Asase Ba Podcast - S2E3: We Live as a Community (Aunty Theresa’s Ghanaian Story)
Transcript
Michelle: Hello and welcome to Asase Ba, a podcast that honours oral tradition and shines light on Ghanaian cultures and stories that are often untold or silenced. I’m your host Michelle, and my pronouns are she and her.
Welcome, everyone! Welcome to season 2, episode 3 of Asase Ba. Glad to have you back and I’m super excited to launch into this episode. Very, very interesting conversation. I enjoyed it, I think you will enjoy it. But before I get into that, I wanna thank everyone that has shared the podcast, retweeted links on Twitter, and shared on Instagram. Even beyond social media, I want to thank those who have shared links via text messages, word-of-mouth or anything like that. I really, really appreciate that.
That’s just one of the ways you can support the podcast: by sharing. If you’re listening and you think this might resonate with someone or you want to share a Ghanaian Canadian podcast with your peers, your family, your friends, whoever, go ahead and do that. Asase Ba is on Twitter and Instagram @AsaseBaPod.
You can follow the podcast on there and if you want to join in on the conversation, use the hashtag #AsaseBaPod and let me know what you think of an episode or just chime in. Extend the conversation so that we can really build that kind of community. I really love when people engage and provide feedback, so thank you to everyone who’s done that so far. So that’s the first way you can support the podcast—by sharing on social media and telling your friends and family about it, using the hashtags and engaging. That’s one of the ways to support.
The next way you can support is monetarily. I’m an independent podcast producer and host. I’m a one-person team, no conglomerate or a team of people behind me. I produce, host, and edit this project and it’s a passion project for me, a labour of love. But even a labour of love is also labour so if you’re able to, you can support the podcast and me as an independent podcast creator by donating via PayPal or via e-transfer for people who live in Canada. The email for that is asasebapod@gmail.com and the link is in the show notes to do that. And you can donate however much you want, I really appreciate the support.
Alright, let’s get into the meat and potatoes, let’s get into this episode.
Something that I’ve been thinking about, that is a major theme in a lot of the episodes and this podcast, in general, is community. So far, this season, interviewing the different Ghanaian women, I interviewed Aunty Felicia and Aunty Janet. And in this episode, I’m interviewing Aunty Theresa. The word community and the concept of community come up a lot. And even myself, I’m always thinking about the idea of community and what that means. I think about digital communities and local communities, just all kinds of different communities and what it means.
I live in Canada and it’s a very individualized society and in the West in general, individualism is heavily promoted. When the different women that I interviewed talked about growing up in Ghana, their experiences were very communal. They lived in communities. A neighbour would also be looking out for the children, even just the way the house, the area, and the neighbourhood was set up was very communal.
That’s intrinsic in a lot of our cultures. I’ve been socialized into this individualist type of world in the West and it’s like how do I divest from individualism? How do I promote more community, instead of just talking about it? How do I act out on it and be more communal in my work, my day-to-day, etc?
So that’s something I’m thinking about and I love that I can interview different Ghanaian elders and really start to think about what this means and return to and use their experiences and their stories as a backdrop, as insight, as wisdom into how we can potentially move forward with a community-based foundation. And also just thinking about community, how does that change? How do we work around the area of community when some people come from a base community like a family and are not accepted or appreciated for who they are? How do we form communities outside of that base when we’re not accepted within our primary family community? How does that work?
And I love brainstorming and thinking about these things because the current system doesn’t work for us. I don’t know, this is just something that I always think about and I thought I would just bring it to the podcast today. So if you think about these things, think about community and alternate ways that we can divest from individualism and promote more communal spaces and community-oriented ways of living, hashtag #AsaseBaPod and let me know your thoughts.
That was my little spiel about community. Let’s move on to the podcast, this episode, episode 3. I interview Aunty Theresa and this is such a great interview. I learned lots of things. She has lived all around Ghana and it was just so interesting hearing about her journey and living within the different regions of Ghana and the different cultures.
So in this interview, I talk to Aunty Theresa about moving between regions while growing up in Ghana and the challenges that came with that, Northern Ghana Talensi culture, the Gologo festival, speaking multiple languages and she speaks all the languages guys—super cool. I talk to her about going to teacher’s college in Tamale, her involvement within the Northern Ghana Culture Association in Canada, self-care during COVID-19, life lessons, community vs individualism, and much, much more.
