Region 3 | Sub-Saharan Africa | Fund Drive
2014
On the final leg of our journey through
Sub-Saharan Africa, we travel to Ghana, one
of Africa’s most popular tourist
destinations, renowned for its beaches and
its friendly people. After flying into the
capital city of Accra, we are tempted to
sprawl out on the beach all day.
Of course, we are interested in greater
adventures than avoiding sunburn, so we head
to the Makola Market for supplies. Amidst the
cacophony, we find almost every item under
the sun and barter for some Kenkey, a
Ghanaian dish made from fermented corn
meal.
Outside the market, we notice some performers
playing strange, hourglass drums, which
reverberate with a timber almost like human
speech. We watch with fascination as the
performers squeeze the base just right to
mimic the local, tone-based languages on
these famous West African “talking
drums.”
By the time we pull ourselves away, the
brouhaha of Accra has made us long for some
peace and quiet, so we leave the bustling
capital and head to the city of Cape Coast.
There we visit the Cape Coast Castle, another
UNESCO World Heritage site. Built for the
trade of timber and gold, this fort later
became a last stop in the slave trade before
crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and it is a
truly somber site indeed. We reflect
momentarily on the hundreds of languages
spoken by the people who passed through here
and the impact their voices had on their
destinations in the Americas.
From this beautiful coastal city we head
inland and make pitstop in a town you almost
can’t find on a map: Adamorobe. Here we
notice something unique. Aside from being
surrounding by conversations in the Akan
language, we observe signed
communication--between the deaf and hearing
alike. Moreover, this language differs from
Ghanaian Sign Language, but is actually the
last remnants of the local Adamorobe Sign
Language.
This village has a long history of deafness,
resulting in its own sign language shared
among the deaf and hearing communities. The
locals are eager to tell us different
versions of the origin stories for this high
rate of deafness: some recount that the town
is presided over by a deaf god, who punishes
transgressors with deaf children; others
describe a war long past, in which Adamorobe
men drank a special elixir that made them
fierce in battle, but that resulted in their
deafness.
Whatever the origin of the deaf community in
Adamorobe, the terminus is clear: as medicine
becomes more widely available and as
recommendations against the marriage of two
deaf partners decrease the number of deaf
offspring, Adamorobe Sign Language is
disappearing. Although we long to stay and
learn more about this fascinating village and
their language, we have one last stop for the
day.
Far inland, surrounded by evergreen
rainforests and hardwood trees, we enter
Kakum National Park, the site of Africa's
only canopy walkway. As we walk the path, the
ground slopes and drops away beneath us, and
soon we are suspended 100 feet above the
ground with a rare, bird’s eye view of the
rainforest.
We could spend all day admiring the colorful
flora and fauna of the Kakum canopy walkway,
but it’s time to pack up for the next leg of
our journey. Although there is still so much
more of Sub-Saharan Africa left to explore,
we are excited to see where our adventure
takes us next!
In the mean time, don't forget to check out
the featured linguists (
http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2014/featuredlinguist.php),
pictures from our region 3 trips (
http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2014/region3.php),
and donate (
https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm).