On my final go to to Kumasi a few weeks in the past, I hailed a taxi house after a tough night of partying, pretending to not discover my audibly creaky, ageing joints.
It was a candy, fairly damp evening simply after a downpour of rain and the streets abandoned.
Someway, our idle chatter finally slid into politics and when he saved addressing me as ‘Chairman’ or ‘Honourable’ (maybe impressed by the sight of my fairly appreciable stomach) I remembered I used to be again house in ‘Kumerica’.
Apparently, taxi drivers internationally have their fingers on the heart beat of public opinion, as a result of their passengers are available all kinds.
I did choose up so much from him that evening, particularly as I did extra listening than talking. Hairdressers’ salons and barbering retailers too do have wealthy pickings, I collect.
Shock attire
Past the driving force’s depth of political information and analytical abilities, I observed one thing else. He was carrying a padded leather-based jacket with furry trimmings. Maybe he was making a style assertion.
I used to be mildly shocked for 2 important causes. First, these are the form of clothes one sees on the streets of northern Europe and North America within the winter months. So, to see it in full use on this nation appeared fairly odd.
Secondly, I didn’t really feel it was sufficiently chilly, even at that late hour, to advantage this attire. Once I put this to him, he gave me an incredulous look, as if shocked I didn’t assume it was chilly.
Then he pulled his jacket round him a bit nearer, as if to emphasize simply how chilly it was. At that second, I anticipated to see vapour billowing out of his mouth as occurs on the winter streets in chilly climes.
I reminded him that like virtually each younger individual I do know, he would someday need to to migrate to Europe or North America.
He shifted in his seat, gave me a shiny smile and replied, “New York or Toronto, Chairman!” I smiled on the scrumptious irony of his cities of alternative and informed him with an virtually triumphant smile: “Nicely, in New York and Toronto, the climate is many instances colder than the within of a deep freezer throughout winter!”
His face fell momentarily, then he perked up and jogged my memory that he would cope as a result of, in any case, he could be incomes American ‘dallers’.
We finally parted methods and I actually hobbled to my entrance door after wishing him the easiest of his desires.
Actuality examine
Reality be informed, it has been fairly wet in Kumasi for a while, and there appears to be an virtually everlasting chill within the air, virtually akin to what one experiences on the Akuapem or Kwahu ridge.
Previous to my go to house to Kumasi, family and friends saved mentioning this to me in our conversations.
Considered one of my associates who swears about leaving his bed room air conditioner on by means of the evening informed me he had not switched it on shortly.
After my encounter with my taxi driver pal, I made it a degree to maintain an eye fixed out for winter clothes in Kumasi, significantly within the evenings, and I observed fairly a pattern for an additional layer of exterior clothes, starting from blazers to woollen sweaters to full winter jackets.
In a subsequent dialog with a pal on the topic, I intoned that this was plainly ridiculous and mirrored an pointless want to ape Western practices and types even when clear components don’t make it wise to take action. I didn’t assume it was sufficiently chilly to advantage these, and that it was pointless and over-the-top.
My pal smiled and managed to interject my rant to remind me that in sure high-altitude locations of habitation, it may very well be fairly chilly, particularly at evening, and, due to this fact, there was a authentic demand for these sorts of clothes.
Apparently, Kumasi was experiencing one thing a bit of near that type of climate, therefore the looks of those clothes available on the market.
His lecture additionally emphasised the assertion worth of those jackets, to remind onlookers that certainly, the wearer had family overseas who had despatched them house or had left them behind after they final visited Ghana.
Lastly, he declared that many younger women and men who’re lucky to safe visas to journey to colder nations often rapidly make a beeline for the second-hand clothes markets, in search of winter clothes forward of their maiden flights. Some upmarket retailers have them too.
On August 20, 2024, graphic.com.gh carried a function story attributing an enormous bounce within the demand for, and consequently the worth of gloves, woollen hats and winter jackets at Kantamanto Market by would-be emigrants, with jacket costs going as excessive up as GH¢500.00.
That’s fairly an attention-grabbing market dynamic.
Repentance
I’ve mirrored and I’ve repented. I’ve determined that the following time I meet a fellow citizen in full winter attire on our streets, I cannot burst out in risible laughter, even when the streets are baking and the solar is burning fiercely.
It may nicely be the case that she or he has secured a visa to Finland, Canada or Russia and is solely practising methods to navigate the treacherous outdoor in these nations on arrival there in late November.
Additionally, I strongly suspect that neither of our two important political events will hassle with a coverage proposal to make second-hand winter clothes cheaper.
What’s the level, when a lot of the patrons of these things may very well be clambering in a foreign country quickly anyway, together with their valuable electoral thumbs?
The author, Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, is Head, Communications & Public Affairs Unit, Ministry of Power.
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com