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When a fool is told a proverb, its meaning must be explained. —Ashanti, Ghana
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Funeral chic: Colorful coffins from Ghana
4/1/2003
An article printed 10/30/2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle about the stylish coffins Ananse Village has available.
Ananse Village is proud to offer the finest fantasy coffins by master carver Kane Kwei. Special orders are welcome.
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A Character and Village for Everyone
2/13/2003
Originally known as a weaver, "Ananse is a character that can be
anybody," said Paajoe Amissah-Aidoo of Ghana, West Africa. In the
African folklore tradition, when a story is being told about someone's
particular life, the name Ananse is used. In one way it protects one's
anonymity, his or her selfless pride, or else keeps an ego from growing
too large, especially if the story is of some great feat. In another
way it serves as a reminder that we are all equal; Ananse, a single
name to represent us all, an equal life for each and everyone.
Through word of mouth and by practice, from generation to
generation, such beliefs, legends and customs become traditions that
everyone may learn from. February is Black History Month. A tradition
that began in 1926, at the zenith of the Harlem Renaissance. Then
called Negro History Week, it was launched to "neutralize the apparent
ignorance and deliberate distortion of black history,"
from Ghana Review, Vol. 1. No. 6. African American scholar, Harvard
trained Ph.D., Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson led the struggle and search
for truth, organizing meetings, exhibitions, lectures and symposia to
give a more objective and scholarly balance in American and World
history. This weeklong observance would expand to encompass the entire
month of February in the 1960s and continues to do so today. It was
intended that this month would be the climax of a year-round scientific
study of the African experience, not merely a month's study.
One needn't go far to enjoy the richness of the African
contribution to our society. Now a resident of Fort Bragg, Paajoe and
his wife Rebecca own Ananse Village, a business, "dedicated to
supporting small scale production by talented craftspeople." The store,
located on North Highway One in Fort Bragg, south of the city center
and the Noyo bridge, sells African arts and crafts, and a portion of
their profits helps provide medical care and educational opportunities
to the communities they work with. It is a vision, says Rebecca.
 "Ananse
Village was inspired after Paajoe and I and our family traveled to
Ghana in 2000. We met with numerous wonderful people; remarkably
talented craftspeople that were living in fairly compromised
conditions, some of which could have been helped with an infusion of
money. School fees to be paid, medical expenses, a pair of shoes, a
school notebook, tools, vitamins, a soccer ball, other situations which
would seem trivial to us but made a huge difference to the people in
Ghana. Because of my experiences in the retail sector and Paajoe's
connections in West Africa, we figured that helping out by importing
these products would make a difference in many people's lives (both in
Fort Bragg and in West Africa).
"One thing that has stuck with me from our initial trip was how
amazing the women in the market place were. They would rise at 4:00
a.m., feed the family and then leave
for a day of selling in the hot sun, only to return and finish the day
with the family. Increment is a very important concept. Everyone works
and contributes, even if it is a small amount. I witnessed numerous
women helping to support the family by selling oranges, one at a time
day in day out, for about four cents apiece. At the end of the day,
whatever profits they made fed their family. All of this activity is
done with love and a joy for living, never a sense of hopelessness or
despair for the situation they may be in. Family units are extremely
strong and include a broad number of relatives often living together,
working together and playing together."
Paajoe gives his view of the family unit in Ghana. "It is tradition
for every household to take good care of the children. There's
competition about who's going to be the best farmer, best fisherman;
the expectation is to be the best that you can be. They don't want
shame in the household. You live on your own if you have too much
shame, which is why everyone likes to chip in, 'cause, [as an example],
it'll be the uncle who's going to brag about it, 'yeah, I helped
nephew...' he is acknowledged for what he is able to do for his nephew.
It becomes a huge family affair, schooling, [and] if someone is sick,
they all show up [to help]."
He continues, "In my case, on father's side, there is royalty
there. My father's kids are uncle's responsibility and vice versa,
uncle's kids are fathers. Uncle is stricter, more tough than my own
father."
 Rebecca
elaborates on Paajoe's modest family description, "His uncle is chief
and Paajoe is next in line. It's gonna be a big deal. What will happen?
I'm a little overwhelmed." The pages of that chapter are yet to be
turned.
