Greeting the Chief

Once I had been in Damanko a couple of days, Kofi took me to “greet the chief,” who is actually his uncle.  Every town and community has a chief and it is proper whenever you are in their community, to seek them out and say hello and what you are doing in their community.  Every community we have been in while training, while visiting volunteers or whatever, one of the first things we did was greet the chief.  Though the situation differs due to tribal practices or region, they usually proceed in this way: you approach the chief’s compound and seek out either him or one of his elders after having prearranged this meeting.  All official chief business takes place in a round concrete room with a large pedestal on which sits his official seat and that of the Queen Mother.  The individual or group must be “invited in” so once the chief situates himself on the pedestal and sorted out the cloth that drapes him, the group is invited into the round room.  For northern chiefs, the protocol is to squat when you approach and stay that way until he invites you to sit (which isn’t very long).  After the proper greetings of hello and how are you, you tell the chief your name and your purpose for seeing him and being in the community.  You say this to the chief, but he also has “a linguist” who repeats, translates, or summarizes what you just said so the chief doesn’t have to question in case he doesn’t understand something.  They also say the linguist is responsible for “polishing” the language—using the right words/language in the presence of the chief.  It is also proper to bring the chief a gift, usually something small like kola nuts or alcohol which you then present, especially if you need something from him—permission, knowledge, etc. 

Armed with these experiences, Kofi and I went to greet the chief.  Now I know for the Konkomba people (who is the predominant tribe in this village) their chief system is considerably less formal that most of other tribes in Ghana.  In this chief’s round room, sits his pedestal and throne and Queen Mother seat, but also a stack of DVDs, a TV and DVD player, a ceiling fan, and probably 20 large burlap sacks of groundnuts.  Three women were in there watching TV and shucking groundnuts, much like one would shuck peas.  Kofi and I sat down in the plastic yard chairs that are everywhere in Ghana, and a few minutes later, the chief came.  We squatted as he came in the room and he sat on the edge of his pedestal.  We exchanged greetings and I told him my plans for the next few months.  There was no linguist (I’m not sure this chief has one) so Kofi was translating, though I know the chief must speak at least as good English as Kofi does.  After that we presented him with the small gift of alcohol.  Now when alcohol is given to a chief it is usually the locally brewed gin.  It’s very strong and used for ritual blessings and the like, so when I asked Kofi what I should bring to the chief, he dithered then eventually said “Bring him a beer.”  The conversation went something like this:

“You mean like Star or Stone or something?” These are the Ghanaian brewed beers. 

“Yes.  Bring him a Star.”  Star is about like PBR, I think.  “And a biscuit.” 

“Kofi, are you telling me I should bring the chief a Star and Obama biscuits?”  I nearly died laughing.  Biscuits are cookies here, and because Obama’s name is on everything, there are Obama biscuits everywhere.  They’re small wheat type cookies that taste little sweet and how I imagine dog food would taste.  We didn’t get the biscuits, but we bought a Star on the way and gave it to him, still in the plastic bag.  The chief knew before this greeting that I was here, and has been expecting me to come for a long time and seems very excited for me to get started.  He’s rather young—in his forties—and pretty easy-going.  He was wearing a yellow anti-malaria shirt and denim jeans.  I think we’ll get along just fine.