This is such a great interview. Enjoy it and I’ll be back.
***
Michelle: Aunty, thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed. I’m really looking forward to this. First off, why don’t you start by introducing yourself—your name, anything you want to share, what you do, all that kind of stuff.
Aunty Theresa: Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you. My name is Theresa Laraba Awuni. I’m a Ghanaian-Canadian. I was born in Ghana in 1962 and I worked in Ghana as a teacher, I taught for 12 years. I also work in the community as a community development worker with the Christian Children Fund of Canada program in Northern Ghana. My actual place of birth is Tema but my parents are from the Northern Region of Ghana.
I grew up in most of the regions in Ghana because my father worked in the Ghana army, so we were moving from city to city. I migrated to Canada 16 years ago and I work as a Lead Resource Counsellor for the past 15 years in Canada.
Michelle: Wow. Thank you for all of that. So growing up you said you moved around quite a bit and you talked to me about that pre-recording. How was that experience like? Where in Ghana were you moving around?
Aunty Theresa: It was kind of challenging growing up and moving from city to city. It doesn’t give a child the security to learn all the cultures around. You find it difficult to know what culture to belong to but our movement also allowed us to interact with different people. It was a challenge for me growing up. I started school in Tema at Michelle Camp in the barracks and then we moved to Kumasi when I was in Grade 3, and then we moved from Kumasi barracks to the north, to Kanina barracks in Tamale. We lived there for about 2 years then went back to Kumasi.
After Kumasi, my father retired from the army and then went to Obuasi mines police. So it was kind of challenging moving from place to place, you make friends and then your friends are gone. You move to another city, and then start making friends and while settling down, you have to start moving again.
So it was kind of challenging. But the good side of it was that it enabled me and my siblings to learn more about other tribes or other cultures aside from ours. I must say that my mom had ten children and I am number six.
Michelle: So that means you always had company.
Aunty Theresa: Exactly. I always had company, the senior ones were at home but it was still challenging. And because of that, we didn’t learn more of our own culture from the North because we were moving from place to place. My mother and my father are from the Upper East Region, to be precise the Tongo and Talensi group. But my grandfather migrated to the northern part of Ghana, precisely Demsi which is three miles from Walewale. Everybody knows Walewale because the current vice president of Ghana is from there. So we settled there before he joined the army so we speak Talensi. And the biggest tribe there was the Frafra tribe.
Michelle: That’s really cool. You said you didn’t get to learn too much about or immerse in where your parents are from originally?
Aunty Theresa: Exactly. Because of the moving around. He was in the army and in those days they were not stationed in one place. They moved them all around. The recruitment was done in the southern part of the country so he got his enlistment in Kumasi. So most of my siblings were born in Kumasi. I was born in Tema because of moving around.
Michelle: So Aunty, when you moved to Kumasi, how was your experience there? How was it like moving into a different culture and language?
Aunty Theresa: Kumasi was more interesting because we stayed there for about three years and as a child, I was able to make friends at school and in the community. We were living in the army barracks and there we learned more of the Akan language so I speak Twi more than anything, as if I am an Ashanti. So we learned from school about their food, culture, and everything else.
So Kumasi was much more interesting than the other places because we didn’t stay for long. Kumasi is the capital city of the Ashanti region and it’s a big city and crowded with more people from diverse backgrounds so you got to learn a lot of things from people that were living there. The Ashanti people like to display more of their culture so we had the opportunity to visit the Manhyia palace to see how their festivals were celebrated, their museums, and other places so it was far more interesting to me than all the other places.
Michelle: In terms of your culture as someone from Northern Ghana, how did your parents try to maintain that while you were moving around?
Aunty Theresa: Yes. So what my father did was that all of my older siblings were sent back to the north to have the opportunity to learn the language and the culture. In my case when my father moved from Kumasi to Obuasi. Obuasi is one of the places I love so much because we stayed for long and in the 70s, it was just like a small landing. The climate and everything was nice. We had a lot of Europeans there because of the gold mines.
My elder sister who had finished college by then was teaching in the north, in Walewale—just three miles from our real village. My father took me to her to enable me to also learn the culture and to also pick up the language. So I stayed with my sister in Walewale and that is where I had to start again to learn the language from scratch. Even though my parents were speaking the language to us at home in Kumasi, when we went out as children, we didn’t get anyone to speak it with so the only opportunity we had to learn it was at home which was limited.