It is a changing time now, Paajoe says. "Most West African cities
are modern. There are more investors in the country with free trade,
the government is more stable and not afraid of investor's money.
They're investing boldly and hope to get their money's worth. There's
some opportunity to get work. School is very important there.
He describes, "Kids, you get up in the morning there and see
hundreds of school children with backpacks. Whoever makes backpacks has
a lot of money," he jokes. "And, they are all in uniforms." It would be
too costly to have new clothes every year for school; a uniform is
better in that way. Besides, as Paajoe notes, clothes may be changed
three times daily to "show off."
Family life in the "yard" is also changing, gradually, notes
Paajoe. With more economic stability, people are showing more of their
independence and not relying so much on the favors and gifts of
extended family. Some become prosperous and take so fondly to being an
individual that the direction of their front door is moved away from
what used to face into the yard and the rest of the family's front
doors. "Now they move the front door of house; in modern times they
need privacy. It doesn't stay like it was forever."
In a few cases where no family exists, where the relatives have
died off, those few suffer, a lot, and then are on the street and an
embarrassment to government or become thieves, Paajoe says. That's when
organizations that do charity take hold of them, he adds.
"What we do is a hands-off approach," Rebecca says. "The idea is to
have an impact on the quality of life, but not impact the economic
hierarchy. In creating a situation, for example, in America, say
someone works at McDonald's and makes enough to drive a Mercedes Benz,
that'd change the social color; it can get strange. We are not looking
to do that. We look at spreading the influence around."
Through Ananse Village, Rebecca and Paajoe are able to work with a
number of groups in Ghana, where they keep a second home, a home
office. Their assistance helps develop what is more commonly, in the
United States, called cottage industry. Production is set up to benefit
the locals and the local economy, not for export as corporations have
been
known to do when setting up "sweat shops," Rebecca notes. "It's a
value-added product; where production increases and so do the skills;
we are merely creating one more 'local' market there. The group of
baskets aren't being made for us, there being made for the people down
the road." In that sense, supply is being made to meet demand, not to
exceed it.
Creating worthy projects is a difficult enterprise to organize
alone. Time, travel, weather, and other barriers inhibit one's
progress, which is why Rebecca and Paajoe have joined with already
established organizations and independent artists and families that
they meet. Very often these organizations are steered by an individual
who may have worked in a program such as the Peace Corps, and thus,
they have already made the necessary contacts to help further the
progress of another project, this time of their own design.
Rebecca shares, "My personal favorite is a NGO (Non Governmental
Agency) called The Poverty Reduction Center, which provides training,
workspace and materials  to
single mothers to learn the art of batik (cloth painting) and produce
batik cloth for sale in the local market place. The trainees are
schooled first on technique and then once trained they are allowed to
use the facilities to produce wares for sale at one of the largest open
markets in West Africa. Once they have saved enough to move out of the
program they set up shop on their own and a new trainee can enter the
program. We have commissioned and purchased cloth from them in the past
and this trip we intend to help set up a sewing school. Then we will
commission the cloth as well as items, which are simple to sew
(potholders, aprons and hot pads). Proceeds from our purchases will
allow more trainees into the program and expand the skills of the
current ones. These skills are ones, which will benefit them in the
local economy (in Ghana) and will have a lasting impact on the quality
of life they will enjoy. This feels good to me, and, as a by-product we
will bring back these great things and folks here can be part of the
cycle too by purchasing these items from Ananse Village. (Which will in
turn sponsor more projects in Africa.)
"We also work with individual artists and craftspeople,
commissioning their work and helping with medical expenses, paying a
child's school fees, etc.
"This is how we share our profits with the communities we work
with. In the future, we hope to be able to expand generosity and
establish a scholarship fund (education is a luxury for some in the
more poverty stricken areas, especially girls) as well as work with an
orphanage in the town we live in (mostly orphans of AIDS victims) to
provide infrastructure, buildings, beds, medical supplies and personal
care items.
"Because we are working with these people on a daily basis there is
no 'professional' monitoring other than our own heart and conscience,"
Rebecca says.
