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Richard Douglass was a Fulbright Scholar to Ghana where he lectured
and conducted research on public health issues including kwashiorkor
(malnutrition in infants and children that is caused by a diet
high in carbohydrate and low in protein). Following is an excerpt
from the record he kept of his visit, detailing the state of affairs
in Ghana.
Now would be a good time for some West African magic. The packing
of the miniature African museum that we will be shipping back
to join the current collections at home in Michigan is in full
gear, along with grading examinations, giving invited guest lectures,
dinner parties, last minute promises to keep, and some tearful
goodbyes to people we won't see again, perhaps, for a long time.
A little magic might make it all happen with less effort, or at
least less pain.
Last week a conference for African scholars at the University
of Cape Coast provided a forum to discuss how research in the
field, here in Ghana, can be drawn quickly into the classroom
to make courses in public health more current, timely and interesting
to students. It was an occasion to talk about our research on
kwashiorkor, matters of the urbanization of Ghana, roadway safety
and how to present such powerful issues to students who will soon
be asked to solve such problems.
This week, my wife, Brenda, and I both spoke at a national meeting
of Junior Secondary School teachers and future science teachers
on how social and public health problems can give a purpose to
science education with youth. The conference has been set up to
provide additions to public school curricula that will draw more
students to science and encourage them to become future problem
solvers.
Friday will be spent in Kumasi at the Kwame Nkrumah University
of Science and Technology for a forum on public health and medical
issues in Ghana for the medical students and the medical school
faculty. During the first week of June, Brenda joins Nana Apt
to continue research on conflict resolution in the ongoing ethnic
and inter-tribal violence that has plagued northern Ghana for
a long time. The trip will involve meetings with tribal leaders,
chiefs, women and youth to learn how it is that groups of people
can become lethal enemies and then find ways to live together
again.
In all of these concluding events an echo-like theme is that
the problems faced by Ghana's people must be solved with home-grown
solutions, a better use of existing resources, and a better means
of organizing existing assets. Ghana's long history has not always
been dependent upon World Bank loans, European overseers, or American
enthusiasm for challenge; this is not the message that we have
been expected to deliver. After a few generations of economic,
trade and even cultural dependence, it is hard to fully realize
independence.
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Our friends and colleagues have told us that they wish we could
stay. The opportunity to be among people who make no hesitation
in letting you know that your contributions are valued, unique
and will be missed in the future has been an eye-opening experience….
We are not the first to discover this consequence of the human
side of a year in a different culture...and we will not be the
last...but we will miss this intensity in the business of life
back in America. So we feel like we now have two homes with our
feet planted firmly, if precariously, on two sides of the Atlantic.
Please contact us
if you would like to submit your own story and/or photographs.
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