But in that environment, we had people who spoke the same language so picking it up was easy so I learned the culture and the way things were done there, our festivals, marriages, funeral rites, and everything. When I moved to my sister’s, I was in middle school, form one. And one of the experiences that I had was playing with my peers. I never knew that in the north they would wrestle and then it was boys and girls that wrestled. So if you didn’t know how to wrestle then you were in big trouble. And down in the south, we didn’t wrestle there so we had to be very attentive and you had to know who was coming to attack you. So I had to learn all that because I was always beaten. Before you realize it, they will put you down in just a minute. And I developed some enemies because I was just coming from the south and had a different culture and spoke the southern language. Some of my mates were jealous of me so they were kind of attacking me and beating me so I had to make serious friends who could defend me in terms of the wrestling. So that’s where I started picking up the culture, the festivals, and language and understanding how things were done in my own culture.
Michelle: Nice. And what age were you around that time? How old were you?
Aunty Theresa: I was in middle school, Form 1, so that would be 13 to 14 years old.
Michelle: Okay. I see. And in terms of the customs and the traditions that you learned, was there a specific one that you can recall learning when you were there? Maybe a festival or a tradition or a custom? Is there something that comes to mind?
Aunty Theresa: Yes. There were a lot of things that I had to learn, like how marriage was being celebrated was far different from the southern part. The marriage celebration in my tribe is more of the guy paying the dowries. When the guy meets the lady and the parents agree, the first thing he has to do is to pay the dowry and the dowry depends on each family.
For my tribe, they take between three to four cows as dowry for the lady. In my instance, my husband had to pay with two cows for my hand in marriage. And that was because my father was educated and he understood the cost and everything else involved. And I asked my father one day why they took cows as dowry to marry a woman and he’s like “during the olden days, most of them were cattle farmers so if they took the dowry, they added it to their cattle and bred them. So when the boys in the family are going to marry, they use those that were paid for their sisters to also get married.”
And it’s much different from what goes on in the southern part because at the end of it, the woman has nothing and everything goes to her brothers and the men in the family. So that is one thing that I learned and I also learned that in my tribe a woman can never, ever divorce. No matter whatever situation you go in, so far as your hand has been given out in marriage that is it. It’s for life. So there is nobody in the family that will encourage you to divorce even if you are at the point of dying. But these days, there are rules and regulations and education has changed but in those days that was what it was. And another thing that I learned from my culture that ran through all the tribes is that as a child, when your father or parents are speaking, you must keep quiet.
Michelle: Oh yeah. I think that is something that is still expected even today as well.
Aunty Theresa: Exactly. There is no point for you to defend yourself. You will keep quiet whether you are wrong or right. And that was the discipline that they instilled in us in my days. You just had to keep quiet because so far as your father and mother are alive, you are still a kid in their presence.
These days I sometimes fight with my kids because when you are talking, they also talk because they know they are right. Whether you know you are right or wrong, so far as your parents are talking, you must keep quiet. And for my culture, you as a child will have to put your knees down and your head down. You can’t even look into your father's eyes when he is disciplining you because it is a sign of disrespect.
So we had to learn all that. We had to learn that when you are serving your father or mom or any other elderly person water from the calabash, you had to bend down or squat to give the water out as a sign of respect. So all these little, little things, I had to learn back home and learn a different way from what I learned in the south.
And the other thing that I also learned was that we lived as a community and we were our neighbours’ keepers. Every morning your neighbour has to come and ask how you are feeling. We lived as a community and a child belonged to the community. So one family can discipline your child outside and you the parents have to accept it.
For instance, if I go out and misbehave and my neighbour sees me, he will be the first person to instill the discipline and then go back to report you to your parents. And most of the time, it looks like your parents didn’t bring you up well and it’s a disgrace to them so you get double punishment.
Michelle: Yeah. So it’s that whole thing like it takes a village to raise a child. It’s that mentality.
I’ve seen photos and videos of beautiful customs, festivals, and clothing from the north of Ghana. Did you get to take part in any of those things when you were growing up?
Aunty Theresa: Yes. There is one festival that I like so much and that one is the beginning of the rainy season. It involves a week of eating and dancing and celebrating to thank the gods for the past harvest and the new harvest that is coming. Usually, the men dress in a woven cloth which is just like the kente but is a different kind of fabric, material and colour.
