A Ghanaian Cedi note used to decorate nails....
Paulina says: I got a call about six months ago from Miss
Jagger-Jagger Ghana about a new cosmetic company that has opened in Accra Ghana
---that “does absolutely everything” and I mean everything --including
liposuction, boob jobs, nose jobs, nip-tucks etc ---and couldn’t wait to fill
me in about the types of women using said services…
I wrote a piece about it but didn’t post it ----as I
didn’t hear back from said cosmetics company when I asked them for a list of
their past satisfied customers. Plus I did some more research and found out via
a big Ghanaian national newspaper that someone had lost their life and some were
complaining about their procedures, so there was no way I was going to post
anything about said cosmetic company….
Anyway I’m sharing this info with you because Miss
Jagger-Jagger Ghana described to the T the types of girls going to the new
cosmetic company and I had to coin a phrase that I thought would encapsulate
everything about these girls and I settled on GDP-ers….
Why GDP-ers? Because its Ghana’s dwindling GDP that’s
been used to appease and feed and clothe and buy weaves for these galssssss.
The thing is….girls/women using men is nothing new
–certainly not in Ghana, but this new class (is that the right word), no…. this
new group of galssssssssss are different..
While many in Ghana like to believe that they are God
fearing, this new group of galsss don’t care and feel no shame, and are happy
to openly discuss the various juju men they visit (something that’s very new and
shocking in uber religious Ghana), and unlike their predecessors, –these
galssss are also happy to sleep with more than one powerful man at a time –with
their various lovers even aware of each other…
Some actually carry explosive messages backs and forth
between their various powerful lovers –I kid you not.
New Ghana, new upstarts…….note that this new group of ‘night’
galsssssssss are not the usual suspects; not the usual media babes, TV
presenters, or singers, or former Miss Ghanas’ and Universes’ or actresses et
al that you and I already know about, …nope these galssssss are made up of some
serious hard-core bush gals, former prostitutes (not the Kwame Nkrumah circle
variety, nope these cats don’t walk the streets but use clubs and bars to ply
their trade) and lower middleclass ‘Yvonne Nelson’ wannabes from mainly the Tema
area… and they are also happily eating through Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
with no shame…
These tacky, in-ya-face bleach red galssss and their
pimply ashy counterparts are also Ghana’s biggest new trend makers –right now…and
with the likes of media hubs like Talk of Gh and Ghana Music.com all about
celebrity and showing us images after image of events that were once off limits
to these galsssss –said kept galsss/women are now out there, seen and admire by
a growing number of new media watchers, who want to be like them –and view
these galssssss as celebrities……
Thus, when they do the tattoo thingy –everyone else
does the tattoo thingy, -when they do music videos for their special rapper
boyfriends -every other Tema/Zongo gal wants to become a video Vixen, -when
they are photographed at various aspirational bars dressed like their favourite
actresses –everyone in Accra dresses the same and goes to said bar..
And whilst the Miss this and that used to be the domain
of Ghana’s upper middle and middleclass daughters of Mr businessman this and Mr
business that, –this aspirational class can now be seen participating in at least
one of the Miss Ghana’s, --be it Miss Malaika, Miss Ghana, Miss Ghana Universe or
whatever every year, –making a hobby for
these beauty pageants –believing that they will win and maybe then be
presentable enough for their rich lovers/sponsors to marry them!!!!
It’s important to note that in conservative Ghana -kept
galsss and woman are permanently in denial, thus the relationship between the
kept woman and the rich man is called sponsoring, as in Mr government officer
is sponsoring my sister etc etc, even though said gal’s sister will be getting
sika in exchange for her body –if you know what I mean…
That these gals are in serious denial is very telling of
how woman are perceived in uber conservative Ghana –but one wonders how a beautiful
gal who landed in Accra only a few years ago from arid northern Ghana, the same
one who claims to be taking care of her entire family ---is able to do soooo whilst
spending her entire day shopping at Accra Mall (said galsss are tooo afraid to ‘do’
Marina Mall), taking photo after photo of her and her galssss in one shop or
another –wearing one outfit or another –with her purchases et al posted daily
to her much-followed Instagram account.
Still I don’t begrudge these galsssssss –we Ghanaian
women like nice things after all, and why shouldn’t they be out there having
expensive fun –my only problem is that unlike the much quieter kept women of yesteryear,
especially those who managed to marry their twenty-five-years-older-Sika-husbands,
-----these galssssss aren’t happy to ‘just’ chill out, stay hidden, and go to
church on Sundays, –no they want to be seen, feel no shame in playing with
married men in the open, and are all over Facebook and Instagram (note these
galssssss don’t have the time to Blog or Tumblr) rubbing their rich lovers’
wives noses into their tacky lives…
I blame Kim Kardashian (laughter), it seems these
galssssssssss all want to be Kim!!! Anyway I’m going on and on only because I’ve
heard some time back that said group of girls were wearing money on their
fingers (I’m like really)…. But I couldn’t for the like of me find any images
of Ghanaian women with said trend so I left it…
But then I stumbled upon the above image and just had to
share…..
Really??? …….I’m wondering how on earth these
galsssssssss can disrespect Ghanaian money!!! How can they disrespect Ghanaian
money by using it to decorate and embellish their tacky acrylic nails –their penultimate
tacky, tacky, tacky no, no trendsetting thingy…. (their latest thing is -----Art,
attending Accra big prestigious events mainly at the Alliance Française Accra
and of course December will see them at the Accra Polo Open at Accra Polo Club)…..
I think I wouldn’t mind as much if the monies used to
decorate their nails were of the photocopied paper money variety –then it
wouldn’t matter would it? –But no…. these are real cut up, razed 1 GHs notes –destroyed
to decorate the tacky acrylic nails of Ghana’s latest aspirational class
–something that just doesn’t sit well with me when the nation of Ghana is
mainly poor.
The thing is ……many would like to forget that starving
children in Ghana are a reality –but it’s no joke –it’s a reality, and the absurdity
of real money nails being used to pay a homeless market women who sleeps in the
same spot she sales with her five children isn’t clever or funny or hot ……but
ugly in any third world country; plus, if you’re using 1 GHC notes to decorate
your manky acrylic nails ---are you spoiling state property?
Can this sort of new trend in Ghana ever be classed as
fashionable or is it plain disrespectful?
I know this phenomena has been doing the rounds in the
States forever ----but that’s America the land of opportunities and not Ghana
–where our economy is on a down turn, in serious recession…
Plus all the above images of Sika nails –even the ones done
properly kind of look cheap and a bit ‘Whore-of-Babylon’ to me….
I’m also wondering………does anyone think real Sika nails
are hot or do you feel, like me, that the money would have been better spent
buying food for the homeless or donated to charity!!!
If you’re a man ----would you be happy to date a woman who
uses real money to decorate her nails?
I wonder what all those hidden moneyed powerful men in
Ghana who go out with these tacky real money-nails-wearing galssss ---think of
this sort of new trend. Do they think it’s tacky, or is it as my mate pointed
out, –exactly the type of whorish look they like and go for?
What do you feel about this ‘Sika nails’ trend???
Am a professional nail tech and a hair stylist
ReplyDeleteDo you hire in Accra?