Tribal.

Tattoos aren’t big in Ghana. I haven’t seen a man with a woman’s name stamped on his forehead, or a lady sporting a “tramp stamp” on her lower back.

What I do see are small black lines on a person’s face. They could be on one cheek or two, close to the nose or far, on the forehead, trailing down the neck...any number of shapes and sizes. Even though these marks resemble the thick black lines of an ink tattoo…but they aren’t tattoos, they are tribal marks.

Some of the marks aren’t inked in, some are scars…when people are too young to remember their faces get cut…the marks can be small lines or long jagged trails…and by looking at them you can know a person’s tribe, if they are royal, their profession, and a host of other things I’m sure I don’t know. The ritual scarring is strange to me, I notice it, I remember it and I’ve started to look for it on people. I’ve heard 60% of people in Ghana have them. If they aren’t on the face, then there are marks on the body (chest, side) each uniquely tailored to a particular tribe.

My hometown on Long Island never took itself so seriously…that is one thing I admire about Ghanaian culture. The togetherness, the community, the belonging.