Yesterday, Alexandra waited just outside the gate for the Fan Ice guy to pass by on his bicycle-pedaled ice cream truck. Most of the vendors know that "rich" kids live here, and come by tooting their horns (aaooohhh-ga!) and ringing their bells. Alex was too impatient to wait indoors, in fear (God forbid!) that she miss him... it's not as though they don't come past every 15 minutes or so, mind you.
Anyway, while waiting outside the gate, a woman and her toddler will sitting on the steps about 25 feet or so from where Alex was. The woman started to call to Alexandra, "Obroni come, come." Alex, smart girl that she is, didn't come. Rather, she came into the house to complain that some woman was calling her "Obroni" and that I should go out and stop it. As if I could.
For some reason, today, it struck me as odd; obviously, I've heard it before. But here are our three beautiful children, who have been variously referred to as half-caste, mixed race, mulatto and bi-racial. The most common Ghanaian endearment, though, is "obroni." For those of you new to the phrase, obroni means white person.
Obviously, I accept that I am obroni. My children, however, are not me. If you ask any of them, are you white or are you black, they all respond that they are brown. There's absolutely no distinction between. I know I will someday be saddened by the fact that they will have to make a choice or claim one color and deny the other.
But what occurred to me is that my children, have a very similar "make up" to the Democratic contender for the U.S. Presidency, Barack Obama. He has a white American mother and a black African father. My kids have a white American mother and a black African father. When Barack first won the seat for the U.S. Senate, and had his picture posted in nearly every magazine in America, I said to Sly, this is how I picture Sean will look when he grows up.
In America, Barack may be the "Great Black Hope." In Ghana, he's just another "Obroni."
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Obroni Obama
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Obruni actually means 'foreigner'.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteJerry J.J. Rawlings, the Ghanaian born son of a Scottish man and a Ghanaian woman, and who was the past President of the Republic of Ghana, was also lovingly called and considered "Obroni" among the Ewe tribe of the Volta Region. He is, certainly, no foreigner.
Barb
Love your blog! Quick question, after reading your school daze post I was wondering if you had looked into enrolling at the Accra Grammar School in Oyibi?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I recall you mentioning that you are constructing your house in Dawhenya. Is that correct? Is it part of a larger subdivision or a personal plot? Also, how fast is the area developing? We're building further down in Prampram and I'm told the area is no longer as isolated as it once was.
KG,
ReplyDeleteYour's is the second reference to the Accra Grammar School. I hadn't heard of it before today, but the website looks promising. Still think it's too long a drive from Tema or Dawhenya to make that feasible, but for someone in Madina, Adenta or Dodowa, it's a great option.
We have an individual plot in Dawhenya, that we've owned for over a decade already. It cost (I hate to brag) $50 a plot (then) and we have 8 plots. The Community 25 area which is around the corner sells for $15,000 a plot, last I heard. Talk about appreciation!
You've probably passed by our house on your way to Prampram. The locals call it the white house, and it's got a bright red roof, it's about 2 minutes from the Police checkpoint, on the left side.
I envy your spot in Prampram, I really wanted something closer to the beach. Oh well. Next time. And yes that area is on its way to becoming a boom town.
Barb
Darn it! we were so hoping to escape the East Legon/Spintex Road sprawl!!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteSo I take it you live a stone's throw from Farmer George's?
Anyway great to meet you neighbor....albeit in cyberspace :)
we bought in Prampram 5 years ago when the plots were going for $1000-$3000......I hear they are averaging $6000 a piece now which is not bad but $50 a plot!!!!!!!!!!!! That is fantastic.
Obroni means westerner I think. I was born in the UK to Ghanaian parents. And to make things clear, I don't think I've met more than five people darker than myself in my life (slight exaggeration mb) but whenever I'm in Ghana family have insisted on calling me obroni... ah well. One more thing, why should your beautiful kids have to choose a single ethnicity? They are mixed race. I am Ghanaian and British. To say anything else would be inaccurate. No?
ReplyDeleteHey Barb! My biracial daughter says she's beige and that her mother is african american and her father is chinese. At six years old, she dares anyone to tell her differently. I think it's because your children are more "rare". Many more intercultural and interracial relationships here in the US nowadays. More and more forms here have a box for biracial/multiracial. The census has also added that category. They predict the world will be mocha colored by the next century and I think they are right. Obruni has a dictionary meaning that has been usurped by usage/vernacular meaning. Typically white, but sometimes anyone not clearly dark skinned, ghanaian born and raised. Not always(or even often) meant to be an insult, but I think it's important for children to not feel they are being placed in a box.
