Guest Contributor Esi W Cleland: Two things you learn about Ghanaian men by walking the streets

@Esi – This post made me laugh! I started out thinking “Mmm, maybe I should walk more” but at the end of the post I decided to stick to my Tata! Roadside conning experience? No recent events come to mind but I do have a selective memory so have probably blanked out all “unsuitable” cons

LOL!
They sound just like Nigerian men! There are the ones that would try to grab your arm when you try to walk away. The really mischievous ones might grab your ass!

i second Lady X. with me most times, i’m not walking but in a taxi when the driver asks for my number. the worst situation was once where the driver said he would not stop where i asked him to unless i gave him my number. i ended up taking his number and promptly forgot about it. sometimes it can be annoying though.

hehehe…I could not stop laughing at this.

I had a Canadian friend spend a couple of months here for a final year travel requirement of her uni degree and the stories she would tell about all the propositions she would get walking the streets or riding in a troski…

One all important thing you neglected to mention Esi is the never failing secret weapon, should all their advances fail. The endlessly annoying…wait for it…

“But…I love you, oh” Ah!…please do not get me started!

I always find myself debating whether to stare down the unsavoury character until he gets an inkling of how completely incensed I am or take off my handbag and bash in his head repeatedly to make sure the message gets through.

Looking back, it’s a lot more humourous than anything else and you have to hand it to our Ghanaian and Nigerian brothers, perseverance is obviously not lacking in their vocabulary.

lol hilarious post.

These exchanges just make me want to try one soon.

fun

I can really relate to this post. The last encounter I had was when I went to the beach. Now, I think maybe its gotta do with the natural hair thing but all the men that approached me start with some FAKE accent and proceeded to talk about how my bottom was “nice” and how they wanted to be friends! Huh?

lol… Oh Esi “Enye wo biibiaa na EyE me fE o, wo rasta no a, nti na meni gye ho”… that is hilarious! Are you for real? So they like the Rasta eh? that’s very interesting. I was watching TV with my grandma and a lady with locs was on she asked me if that was fetish preistess! I couldn’t stop laughing!

Wish I was in Ghana to walk with you. As for taxi drivers, they are the worst bunch. Constantly hitting on you and if you don’t give them your number, you’re a snob! abaa…

Im the aggressive dude at the bar early on a sat or sunday morning….oh yeaaaa

My girlfriend (she is Dutch) tells me these and other interesting conning stories of men who wants to marry her the first time they see her. Sometimes I find it so intriguing. How can you love someone the first time? Spare me love at first sight. It might as well be LUST at first sight!

What I find strange is that women who normally “tell it like it is” will refrain from doing so when bothered by men.

Why say “I dont have a phone” when you mean “I dont give my number to strangers and I will not take yours since I have no intention of calling you” ?

Lets make it very clear when we women are not playing any games, but just talking a walk. Cause some conning men might have their minds clouded by alcohol even very early in the morning….

@Kajsa,

In Ghana, that kind of direct rebuff only emboldens the wrong guy. Better to play it safe with the white lie, I would think.

Hilarious post. I love it! I think I will try to be straight with a guy for once and see. I usually play the “I don’t have a phone” card, but I am sure I will be immediately branded “too known” if I said what I really thought (when has that stopped me?).

I’ve had a lot of these experiences and it always starts with, “sss. Sister, sister” and then becomes “heh, small girl” (I’m a small woman). Both titles very unattractive and slightly creepy in the context of “love advances.”

@Kajsa, you ask a good question. Why didn’t I just tell him I didn’t want to give him my number? I guess I didn’t because I didn’t want to be rude. Or because I know he would have asked me why? One time when a guy called me and I didn’t go, he said it was very rude and proceeded to ask me…wo nyE Obaa? Na Obaa deE, EnyE bEEma a, na ObEfrE wo (tr: are you not a woman? and as a woman, is it not men who will make advances at you?). Maybe it’s just easier to lie and get on with life…or maybe i’m not as confrontational as i like to think.

Judging from the Preacher’s wife’s response…maybe we really want to be seen to be nice girls. Afterall we are. lol. No one wants to be the “too known” girl or the “rude girl” …but i wonder why. It’s not like just because some man by the roadside thinks you’re rude means you are, right?

@Maxine, my grandma said the same thing about my hair. She said i look like obi a, eduro akye no. hehe.

And yeah it looks like i lost 3 kg from the walking. Not too safe here though…and after a while, the sss ssss from the men get old

Esi asaa ye biom..[tr:Esi has done it again] I find this post so hilarious and ribs-breaking, especially, “Guy: You can even be walking to Teshie.”. He doesn’t seems to care where you walking to, all he want to do is; have a word with you. I mean, freeing his mind to you.. Nice post.. !!!

God this was hilarious! I see nothing has changed since 1988 when I walked the streets as a pre-pubescent teen! House boys, garden boys, taxi drivers…it didn’t matter. All they saw a 12 year old with a big booty. I used to HATE being sent!

Come on gals, men are not that evil. It is an inevitable path men need to to take. And some of you make it sooo difficult. Aaaaaba!!!

Oh my goodness, this had my sides splitting. I’m not in Ghana often, but sometime ago, the line seemed to be “can I take you as a friend?” And when I would reply that I already had enough friends, or that I won’t give them my number, or that I won’t call them if they gave me theirs, it was always met with a look of surprise and maybe some hurt.

I guess I haven’t met the Ghanaian men yet who would hurt me for turning them down so blatantly.

Esi, I agree with you on the men who call you from afar and expect you to walk to them. When I was 11-12 I actually went to one of these who had summoned me. In my defense, I thought maybe he knew me or my parents or something (because why else would he call me). “how are you?” “fine”. It wasn’t until he asked where did I live that I became confused…then realized he was hitting on 11 yo me. It made me feel this small. Never again. Now in adulthood, my experience with that is walking past guys sitting at a bar, or walking on a street and a guy in a car passing by in the opposite direction stops, then calls out, politely though “please, sister, come here, I want to ask you something etc”, I just say “no” and continue on my merry way – I can hear them say “oooh, but why …?. I figure the “please” merits a verbal response. But as to those who call out “sssssss”, hmm, for them I’m completely deaf.

Same experience walking in new York or new jersey!