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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nChristiana Kaiser<\/strong> grew up in Syracuse and attended Syracuse University\nand the University of Ghana at Legon where she studied international relations and African history. Christiana\nhas traveled to Ghana several times over the past 12 years. She interned\nat the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives, an NGO based in\nBolgatanga, northern Ghana. In 2003 she established Bluetree Studios to provide\ncentral New Yorkers access to the exquisite work of Ghanaian artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We began by breaking into groups\nof two or three to discuss our impressions and knowledge of Africa and Ghana. After\nour sharing and centering time, Mardea brought us back together and explained\nthat when she thinks of Africa, she thinks \u201chome\u201d as she was born and raised in\nLiberia, West Africa and is hoping to go back for her first return visit in 28\nyears next January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mardea called attention to a\nPeter\u2019s projection map posted in the back of the room, which clarifies the size\nof Africa relative to Europe and North America. Africa is 25 percent larger\nthan all of North America and three times larger than Europe. However, most\nAmericans know very little about Africa\u2019s 54 countries, their histories and\ndiverse cultures. On a map of\nAfrica she pointed out how many countries there are, each with multiple\nlanguages. She said that a trip equivalent to our going to Pennsylvania would\nrequire three or four languages and a passport. Christiana shared a story about\na short trip to the Bolgatanga market with a friend who spoke 5 or more\ndifferent languages (including English, Kassem, Guruni, Twi and Hausa) to greet\nfriends and talk with vendors. Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa. It\nhas been independent since 1957 and its flag is equal red, yellow, and green\nhorizontal stripes with a black star in the\ncenter. The red represents the blood that has been shed for Ghana\u2019s\nIndependence, yellow for the gold and wealth of the country, and green for the\nrichness and fertility of the land. The star symbolizes African freedom and\nAfrican people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1993\nMardea joined Aggie Lane, co-founder of Beyond Boundaries, to help coordinate a\ngroup of visitors (not tourists) on an awareness trip to Ghana. This was the\nfirst of many trips planned to build relationships between Central New Yorkers\nand Ghanaians. Beyond Boundaries worked with a Ghanaian organization called the\nVoluntary Work Camps Association of Ghana (VOLU), which provides opportunities\nfor individuals to participate in local projects. Beyond Boundaries arranged to\nattend a work camp in a Methodist church compound where volunteers from a\nvariety of nations were helping to lay footings for foundations for a school. They\nwere digging, pouring concrete, and transporting handmade bricks. The success\nof that trip in 1994 has led to over 20 cultural awareness trips including 5 to\nGhana. Mardea showed many slides of Beyond Boundaries members visiting schools\nand historical sites and meeting with students and grassroots organizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1997 Mardea led an advance\nteam trip to Ghana looking for ways to make lasting Beyond Boundaries\nconnections with specific\nindividual communities. She was put in contact with CENSUDI, which was\nestablished in 1994. It is an NGO based in the Upper East region of Ghana,\nwhich aims to promote and strengthen practical strategies that actively\nmobilize women to participate in decision-making and leadership positions. CENSUDI\nwas founded by three sisters whose father enthusiastically supported and\nencouraged them in their education. Margaret Mary,\nBeatrice, and Franciska Issaka have begun to change long-held ideas of\nwomen\u2019s place and women\u2019s roles. All three women, now past 50, are powerhouses in\ndefining and supporting women\u2019s rights through a variety of programs including\ntheir Education Improvement Programme (EIP) which focuses on girl-child\neducation. The EIP frequently involves negotiation\nwith families and schools to ensure that girls have the resources they need for\ntheir schooling and that their household and farming chores do not interfere\nwith their studies. Since Beyond Boundaries does not impose its ideas on\nCENSUDI but asks, \u201cwhat can we do to help you achieve your goals?