Many are cold, but few are frozen
Nobody cares anymore
I was thinking about how my kids will view this Obama thing when they're adults. Obama will be the first President they remember. I have the feeling that race will barely register with them.
My girl's best friend is a beautiful little Ashanti girl, from Ghana. It's amazing that skin color is a total non-issue between them. My girl has only mentioned it once, and it was in passing, on the same level as mentioning the color of a person's eyes, or hair.
Mixed-race couples shown on TV shows and movies haven't drawn any reaction from my kids either. Not relevant. This is totally different from my own experience. When I was growing up, I sometimes had crushes on black girls. But neither their culture nor mine would have been very tolerant of a relationship.
Things have definitely changed. And it's absolutely wonderful.
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I never forget Ghana's Independence Day. I lived in this West African country as a child from 1972 to 1975, in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti region. It was a great place to be a kid.
My memories are rich. The thick, moist air, the abundance of lizards. Gold weights and kente cloth. Stories about Ananse, the Spider. Exploring the bush, the lush vegetation. Fufu. Choice insults in Twi, the Ashanti language. The experience of being the only white kid in my class at Prempeh College, a top secondary school in the country. The beautiful, warm people.
Ghana became independent in 1957. It was the first African country to win its freedom. It's had some tough times since then, but overall has done really well. It recently had a close election and a peaceful transition of power, a rare thing in Africa. Another sign that Ghana is a leader in Africa.
I always feel pride on Ghana's independence day. It may not be my country, but it has somehow become a part of me.
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