free press

By West African standards, Ghana has a relatively free press – and by free, I guess I mean free to be, ala the National Enquirer, a bit absurd. One of my favorite all time front page stories was printed by The Mirror ("Ghana’s most popular weekly since 1953") and proclaimed in enormous typeset "CRIPPLES ON RAMPAGE". This was accompanied by a full page picture of a man on crutches staring menacingly out at the reader. It turns out that the "cripples" really were on a bit of a "rampage," reacting to a perceived cut in benefits from a local social service agency. The summary read: "the manager of the Cripples Home of the Ghana Society for the Socially Disadvantaged has clashed with the physically challenged trainees (why are we so PC all of the sudden?) of the centre attracting military intervention, police arrests and detention of some of the trainees." Another story promised by the front page was entitled "Why Do You Want to Rape Your Wife?" What?!?! Page 12 told us that this headline was really a critique of otherwise liberal-minded male political commentators who were refraining from supporting a Domestic Violence Bill that would make it a crime to rape ones wife. Fair enough reporting, so maybe it’s just the headlines that leave you scratching your head or bugging out your eyes. Some of the headlines, like those I just mentioned, are clearly designed to shock or provoke interest, others are shockingly mundane ("New Equipment for Radiology Department") and others simply baffling, such as "My Swollen Feet Persist", "What are We Doing?" and "This is Your Captain Speaking"

Another weekly, P & P (People and Places: We Report Nothing but the Truth) leads with story "Witch Donates Blood to Rich Brother" with an inset promising next week’s inside story: "Be Careful, That Fanta Pineapple May Have More Than You Can Drink" accompanied by a too large photo of a bottle of soda. Looking forward to that one. A quick turn of the page reveals the P & P to be of a slightly sleazier variety than The Mirror – "Pregnant Woman Strips Lover Naked" "Boy, 17, Attacks Old Woman For Sex?" (they printed the question mark) and "Driver Strapped by Love". These stories are not jokes as the titles might have you believe. The pregnant woman actually did strip her lover naked after an argument in the market; the public nature of the act making it newsworthy, I suppose. While the local stories are not parodies, the page of "Foreign News and Tit Bits" (yes, it reads "tit bits") is actually culled from the Weekly World News (a joke tabloid) and so unknowingly has a page full of made up stories! I suppose the editors reasoned that anything entitled the "Weekly World News" would have just that – breaking news items from around the world. So, the paper that "reports nothing but the truth" unwittingly contains spoof articles of the kind you’d read in The Onion. One is entitled "Man files for ‘moral bankruptcy’" and another story centers around the newly discovered secret writings of Jesus, which include bar mitzvah thank you cards to his Aunt Muskah for the carpentry set.

To be fair, there are some seriously legitimate periodicals, which have thorough reporting and insightful commentary and provdie a good glimpse into what is important to Ghanaians and how they view the world. There is a lot of emphasis on politics, which makes sense in a part of the world that has had some serious political upheavals in recent memory and future stability is not a foregone conclusion. But I think the biggest insight I've gained through my not so scientific perusal of Ghanaian periodicals is that sex, violence and the oddball or touching human interest story will pretty much universally help sell papers in a free economy. And the headlines keep the tiny demographic of foreigners buying papers for the unintentional comedic value.