US v Ghana Cartoon Stereotypes

As I type, I am googling images for a project in Ghana. There are 16 main areas on which Ghanians spend money (transportation, communication, clothing, animals, food, health care, construction, celebrations, school fees, etc.) For the activity I'm making cards with the name of the area in which money is spent and including an image of what that could mean.

For transportation in the Northern Ghana I chose the popular motorbike and found an image with ease. I wish I could say the same for the rest.

When I searched food and drink, I got cheese burgers and fries and other processed foods- no fruits or veggies, which are more of a staple in Ghana. So I google cartoon images of vegetables and what is it with American's putting a face on the food we eat? It's like a constant infatuation with personifying the cow that is my cheese burger and the onion I use as a topping has a smiling face. Why do we feel the need to put faces on food. Does it really make vegetables seem more appealing? I finally found one but it had a pumpkin in it among other foods, not sure if pumpkins are popular but you do what you can. Oh, and the eggplant is purple, in Ghana the white variety of eggplant is more popular.

For construction I looked for bricks, which are the foundation for almost all buildings in Ghana. But the bricks were too gray, a sign of more concrete than dirt, which isn't realistic. Or I would find the really red bricks and the Ghana builds are more of a tan. I finally had to settle on a brick more gray than I would have liked- who would have thought I would be so aware of brick composition and be able to critique by color after only a few months in country?

The real shocker, oddly, was that almost all of the goats had horns. I see goats EVERYDAY in Ghana- they roam the streets just as people do. But this breed of goat, like many, don't have horns. When I asked my self if the goats here had horns, I remembered when a friend was having trouble distinguishing between a sheep and a goat and the cartoon-esque horns just aren't present on the breed of goats I see in Ghana. Or possibly I just see the female goats? Anyways, I'm afraid people from the U.S. may not be as versed in variety of goats as they could be.

For Medical/Health care, I found an image off of clip art I decided to use but it is of a female doctor. I am all for equal rights but am not sure if there are many female doctors in Ghana? Maybe it will be interpreted as a nurse, which would be more likely. It would be interesting to know if Ghanians had the same gendered view of health care as we do in the US- nurses are women, doctors are men. While this image could be changing, with the help of doctor shows like Gray's Anatomy and the fact that there are many female doctors, I'm not sure if there stereotype is gone yet.

Sadly, water had its issues as well. When I first plugged in water, I got a faucet filing up a glass and while I liked it, I didn't want to subliminally promote drinking from the faucet as it hasn't been treated and isn't safe. And all the rest of the photos were of a walking water drop and pool scenes. So I tried 'water faucet.' Why do our water faucet cartoons only have a drop coming out nothing at all? I even saw one where a cork was in the faucet. When I finally decided to settle for a dripping U.S. faucet, the real challenge was finding one that was not a stock photo that had a watermark on it. I'm not even sure how big of an expenditure water is as many get it from rivers or wells. The most popular drinking water is in a plastic baggy/satchel, which is much cheaper than it's bottled counterpart so putting a water bottle as the image would even be a bit frivolous.

Searching for land was an issue, but by this point, was kind of expecting it. When I tried 'farm land' it was flat, lush green and maybe parceled off as our fields often are and can be seen from a plane. Surprisingly if you just try "cartoon images of land" you will find a lot of political cartoos- I wasn't expecting that. When I tried savannah (assumed they wouldn't actually have guinea savannah, I just got the image of the same 'African tree' that is all alone in the middle of near desert but they all had a safari animal- some were even just images from the cartoon movie Madagascar. When I went to see what the former model I had, I saw they did a little compromising so I too lowered my standards of an image for farmland and went with a similar, lush, green rolling landscape. Granted, I've been in the North part for the dry season, with little to no rain so maybe it gets green during the rainy season? I know the south gets pretty green but not sure about this far North.

I recant my statement on 'land' being popular for political cartoons. 'Coffins' (the ideal image for a funeral) was at least 75% political cartoons (not nearly as surprising) but I had to sift through the politicos just to get to the actual coffin images- then had to forgo the ones with vampires, skeletons, etc. Wouldn't want to offend anyone because of a poorly chosen 'coffin' image.

Searching for 'clothing,' I was really hesitant at what I would find. Surprisingly it was either fairly normal and relevant or something random I wouldn't normally use for anything, regardless of target culture. Although by this point in time I think I might start saying: "All the good ones are watermarked!"

New winner for comics, the whole entire first 2 pages were nothing but for 'tithe.' At first I labeled this political cartoons but they weren't political just comics. I liked the one that said 'to speed up the tithing process, text your donation to 8480344" :)

Searching for a celebration photo is difficult. Here it looks like people dressed up in gorgeous African wear, eating lots of food with plenty of drink. The photos I'm getting are party hats, balloons and are mainly birthday parties. The first two are a tad frivolous for the rural farmers this is targeting and birthday's aren't that big of a deal here. Depending on finances, it might not be celebrated and I found out that for some children may not even know what day their birthday is so it will come and go without notice. Could you image a child in the U.S. not noticing their birthday? According to the social scientists, my generation, the Millennial (or Me Generation) has their birthday as their favorite day of the year and feel it should be celebrated as a holiday. I can't deny having thought that at one point in time but at this point, I can see it come and go without much worry. Don't get me wrong, I will eat whatever I want that day but don't care about doing too much (maybe because it is the first part of August so I never got a birthday at school).

When I tried 'farm rake' I just saw a bunch of stereotypical bib-wearing farmers but seriously, do they have to look goofy? If those were the images of farmers that I saw, without having much to do with farming, I would view farmers as hokey and less intelligent. Seriously, the cross-eyed farmer wasn't seen as being a little too much? I just got a simple hand hoe- no farmer necessary.

Well I found everything but celebration and household items (I tried household items but it was like couches, refrigerators, ovens, a lot of electrical appliances, items that are primarily for the wealthy in Ghana, not to mention the fact that electricity is needed for all of those items and a plug in is not ubiquitous throughout the Northern regions.) We'll see what I end up finding tomorrow.

I have found it quite interesting the cultural differences one "sees" when looking for cartoon images, that have so much potential and possibility but are marked by one's culture. Great cultural comparison for what a pictorial image depicts as a version of the 'real world' and what is actually seen in different parts of the world.