Ghana’s Outdated Practices: ‘In-Law Food Lesson’

On Friday, 10th October this year, I watched “ASEM SE BE” a Twi program on Ghana’s GBC TV. Mr. George Yaw Kyere, the host, had two male guests to whom he posed the question of the day: “SHOULD A PERSON VISITING THE IN-LAWS, EAT ALL FOOD SERVED ON HIS/HER PLATE?” --------

As expected, his guests had opposing viewpoints on the question; one answered “yes,” the other “no.” Mr. ‘NO’ was very articulate. His arguments, steeped in cultural propriety were organized and easy to follow. Mr. “YES” on the other hand was clueless; his convoluted arguments demonstrated clearly that he had no business being in that debate. His performance was as nonsensical as his opening statement in English; “most Ghanaians suffer from esophagus trypanosomiasis.” --------

Needles to say that only one caller supported the ‘yes” position when the ‘call in’ phone lines opened. The overwhelming opinion was that it is “uncouth and against culture” to eat all your in-law’s food. However, nobody gave the reason why this is our culture; why we duplicate the practice in own homes; why we always leave food when others are present. The host did not do it neither did his guests or callers. Being a discerning man, I asked the elders of my family for the reason. It turns out that our forebears understood that dish clearing and washing is a child’s job. Good cultural manners therefore dictate that adults leave some food (scraps) for the children who wash the dishes. --------

This practice might have been wonderfully innovative in the 16th century. It may even have been great at the time of Ghana’s independence, on March 6th 1957. However, in the two thousand and tenth year of the lord (2010), it is absolutely antiquated, almost primitive. It is tied to our societal practice that gives the richest part of food to adult (alpha) males, then women, leaving the least nutritious to our children. --------

Empirical evidence shows that this reasoning has two serious scientific flaws - physiological and epidemiological. PHYSIOLOGICAL: Who needs more NUTRIENTS - a child or an adolescent undergoing growth spurs, a woman in early pregnancy, a lactating mother or a grown man in stagnation? Since the adult male in growth stagnation requires the least nutrients why is our society giving the richest parts of food to him? Granted, being the main provider in our households, the alpha male is deserving of some preferential treatment but surely our children are not stray dogs to be fed scraps. --------

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL: Dear reader, think about diseases and how they spread. Understand that lots of disease causing organisms live in the human body and our mouths are their second most popular habitat. Thousands of germs live in our mouth. Picture a typical adult eating, some teeth missing, others stained from who knows what, fingers/spoon/fork repeatedly going into the mouth and returning to the plate/bowl, transferring germs back and forth. Now ask yourself, is it healthy for my child with developing immune system to eat the germs infested scraps after him/her? --------

So why are we feeding our children these unhealthy scraps? Must we keep repeating a practice that is over 300 years old without questioning its consequences? Are we so stuck in our ways that we have locked reason in a dungeon and thrown away the key? Are we zombies? Are we robots? Where are our scientists, health care workers, nutritionists, educators, community leaders, policy makers? What happened to our years of formal education and so called modernization? -------

IN-LAW’S FOOD Lesson is a metaphor for the many archaic practices that abound in our Ghanaian Culture(s). These range from little idiosyncrasies like ghost stories used to scare children into obedience, to serious societal taboos. Some of our countrymen argue that whatever our forebears did is culture and therefore sacrosanct. Oh, No! The deeds of our great, great, great grandparents are mostly history. Some of that history was (try and error) experiments to juggle the hand that God or fate dealt them. Our history cannot be trivialized though; it interweaves with our beliefs and knowledge to form our culture. Marcus Garvey expressed that years ago in the quote “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” ---------

Although we need to relish our history, we cannot live in history. Our environment and circumstances change each passing day, each passing year, each passing decade. And so should our way of life or the way we do things. Our culture therefore is dynamic not static. It grows as we acquire knowledge. It does not exist in isolation but rubs and grinds against other culture(s). Thus Mahatma Gandhi famously declared “no culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” Over time, our culture influences and is influenced by World culture(s). ----------

As human societies abandon some practices in adaptation to environmental changes, good old Time slowly pulverizes those disregarded practices into oblivion. That is as natural as the rising sun. Recently however, in many Ghanaian societies, the natural order is being hijacked by some chiefs and queen mothers who are lifting dead and dying practices off the history books and re-introducing them in society. They do so without critically analyzing expanded knowledge or changed times. The most glaring example is happening in some Akan communities: ‘Female Puberty Rites’ is being rejuvenated. Web page constraints will not allow this article to discuss the re-incarnation of female puberty rites but look out for the next article. --------

Meanwhile, the dilemma of eating or not eating all food served to us can easily be solved with some 21st century common sense. As Ghanaian adults we need to do three things. First we must ensure that our children have eaten or at least have enough to eat at the time we sit down to eat. Well-fed children do not eat scraps. Second, we should inspect our portion size and make sure we have not been served too much food. Third, if we decide to offer some food to our dish washers, we should set that food aside in a clean plate or bowl before we put a morsel of food in our own mouths. --------

At the in-laws house, we need to inspect our food and tactfully request for portion reduction prior to eating. The portion removed can be given to the children of the household if there are any. After our portion has been reduced we can proceed to eat all food on our plate (in our bowl) and compliment the lady of the house. However, we cannot lick all our fingers, glut with the food like pigs or pour water into the empty plate or bowl. The first two are considered uncivilized the world over and the third can cause water accident when our plates our bowls are being removed. --------

By L. Kojo Yeboah, Raleigh NC, USA (provoking & promoting analytical Ghanaian thinking)