KUMASI, Ghana—The abosuwo, or two-yard cloth, is an incredibly useful garment made up of a shirt and two cloths, each two yards long. The cloths are worn around the waist like a wrap skirt; the outer one can be taken off and used in a surprising number of ways. Even hip twenty-somethings who wear nothing but trendy items will don a two-yard cloth around the house. It's simply an indispensable item. In fact, after being introduced to this convenient cloth I had been using it around the house in Canada for years before arriving in Ghana.
Baby on Board, but She's Not Bored!
The two-yard cloth's most laudable use is as a baby holster. Baby piggybacks mom, and the cloth holds the baby to mom's body with the tension made by the baby's own weight. Children absolutely love this closeness with their mother, not to mention the great view of all the action, so they cry much less when carried this way. And it frees mom's hands so she can do whatever she needs to: cook, clean, walk (even run a tiny bit), sit, or stand. Junior rides contentedly on back, with little or no strain to the back. Really, it's a marvellous system. Often junior will nod off within minutes; just readjust the cloth, putting his or her chubby little arms inside. The baby is strapped in and can sleep that way without neck strain for quite some time.
Learn to wear a baby. It silences screaming and puts a cranky sleep-hater off to la la land -- sometimes in under a minute. Why not put an end to the whining and trouser-pulling when you have no extra hand to pick up?
According to studies, wearing your baby is the latest health trend. I have tried the neck-destroying and overpriced "sling," and that thing called the Snugglie (which I began to suspect was designed by chiropractors looking for clientele).
The Cloth That Does It All
If you are not carrying a baby in the second two-yard cloth, you may use it as a sweater, even a sweater for two. You will often see old ladies in the chilly 14 degree C night air wrapping it around their shoulders. It is a travel must, guarding one against overzealous air conditioners.
Sleeping over somewhere unexpected? Forgot your towel? It's a dry cloth two-yards long. You do the math.
Guests at my house have asked for one of my cloths, laid it out on the floor and slept on it without complaint. In the old days, this cloth was laid down on a mattress of thatched grass affectionately called sori co edjuma (get up and go work) because of its comfort. Nowadays people sleep on latex foam, which may leave you feeling a bit sweaty, but it's utterly distasteful to bed bugs. A definite plus.
If you are an old lady, you may carry a grandchild in the cloth, but being seen in one cloth is a tad indecent. It is respectable only when you are wearing two.
That said, in an extreme emergency one may take off a cloth, wrap it into a little ring and use it to carry large items on your head. In fact this is one of the places old two-yard cloths go to die. Once they've been washed thin, they can be used as a head cushion.
African Ergonomics: Heads above the Rest
This brings us to our next topic. People living in cooler countries without crazy bacteria and viruses may, on occasion, be foolhardy enough to use their mouths as a third hand. I'm sure dentists and doctors will agree it's a bad idea. In West Africa there is a longstanding better option. Carrying things on your head is a part of the culture here.
People can carry truly huge, cumbersome objects on their heads with relative ease. Equally interesting, some use their heads to carry tiny objects, like a single orange, a toothbrush, or a book. It is just such a natural action for the people here.
I have learned to carry folded laundry and bags of groceries on my head. It is actually quite comfortable, and it makes the old women in my neighbourhood happy when they see it. But really, I'm a pitiful novice. I may need to hold on gently with a hand.
My mother-in-law can carry a huge basin filled to the brim with 70 lbs. of water. Another woman will help her lift it onto her head. Mom will carry the basin of water a mile without touching it with her hand once. She will not spill a drop though as she walks along an unpaved dirt road with hills in flip-flops. At the end of her journey, someone will help her set the basin down and place it on the ground (though that person better not be me because I've given myself an accidental shower trying to be "helpful" more than once). Mom will do it all without spilling a drop. Not one. Really. Not a drop.
This habit, which may seem harmful to the neck a first glance, is surprisingly comfortable once you get the hand of it -- in my completely unscientific estimation it's about 70 percent more comfortable than carrying things in your hands, off your hip, or on your shoulder. It also seems to have brought about generally excellent posture in Ghana, unmatched by even a lifetime of Eliza Doolittle book-on-the-head training.
Canadian Epoch Times correspondent Zoe Ackah is spending a year in rural Ghana. This story is part of a series in which Zoe shares her culture shock and her thoughts on life in one of West Africa's more prosperous nations. For more articles in the series, visit www.TheEpochTimes.com and search "West African Journal".
Correction: the last two columns in this series incorrectly spelled Kumasi as Kamusi. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
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