Shai Hill Reserve

 I have never been interested in rock climbing but today got my first lesson and it was quite exhilarating.

This was at the Shai Hill Reserve which is located on Krobo land. ( I am now a proud member of the Krobo tribe.)

It's the top of this rising formed from ingenious rocks, that the girls were taken.

And I would do it again.

Getting a helping hand up

We should have visited the reserve last week but had to cancel due to rains. 

This is an historic site, as in the olden days, this was where Krobo girls underwent their puberty ritual. 

The puberty ritual lasted six months and involved training the young girls to become responsible women who understand their bodies, learn how to mill grain for the household, prepare nutritious meals for their children and treat simple illnesses using herbal medicine.

The board describes what illnesses this tree treats.

The circle in the rocks are made when rock is rubbed against rock to mill the grain.

During the six months that the girls are undergoing their puberty ritual, they are under the care of some mothers and Queen Mothers.

At nights, they slept in this cave.

Although this area has Serval Cats, they are nocturnal so we saw none. These are really tiny cats.

A stuffed Serval Cat

Because the grass was so high after the long rains, although antelopes abound, we barely saw some horns as they were laying in the high grass.

The grass is so high, all we could see of this antelope was it's horn!

Baboons abound.

They are everywhere, they rummage through garbage, steal from people in the area and even eat the poor little blue monkeys.

These tiny monkeys run away the minute they hear any noise because of the wicked baboons.

This means 'welcome in the Krobo language.

A few zebras are on the reserve. They were imported from South Africa.

The museum at the reserve

The guide had to chase away this baboon that turned over the garbage.

I had always heard that some of  our patois words came from the Twi language in Ghana but I have yet to hear a familiar word! However today I saw some small birds that we call Grass Quit and was told they are Chi Chi in Korbo.

 Maybe that has something to do with our mento song called "Chi Chi bud oh".

Who knows how these things evolve?

A cultural powerhouse

 Ghana which has more than 100 tribes (which all live peacefully together), is considered the cultural powerhouse of the 54 nations that make up our motherland.

I became a member of the Krobo tribe when I got my new name KORLEKi. 

(https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-cultural-awakening.html?m=1).

The Krobo people are mainly farmers and below is the Chief; Nene Sasraku II.

He is also the President of the Council of Chiefs in Ghana.

As I learn about my roots, I also have to learn about their cultural norms. 

Below are videos of excerpts from a female puberty ceremony and a male one. 

I am being taught that the human body is God's great creation and we should never be ashamed of it.

Slavery in Jamaica

Nothing bugs me more than hearing black people in Jamaica  rant about the slavery that was abolished over two hundred years ago, while remaining silent about the black on black slavery that exists in Jamaica today.

These hypocrites are in two categories;  Firstly there are the politicians who recognize that  talk about historical trans-Atlantic slavery  and racism can easily rile up emotions,  so they  often use it as a tool to gain cheap popularity.

Then  there are  the freeloaders who hope to get rich by exacting  a financial  ransom  from the "rich white world" for the evils perpetuated by their ancestors against our ancestors centuries ago, while conveniently ignoring the fact that this type of slavery would not have been possible, had our African ancestors not been collaborators, rounding up  and selling their own black brothers and sisters to the white traders, sometimes for nothing more than a few coloured beads. (So what morality can there be in demanding payment from others without first demanding even  an apology from the descendants of our own African blood relatives? )

If the hypocrisy  of these so-called vocal anti-slavery activists had not been obvious before, it  should clear  be clear by now to even the blind, since these activists have never once expressed moral outrage against the modern day slavery being openly practiced in Jamaica today.

This new slavery is open and in your face as it is practiced in almost  all of the 25 % of the constituencies in this country, those dubbed "garrison constituencies." These garrison constituencies are controlled by either one powerful don or a series of mini-dons, most either actively or surreptitiously supported by the  so-called elected members of parliament , for most of  these members of parliament would never qualify to hold a seat, had they not been supported by the violent dons who direct the people how to vote.

How it works is that the don is the new slave master and those who live in  the area, the slaves.

For example, In certain areas downtown where extortion is a way of life, not only does the don provide the businesses with "security" but staff as well. So when the operator calls him and say they need, for example 3 clerks, he selects the persons then collects money weekly and pays the workers what he feels like and  the idea that  workers have to the right to demand decent working conditions, an hour for lunch, bathroom breaks, vacation leave or even a decent salary,  is nothing but a theory to these people.

This is no secret as some years one newspaper even interviewed some of the persons (mainly women) who worked under these conditions, but naturally they had to remain anonymous. And we know the young boys are trained early to steal and break into people's homes and bring in the returns to the boss. 

Another despicable condition that the new slaves have to put up with in the garrisons  is the practice where when young girls reach puberty, if the don so decides, she has to go to him when he calls, so he can take her virginity.

Many a mother has had to escape from  these garrisons to protect their children AS SHE HAS  GOTTEN  THE DREADED MESSAGE "BATHE DI PICKNEY AND SEN HAR COME"  but  this is something the authorities and power brokers will do nothing about as it suits their political schemes.

To make matters worse, Jamaica has more churches per square miles than any other county, however whereas most of the clergy many centuries ago supported trans-Atlantic slavery, there were a few white pastors who put their lives on the block to try and put a stop to that despicable practice.

HOWEVER, TODAY, OUR BLACK CLERGY SEEMS QUITE HAPPY TO TOLERATE THE NEW TYPE OF SLAVERY WHICH SOME 25% OF OUR POPULATION HAS TO ENDURE, AS LONG AS THE DONS KEEP THEIR COLLECTION PLATES FULL AND OVERFLOWING!

I have for years been speaking out publicly about this despicable modern day slavery as being practiced in  the Jamaican garrisons, but the wider society too has preferred to pretend it does not exist. 

Will anyone pay attention now that the daily "Observer" has again put in on the agenda with the article  entitled Sex For Gun Debt  - Girls forced into prostitution?

(http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Sex-for-gun-debt_13979512#ixzz2P7JtEv1x) 

 I certainly would never hold my breath in expectation, neither would I expect those hypocrites who shout loudly about the despicable conditions under which our ancestors lived  some 200 hundred years ago, to speak up or fight against what is happening under our noses right here, right now in beautiful Jamaica.