Congo baths v’s Glasgow showers …

It would seem all nations like to jest with their close geographical neighbours; whether that be within country or between countries.  Ghanaians like to discuss the weather nearly as much as the British, so it was on enjoying one of these conversations sat up on the roof wrapped up in a hoodie with a couple of volunteers friends and a Ghanaian friend that the topic of ‘bathing during the harmattan’ came up.  Our Ghanaian friend explained the ‘Congo Bath’ where, you clean your feet, hands, face and brush your teeth… why is it called a ‘Congo Bath?’ asked my housemate ‘Because this is how us Ghanaians think people from the Congo bathe!’ he laughingly replied.  It was at this point when our Scottish vol friend shared the ‘Glasgow Shower’, defined as a simple spray of deodorant under both arms.  It would seem those from Inverness jest with their fellow Glaswegians bathing habits as much as the Ghanaians and Congonians.  Our Ghanaian friend reminded us that this African country rivalry extends to Ghana and Nigeria… Namely the actions of the Nigerian government which led to the ‘Ghana must go’ bags. For those of you unaware of the history of these bags I will explain the general gist; Scene is set in the 80’s in Nigeria. The President at the time flushed out thousands of illegal immigrants from a sub-region who had turned Nigeria into one big training camp for criminals.  Ghana had the highest number of illegal immigrants in Nigeria so it made the whole exercise look like it was directed at Ghanaians alone. They all left in long convoys of Mercedes Benz 911 trucks with their belongings packed into the familiar sack that now attracts the slogan ‘Ghana must go’.

This doesn’t have the same jesty undertones as the ‘Congo Bath’ and given the background, ironic that when we departed Accra for the far flung regions of the Upper East and West we were given our own ‘Ghana must go’ bags complete with bed sheets, pillow cases, water filter candles and a blanket.   My ‘Ghana must go’ bag is now used as my washing bag and sports a slightly less traditional design than the Tartan one Loui Vitton used for his catwalk collection.(http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2007RTW-LVUITTON/).

Kwame our washer man with our 'Ghana must go' bags... mine is on the right, Hannah my housemate's is on the left.