How the story shall be told

A first prerequisite is that we ask all family members, neighbours and villagers on site for their permission to interview them and to record the conversations, to photograph or film them. It should be transparent and comprehensible that our material will be shown publicly and accessible to many people, including strangers. Everyone should be able to decide whether he or she wants this at all.

If everything works out, Ernestina and I will ask family members of different generations, places of residence and professions in Accra and Hiineteng to tell us their life stories, to talk about themselves. Ernestina will translate for me, because especially the older people in the village speak little or no English. They should describe how their lives have been and are going, describe their childhood and their experiences as adults. I would like to hear from them what role the family networks play for them and what holds such a large family together.

Ernestina and I will simply participate in everyday family life: observing, photographing and filming. When I come back, I will link and condense the many kilos of material from 1989, 2019 and 2021, and I will continue to work closely with Ernestina to do this: My goal is to possibly create a photo-text book. If possible in English, so that the Ghanaian family can also read it. Everything is an experiment. For sure, the funeral in the village will be an event that will be exciting and new for me. Funerals are one of the most important family and social celebrations in Ghana. Titus has been organising them for weeks, with the help of his wife Irene, his sisters and nieces.

This blog, so the plan, is to grow during my trip, and later to be further populated from Berlin. And it would be great if Ernestina and other younger family members take over my part of collecting memories and events in the future, keep the blog going, “fertilise” their roots and keep the family networks growing.

Of course, only if they wish and feel like it. There is still a long way to go.

Kuuim, my eldest adoptive sister having a look into the photobook I brought as gift for the family