Welcome to One CA Podcast. Today we have Kwadjo Owusu-Sarfo, PhD, is a cultural conflict sociologist with Valka-Mir Human Security, LLC. We discuss Ghanaian culture, the Dagbon conflict, his research related to Boko Haram, and how Civil Affairs forces could better integrate with host communities.
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Transcript:
00:00:00 SPEAKER_03
you know, with few exceptions, each extremist, terrorist, uh, violent gang.
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Welcome to the 1CA podcast. My name is John McElligot, your host for today's episode. We're joined today by Dr. Kwajo Owusu -Sarfo. He is a cultural conflict sociologist and holds a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University Department of Conflict Studies. He was originally a refugee from West Africa's Akan Tui peoples and is now a U .S. permanent resident. He spent significant amounts of time researching the psychological, sociological, and cultural foundations of communities in violent conflict in West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Caribbean. He speaks English, French, and a contui, and specializes in the interface between human psychosocial culture and its categorization within ArcGIS. You are the lead researcher for the Valkamir Conflict Video Case Study on the Kanuri people and their involvement with the Boko Haram movement. Thank you very much for being on the WCA podcast.
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Yes, thank you very much for having me.
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Thank you very much for your time. You know, you were born to the Akan Tui peoples, and I know that the Akan Tui tend to be in the south -central region of Ghana in West Africa. And my understanding of doing some background was that Tui is a dialect of the Akan language. So could you talk to everyone about who are the Akan Tui, and what do most people from that group do?
00:02:03 SPEAKER_03
for having me. And yes, I am a member of the Akan people of Ghana. And I speak TRI, which is spelled T -W -I. So TRI happens to be one of the major dialects of the Akan language. Now, the Akan people...
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to be
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So that's a very short history of the Akan.
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a very short history of the
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Yeah, it's a very long history. And so you said the vast majority of people living in Ghana today are Akan people. And so that makes sense that they are throughout this society. Do people who are Akan in Ghana tend to be considered the ruling class? Or are there people in other tribes that are less populous throughout business leaders or political leaders, for example?
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Okay. So there's one connection I wanted to drill on with America and I think specifically with African -American fraternities, I believe, and maybe sororities as well in colleges in the U .S. with the kente cloth. Very common for men and women who graduate from maybe historically black colleges and universities to wear a stripe of kente cloth around their neck at graduation. And when I was in Accra, I was there twice, actually, and came over briefly from Cote d 'Ivoire and then went back for a different water project and was able to pick up some kente cloth when I was there. Could you talk about the sign or the symbolism of kente cloth being aligned with different tribes and what that means translating to U .S.? I mean...
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It's quite a powerful symbol as well because the colors are so rich. It really stands out when people walk across the stage or wear it in public.
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Right. The food I thought was amazing, by the way. So if there's anyone listening to this who has not been to Ghana or has not been to a Ghanaian restaurant in the United States, you should definitely go. If there's a Black Stars game on television, go then because the crowd will be rowdy and lively. Yeah, a lot of amazing mixes of groundnut soup, stew, sauces, the mix of rice and vegetables and chicken and meat. So good.
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Yep. If you don't mind me asking, what was your pick? What was your favorite?
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I like the groundnut. I got a bunch of that in Cote d 'Ivoire. I think ground up with some chicken was so nice. Or a grilled fish. It's so common to get grilled fish, and you get the whole fish, right? In the U .S., we tend to take off the tail and the head and everything else, but you get the whole fish, which is nice.
00:10:54 SPEAKER_02
Right. And what did you eat the soup with?
00:10:57 SPEAKER_01
Typically rice. With rice, okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I was using hands at first, and then that got really, really hot, and so I started using the spoons. Right. You know, locals made fun of me at first, but I didn't care. It hurt.
00:12:07 SPEAKER_03
There's fufu that's made with banana, but there's also fufu that's made with cassava. Right. So, yeah, cassava, which is known as manioc in other places. Right. So, yeah, and then there's jell -off rice, which I hope you have the opportunity to taste. Oh, yes.
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taste. Oh, yes.
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Yeah. I don't think I ever had the wrist strength or the forearm strength to make, in the mortar and pestle, to make... Fufu. Fufu as well as women who would do that every day.
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Yes, yes. Fufu takes a lot of work,
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lot of work, but, you know, you have to, you know, first prefer the cassava.
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While it's being pounded, you have to gather the pounded cassava together into a starchy paste to make the fufu. So it's quite, yeah, it's a lot of work.
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Definitely worth it. Yeah, it's worth it when you eat it because it's one of the major delicacies in Ghana.
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delicacies in Ghana.
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So I wanted to get into... After one more other question, get into your evolution of coming from Ghana, coming to the United States, and what had happened. But first, talk about your first name. And this may be helpful for others listening, traveling to the region, who see repeatedly a lot of quodros, a lot of coffees, a lot of people with similar first names. And so your name indicates that you were born on a Monday. Yes. Could you talk about that naming system for boys and girls? Right. So it's not necessarily unique in Khan culture,
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not necessarily unique in Khan culture, but there's definitely other ethnic groups in West Africa that follow a naming system or pattern which corresponds to the day of the week on which...
