ADWOA
by
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Adwoa: Mom!
Why do they call me African?
Mother: Who?
Adwoa: All the children in the school call me African. Why?
(The Mother, astonished with her questions does not know what exactly what to tell.)
Mother: It's a long story
Adwoa: What do you mean by "It's a long story?"
(Without answering her curious daughter, Adwoa’s Mother
goes to the kitchen where dinner is
being prepared.)
Adwoa: Mom, do you know why?
Mother: What again?
Adwoa Why they
call me African?
Mother: You're still worried about that? They call all of us African.
Adwoa: But that's not my name
Mother: I know that. It's not my name either. Your food is ready.
Adwoa: I'm not hungry
Mother: What did you eat at school?.
Adwoa: Some food they call hamburger. Over here they eat fresh tomatoes and onions.
Mother: Did you like it?
Adwoa: Not really. I have never eaten fresh tomatoes and onions before but I was hungry so I ate it like that. Everybody was looking at me.
Mother Do you have any friends at the school?
Adwoa: No
Mother: If the children bother you in any way you don't like, inform your teachers.
Adwoa: The teachers don't do anything. It seems that the teachers are afraid of the pupils. Here, nobody gets punished. The children are very rude. A girl sat on the teacher's chair but she was not punished.
Mother: Adwoa, remember that you are in a strange land. Everything is going to be different from home. There are going to be many more questions than answers. Even though we are all black but the culture makes the difference?
Adwoa: If you don't know the answers, then how should I?
Mother: That's why you are here to learn their ways. You will know all the answers as you grow older.
Adwoa: What has that got to do with anything? I can't even understand their English.
Mother: Why?
Adwoa: Mother you are asking me why? I don't know. They speak different.
Mother: Very soon you will be speaking like them if you want to survive among them.
Adwoa: Well, I just hate it when they call me "African Girl".
Mother: Very soon you will understand, when you begin to read history
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About the Book
Adwoa, arrives in a foreign country to learn that she is regarded by her school mates as a different person. At school the children laugh at her. She comes home one day and asks her mother why the children call her “African.”
Adwoa’s concerns are the problems of mainly every African child. They are often humiliated by their peers. They are made to believe that they are backward. Because of this ridiculous humiliation, many African children shun their culture. Some they refuse to eat their native dishes, wear heir native garb, and even refuse to speak their mother tongue. Adwoa is resilient and is thus admired for retaining elements of her culture even in the midst of another dominant culture
Ghana, is known to be the friendliest country in the world. But do we get back the same treatment accorded to us when we travel?
One of the answers to this question comes from the point of view of Adwoa as she expresses herself in the book.
Adwoa echoes the sentiments of other Africans in the Diaspora. Her voice has become their voices, her concerns are their concerns, her problems are their problems.
Adwoa should be in the mind of every child and adult irrespective of race or color.
About the Author
Mr. Solomon Minta was born in Ghana, West Africa and now a resident in the United States of America. He has been living in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Howard University and Masters in City and Urban Planning from the University of the District of Columbia. Mr. Minta writes on various subjects and disciplines, especially about human relationships, black suffrage and how the Africans and the Africans in diaspora can live together as brothers and sisters. ADWOA addresses a small aspect of a global problem for foreigners..