Field Notes, Day 4

Chief Justice Wood, Tour of the Ghanaian Judicial Service - Former WSU Students, Judge Georgina, President Rawlings, U.S. Embassy - Foreign Service Officers

Today we awoke early to visit the Ghanaian Judicial Service and High Court complex. It was especially hot and the white buildings reflected brightly in the sun. Upon arrival and check-in for our meeting we climbed up many steps to the floor in which Chief Justice Wood’s office is held. We were told to wait in the sitting area and we ran into a Ghanaian justice named Isaac who Dr. Hart recognized because he studied abroad with a group of Ghanaian justices to earn their Master’s of Law at Wayne State. Our audience with Chief Justice Wood was brief, because she was heading to a judicial conference in San Francisco that day as well, but she talked openly about the struggle the High Court’s are undergoing while tackling suits against the the Election Committee (EC) by various political parties, because 8 candidates were disqualified from running because of anomalies on their nomination forms. Accusations of impersonation, fraud, and corruption were splattered across the front page of every major newspaper and the protestors dressed all in red on behalf of the PPP were loudly protesting just across the street from the building in order to reinstate their candidate Papa Kwesi.

Chief Justice Wood told us that the courts were extremely busy taking care of the cases and she acknowledged that their work at that very moment was under the scrutiny of everyone in the country. We presented Chief Justice Wood with a FOCIS shirt and a Hillary Clinton pin, and she organized a tour and a meeting with a judge for us. We were taken by a guide around the complex, which began at a monument to the “Martyrs of Law.” Three busts of three judges that were executed by President Rawlings, their story and this dedication to them struck us particularly because we were set to meet the man who brought their deaths later that afternoon. We were taken to the newer court complex that had only recently been built the year before and we proceeded to climb up again, many steps, we toured a courtroom and observed the system used by the court stenographer to record the proceedings for both the prosecution and defense in realtime. It was also conveyed to us that different courtrooms were specified for different courts: divorce, finance, property, and criminal. Within the criminal courts there was a door that contained a courtroom cell for the accused perpetrator of a violent or heavily charged crime. We also had the opportunity to meet a Judge within Finance who told us that the entirety of the judicial service is focusing on the controversial EC cases. She had stacks of books on her desk because she was studying up on election rules and policies, because the judicial service began handing out the 8 cases to judges from various courts due to the volume and urgency.

After leaving the judicial service we were taken to the home of President J.J. Rawlings. It was newer than President Kufuor’s house and came equipped with a small army of white peacocks congregating within the large compound. It became clear that each of the former President’s homes fit their personalities. Kufuor’s more regal and ornate, with lighter colors and a sitting room covered in mementos, photos of his family, and philanthropic honors. Rawlings, bolder with statement making decorations, more guards, more barbed wire, with futbol and action films playing in the sitting rooms. I also spotted a knife holder shaped like a human being stabbed in multiple locations on a cabinet alongside a display with Muhammad Ali’s gloves, which were across from a massive photograph of a younger Rawlings dressed completely in green walking alongside Nelson Mandela. Rawlings thundered in wearing all black with gloss black leather boots and sunglasses. He shook hands after Dr. Reid prompted him and looked at us all directly. What was meant to be a 45 minute meeting, turned into 4 hours filled with raucously presented, unbelievable anecdotes from both his childhood to his rule to his views on today’s politics. He denounced President John Kufuor, whom we had just met the day before, calling him a murderer who ruled Ghanaians by fear. There were several contradictions in his words. Rawlings said his people needed to be independent and rebellious, but also stated the importance of obedience. He told us that he may not like Nigerians, but he respects Nigerians. He told stories of his time as a pilot just wanting to fly, and the fundamental disagreements he had with his mother - calling her a “terrorist” - yet Dr. Reid told us that what he really meant was that she was “a terror.” Rawlings did not acknowledge the difference. He had three men present for the meaning, one was an academic expert on leadership, one was a computer science/app development prodigy, and another had been one of his right-hand advisors and communications liason for years. Rawlings, struggling with his heart rate and a coccyx injury, would call on these men to answer questions for him. Rawlings addressed the fragility of democracy, referencing the United States 2016 Election.

He said candidate Donald Trump was so successful because of the American’s desire to rebel, to defy, he said our people have grown frustrated with politics. He noted that Donald Trump was a bit like an African leader, and his election would give the American people perspective into what it was like to be an African. I had the opportunity to ask Rawlings a question. I asked him whether or not he believes the media does an effective job covering politics, and if not, how can they do better? Rawlings spoke on the justices that died during his administration, somehow without admitting that he was the one who called for their deaths. He looked at me and told me that the judges were corrupt, that corruption had reached a point where it existed in excess. Rawlings said that if there was a group of professionals who would die today due to their corruption, it would be journalists. Journalists would die. This made me think about Kufuor the day before, when he called me brave. It started feeling like every time I mentioned journalism in Ghana, someone would soon make reference to death. I think that in that moment, I wanted to be a journalist more than ever. I didn’t want to be afraid. Standing by journalism was my way of saying that this man, who would go down in history for his atrocities, all of the leaders who would go down in history, didn’t intimidate me. Rawlings continued talking about his greatness, his strength. Those times that he avoided assassination attempts by vaulting out of vehicles and dodging bullets, how he pushed his daughter to pilot a plane solo at 13 because it was better that his daughter took the risk than someone else. His daughter is currently running for Member of Parliament as a member of NDC, even though her father is actively campaigning against his own party because he does not want President John Mahama to remain at the head of NDC and her mother is running as NDP (her own party) candidate. Nana Rawlings at this time was one of the candidates facing disqualification from the EC due to issues in the paperwork filing her candidacy. J.J. Rawlings eventually let us leave his compound, took a photo, and shook our hands a final time. We arrived close to 1 p.m. we left around 5 p.m.

We then had dinner with U.S. Foreign Service Officers who were hosting us on behalf of the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, who was out of town at the time. There we spoke to Daniel Fennell who told us about the relationship the U.S. had with Ghana. The U.S. has a special partnership with Ghanaians because the country has one of the most stable, young democratic systems on the continent of Africa. Our two countries diplomatically consider one another allies. Our dinner consisted of Ghanaian delicacies like kelewele and jollof rice with stew. Fennell told us about the foreign service exam and the fulbright research scholarship, some opportunities via the State Department that we could pursue as students. By the end of the night, we went to bed with our heads spinning as a result of the political experiences we had just had over the course of two days.