she took it with grace and aplomb, without any complaint whatsoever.

Some columnists, in contrast, would have been up in arms, phoning to say: Why are you cutting this out, or changing this word or phrase? Akua did none of that, and it made working with her such a great pleasure - because the life of an editor is not easy, I can assure you. There are so many competing interests to satisfy. On the following pages, readers will find the same pleasure I found working with Akua. Writing is about conviction and thoughtfulness. Akua’s thoughts (or what she called ‘Reflections’) are a delight, her conviction full. And they ooze out of her copy.

There were times when African sisterhood found some of her columns on the adopted beauty of the modern African or Black woman wholly unpalatable. But Akua would not be moved from her position. Letters flowed in from across the world from irate women who felt affronted by Akua’s columns on the extension-adorned modern Black woman. But not an inch of the knee would Akua bend. That fight reminded me of what one preacher had said in Accra back in 2005: If God had given the African woman a beard, she would have put extensions on it. I laughed the first time I heard it. But the preacher was right. The modern African woman puts extensions on her hair, on her eyelids, on her finger-nails, on her toe-nails, even on her skin by bleaching it with chemicals in the vain hope of reaching another level of skin colour. And that shows what is going on in her head.

Spare this thought dear reader: If God had not just stopped Himself by refusing to make the mistake of giving the modern African or Black woman a beard, imagine the catastrophe that would be walking in the streets of Accra and elsewhere in Africa and the world! This was what Akua was writing about, or against. But the African/Black woman of extensions took umbrage and made herself heard very loudly in the pages of New African. That controversy has not been forgotten by African Sisterhood and it will not die even with this collection of the column into a book. But what you, the reader, is doubly assured of is hundred per cent thinking time in this book. For Akua’s ‘Reflections’ are truly thought provoking. Enjoy it.

Baffour Ankomah,

Editor-at-Large,

New African Magazine

12 June 2015

Readers’ Comments

More on Black Beauty

I have never been touched by such reflections of an ordinary woman found in Akua Djanie’s piece (‘The Black Woman and the Beauty Myth’ N/A Nov. 2009).  Her article is an eye-opener. As a journalist myself I have had the opportunity to interview a lot of top personalities and when I put this question to them "How would you describe the true Black woman?’’, I get smiles and see the shame in their eyes. My fiancé tells me of the pressure she faces just like Akua has experienced in the past. Keep it up Akua.

Adeyemi Adebayo Victor, Accra.  Ghana. Dec. 2009

Akua is Right

Akua is totally right in her reflections (N/A June 2010). For a person’s high position in society attracts a lot of people to them. Indeed, when you are in power or a good position, everybody and their mother wants to befriend you because they think the new position will allow them to get some money from you… I used to teach one of our Minister’s daughters in Benin Republic.  Every Saturday, the Minister’s house was full of people who wanted to meet him before he left for work. I don’t think his house was full of people when he was just a simple citizen.

Maurice Sagbohan. Cotonou, Benin.  New African September 2010

Black History Month

To say Akua Djanie’s pen is vociferous would be off the mark. Perhaps profound or intense or both is more like it.  I agree with every article she writes and her perceptions are just what Africa needs as a move from conventional thinking, though her February 2010 column on Black History Month (‘What Are We Really Celebrating’) seemed a bit extreme. However, judging from the informed and insightful contributions in the October issue, I believe Akua has a point on Black History Month. It should and must be more than mere lip service.

Benjamin Seitisho. Qwa Qwa, South Africa. December. 2010

1

African Music Videos

T

hose that have visited my home would have noticed I keep the television in my bedroom for one reason – I like to monitor what my children watch. But once in a while, I decide to give them a treat and bring it into the sitting room. Imagine my shock therefore, when I came home to see my very young (pre-teenage) children watching porn in the middle of the afternoon (not that it would have made it any better had it been in the middle of the night!). Like a mad woman, I rushed to the television and turned it off.

Oh mummy, why? came their cries.

What do you mean why? What are you watching? I demanded back at them. 

The new music DVD you bought for us. They replied.

Really?  I asked myself in my head.

