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121 Chapter 9 An Ancestral Home or Place to Connect For the Botoku people, the quest for a better future through development was also about having an ancestral home or a place to connect or relate with. As already noted throughout this book, particularly in chapter 7, an ancestral land on which to be buried or have funeral rituals conducted, was a major way the Botoku people, and indeed most Ghanaians, expressed connection to ancestral villages and towns. But there were a range of other ways through which connection was expressed. In a globalized world where people, like investment capital, are increasingly moving on large scales within and across national boundaries in search of better life, connection to a place, spiritual or otherwise, becomes an important cultural resource for strengthening identity, life purpose and belonging, irrespective of where people live. In this chapter I draw upon my own experiences as participant observer as well as informant narratives in order to highlight a range of other intricate ways in which connection to ancestral home might be expressed. In Ghana, the long Easter weekend was a time most people returned to their ancestral villages and towns for fundraising events for the purposes of improving the living conditions there. For several weeks leading up to Easter, the newspapers, airwaves and more recently television stations, would be filled with largely urban-based rural development associations announcing forthcoming fundraising events and urging all citizens, including those living overseas, to return to the relevant ancestral homes to lend their support. In the weeks following Easter, the media would similarly be filled with reports of how much various villages and towns were able to raise, the projects being funded and information on future development aspirations. Probably the most spectacular of these annual events was the one organized by the Kwahu people in the eastern region of Ghana. Taking advantage of their serene and cooler mountainous climates, these weekend festivities were climaxed with breathtaking hang glides from the top of the escarpment to the bottom, and attracted hundreds of hang gliding enthusiasts from all over the world. Against this background I attended the 2010 Easter weekend development fundraising event at Botoku as part of finalising the research for this book. I arrived in the village very late on Good Friday and so missed the activities of that day. At cockcrow the following dawn, the whole village 122 was woken by the sound of a whistle calling all interested people to begin a 12km return walk to nearby Tsrukpe village to kick off the day’s activities. Still suffering jet lag from the ten-hour time difference between Australia and Ghana, I was one of the last people to struggle out of bed to start the walk. At about 3kms, I caught up with the group. Soon after we met a group of school children who had jogged the entire distance and were already on their way home. The organizers reprimanded them for disobeying orders not to run and to stay part of the group. A decision was made that everyone was free to walk or jog at their own pace, but were asked to wait at the entrance to nearby villages so they could all sing and march through as a group; the main reason being to show respect to the other villages by passing through in an orderly fashion. A head count revealed 73 people, ranging from 12 years to the 70 something year olds, with the median age in the 30s, who walked the entire 12-km return trip. The actual number participating was much higher though, since some only went part of the way. The early morning walk was rounded off by stretches on the soccer field where the organizers reminded people, especially sedentary office workers, about the importance of daily physical activity. There were two football matches in the afternoon. Women residents in the village played their nonresident counterparts. This was followed by non-resident men playing resident men. In the evening there was a large bonfire, bobobo popular music with dancing, attended by an estimated 200 people of all ages, and lasting until midnight. Sunday was left open so people of faith could take part in the Easter church activities, though several development meetings were also held, including the Botoku Education Trust, which I attended. Monday was earmarked for the main fundraising and began at first light with a 10km return bicycle riding competition to the nearby Tsoxor village. On my way back...

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