Mothering among Black and White Non-Ghanaian Women in Ghana.

Abstract

Although “race”, like “gender” is a socially-constructed category, “colour” still has deep meaning and significance for most people. Often disconcertingly so. In 1998, during a trip to Germany with my daughters, at the time aged two and five, we shared one such experience. The three of us were travelling in the tram (or streetcar) with my sister and her son, aged one at the time. My nephew is phenotypically “white” with fair skin and blonde hair, while my sister and I, and my daughters, are varying shades of brown. At one stop an elderly lady got on board and sat close to me. It must have been obvious that my sister and I and our children belonged together. As the journey progressed it became clear that the woman was very curious about our party of multi-hued individuals. When she could no longer contain her curiosity the woman asked me about the family connections. I explained the family connections to her. She wanted to know how come my nephew was so white. I told her that his father was white. The woman then remarked matter-of-factly, “oh – he must have been very relieved that his son didn’t turn out dark.” I was too amused by the old woman’s complete lack of sophistication and sensitivity to have room for any anger or irritation at the racial slur. My sister had decided, she explained later, that she did not have the energy to begin an argument with someone who was so obviously unaware of her racialised thinking. However, the entire experience set me thinking about the power that parents, and in my sister’s case mothers, have to transmit, and more importantly subvert, “ racial” identities to their children. Clearly, for the white woman the Caucasian child was central and powerful while the rest of the family were the “other”. But how do mothers transmit or circumvent such images and racial identities when it comes to their own children? What race, or ethnicity, does your child become when s/he does not necessarily share your race/ethnicity? The question itself poses a contradiction. These are the issues that this paper explores.