"Mr. Smith" Takes on Washington

Perception is reality. People in the developing world often have an unrealistic view of America. The results can be deadly, as America pursues its foreign policy goals.

by Melvin Rhodes

His name was Smith, an unusual name for an African. The young man was just 18 years of age. We were talking outside the royal palace in Kumasi, ancient capital of the Ashanti kingdom in what is now the Republic of Ghana.

I had taken a group of North American visitors to see the palace. As I had seen it a number of times before, I suggested they go inside for a tour, while I stayed in the van. Young Mr. Smith approached the car and asked me to buy some of his art work, greeting cards that he had made himself, each with its own Ghanaian design. Each card was 2,000 cedis, Ghana’s national currency—or four cards for less than one U.S. dollar, at the current rate of exchange. I bought a few from him.

I remarked that one of the students who had gone into the palace was also called Smith, Logan Smith, a 22-year-old United Youth Corps volunteer from Washington state. I asked "Smith" how he got his name.

"My father was a goat smith, so he called me Smith. Smith is my first name."

He told me that he was a student in a remote village not far from Elmina, a coastal town famous for its Portuguese-built slave castle, a major tourist attraction. I commented on the fact that Kumasi is a long way from Elmina. He said his father died and his mother was a market woman in Kumasi. Smith came to Ghana’s second city every summer to try to sell cards to raise money for another year of education. "They won’t even allow you to enter school unless you have 1 1⁄4 million cedis to give them." That’s less than 150 U.S. dollars, but it’s a few months’ wages for the average Ghanaian. Even more for somebody selling cards for a pittance.

He asked me where I was from. "From America," I said. He then asked me a few questions about America.

Read the full article at www.ucg.org/news-and-prophecy/mr-smith-takes-washington

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