And to make sure my children were not deceiving me, I allowed them to put the DVD back on.  Lo and behold, it was indeed the music DVD I personally had bought for them. 

My goodness, little did I know the shock I was in for when I decided to sit and watch the DVD with my children. I mean, was I watching music videos or porn with music? I really could not tell (well actually when I experimented and turned the volume off, some of the videos did indeed look like soft porn). From music videos featuring women seductively caressing themselves whilst sprawled across huge beds to videos which portray the artiste as the ‘don dada’/ ‘oga’/ ‘playa’/ ‘big boy’ (call him what you will), coming out of a limousine or another luxury vehicle, sipping champagne, with several scantily clad women by his side (all desiring him), smoking his cigar, tossing dollars in the air, on the girls etc., some of these videos do indeed look pornographic. 

Then there is the dancing. Well, I do not know if I should actually call it dancing as in most cases it is nothing other than a woman’s backside twisting, wining and twerking.  I even saw a video in which we did not see the female dancers’ faces, only their backsides for the entire duration of the song. Can you imagine that?

I like to think of myself as someone with a liberal mind. I strongly believe in freedom of expression. I believe in a woman’s right to dress in any way she chooses. I have no issues with the Pamela Andersons of this world, you know, those who choose to dress in the skimpiest of clothes. It really is up to them. When it comes to dancing, once again, I have no problems if someone wants to dance wildly and erotically. Even I have even been known to shake my thang in a sexy way or two. What I mind is having a woman’s backside forced into my face when all I want to do is listen to a song and watch a video. I mean, what happened to good old-fashioned choreographed dances? Why is it that these days, dancers in music videos don’t dance with their hands, legs, faces? Why does every single video feature women shaking their backsides?

The worst part is that I am not even referring to music from American artistes. As for them, we have long been accustomed to their way of writing songs and producing videos; women as sex objects, a hip-hop star wearing more diamonds than you will even find in a diamond mine, money being thrown about, that has been the American rap/hip hop video scene for a very long time. I did not like it then, and I certainly do not like it now that African artistes seem to be going that way. I mean, why would a young man from Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania or indeed any African country think it is okay to wear their jeans to their knees? Why should these young men find it perfectly acceptable to leave their homes with their underwear showing to all and sundry?

Why do music videos coming from poor Africans living on the continent feature the artistes in luxury vehicles, sipping champagne or seductively sprinkling money on half-naked women? If American artistes are doing this, it is because for most of them, this is the norm. Believe me, it is real for a rapper such as 50 Cent to sip champagne everyday if he wants, or for the singer R. Kelly to hire a limousine and fill it up with girls for his pleasure, if he so desires. It is real because they can afford this lifestyle.

The likes of Kanye West are not faking it. Our African artistes on the other hand are. The African artistes who are producing American inspired bling bling’’ music videos are just aping somebody else’s life. It is so far removed from their reality; I wonder why they would even want to go there? I guess they want to be with it" and have international appeal. But do they not feel stupid when at the end of the day, they live in ghettos and do not even own a bicycle, let alone a luxury four-wheel drive? I do not think the American rapper Jay Z’s reality is to wake up at 5:00 am to search for water for the day.

Look, most of the artistes coming out of Africa are from poor backgrounds. They do not live in mansions neither do they maintain the champagne lifestyle; so it seems silly to portray this in their music videos. African artistes should be using music and videos to tell stories about their people. I am not saying for one moment we should go tribal, wear only loincloths and start throwing spears about (unfortunately, when people think of producing African videos, this is the only way they seem to go!).

Maybe it is old age, but these days, I do not particularly enjoy watching music videos or listening to the music or radio because when I try, I just get offended by the noise and lyrics such as I wanna hit on your bootie or I wanna ride her like a Range Rover. How about Like a dollar bill, I had to unfold her! Music is so graphic and disgusting these days I wonder what’s going on. I also think music is having a negative influence on how young men and women perceive and enter into relationships. Today, it is all about sex, sex, sex and more sex. Men are singing it. Women are singing it (and the women will tell you they have been "empowered’’). Sorry did I say men and women, I should rather say boys and girls are singing it because really most of these artistes are still babies!

Don’t get me wrong,