“Pretty girls don’t go to university”. Nobody ever told me this kind of important news before, but many Ghanaian girls grow up with this idea. In addition, they also learn that if you do go to university, there is no way you can find a husband afterwards and have children.
I attended the opening of a science education camp for girls last week. About a hundred 14 year old girls from the Northern (and poorest) Region of Ghana, were put on a plane by an NGO to participate in this camp. They were gathered in the room, waiting for the Minister of Women and Children to talk to them about the importance of science. The slogans on the wall reminded me of the campaigns we had in the nineties in my high school, trying to convince girls to study maths and science. Een slimme meid is op haar toekomst voorbereid... en dat soort teksten.
Surprisingly the hundred girls didn’t laugh or whisper or anything for an hour, while we were all waiting for the Minister to arrive. It was dead quiet in the room. Some of them were sleeping, leaning their head on the seat in front of them. I wondered why they weren’t whispering, moving around or giggling. Some were staring at me. And I realised I was the personification of their nightmare. No husband, no children. That’s what university does to you.
The whole hour I kept wondering why they were so quiet and tired. Why they were not running around. Finally I asked the girl next to me if she had to wake up early this morning. So looked at me with her big eyes and shook her head.
It made me think of the babies on the trotro busses. They just sit there for hours and keep quiet. They don’t scream or cry ever, even with a chicken on their lap in 40C. And it made me think of how adults here seem to be able to completely zoom out of a situation. Like a boring presentation. Or a 4 hour church service. Or in this case waiting for a Minister. While I get all worked up and restless about wasting my time, they are there, but they are really not there. I wonder where their mind goes. And whether zooming out is something you can learn. Perhaps I should do a mindfulness training?
Or maybe it was just a case of the typical dialogue between a European and an African: European while ticking his nail on his watch: " why are you late?" African: "you are from Europe, you have a watch. I am African, I've got time".
