The Culture and Customs of Kwanta Village
The culture and customs of the Kwanta people have been clearly illustrated through their annual festivals, staple food, and their rites of passage. The staple food of the Kwanta people is yams shown through Kofi’s constant mentioning of how tired he is of eating yams saying, “I will be eating yams until I choke.” The yams were planted in the dry season and were ripe by the rainy season and it was celebrated during the Kings Annual Festival. The children were named according to the days of the week as illustrated in the part about names, “My youngest sister was born on a Sunday, so she is Esi. My brother is Sunday too, so he is Kwasi. Ama means Saturday-born. My uncle is Kobbie for Tuesday,” The village also had an annual festival for a wrestling contest known as Bayere. This contest was done between the upper and lower with each side presenting one fighter as seen when Kwasi represented the upper Kwanta village. They looked forward to the festival and prepared adequately for it as seen through Maame’s words, “We must not be late for Bayere. It is your brother’s big day.”
Suffering of the Africans in the 19th century
The Slave trade was one of the activities that erupted from the European invasion of Africa. How it all happened is shown when Kofi gets captured together with the others like Owu and Afua. They are mistreated and beaten, only given food once a day as described by Kofi, “only once a day spicy soup with slivers of meat and just enough yam balls” They were being forced to work as shown through Afua’s cooking for the whites. Some were beaten badly, and these beatings led to their deaths like Owu who succumbed to his injuries. They lived in dingy and filthy conditions. The female slaves were raped as described in Afua’s condition coming back sad and distant. Their bodies were thrown into the water like they did not matter at all. Some who tried to escape were shot beyond recognition as a warning to the rest of them. The details of their suffering were heart-wrenching and intense from just reading about them.
The Imagery of Western Influence
Their education system has been seen to be both formal, through their teacher Philip, and informal through the teachings of Nana. Their teacher Philip is known to insist on them speaking English and not their native language, Twi. Whenever they spoke in Twi they would get punished as described by Kofi, “Queen’s English, please, Mr. Phillip says, as calm as rain, like he did not just attack me with his jagged cane.” Their education is seen to be influenced by western civilization as seen through teacher Philip changing his name. He also appealed to the council that his student's name should be changed in the statement, “and when he returned, he had “improved” his name to Goodluck Kwaku Phillip, and insisted to the Council of Elders that we needed to be propagated as well.” They learned the history of the European people instead of learning about the history of the Asante people which bothered Kofi when he says, “we march inside to begin another foreign history lesson on the Queen’s coronation in 1838 at some place called Westminster Abbey and all I can wonder we do not spend as much time learning the history of our own kingdom.” Their teacher was the true representation of Western influence trying to bring the influence on his students.
Gender Roles
The men were actively involved in more masculine activities such as wrestling, and gold mining. The women were known for taking care of children, selling in the market, and cooking. In the Bayere wrestling, only the men participated as shown through Kwasi being chosen to represent their village in the battle. Cooking and cleaning were left for the women as shown in the case of Maame, Ama, Esi, and Afua when Kofi gladly admits, “I had my boiled plantains that Maame cooked for me especially.” Ama was living with her uncle acting as a maid in exchange for food and a roof over her head doing their manual jobs as described by Kofi, “since she spends the rest of her time being the house girl for her uncle’s family.” Afua was cooking for the Wonderfuls as she had explained to Kofi. There is no instance where manual labor like cooking, fetching water, and caring for children is seen as a man’s job. The men, apart from wrestling engaged in gold-digging like Kofi’s father who goes to work in the mines when Kofi says, “Papa leaves before the sun break sand works two full days panning for gold along the banks of streams, leading dives into the rapid river.” From this, the readers can deduce that gender roles are evidently displayed throughout the book. There was no mix-up when it came to carrying responsibility as each did only what had been normalized for their gender.