They use the cloth as a form of pants and then they add beads and other dangling objects on their legs and then when they’re dancing, it makes a rhythm.
That festival is celebrated widely among the Talensi people and we call it the Gologo festival and people travel from other villages to come and view it. In terms of clothing, we had a common one that everyone used which was similar to the kente but they are woven differently and have different colours.
Michelle: What was the name of the cloth?
Aunty Theresa: The name has escaped me but when I remember I will let you know. Most of the men used the fugu and the women used the cloth with kaba to celebrate the festival.
Michelle: So it sounds like you had lots of cool experiences and memories growing up in Ghana. So how was it like in school when you moved back home in Form 1? What was the process there? Were you there until you finished school or did you move around again?
Aunty Theresa: We continued to move around. I was there from middle school Form 1 to Form 2 and then my sister and her husband were transferred to Brong Ahafo region, Gyema in Kintampo to be precise. And that is where I finally finished middle school. And again, it was kind of challenging because you had to start all over again with what you had learned, make new friends again and then learn a different culture again. I went to the Brong Ahafo region to start Form 3 and Form 4.
Michelle: So Aunty when you finished school what area of Ghana were you at?
Aunty Theresa: Let me speak a little bit about Gyema in the Brong Ahafo region. It is made up of the Bono people so I had to learn their language again and my Twi was mixed with Bono. But I was able to survive there. Gyema was interesting because coming from the north and schooling in the north, everyone wanted to be your friend because you speak English. In those days, they claimed that people from the north spoke better English so it was easy to make friends there and I even had the opportunity to become the girls’ perfect when I was in middle school which earned me much respect and I really like it.
But life was not easy in Gyema because we had to do a lot of farming and there was no tap water so we had to go out in the morning to the riverside to fetch the water before taking our bath and going to school. It was very hard there. Life wasn’t like it is now, like how we have tap water and Gyema is now a district capital. We had to travel from Gyema to Kintampo to do some shopping.
So when I finished middle school, out of twelve girls who attended, only three of us passed and all the others failed. And the other two girls that passed were part of my circle of friends so I was happy and fortunately, all three of us had the opportunity to go to the teacher’s training college.
Michelle: Okay, so you studied to be a teacher?
Aunty Theresa: Yeah. I had an admission to the then Tamale teacher training college so I had to go back to the north. I did a four-year training program in Tamale and that is where I had to learn more about the Northern people and culture in totality. The people in Tamale are the Dagombas and they speak Dagbani so I had to learn the language again. Most of the languages in the north are kind of interrelated, sometimes it’s different accents, different pronunciations for some words, and the construction of statements.
Especially my tribe, the Mamprusi people, the Dagomba people’s languages are interrelated.
Michelle: It sounds like you went everywhere and you learned a bunch of languages. So how many languages do you speak now?
Aunty Theresa: I speak Hausa, Dagbani, a little bit of Mampruli and Twi is my number one.
Michelle: Wow. So you are really well versed in all the languages. That’s really awesome. After you went to teachers' college in Tamale, what was the process like? Did you start a career in teaching while you were there? Take me through that process from there and coming to Canada.
Aunty Theresa: I finished my teacher training in 1984 as a general teacher. Back at home when you go to that four-year training, you should be able to teach any class that they put you in. So after school, I started teaching in middle school as a science teacher, and then I moved to elementary. The class that I taught for a very long time was Grade 3. I taught it for over eight years.
Michelle: Did you enjoy teaching Grade 3 students? And did you enjoy teaching in general? Was it something you were passionate about?
Aunty Theresa: Teaching wasn’t what I wanted to do. I really wanted to become a community health nurse but then as I said, you must obey. My sister was a teacher and she was like “I want you to go to teachers’ training college” and I was like “sister, sister. I don’t want to be a teacher because I see the way teachers are not being paid in Ghana and I see the way that you’re suffering. I don’t want to become a teacher.” But she said, “no, that is what I want you to be.” So I had no choice. She said, “either you go to school or you come and stay in the house.”
And I wanted an education so I had no choice but to go to college. I remember that on my first day of school—it was a boarding school—I was mourning. It was like someone was dead and I cried a lot because I didn’t like it but again, I just had to adjust.
