Black Voluntourism
On a Mission to the Motherland: Part 1
By Emerson Yearwood, MIT ’80
“Would you ever ask a lost child why she is looking for her mother?” — Missionary in Ghana
Early in August of 2016, I traveled to Ghana with the Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC). However, it was not my first time visiting the mother continent, having traveled to Cameroon four years earlier. Along with a small group of friends and family, all African or African American, I had accompanied an African history professor from Arizona State University throughout different parts of Cameroon. Cameroonians greeted us warmly and treated us like royalty wherever we went, but they also asked us frequently to explain why we had left America to journey to the continent.
One friend’s succinct response seemed to speak for the group: “Would you ever ask a lost child why she is looking for her mother?”
To the Motherland
As far as I could tell, unlike my trip to Cameroon, on this trip to Ghana with eighty YASC travelers, I would be one of only two African American alumni travelers. The other African American Yale alum, LaShawn, a Yale Divinity School graduate, was an attorney and true social justice warrior. Two other Black Yalies accompanied us — Trudie, the tour organizer, and a young undergraduate student — and were both of African descent.
Our group was bolstered by a 12-person family spanning three generations, led by Julie, a white Yale alum, and her gregarious Liberian husband Sam. Despite being one of only a few Black travelers on the trip, after being joined by the African faces from AFS Ghana (an intercultural foreign exchange program) and GhanaThink (a think tank committed to Ghana’s development), we blended into the crowd. Trudie had warned us that the Ghanaian schoolchildren might gravitate toward the blond-haired, blue-eyed volunteers. And, although I initially took offense whenever someone expressed surprise that I was a Yale alumni, I felt proud that some of the children asked me to speak to them in Fante, mistaking me for Ghanaian.
I left the United States in the midst of moving out of my house, which I hoped would be sold during my stay in Ghana. The trip to Ghana was supposed to be a fresh start. But packing and moving had left me mentally and physically exhausted before I had even left Phoenix. To make matters worse, I did not sleep particularly well on the flight.
Nonetheless, I was hyped on adrenaline as we touched down in Accra. I had heard that Ghana was a very beautiful country, also known as a haven for African American expatriates. I wondered, “Could I have a future here?”
The large YASC group visiting Ghana was actually only half the size of previous delegations. Admittedly, the thought of traveling with such a large group raised concerns about “voluntourism.” Would we be just “fly-by-night” missionaries passing through a “third-world” country without making any real impact on the host community’s quality of life?
On a Mission
There are already plenty of Christian missionary efforts in Ghana. The main road through Accra is lined with a plethora of signs of varying shapes and sizes advertise houses of worship, mainly Christian and, to my surprise, Mormon churches. (On the other hand, the large, very visible Muslim population does not seem to need roadside advertisements.) The pristine campuses of these churches (and mosques) stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the landscape.
Father Ishmael, a parish priest, told me that his greatest personal challenge was getting his flock to put away traditional — in his view, superstitious — practices in favor of the Catholic teachings. He firmly believes that the greatest challenge in his community is unemployment. This was echoed by MIT’s Ato Ulzen-Appiah ’06, who lamented the lack of opportunity in Ghana even for trained professionals. It was clear that, politically, there is a great deal of interest in helping develop Ghana for the better. In addition to the church billboards and posters, approximately 25 percent of the road signs in Ghana advertised candidates in the upcoming presidential election. Still, I was very impressed by the love and dedication to development displayed by bother Father Ishmael and Ato.
They say that in Ghana you can buy anything you want, from apples to auto parts, on the streets of Accra. Vendors displaying their wares, typically carried on their heads, approached every stopped vehicle. I also saw this in Cameroon, where I got the impression that street vending was a necessity in a country with very little infrastructure for moving and distributing basic goods and services. In Ghana, I came to realize that street vending is a vital part of social interaction and, in this case, a sign of a thriving economy and frankly a convenient way to shop. However, as in the U.S., it was still difficulty not to ignore the disparities between the haves and have-nots.
We were warned not to take pictures of people on the street without their permission, even from the safety of our bus. Naturally, some privileged travelers decided to test the limits of our instructions by sneaking some shots of a nearby vendor. Next thing we knew, the vendor was banging on our bus windows, giving the guy a “verbal smack down” as we pulled off into traffic. This resulted in a repeated warning from Trudie that we respect the privacy of others. Finally, after about a three-hour ride, we arrived at the Coconut Grove Resort in Elmina, our home for the duration of the trip.
YASC’s Mission
Beginning in 2012, YASC had made a commitment to help construct a two-story, 6,000-square-foot Information Communications Technology center in Yamoransa, located in Ghana’s central region a short drive from Elmina. The multipurpose community center is part library, part computer center and conference space. YASC was collaborating with the University of Cape Coast, AFS Ghana, and GhanaThink, which was co-founded by fellow MIT alum Ato Ulzen-Appiah.
The YASC volunteer effort was, by necessity, extremely well-organized thanks in large part to the trips leaders, Trudie and João. Some of the volunteer projects they organized included healthcare and eye-care clinics, small-business consulting, construction, as well as a range of primary and middle school classes ranging from English, Math, and Science to poetry and music appreciation.
After comparing notes, LaShawn and I both agreed that the scope of the YASC program offered a long-term impact on the Yamoransa community. We wanted to let them know that there was an African American community that cared about them. We also wondered why Black Yale alumni were not better represented on the trip.
Why are there no similarly scaled projects being organized by African Americans?
Given the reality that even service travel is expensive, was it purely a matter of economics? Opportunities that enable Black Americans to not only reconnect with their African roots, but also share their unique presence and perspective, are sorely needed. Aside from offsetting the baggage of colonialism and missionary influence, African Americans and Africans have so much to learn from one another. If we do not make a better effort to reconnect, we all lose out.
I signed up to participate in the library/literacy program and also with the construction crew. Though the latter choice was a clear reflection of poor judgment about my skill set, I wanted to experience work that I don’t do every day.
Emerson Yearwood is a member of the MIT Class of 1980. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law with a Juris Doctor, and also received an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He is currently Associate General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs at Cable One, Inc. in Phoenix, Arizona.
