Swiss | Ghanaian

Photo credit: Provided by subject

I am a 61-year-old man, born to a Ghanaian Mother and a Swiss Father. I am the third of four of their children. I jokingly consider myself a helvetized Ashanti. I was born in Kumasi and grew up in Ghana. I enjoyed my education in Accra at the Ramseyer Memorial Swiss School and later in Switzerland in a boarding School on the Zugerberg. I’ve been heavily disappointed in early years by religion itself. I do however believe in the power of emotions, most of all in laughter and happiness. I am heterosexual person, with a total open mind to other human to human sexual orientation. I have been married 38 years to my German wife, have three beautiful daughters and one granddaughter. I have two quasi adopted sons, one from Cameroon and one from Ghana, who I take care of and guide through their lives, hoping for them to one day enjoy a good and successful life. One being my personal protégé, a former player of the African Football Club in Zürich, Switzerland of which I was allowed to be the president of for a few years and the other, a golf caddy in need of a guiding hand, being at the right place at the right time. With a little bit of my help, he enjoyed a technical school to become a certified mechanical engineer.

My Father went through a commercial apprenticeship, partially in the German speaking and French speaking parts of Switzerland. Things were rather difficult in Europe right after World War II, and he had an even harder time finding an unbiased suitable chance of a good job due to his cleft, he chose to apply for a job at a Unilever subsidiary in London.

Unfortunately, the position was given to someone else and he was asked to join the expat team for the Swiss African Trading Company in Ghana, then being the Gold Coast. This was very much to his liking.

Him and his colleagues were housed in little apartments above the office in Kumasi. Being an Obroni (Obroni is the Ashanti, more specifically, the Twi word for a White person, but sometimes used to refer to foreigners in general), the company directive was that one could have fun and mingle with local people, but by all means not have a relationship with a local woman. My Father disobeyed the directive and fell in love with my Mother. At first, they hid their relationship well, but when my Mother became pregnant for the first time, the hiding game was over. In the meantime, my Father had risen to be the number two of the company in Ghana and thanks to his colleagues and a favourable boss, he could rent his own place, together with his girlfriend. It was only after all quarrels were settled, they got legally married in 1953. They stayed happily married for 63 years, until my Mother died in 2016. 

The combination of two different cultures can be hard to handle. My parents raised us, initially speaking three languages. My Mother taught us Twi and English and our Father would stick to speaking Swiss German to us. To simplify our conversations, my Mother learnt Swiss German and my Father learnt Twi. Important issues were discussed in English and personal debates were held in Swiss German. Food wise, we enjoyed more European cooking, but had regular traditional dishes throughout. I have kept that until today.

Every year we would travel to Switzerland on a long vacation. Occasionally, my Father would combine the holiday trip with business issues. If those were lengthy, we would be forced to join a Swiss local school for days and weeks. I hated the short school stints. Being called a Mulatto, a Copper Coloured or a Negerli (little African child) could put me in rage, when I was young. One was always the centre of attraction, be it positive or negative. I would always be challenged to see, if I were as intelligent and smart, as the Swiss people thought their kids to be. It was a constant comparison and judgement if I was equal or inferior.

My Father had raised me to be equal, if ever in question, then to try and be superior; ‘you have two souls in you. That makes you more’, he used to say. My oldest brother for instance was brought to Switzerland and left to be raised by the parents of my Father. In those days, one felt it would be the best thing, to allow my brother to have a good, solid Swiss upbringing and education. Apart from being away from his parents for long periods of time, I still see nothing bothering negative in him today.

As far as music was concerned, our whole family was left to enjoy as freely as possible. I am a child of rhythm and soul, RnB, Motown and good Afrobeat. Both parents enjoyed big band music and Highlife (Highlife, a type of West African popular music and dance that originated in Ghana in the late 19th century, later spread to western Nigeria, and flourished in both countries in the 1950s. The earliest form of highlife was performed primarily by brass bands along the Ghanaian coast).

Until the recent past, I felt more Ghanaian than Swiss. I never ever felt both simultaneously. My upbringing was full of personal freedom, choice, and judgement. Being the son of a very reputable and successful Swiss in Ghana, I had friends in the Swiss community and in all other foreign communities too. My Mother being a member of Ashanti royalty, allowed me to also have many local friends. So, in a way, I have always considered myself somewhat of a pioneer in bringing many different nationalities together, for long lasting friendships and more. That was almost impossible before my days.

That is where my Swiss attitude would kick in; I would invite most of my friends to sleep over and enjoy our easy way of life. Sadly, only two families of my Obroni friends would return the favour. For all others, local or expatriate families, I was not worthy. I was always sure of one thing: I never wanted a Swiss wife! I have a distorted picture of true Swiss families. I do not like their unsympathetic suspicion of everything foreign, their false kindness when they do not know you better and giving you the feeling of their superiority. The Germans are no better, but they are very direct and straightforward, and have undoubtedly the prettier women overall. My wife is German. 

During my boarding school days, I was openly ashamed of being part Swiss. I was generally mistaken for the African American, or Anglo African. I had quite a few brawls over racial indifferences, as well as defending myself against outright racists. In those days, being Swiss meant being close to a Neanderthal, slow in mind, outdated and national to me. 

I succumbed to the art of transformation and chose to be an international, world travelled person, both in Ghana and Switzerland, as well as anywhere else in the world I was to be. It became some sort of a game. Wherever I travelled to and was asked where I was from, I would choose the nationality better suited to the country I was in. For instance, in the States I was Swiss to the Caucasian American and Ghanaian to the African American.