And it was a good thing because that laid the foundation for me to become what I am today. So I taught in Grade 3 for quite a long time and then I had two promotions. I became a headmistress for the early childhood sector, from nursery to KG3. I then went to the University of Ghana to upgrade my education. I did a diploma in home economics.
I was still in Tamale and when I finished that program, I had the opportunity to go into community work. I was hired by the Christian Children's Fund of Canada through one of their local community partners. So I started working with children in the area of education development, community development and poverty eradication in sixteen communities in Northern Ghana, and then from there, I came to Canada. I came to Canada to study.
Michelle: What did you study in Canada?
Aunty Theresa: I went to Coady International Institute under St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. I did a post-graduate diploma in sustainable community development and it was a six-month intensive program. From there, I went back to Ghana to help my organization improve on the services that they were providing. I’m somebody who likes educating myself and improving on myself because I believe that by improving myself, I will be able to help my community better.
Michelle: Aunty sorry for interrupting you but just even making a move from Ghana to Canada, what was your experience? What did you think of Canada? Did you have a culture shock? What was it like for you?
Aunty Theresa: There were a lot of things. For instance, I never knew that there was poverty in Canada. I never knew and I was looking around seeing poor and homeless people and I was like “oh my god”. I realized that poverty and inequality were universal issues.
Reflecting back on Ghana and comparing it to Canada, here is better but there is still a lot to be done here and I think that collectively we can do better as citizens and social service workers. One thing I really learned was that Canadians want their own which means learning about their culture and everything that they do to adjust well in the community.
So I had to educate myself more again to bring me to where I am today. I looked at my teaching and social service background and I decided that I wanted to continue with the social services to help in each way that I can to address issues around poverty, inequality, and making life better for the people that I worked with for.
So I had to do some more upgrading and before coming here, I had some certification. I had a diploma in home economics and the one that I received here [in sustainable development] still worked but I had to do some career counselling, life skill, and employment development programs at George Brown College to get me into working as an employment resource counsellor.
Michelle: It looks like a lot of credentials were needed in the field. I want to circle back to your experiences now and living in Canada. Firstly, how did you connect with the Northern Ghanaian community here and the larger Ghanaian community?
Aunty Theresa: As I said, I go everywhere with my social service skills. I’m a strong member and one of the executives of the Northern Ghana Cultural Association. When I got to know about them, I registered as a member and I’ve been helping them through all the cultural activities, community education, and community activities that they undertake each year. I also make myself available to mentor all the northern students that come in to pursue their courses.
At the moment, I have one Ph.D. student who lives in my house while doing the program. I opened my house for her to live in as a contribution to the association and I also have two other people that I mentor.
I mentor by guiding them on what to and what not to do to make life much easier for them here. As they come here as new students, it is kind of challenging to manoeuver around the city and find resources. Through the association, I was connected to the GCAO (Ghanaian Canadian Association of Ontario). I started as a member after working with them on a community program to help them and from there, I became one of their board members where the mandate is to advise them on their programs and services and advise the executive on the appropriate way to do things to manage the organization.
Michelle: It sounds like you are really deeply rooted in the community and your role is serving the community through work within the Northern Ghanaian association which is awesome. As an older adult with so many experiences, what are some key lessons that you have learned so far in life?
Aunty Theresa: I have learned a lot. One thing I have learned is that a lot of our youth don’t realize their potential and I think they need to listen to their parents. There is a proverb in my language and all Ghanaian languages which says that “what an adult will sit and see, a child can climb the CN Tower but will not see it”.
So growing up I learned to listen to my parents and role models to help me to navigate all these challenges that we have to deal with in terms of social life, education, and career development. They have to learn to listen and learn to respect.
Any adult in the community can be a role model to you so the youth should learn to respect and seek education. Knowledge is power so seek education to attain a career. What I’ve learned here is that the work that pays more is the work that you have really educated yourself in and you are flexible and enjoy it.
Some of these general labour work and factory work pay so much but you have to really sweat so they should learn to pursue education to develop a career in a professional way. And I think success in this area should not benefit you personally but it should also encourage others so you become an encourager or role model to others. Your success should also benefit the people in the community that you live in. So this is the advice I have for the young adults that are coming up.
Michelle: That’s really cool, especially the part about giving back to the community and all that stuff. Because I find that living in the West is very individualist and every individual for themselves. Back home, there is more stress on the community so I think that’s great advice to also think holistically and how we are serving each other and thinking about the community as a whole. It’s great.
