Obroni – Silminga

In Ghana, people use the word “Master” so frequently, but I am not in favor of calling someone or being called with it, because this word reminds me of “slave master”. However there is the inevitable problem that I have to be called “Master”. In Ghanaian custom today, teachers are called “Master” from students so I can’t avoid it because I am a teacher in a deaf school. You may say that the deaf can’t speak, yes very right, but some students can not only utter sounds, but talk English “fortunately” because of their relatively late loss of hearing. Thus I’m called as Master unfortunately.  

And there is another troublesome custom for me in Ghana. When we, “Japanese”, are walking down the street, Ghanaian people call us “Obroni” in Accra or “Silminga” in Tamale. This way of calling is not insulting at all but I don’t feel really good because it means “white man” in their local languages. And some people even call us “White man” in English. In my usage of “white man”, I am not “White” at all and should be called as “Japanese” or “Asian” because I identify myself as an “Asian”. Yet in their definition, there seems to be only two peoples existing on this planet: “white man” and “black man”, and Japanese are much closer to “white” than “black”, so they call us “white man”. It seems a matter of comparison for Ghanaian people. Needless to say, Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans are white man; Venezuelans, Colombians, Jewish (Sephardi), Arabs, Indians would be called “Obroni” if they come to Ghana. Anyway I am “White man” in Ghana regardless of my will.

And “Japanese” feel in general very unpleasant and uncomfortable because of some words by some Ghanaians. When Japanese walk on streets, Ghanaians scream “China! China!” to us, but we are not Chinese. And they continue like “Hey, hey! China man! Chin, chon, chan!”, which doesn’t mean anything in Chinese because they don’t know Chinese. And then they start pretending “Kanfu (Chinese martial art)”, which they take from Kanfu movies. There is no manner in Ghana, there is no etiquette in Ghana, and there is no respect in Ghana. They might say that they are “kidding” or “joking” for friendship or something, but it’s not interesting at all for us, but very insulting. A lot of Japanese volunteers suffer from the Ghanaians and say that they don’t want to come back to Ghana again. Needless to say that I am not saying that “all Ghanaians” are impolite, but there are, in truth, Ghanaians who insult us. Is it a phenomenon that happens in any developing countries? The answer is “No”, because I’ve never ever experienced such rudeness in any other countries. Anyway I become “master”, “white man”, and “Chinese” in Ghana, regardless of my desire, feeling and will.

By the way, in Japan discrimination is very rare, but if I say that “I” discriminate people, would you be surprised? Yes, it’s true, I discriminate people. But it’s not by “race” or unchangeable norms, but “behavior”. In fact, I discriminate those above-mentioned Ghanaians by ignoring them when they insult me, but I would never support any kinds of racism, because “racism” shouldn’t happen and you can’t judge people by “colors of skin”. But to me, the discrimination caused by “behavior” is acceptable, how would we be able to treat all the people in the same way? If someone offenses you, would you talk to that person as a friend? Me? Never. However I would never have a bad feeling to “other” Ghanaians because it has nothing to do with them. Most Ghanaians are nice people and the impolite Ghanaians don’t represent Ghana at all. In the next couple of entries I will use the words “white people” on Slavery and any kinds of exploitation done by “white people” in history. But it doesn’t mean “you”. It doesn’t mean white people living life in peace. This is the prelude for future.