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If you were born on a Tuesday, you would be Wabena. If you were born on a Wednesday, it's Kwaku. Thursday is Yao. Friday is Kofi, as in Kofi Annan. Saturday would be Kwame. And Sunday would be Kwesi. Now, the names that I've given you, though, are, those are the males. Those are the names of males. So the female version of somebody, of a female child born in the account culture on... is the female version of Kojo. And then for Tuesday would be Abena, which is the male version, the female version of Kwabena. And then for Wednesday it would be Aku, which is the female version of Kweku. And then for Thursday it would be Ya, which is the female version of Yao. begins with a Y -A -E, which is Yao. But all the other names have a qua prefix. So that's one way to distinguish somebody born on a Thursday from the other days of the week. So I hope that helps you understand the naming system.
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the naming
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It is helpful. Thank you. And the pronunciation.
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And the pronunciation.
00:16:18 SPEAKER_03
Yes, yes. You know, the interesting thing about the pronunciation is it's always hard to let somebody else to, you know, someone who's not from Ghana or who's not from the Akan culture, you know, to really help them with the intonation and the articulation. It's definitely good, you know, because... When I tell people that my name is Kwajo, it's different from how you would say it in Ghana. It's Kwajo. When I say Kwabana, it's actually Kwabana. I've just come to accept that it's very hard for people to really know how to say it right.
00:17:01 SPEAKER_03
how to say it right. Just like it would be hard for me to get the articulation and intonation of some other cultures.
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cultures. names correctly. Oh,
00:17:13 SPEAKER_01
absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to hear from someone firsthand to say, oh, I'm sorry, you know, pronunciation is this way. So that, especially for people listening to this, if they're going to go to West Africa, they need to take the time to sit down with someone and get to know them and really have an interest in speaking the language more accurately and pronouncing names correctly. Right. Okay. Yeah.
00:17:40 SPEAKER_01
Well, so I wanted to... Yeah, go ahead.
00:17:44 SPEAKER_03
I was just going to say that you've touched on an important point, which we usually try to stress at Barcamir,
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to stress at Barcamir, is that when soldiers are deployed to various places that are involved in conflict, talking to people and trying to, for example, trying to understand how the name is pronounced, these are all important ways of... engaging people and building that, you know, rapport, which is important if you're going to be able to successfully work with these communities and, you know, in counterterrorism operations.
00:18:24 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you need to have an interest and a value in the people. Yes, yes, exactly. Stick around for the rest of my conversation with Kwajo Owusu -Sarfo. We're going to talk about the Dagwon conflict, his research related to Boko Haram, and how civil affairs forces could better integrate with host communities.
00:18:51 SPEAKER_01
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00:20:18 SPEAKER_01
Welcome back to the 1CA podcast and our interview with Dr. Quadru. Dr. Owusu -Sarfo, I always thought that Ghana had been a very safe place, especially in West Africa. There had been some turmoil. But there was part of, I guess, the Ghanaian history where you had an interest in leaving, right? So can you tell people, was that Ghana? What had happened in that situation? You know, why did you feel like you needed to leave and become a refugee?
00:20:55 SPEAKER_03
and being one of the more notable democratic countries in West Africa.
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You're talking about the part of the north closer to Burkina, like north of Tamale, that far north? Well,
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yeah,
00:21:44 SPEAKER_03
the northern part of Ghana, yes, exactly. So in the northern part...
00:22:59 SPEAKER_03
hundred years.
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of sustained peace and understanding, 20 years of violence, and now we're back to a spot where you feel like this is back to what they had before, or they trade off one to the next? Okay.
00:26:42 SPEAKER_03
infrastructure. So the government getting involved in the peace process and making sure that, you know, the North catches up in terms of development and, you know, infrastructure development, if the North catches up with the South, I think will also help and go a long way towards,
00:26:59 SPEAKER_01
you know, sustaining peace. That's really good to hear. Do you feel like it, at some point, the North would stabilize enough so that you would go back and see friends and family?
00:27:13 SPEAKER_03
show that both sides are interested in showing a good faith commitment to, you know, keeping and sustaining peace. So from what I've seen, I think there's a very good chance that I can go back and, you know, see old faces.
00:27:33 SPEAKER_03
Yeah. Hopefully, yes. That'd be great.
00:27:36 SPEAKER_01
Well, sir, I wanted to focus just a couple questions here on your current research and what you're doing for Valcomere, what you're doing on the side. And your research is focused on the psychological, sociological, cultural foundations of violent conflict. And the regions you've been focusing on in the past have been West Africa, Horn of Africa, and the Caribbean. So what are you studying currently? Which groups are you studying? And what have you found? Are there common themes, for example, across looking at psychological, sociocultural factors in all these regions, West Africa, Horn of Africa, and the Caribbean?
00:28:14 SPEAKER_03
So I've been studying the conflict in the Kanuri community of West Africa. What I've been studying specifically is the cultural origin, the sustainment, and epidemiology of Boko Haram, which I'm sure you've heard about. You know a lot about. So concerning that, you know, the U .S. Army Special Operations Forces mission in this conflict is really to support its eventual resolution and prevent the conflict spread beyond its current areas of occurrence. Now, some background on the Qunari. The Qunari are, you know, there are people who are the most closely involved in the