Tag: history

A Day in Foumban, a Cameroon Culture Center

November 28, 2017

My first visit to an African country was a month-long trip in Cameroon a couple years ago. I had no idea what to expect nor any solid plan for my time. I was visiting a friend, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer, and left everything up to her. By a twist of fate, she contracted typhoid while I was there. She went to the hospital and I joined two other volunteers on their trip to Foumban. That experience was a highlight of my trip; Foumban is a place that is just teeming with culture.

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Show Me the Ghanaian Money

November 24, 2017

One of the first things that people think about when they arrive in a new country is money. Having local currency is key to any international experience, not to mention that many countries are cash economies. Ghana is a cash economy and the local currency is the cedi, which has a bit of an interesting history.

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Cambodia’s Past Blurring into the Present

September 19, 2017

Just a few days ago, “First They Killed My Father” began streaming on Netflix. The movie, based on the book with the same name, follows the story of a girl who is forced to become a child solider while her family is sent to labor camps under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. The other famous film about this time in Cambodian history is “The Killing Fields,” that tells the true story of a journalist and his interpreter. While the genocide in Cambodia that occurred from 1975 to 1979 under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge may be generally known, the legacy of that time that stretches into the present is much less so.

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A group of people all wearing clothes made from the same cloth pose with a sign for their group

The Curious Language Divide of Cameroon

May 16, 2017

While not making major international news, there have been recent splashes of Cameroon making headlines in the past few months. A very simplified explanation is that Cameroon has two official languages, French and English. The majority of the country is francophone, and the capital is solidly in the francophone area.

This had lead to discrimination against the anglophones in the country, particularly when it comes to dealing with government bureaucracies that may refuse to accommodate them. But where did this language divide come from in the first place?

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a few people standing on beached wooden fishing boats with flags flying above

The Big 6: Ghana’s Founding Fathers

May 12, 2017

You’re in Ghana and you’re at the market. You’ve got all of your produce selected and the maame tells you, “15 cedi.” You open your wallet and pull out a 20 cedi note and see six faces looking back at you. In fact, all of the paper money in your wallet has these same six faces staring out at you. These men are collectively known as Ghana’s Big Six. But who were they and why are they important enough to be on all of the money?

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Ghana 60 Years on logo

Ghana at 60: a Look at the Country’s History

March 3, 2017

For the past several weeks, every morning there has been drumming coming from the school near my office. Walking through town, the beats waft through the air from various schools and classes are sometimes suspended while the children arrange themselves in rows and practice marching. Ghana’s Independence Day, marking 60 years of freedom from colonial rule, is this coming Monday.

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young thai children wearing traditional clothing carrying pictures of the thai king and queen

Death and Loss of the King in Thailand

October 25, 2016

It’s been a little more than a week since King Rama IX, Bhumibol Adulyadej died. His passing is a tremendous event in Thailand, and as such the next year has been declared a year of mourning for the Land of Smiles. Many people who haven’t spent an extended amount of time in Thailand, and even some who have, don’t understand what the King meant to the Thai people or are confused about what significance he had to them. The story of the Thai monarchy is a difficult one, however, understanding that history can provide greater context for the reasoning of the masses of Thai people donning black.

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