Fake n' Shake

Lately I’ve had several people ask me if I’m still in Ghana, which leads me to conclude that I need to update my blog. And what better proof that I’m still here than more commentary on (relatively) recent news?

I’m not talking about the loss of Ghana’s Black Stars soccer team to the Egyptian Pharohs in the final of the African Cup of Nations, as unfortunate as that was, but another event from last month, one that was perhaps less likely to end up on the global news feed.

On Sunday, January 17th, several days after the big earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, Ghanaians had an earthquake scare of their own. It was, however, literally only a scare – there was no earthquake involved. How does one have an earthquake scare without any tremors, you might ask? Many Ghanaians asked themselves that very question, but not before they fled their homes and took to the open streets in the middle of the night in response to a text message that mysteriously circulated around the country.

The message apparently read, “Today’s night 12:30 to 3:30 am, COSMIC RAYS entering Earth from Mars. Switch off your mobiles today’s night. NASA, BBC news, plz pass to all your friends.”

And Ghanaians did just that, visiting and phoning friends, family, and neighbors across the country to warn them. One reporter wrote that “love for fellow human beings manifested when some volunteers took it upon themselves to move from house to house to alert occupants to come out of their rooms to avert danger.” Somehow the message morphed into a warning about an impending earthquake, and before major radio stations and government officials began clarifying that the message was a hoax early Monday morning, hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians around the country had left their homes to stand outside.

In Kumasi, “horror-stricken residents… left the comfort of their rooms, spending the night outside in freezing weather conditions…” (It was 60 degrees.) Not everyone left in a hurry – “while some people rushed out of their rooms leaving behind their belongings, many were seen with their valuable assets, including TV sets, furniture, mattresses, cooking utensils and computers.”

In Accra, where I was staying with a fellow Fulbrighter at the University of Ghana, we both slept through her flatmate’s repeated attempts to wake us up. For better or worse, we missed the early-morning social that commenced on the lawn of the student hostel as students rushed blearily from their dorms and gathered outside. (Perhaps a sign that we are working too hard?) I didn’t hear about the event until the next morning, and then from more in-depth nationwide coverage in Tuesday’s papers, from which these quotes are culled.

From a sociological standpoint, it was fascinating, illustrating the penetration of Ghana’s mobile networks and showing how quickly information – and misinformation – spreads via social networks and mobile phones. It also has some bearing on my project, since I’m partly interested in whether mobile phones enable information about irregular immigration routes to spread more quickly. One prominent blogger, Ethan Zuckerman, wondered whether bad information spreads more quickly via mobiles than official clarifications from government leaders.

Aside from sleepy faces and general sheepishness on Monday morning, however, little was lost by the the great Fake n’ Shake of 2010. As is common in Ghana, the situation quickly turned into cause for community socializing. Many Ghanaians gathered in churches to pray, while the seaside city of Cape Coast’s Ecobrigade team thoughtfully cleaned the beaches so people could sit and lay down their sleeping mats more comfortably. One newspaper noted that “although the whole thing turned out to be a hoax, it showed the Ghanaian camaraderie and sense of belongingness.”

It is indeed comforting to know that you live in a place where your neighbors will wake you up when there’s danger – even if you sleep through it.

P.S. For the record, I’m here until the end of July.