Greetings from Ghana!

Obruni  is a local Ghanaian word for which the simplest, most direct translation is “foreigner”. But really, it is a word that means as little or as much as you think it means. For instance, it was first used to refer to the Portuguese explorers that initially set foot in this region of West Africa in the 15th century. Then it simply meant “white man” (that was a notable feature for the native dark-skinned peoples living here), and to some people that’s what it still means today. Or it could mean much more than “white man”. It refers to women. It refers to people of any ethnicity. In fact, it refers to anyone at all who doesn’t have dark skin. Even native-born Ghanaians find themselves called this if they are "fair"-- basically anything lighter than a 60% cacao chocolate bar. But obruni is a term of the South. In northwestern Ghana, we foreigners are lucky to have two words to describe us, the other being nansala. This term   literally means "human" in Waale and

I sit in a sea of blue plastic armchairs, arranged carefully around trees to keep as many guests as possible protected from the hot afternoon sun. Over a hundred people are gathered in tight bundles, sorted by how they knew the deceased. Every woman (unless she is a nun) wears a black headwrap and, if she has the means, a "funeral outfit" of red and black kente-- colors that, according to cultural practices, mean the deceased passed too soon. Every man wears his best smock, although as evidenced by the variety of colors present, the precise dress code to which female guests seem required to adhere does not apply to their male counterparts. When we arrived, I watched as the male and female members of our group slowly parted. The men immediately approached the body, which was placed on a small stage covered in ornate tapestries. After spending a few moments looking up at the body, they moved diagonally a few steps back, and then a few feet to the left in a triangular pattern