After my children were born, all three White, blonde, and blue eyes, I experienced a few amusing situations. At Parents’ Day in school for my daughters, I had teachers come and ask me, who I was coming to see. My daughters always walked to school together. Once, I was driving the same direction and stopped to give them a lift in the car. They jumped in and we drove to the school. As I dropped them off, the driver of the car that had been following us came over and asked the girls if they were okay. He then came to me and apologized for assuming I was going to kidnap them. Today, I really don’t realize that I look different to onlookers, and I don’t care!

Interracial relationships in the generation of my Grandparents, were inexistent. Even marrying a person with a different religion was considered a no go. Interracial relationships in my parents’ generation was tolerated, but widely frowned upon. I do however recall quite some friends of my parents, Swiss/Dutch, Swiss/French, Swiss/Canadian, Swiss/Italian, British/Indian, British/Ghanaian couples, who often attended our cocktail parties in Ghana.

My generation is full of interracial relationships. I am part of an overwhelming mixed-race species. Today, it’s more of a social thing to combine cultural, religious, and racial profiles, but there is also a growing tendency towards a right wing ‘keep the blood line clean’ ideology. Today, a passport defines your nationality and your skin colour your ethnicity. I do not see the proclaimed togetherness, but I am observing a broader acceptance to mixed nationality partnership. That excludes the mixed-race relationship, unfortunately.,

Life would be so much less complicated if the stereotypical way of thinking of ethnic separation disappeared. Asians, Arabs, Caucasians, Africans, indigenous people (from the Aborigines, Maori, Polynesian, American Indian, Indio etc.) tend to mix with ‘their own kind’. That was so, that is so and that will always be so. Exceptions confirm the rule!

The positive thing about my identity as a mixed heritage has the advantage of being part of two worlds, two cultures. It enables broader general knowledge. It makes it easier to learn languages, if having to use it on a daily basis. My acceptance for hand to mouth situations, understanding living to be, rather than being to live, I see as big positives. My growing up phase was a maximal positive, being where I grew up, how I could grow up and with whom.

The list of challenges is much shorter but weighs down much heavier. Having to confront racism in both home countries, because of either a too dark, or too light skin color. Missed out job positions and opportunities, being a suspect when shopping, and even having been told, not to be entitled to having an opinion. 

I have been fired, apparently clients felt intimidated by me, I have been asked to speak at a university podium and a political session on my experiences in life, lived as a mixed-race citizen. My positives and challenges facing my identity is simply a yin yang situation!

The first 16 years of my life I grew up in Ghana. Thereafter I finalized my studies in Switzerland and started my working career there. From 1985 I moved back to Ghana with my young family but had to leave back to Switzerland in 1988. During my professional career, I travelled to and worked in many countries around the world.

As of 2007, I visit Ghana every year, that being stopped in 2020, due to the Corona situation.

2016 I travelled to Ghana, specifically to my Mother’s home village, to officially inform the elders and village people of my Mother’s passing. I had to explain why her body was not brought back for burial yet, because it is actually a locally binding custom to have the village Queen buried in the village with a pompous funeral including wake keeping and many other custom rites. But the simple fact that my parents had vowed to be buried together, at the same place, at the same time, made this wish to abide by traditional custom impossible. Sort of a clash of cultural settings. By the way I was made her successor and have become the official chief of the village. 

As a child, I felt considered cute in both cultures and as an adult I feel like an unwanted reason for constant argument about race affiliations. In Ghana a bit less, as any person with a lighter complexion is considered an African American or an Afro European. But more so in Switzerland, where people are baffled by my perfect local language knowledge and mastery of local customs and practices.

As a child, I would be treated with sweets, upon entering a store with my Swiss Father. Today I'm the shop detective's primary observation target. Even amongst closest friends, in my case almost only mixed-race couples and families, because of my marriage to a German, there is always a certain tightrope walk of some friends, whether I am fully accepted or, if necessary, tolerated in the ‘group’. One of the very painful experiences I have to overcome is a Filipino acquaintance and her family, with whom we have had a close friendship since 1989 and I recently had to feel that I was a kind of inferior race for her.

Working in Ghana was easy for me and my wellbeing. I was simply the son of the boss. Later I was the boss and the son of the old boss. In Switzerland I went through different stages of consideration. The first years of work from 1979 to 1985 I was employed for less important positions, with relatively little self-competence and potential for growth. From 1989 I worked among other things for a large trade fair construction company, in which my superiors let me feel almost every day that I was not allowed to be part of the successful team because of my skin color. Accordingly, I was fired. However, after a court decision, the company had to pay me a ‘good’ compensation.

After that I got good jobs and income through conviction and above average work, with a lot of effort, overtime, professional competence and success. I am a pioneer and was a specialist in relocation services in Switzerland for 18 years.My last employer was again rather brutally elitist and struggled a lot with myself as a figurehead and figurehead in the relocation area for his company. I was ordered into the office and replaced by a person with no expertise, and not of my skin color. I have been highly successful as a self-employed since 2015 and work with most of the former customers of my former employer.

During the pandemic I have stuck to the rules and regulations, and some of my own guidelines, solicited by the Swiss federal government and the local authorities. My biggest COVID-19 issue has been monitoring my best friend getting infected and struggling through an unbearable ordeal. Satisfyingly, he made it through nerve wrecking three weeks and is now confirmed Corona free.