Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Ghana Journal: Election Day

Election day in Ghana is on a Sunday. Both Friday and Monday are national holidays so that Ghanaians can travel to their ancestral village to vote. Though most people live in other parts of the country they have not transfered their voting residencies because they identify with their home village.

This morning in Accra, the city is the quietest of I have experienced in the past four months. Few cars are on the road, and no tro-tros seem to be honking their way through the streets. The usual traffic jams are absent. As well, the usual blast of distorted music from large speakers outside chop houses and markets are silent. I don't think i have ever experienced such quiet except in the village of Masomagor, which is off the grid.

The few people I see on the street are dressed for Sunday church services. For all the worry and heated discussion over the issue of potential violence, there seems to be none. On the TV at the restaurant where I ate breakfast, a few voters complained about the long wait to cast their ballot at the polls located at police stations. It seems every precaution has been made to ensure a calm and uneventful election day. On Friday evening all the presidential candidates made statements endorsing nonviolence. On Saturday the day before voting, all campaigning was suspended. There were no political rallies. It was a day of reflection and a time to allow emotions to calm. Today, all party colors are banned. No one is allowed to campaign or to wear their party's colors. This again is to decrease tension and the potential for conflict.

I'm struck by the sanity of the Ghanaian process, especially in light of the thousands who were killed during election violence in nearby Nigeria just last week and the other election violence around the continent this past year. It is clear to me that this recent election violence could not have happened without the explicit endorsement of at least one or more of the political parties in these countries. Here in Ghana this is not the case. Ghana has had democratic elections for only sixteen years, but everyone seems committed to ensuring that this process continues for generations.

Selected Works

1. Nonfiction

DJ Kool Herc
The first picturebook biography of the founder of rap and hip hop, DJ Kool Herc!

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s
"Phenomenal."�Howard Zinn "Excellent."�New York Times Book Review

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
�Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.�

--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC

3. Poetry

Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.

Contemporary Poetry of New England
�Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people�. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a �region poet,� although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost�s haunting dictum: �Locality gives art.��

--from the Introduction

2. Fiction

A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.

Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." �Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio

4. Middle Grade Series

Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.