THE GHANA CHRONICLES: Welcome Home— 6/19/23

If anybody knows about my work at The San Francisco School, either through my writings or the recent Secret Song film, it’s clear that I believe all of life should be arranged like music— an enticing beginning, a connected middle, a satisfying end. When a group of any sort gathers, it follows that there should be some kind of ceremonial welcoming that sets the occasion apart from business as usual. I worked hard with my colleagues to create an opening ceremony at school that does just that and worked equally hard in considering how to begin each workshop or several-day course with that kind of enticing and welcoming beginning.

 

But no need to convince the Ghanaians. They’ve got it down and go one step further. Not only does the village Chief gather with his deputies and ministers, with the local villagers ready to drum, sing and dance for us and with us, but he invokes the Ancestors and asks their permission before we can be officially welcomed. Libations are poured and read and if the signs are auspicious— and they always have been— we go on with the ceremony. Opening words and chants and prayers and then one by one, come up to greet the Chief and receive a special beaded bracelet. And again, yet one step further, as those of African descent come up again to receive a beaded necklace and are formally “welcome home to the ancestral land.” Not a dry eye in the house during that moment. 

Then comes the music and dance and the welcoming us into the dancing circle. I had the great honor of being invited by Kofi’s 96-year old mother and did my best to keep up with her! An hour later, they’re just warming up, but we have our schedule to keep and go on to Kofi’s family home, where they’ve prepared a lunch for all 40 of us. 

The quality of welcome of all people in this culture is so far beyond our experience in the United States that we have little idea about its implications. We sit silently while a sitting President talks about “shithole countries,”  sit silently and helpless while we murder our own children in schools, mindlessly carry on the illusion that we’re the best country while the real deal of welcoming, caring for children, caretaking culture and the beauty of the human soul goes on out of our sight in a small town in the Volta Region of Ghana. 

 

Tomorrow the formal classes begin, but the most profound lessons have already been taught.