ReplyDeleteShelly
An obronie can just be someone pale skinned, and that can be a Ghanaian too as far as I'm aware, in common usage. To specify a "real" white person, it's "obronie kookoo" ie red obronie.
ReplyDeletevery good blog, congratulations
ReplyDeleteregard from Catalonia Spain
thank you
(http://telamamaria.blogspot.com)
Hi, what a beautiful smiles!!!
ReplyDeleteRegards from Portugal
Cristina
In any case, beautiful kids. (My wife & I have 2 boys & a girls too. And the girl's the youngest also.)
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo of happy smiling children who should not have to be labelled; I love the way they descrie themselves as being brown - I believe in thinking and living "outside the box"..!
Greetings from Ekua in France..:)
Barb, speaking as a Ghanaian Canadian who was born in Ghana...Obroni does not solely refer to white people, although it is most commonly used to refer to white people. Obroni, often is also used to refer to a foreigner and sometimes to someone with a lighter complexion than the average Ghanaian. When we moved to Canada, our family had three kids, our youngest was born here and my Mother used to call him affectionately 'me broni a m'adono' (my beloved obroni); my youngest brother is of similar complexion to the rest of us. I can see how it can get annoying being called that, especially all the time, and also for someone coming from a country that is crazy for political correctness. Ghanaians have little care for any type of political correctness. All the same, don't take it too hard, because we often use the term very affectionately, and it is not considered a derogatory term. At the very least I can say it is not at the same level as some terms used to describe the racial background of certain groups of individuals in the states. On the subject of Obama being considered just another Obroni, consider that in the USA he is considered as black, although he has both white and black parentage. It is the same thing just reverse. Because of the historical one drop rule in the states, for the most part the majority of Americans will not allow for Obama to be anything else in their minds than a black man (I'm speaking only in terms of racial background). A Ghanaian has no such mental constraint, and while they may identify a mixed race person as obroni, they can at least also accept them fully as Ghanaian. Sorry for the lengthy post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your wonderfull blog!
ReplyDeleteContrary to the positive remarks which seek to justify the use of the term "obruni" for mixed people, I am totally against it. Quite simply because of the fact that I sufficiently lived in Ghana to observe a rise of racism and the use of this term in a provocative way by the major fringe of the population. It is time that the leaders of this country activate themselves to launch a public campaign on this subject. No human being can be stigmatized and even less publicly recalled to order when it comes to its “non belonging” to a nation under the pretext of its skin color. That is quite simply called “mockery”, to avoid the term “racism”. In a context of obvious universalization, and subsequent attraction of foreign investors, Ghana will know more and more mixed couples whose brilliant kids will surely lead key positions in the various promising sectors of the country. It goes without saying how assimilating these people as bi-nationals and maroon rather than "made in Ghana obrunis" is a priority! If Obama is not able to render comprehensible that he is maroon, mulatto not just "black or white" for blind persons, it does not mean that Ghanians have to wait until a leader speaks to make mentalities change! Thank you for your understanding… "Mixity is essential (...) it awakens tired spirits", a proud bicultural mulatto...
Thank you for your wonderfull blog!
ReplyDeleteContrary to the positive remarks which seek to justify the use of the term "obruni" for mixed people, I am totally against it. Quite simply because of the fact that I sufficiently lived in Ghana to observe a rise of racism and the use of this term in a provocative way by the major fringe of the population. It is time that the leaders of this country activate themselves to launch a public campaign on this subject. No human being can be stigmatized and even less publicly recalled to order when it comes to its “non belonging” to a nation under the pretext of its skin color. That is quite simply called “mockery”, to avoid the term “racism”. In a context of obvious universalization, and subsequent attraction of foreign investors, Ghana will know more and more mixed couples whose brilliant kids will surely lead key positions in the various promising sectors of the country. It goes without saying how assimilating these people as bi-nationals and maroon rather than "made in Ghana obrunis" is a priority! If Obama is not able to render comprehensible that he is maroon, mulatto not just "black or white" for blind persons, it does not mean that Ghanians have to wait until a leader speaks to make mentalities change! Thank you for your understanding… "Mixity is essential (...) it awakens tired spirits", a proud bicultural mulatto...