From Ankaful Prison to the Canadian Embassy
Trip Start
Mar 27, 2008
1
10
21
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Cape Coast,
Ghana
Monday, May 19, 2008
We arrived at 8:30 am on Thursday morning and waited around an hour for the director of the prison to meet with us. After a set of very formal introductions with prison officers of differing levels of importance, we finally met the director. He welcomed us and we had a long discussion about how the prison is run and some of the challenges it faces. After he was suitable convinced that we could be trusted, and that the press members were credible, we began our tour of the prisons. What struck me at first was how relaxed the prison seemed. I had assumed that I would feel intimidated, threatened or unsafe, but I felt none of these things. Point in case, their front entrance does not even have a gate. We toured around the vocational training centres, carpentry, sewing etc., and I chatted with some of the guards about their experiences working in the prison. They all seemed to care genuinely about the prisons and to be on the surface very nice guys.
Dormitory
As we moved on to the Annex part of the prison I realised that the serenity of the first part of the compound was because these men were all due to be released in less than six months. In the Annex, however, many of the men were lifers or were on remand waiting trial. We met with the head of the Annex prison for a few minutes and he showed us the food rations, and organised for us to do some interviews with the prisoners. As we were there to investigate human rights abuses, we wanted to look at the prisoners living conditions, the prison officers accommodation and working conditions, and to speak to those prisoners who were on remand for longer than a year.
We conducted about and hour's worth of interviews with men who had all been awaiting trail for three years and above. Some of the men I spoke with had been on remand for five years and had no access to a lawyer, which they knew of. Mr. Aggrey went into the dormitories and took some photos of where the inmates sleep, and their toilet and bathing facilities; the conditions were bad but not horrible. There also seemed to be camaraderie among the inmates that I've heard does not exist in American prisons, and in comparison degenerates into sectarian gang violence. However, one big problem in these prisons is the spread of HIV/AIDS. Because homosexuality is illegal in Ghana very few people want to discuss the issue of AIDS in prisons, for fear that they may appear to support that lifestyle. But like it or not it is a reality, and when the prisoners get released back into society they go onto infect their wives, girlfriends and future children with the disease.
Bathroom
After we had finished the interviews we did some official photo taking and shaking hands and then set off. Because Mr. Aggrey will be in a conference in Accra all of next week I will have to lead the two sets of nursing lectures. I decided there was no time like the present, and asked whether I could give the first half of the lecture that afternoon, and he agreed. So that afternoon I began a rather nerve wracking lecture on fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the Constitution of Ghana, to a class of 220 nurses. After about five minutes I got the feeling the lecture style that I was used to in university, and at work for the last couple years, was not going to work here. So I started telling more personal stories and I think that went over better. Not surprisingly I still have a lot to learn about giving lectures to large groups of young Ghanaian women.
That afternoon the Canadian diplomats picked me up after the lecture and we had a very comfortable air conditioned ride to Accra. Jon's driving was perfect until we entered the traffic in Accra. While I had offered to drive the dipmat car I had done so semi-jokingly. So as we approached one of the biggest roundabouts in the city, and Jon stalled the car about 8 times, and a huge queue of traffic was lining up behind us, Jon finally shouted "Ariane- switch!". So at the mouth of this roundabout we swapped places. I had some trouble at first getting the car to start, while Jon and Steve were glaring down on me going, "you said you could drive!", but we finally got going and found our way to the very comfortable Canadian compound in the Cantonments district where we were staying.
After a rather big night out we peeled ourselves out of bed in very hungover state on Friday morning, and headed out to meet our host at work at the Canadian embassy. I had been told there was a pool there, but had thought this was like when seniors at high-school used to tell freshmen there was a pool on the top of Bronx Science, aka bull crap. But oh no, there is a pool, and a tennis court and a gym and a sauna, and the best damned grilled cheeses in West Africa (albeit the only grilled cheese I've eaten in W. Africa, but so I'm told). Later that day our host was kind enough to lend me his car, and Steve and I drove around the city running errands for Youth Alive. At first I was a bit overwhelmed driving in Accra, but then I came to quite enjoy it. It's like driving in New York, but without any rules or the threat of traffic cops. So if you're stuck in traffic and you want to turn around, you can drive over the grassed concrete dividers in the middle of the road, especially when you have diplomatic plates.