\u201d the Syracusans\ndiscussed how they could help facilitate, fund, and work on goals that the\nGhanaians had identified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1994-95 Christiana had\nattended the University of\nGhana at Legon where she studied African history. She showed us a photo of the\nuniversity near the capital, Accra, and photos of Independence Arch, a monument\nto Ghanaian and Pan African independence and Kwame Nkrumah Circle, named for\nthe Pan African leader and Ghana\u2019s first president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christiana had wanted to study\nAfrican history to address the lack, and investigate the distortions, of African history she recognized in her high\nschool and college curriculum. She said that in Ghana\nshe constantly found connections and common history between the U.S. and\nGhana. Kwame Nkrumah had attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and\nwelcomed fellow Pan Africanist and American scholar W.E.B. DuBois when he\nmoved to Accra and became a Ghanaian citizen. Ghanaian students were very\nfamiliar with American leaders and social activists;\nChristiana showed a photo of a young man wearing a Malcolm X T-shirt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most influential\nconnections between Ghana and the United States is found in the forts along\nGhana\u2019s coast. Several slides showed the fort at El Mina, named by the\nPortuguese for the abundance of gold in the area and later called the \u201cGold\nCoast\u201d by the British. Colonialism was so crude that the imperial powers went\ndown the coast renaming regions for what they could get there \u2013 \u201cIvory Coast,\u201d\nGold Coast,\u201d \u201cSlave Coast\u201d, etc. The fort was built in 1482 as a storage\nbuilding for fruit, ivory, gold, and other exports. Eventually it became one of\nthe ominous centers of the European and American slave trade. The fort and\ndungeons at Elmina witnessed the imprisonment and enslavement of a large share\nof the many millions of people who endured this painful chapter in our shared\nAmerican and African history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The dungeons where men, women and children\nwere held for months at a time were somber. The women\u2019s dungeon was located in\nview of the \u201cgovernors\u201d quarters. Rape, torture and terrorizing of the people\nimprisoned there was routine. In the forts at Elmina and Cape Coast there are\n\u201cdoors of no return,\u201d the last exits to the slave ships and the middle\npassage. In the approximately 350 miles of Ghana\u2019s coastline there have been,\nover the years, more than 60 such forts. Some are referred to as \u201ccastles\u201d and\nhave been painted white. Many people complain that the ugly history they embody\nis literally being white-washed as the painted walls look picturesque and\npretty from a distance and the label of \u201ccastle\u201d obscures the horrors they\ncontain. The view from the fort today is of life and commerce – a stunning\ncontrast with the past brutality. Christiana read a plaque from one of the\nforts that read \u201cIn everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May\nthose who died rest in peace and those who return find their roots. May\nhumanity never again perpetuate such injustice against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christiana said that her\nexperience of the dungeons at El Mina and Cape Coast deeply influenced her\nunderstanding of her connection to Ghana as an American and particularly as a\nEuropean American. She said that while the history of slavery is widely viewed\nas solely African or African-American history it is also American and European\nhistory. The people who committed the crime of enslaving people in West Africa\nlooked like, and came from the same places as, her ancestors and their criminal\nactions enriched Europe and America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She came to see her responsibility\nto be – to be an ally and partner to people and organizations combating social\nand economic injustice in Ghana and the US. But, as a student, with no real\nskills or resources of the type needed to contribute to change in Ghana she\nreturned to Syracuse study international relations at SU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1997\nChristiana learned about Beyond Boundaries through a local flyer and became\ninvolved. Beyond Boundaries gave Christiana a new opportunity to be involved in\nan ongoing organizational relationship between Central New Yorkers and\nGhanaians. In 1999 she was a co-leader of Beyond Boundaries\u2019 awareness project\nin Ghana. The group met with CENSUDI and made a contribution of $400 to their\nEducation Improvement Programme. This assisted with the cost of putting a new\nroof on a neighborhood school and provided scholarships to cover class\nsupplies, uniforms and school fees for 25 students. During this trip Christiana\nbecame acquainted with the Issaka sisters and made plans to return to work with\nCENSUDI . <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also at that time she learned\nabout the Single Mothers Association, whose objective is to impart skills to\nmembers to ensure that their standard of living is improved, as well as empower\nthem to cater for the educational needs of their children. These women are single\nfor the same reasons that exist in the west – divorce, widowhood, teen\npregnancy, etc. A number of the CENSUDI EIP scholarship recipients were\ndaughters of women in this association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2000 and 2002 Beyond\nBoundaries awareness projects were again led by Mardea and the group continued\nto meet with EIP scholarship recipients and other students at various schools. They\ndiscussed the value of their education, asked about the students\u2019 goals and\nillustrated some of the possibilities that their education could lead to. A\nnephew of the Issaka sisters accompanied Beyond Boundaries on these trips and\ncould point to his early days in the community and how that led to his graduate\nstudies at the