She adds, "The biggest outside influence we want to have is to have
them make something specific for us. We've never done this before;
we've only dealt with products that they normally make. This is the
first time, this year; we will design something and have them made by
them. It will give them more money and we'll see how it goes. If it's
too strange, a potholder, since they don't use them, we won't persist.
"We also try and spread it [the projects] out to different
craftspeople so not one person benefits, so everyone is happy.
Everything is so delicate." The people are keenly aware of what is
going on around them; they know their neighbor's business, she notes.
For Rebecca the work they are doing feels like something she is
compelled to do, "especially at this point in history [with the threat
of war]. It seems like a responsibility that can't be ignored," she
describes.
"I came to the coast in 1977 after graduating from high school in
the Central Valley, on my way to Australia. Never made it to Australia.
My family had a house in which we spent summers during my childhood.
Fort Bragg was a quiet fishing town then."
For Paajoe, who grew up in Ghana, the experience is enhancing his
passion for his home country. As he sees the impact of their work, his
interest in the process grows; "he keeps blossoming," Rebecca adds.
Paajoe moved to the United States in the seventies, touring with
artist Hugh Masekela, known for "Grazing in the Grass," and also a
trumpet player, in what was then the "first African band in the United
States," Rebecca shares. Paajoe is a bass guitarist among other musical
talents he holds. Later, he toured as a bass guitarist for eleven years
while living in the Bay Area, eventually moving to the coast eight
years ago. It was a synchronistic pairing, Rebecca says of their
relationship. One of those "right place at the right time" situations,
she adds. They have one almost-five-year-old daughter together,
Yaa-Amponsah, with a fifteen-year old daughter from Rebecca's former
relationship. Paajoe has two other daughters who live with their mom in
the Bay Area.
Rebecca opened Tangents in 1985 in Mendocino while finishing
degrees in Art and Invertebrate Zoology. She moved to Fort Bragg six
years later and never intended to own/ operate a store. "It was just a
very organic process (A Tangent in my life)." She has no formal
training in business/store management, and has learned through
experience and good luck, she says.
"The business community has changed through the years; it's not as
supportive as it once was. Challenges? I prefer to think of them as
'learning opportunities' with the major lesson in life being to remain
as in touch with humanity as possible. The future looks bright with
continued growth on all fronts personal and business."
"It [the business] is satisfying for right now," Rebecca says. An
observation of their lifestyle in Africa, she adds, "They live in the
moment. There's no point in worrying over success, because there is no
guarantee that you're going to get to fulfill it. Therefore, their
interactions with people right now are so full and so joyful.
Everything goes so quickly there on some levels and so slow on others.
You could get sick and die the next day, why worry about next week
now?"
Rebecca continues, "Everything we do is so small compared to the
whole situation. Yet, it's important to keep doing it so consumers are
aware they can make a difference. Support businesses that support fair
trade. It's important for people to do this. The more they do, the more
we can do.
"It's like that saying, 'Give a hand up not a hand out,' be part of
creating a long-term situation versus a quick fix. You can give a fish
to a man and he'll eat for the day, or you can teach him how to fish
and he'll eat for the rest of his life."
Rebecca adds, "We are not soliciting funds from the community to
support these projects. Of course if anyone is interested in helping we
welcome their participation. In the meantime, people can feel good
about shopping at our store." Rebecca notes that they had thought about
asking for funds, but, she says, "It's a complicated thing... The money
that we take in goes directly to the people we know need it, not the
money into their hands but in goods and services. You have to have
things set up tightly to be comfortable about soliciting funds over
there." Ananse Village may soon collaborate with local service groups
such as Rotary, who have similar tangible projects in mind such as that
of completing installation of a well in a village or building a school
in a village. "It has to be concrete," Rebecca says, adding half
jokingly, "literally."
Ananse Village has also sponsored local drumming events in the past
and they say they will do more when they return. "And, we'll help to
bring African events to the coast whenever possible," Rebecca adds.
Ananse Village will be open - while Paajoe, Rebecca and Yaa are on a
work trip in Africa, beginning in February (six-week trip) - Thursday
to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The store is otherwise open
daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. They may be reached at 707-964-3534.
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Small Business of the Mendocino Coast
Ananse: A Character and Village for Everyone
Story by Lisa Norman
Real Estate Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 16 Issue 406, Jan. 31-Feb. 13, 2003
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