Aunty Theresa: Yes because there is unity when we are all one and encourage and support each other. So your personal success must benefit somebody and it must put joy in somebody’s life just like those professional basketball players. They are playing to get their money and get whatever dollars they can get, and they want to reach a professional level. But again, they serve as role models to the community and they entertain the community.
We watch them and we are happy and it takes our stress away. Some of them are even contributing to and supporting the communities. And that is what we must be thinking as a Ghanaian community—to learn to let our success benefit others.
Michelle: Exactly. Aunty thank you so much for talking to me and allowing yourself to be interviewed virtually because it's corona right now, unfortunately. And just in terms of that, how have you been destressing with the current climate of COVID-19?
Aunty Theresa: As for the COVID-19, it has come to live with us so we have to motivate ourselves. I always tell people to stay safe and stay positive. Positive thinking. We must do what we’re supposed to do to keep ourselves safe but again, life must go on. We don’t have to stress ourselves too much. When you get up each day, you thank God that you are not sick, and be happy and engaged. I do engage myself. I walk around my community every morning, I watch TV and I work from home. When I’m tired of it, I have to get up and find something to do. I play music and dance along.
Michelle: That sounds like a lot of fun. It is definitely such a privilege because I know some people who unfortunately have to go out to work as essential workers and some people are currently not working. So it’s hard for certain people to remain positive.
Aunty Theresa: We have a lot of resources around. We thank God for social media and we thank God for new technologies. Today there is a virtual concert that is coming on from the Ghanaian community and you can watch that.
When you go on Facebook we have a lot of Zumba programs and a lot of things that are going on. People must get connected to stay positive. What I also do is that I follow up on people in my network that I haven’t seen for long. I call them and say “hi, I’m just reaching out to you” and we chat.
We need to find something to do together and engage because COVID-19 is neither going back today nor tomorrow. A lot of people are having mental issues because of this but there are a lot of resources around here that we can tap into to get going. Just today, GCAO senior program went out to distribute food to the community and they’ve made their phone numbers available to any community member that is facing any challenges, be it youth or senior citizen.
Just get in touch with them. They can help you out with counselling. So there are a lot of resources around and we just have to educate our people to tap into them to get moving.
Michelle: Thank you Aunty for sharing that resource and thank you once again for coming on here and being interviewed. I really appreciate your words and advice. And just for anyone who is listening that wants to connect with you on the internet, if you want to share, it how can they connect with you? Are you on any social media platforms?
Aunty Theresa: I’ve disconnected my LinkedIn account but I’m on Facebook. You can get me on Facebook as Theresa Lara Awuni and then if you want to reach me through email, you can contact me through theresaawuni@yahoo.com. For my office, you can get me at theresaa@dixieblooor.ca. I will text it to you so that you get it right.
Michelle: Okay. Thank you so much, Aunty. All that information is going to be in the show notes. Thank you so much to you once again. Do you have any last words you would like to share before wrapping up?
Aunty Theresa: I just want to say thank you so much for this podcast. It’s one of the ways that we can reach out to our people to advocate and educate them on things that are happening now. You are doing a good job and keep it up.
Michelle: Thank you so much, Aunty, I appreciate that.
***
Michelle: Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this conversation, I know I did. When I was editing the episode, I was listening as an audience member and I was like “yes, yes, this is so dope.” And I learned a lot, particularly in regards to the Talensi people which is the ethnic group that Aunty is a part of. Learning the different customs and traditions and cultural nuances was really cool to listen to and learn about. So I hope you enjoyed the podcast. If you have any feedback, thoughts, or comments, you want to join in on the conversation, hashtag #AsaseBaPod so that I can see it and others can see it.
Again, I’m on Twitter and Instagram @AsaseBaPod. Also, feel free to email asasebapod@gmail.com just for feedback or comments or stuff like that. So this podcast is published every two weeks so I will see you in two weeks. Bye and stay safe!
Episode Notes
In S2E3 of Asase Ba, Michelle talks to Aunty Theresa about moving between regions while growing up in Ghana and the challenges that came with that, Northern Ghana Talensi culture, the Gologo festival, speaking multiple languages, going to teacher’s college in Tamale, her involvement within the Northern Ghana Culture Association in Canada, self care during COVID-19, life lessons, community vs individualism, and more.
Join in on the conversation! Use the hashtag #AsaseBaPod.
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