University of Ghana. Mardea said that some of the early scholarship\nrecipients are now in teachers\u2019 colleges or earning various certificates. On\neach trip the Ghanaian students have been excited to see photos of themselves\nand older students taken on earlier visits published in the Beyond Boundaries\nnewsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout her presentation\nMardea showed slides of welcoming gatherings of singing and dancing hosted\nby various grassroots organizations \u2013 the Ghanaian women in brilliantly printed\ndresses and head scarves. On one trip a Syracusan who is a dancer, joined in\nand was joyously received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mardea is an artist and was\namazed to see that her work reflected the same graphic designs of some of the\nstucco houses in northern Ghana. Women are the primary creators of this\ndecorative work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A series of slides showed young people making fufu, a combination of cassava (a starchy root vegetable similar to potatoes) and plantain (similar to banana but not eaten raw). The two ingredients are pounded together in a cooperative effort between pounder and turner. Christiana said that it has the consistency of stiff bread dough and is eaten with two fingers like poi. Mardea added that in Liberia the word fufu is used to describe a dish made from only cassava. It also has the consistency of bread dough but is more translucent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christiana showed slides of\nKente cloth weaving looms. These portable looms were used by Ashanti men in\nsouthern Ghana to create strips of tightly woven cloth with symbolic geometric\npatterns. These strips were woven together to create large pieces of cloth and\nwere originally restricted to royalty. Traditionally women did not use these\nlooms. Some legends maintain that if a woman sits on a kente loom she could\nbecome barren. More practically, these were traveling looms and women were at\nhome caring for the family. Other cloth was woven by women on larger looms. In\n1999, Syracusan Sarah Saulson\ncontributed some weaving equipment to a weaver for\nher studio in Bolgatanga. Christiana showed a slide of her showing the cloth\nshe had woven with this equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2003 Christiana returned to\nGhana to do an internship with CENSUDI. She wanted a better understanding of\nthe transformations that Ghanaians desire and are working for. At CENSUDI she\nworked within the Education\nImprovement Program. While there, she assisted the facilitation of a girls club\nfor EIP beneficiaries to connect with and support each other despite their\nattending different schools in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time she was developing a\nrelationship with local artists. The women of the Single Mothers Association\nwere her first contacts. A photo was shown of a map of the community that the SMA maintains with markers for the people in the\norganization and their skills, such as making of baskets, shea butter, and\nsoap. They maintain a straw bank – women take bundles of straw for making\nbaskets and repay the bank after they have made and sold the basket, thus\nbypassing the obstacles created by the need for capital for raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other artist contacts occurred quite spontaneously. She met artist Samuel Ade-Am through a conversation about a Black history T-shirt he was wearing. He graduated from Ghanatta Art College in Accra and works at his own graphic arts business. She has been buying his acrylic paintings, making prints of them and returning the bulk of profits to him after they sell. When Christiana returned home she founded Bluetree Studios, named for a spreading tree on the University of Ghana campus where Christiana was a student. She makes purchases directly from Ghanaian artists \u2013 women, and some men, who set their own fairer prices for their artwork. The largest selection is basketry – Bolga baskets, hats, and fans in multi-colors and complex patterns. She also sells batik wall hangings, shea butter products, and jewelry. The jewelry is made of beads created in the southern part of Ghana from finely crushed, colored bottle glass that is fired in kilns and then painted. Jewelry designers in Bolgatanga carefully select then purchase the beads and create necklaces and bracelets. Christiana\u2019s inventory and the history and philosophy of Bluetree Studios can be seen at www.BluetreeStudios.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mardea told us about Karamu, a\ncommunity feast of African cuisine, music and dancing, and marketplace to\nbenefit Beyond Boundaries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two women, one African and one white American, have been jointly and individually working to build bridges of respect, understanding and reciprocity between central New York and communities in Ghana. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-7819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programs","tag-advocacy",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7819"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8986,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions\/8986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}