From disability to ability: A story of courage and inspiration

Akwaaba! I am Dela, a Ghanaian teacher from the Osuwem R/C Basic School and The Witness Tree Institute of Ghana. Today, at a workshop entitled “The Value Of Storytelling: From (Dis)ability to ability, I heard a story of courage and inspiration!

Mrs. Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame was born in 1957 at Akropong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region of Ghana. At age 10, she started experiencing problems with her sight and eventually lost her sight. Her story chronicles her journey from a place of despair and challenges to a place of empowerment and strength. Today, Ms. Fefoame uses the story of her challenges and tribulations to create positivity and inspiration in young women, students, and people with disabilities world wide. Today, Mrs Fefoame remains a powerful advocate who inspires. She has three children with her husband.

She said that although she was well supported by her family in many ways, her confidence was shattered by thoughtless comments by other people who saw her blindness as a dead end-a sign of failure and hopelessness. Despite the great encouragement from her family, it wasn’t until she met a woman with disabilities that she gained the courage to dream and saw herself as a productive member of Ghanaian society. To those who said,  "What a disaster! Is this what your world has come to? The end has come for you, etc, she can now say, “My journey may be messy but in the end it will be beautiful.” It was her mentor, role model and friend, Grace Preko who gave her the courage to to utter those words, and led her to empower other people with disabilities.

Today, Mrs. Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame is a Ghanaian gender and disability rights advocate and the first person with a disability to have received the Excellence Grand Medal Award in 2007 from President John Kufuor and many other awards and achievements. She has continued her work and was recently re-appointed to continue to serve at the United Nations as an Ambassador Advocate for Gender and Disability Rights and Empowerment, and she leads conferences worldwide.

In the afternoon, the Witness Tree Institute participated in an interactive workshop entitled Ghanaian Identity Through Dance. Dance in Ghanaian identity is a means of communication that involves the movement of every part of the body to tell a story. As part of the Holistic Nature, Dance and movement systems in Ghana includes, body, music, multi-sensory modalities, and visual form. Mrs. Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame found sight/light/ vision in her heart and mind to join us learn a traditional dance called Akpacha dance by Ga- Dangmes' . As she dances through life, her legacy shall never be forgotten.

Video of Gertrude “dancing through life”!

Today, the workshops have prepared us for tomorrow’s journey during which we will visit the slave fortresses of Cape Coast and Elmina.

By Samuel Delali, The Osuwem R/C Basic School, Greater Accra, and The Witness Tree Institute of Ghana.

Akwaaba - We Have Landed!

Akwaaba is the formal greeting for when you arrive in Ghana.  Welcome! And it is accompanied with infectious smiles, song, dance, drums, and deep belly laughter that reinforces the reality - this is a beautiful land full of joyous and generous people eager to share.  Ghana, named for an ancient and prosperous African empire, is a "Gracious Space", where strangers come together to learn from each other and to broaden perspective.  It is within the confines of this Gracious Space that 14 American and Ghanaian educators begin a journey of exploration and self discovery to bear witness.  Later this summer, 16 more intrepid souls will embark on their journey.   It does not take long before those strangers are transformed into friends, and become "witness trees" to all that surrounds.  The Expedition of The Witness Tree Institute of Ghana for 2022 commences!

This is a video of the dancers and drummers who welcomed WTIG 2022 Cohort 1!

New sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels greet you like a gentle slap on the face as you depart Kotoka International Airport and enter Greater Accra, the bustling capital city of this thriving African nation.  A vibrant cityscape of glass and steel silhouette the horizon and punctuate the quiet, more subdued residential zones.  Incessant beeps and friendly toots of car horns, not out of annoyance or anger but out of courtesy, announce presence amidst a steady stream of flowing grid lock that declares a symphony of busy-ness.  On residential avenues, the elegant and gentile hand horn's melody of the cycling frozen yogurt vendors promise refreshment and relief from the heat and humidity. 

Additional vendors hawking coconuts, fresh fruits, grilled fish or meat, and kabobs, line the avenues.  Pulsating musical beats and melodies blare amidst the steady din of human voices that echo the sounds of a vibrant street life that rarely sleeps.  The fragrances of the street food intermingled with the flowers that grow roadside swirl in the nostrils, and invite to taste local dishes such as joloff, fufu, and red red.  If it's your fancy, domestic lagers quench thirst, refresh, and wash down the spicy foods that touch the palette.  All the while, in this tropical climate heat and humidity coat the skin with a thin layer of perspiration, which is not an uncomfortable sticky feeling.  Instead, it necessitates attacking daily life at a more measured and pleasant pace, providing time and space to absorb additional sites and sounds of this magical land.


Those sites and sounds make up threads that woven together connect two nations on either side of the Atlantic.  Professor Pash Obeng and Dr Kuwor remind us of those connections during the initial workshops. The connections between the US and Ghana are tragic and inspiring.  The Ghanaian coast was a portal of the Slave Trade that stole the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of generations of African souls from these shores.  Civil Rights icons came to Ghana to find solidarity and the inspiration from the liberation movements that toppled oppressive colonial regimes.  Portraits of those American icons of the Civil Rights movement adorn the walls of historical sites.  W.E.B. DuBois emigrated here, attained Ghanaian citizenship, and served as an informal advisor to the country's first president, Kwame Nkrumah.  There is an impressive contemporary Ghanaian Diaspora in the States and throughout the world, and music and arts from Ghana are popular on both sides of the Atlantic.  Ghana was the first country to accept and welcome Peace Corps Volunteers, heeding the call of John F Kennedy, after Ghana became the first Sub-Saharan African nation to shed the suffocating cloak of colonialism and gain Independence.  Since then, a burgeoning consumer economy continues to emerge as Accra's glistening malls attest, and Ghana is an international leader for the market for the commodity, cocoa, a product that is deemed the world's premium.  The expeditions of The Witness Tree Institute will bear witness to these tangible connections as our journey proceeds.

Before getting ahead of ourselves though, first the members of the Witness Tree Institute of Ghana are formerly welcomed by the Elders of the Ga, the traditional owners of the land where the capital, Accra, sits.  The Elders perform a formal Naming Ceremony that welcomes this year's Witness Tree members and anoints them with spirits.  This baptismal-like rite centers on being introduced and christened with a Ghanaian name.  Ghanaians are named for the day of the week on which they were born, and since I am born a Saturday, I am Kwame!  The welcome ceremony culminates with dance and drums.

This blog intends to provide a forum that shares the experience of this year's expeditions and amplifies the voices of the Ghanaian and American members of The Witness Tree Institute.  In doing so, it carves out a "Gracious Space" that enhances learning and broadens perspective as we collectively share images, thoughts, emotions, and sensations.  The motto of The Witness Tree Institute is "Tete Wo Biribi Ka" - The past has something to say.  As a means to listen and bear witness to the past, we also pay attention to the present.  Medaasi (thank you) for following the present adventure, and welcome to the Witness Tree Blog.  Akwaaba!

by David “Kwame” Duane, Chair of Science Dept, The Fenn School, Concord MA