Figured Worlds

I like the idea or concept of figured worlds as I delved into this week’s reading Holland, Lacicotte, Skinner, & Cain (1998). The first understanding of figured worlds was right from the first page of the third chapter when nationalism was restated as participation in an “imagined community”. An immediate example that came to mind was of my country Ghana. It is country of about 72 languages, and very diverse culturally and linguistically. Because of colonialism from the 1700s to the 1950s, and European imperialism power marking up territories in Africa, different groups of people were put together into one political entity. As a result, you would find ethnic groups in Africa divided into different countries. By independence, even though Ghana was made by of different ethnic groups who spoke different languages, “artifacts” like our shared history, educational systems, oppression from colonialism become pivots in creating our new figured world, our new country. On a broader scale, this is one way I think of “figured worlds”.

On a not so broad scale, I think of the uncountable times my 2-year-old son plays chef. He removes “refrigerator magnets” – which for us are the alphabets – and he picks a bowl from the kitchen cabinet within his reach and pours the alphabet magnets into it. He quickly sets it on a table in the hall, and runs back to the kitchen, opens another cabinet, standing on tip-toes, to pick out a wooden spatula. When he returns, he begins to stir the alphabets in a bowl.

He smiles, “Daddy, I cooking!”

I respond, “You are cooking”

“I cooking!”

“Can I have some?” I ask him. He does not respond but he rushes back to the kitchen and comes back with a bowl, and tries to dish some of the alphabets into the new bowl with his spatula. He tries a couple of times and when he does not succeed, he uses his hands to collect some of the alphabets into a bowl. He brings the bowl to me but does not allow me to hold it. He picks one of the alphabets and tries to push it into my mouth. We both laugh and he runs back to his table. We do this a couple of time till he eventually moves on to something else.

For a brief moment, I join my son’s figured world where he is the chef and I am the one who has to be fed. A world where he recreates what he probably sees his parents doing. Often I think of the way he tries to shove the “food” into my mouth and wonder whether that is how he feels when we have fed him. I hope not. I think about the various tools, artifacts, and thoughts that mediated the various activities he performs. Without these materials, maybe entering his figured world could be impossible.

When I read the story of people of Naudada, I think of my own culture and our figured world. I am a Ga (pronounced guh). Ga is an ethnic group in Ghana, and it is also the name of the language we speak. I am Ga and I speak Ga. Both my parents are Gas. Every August, the Ga people celebrate a festival called Homowo. During Homowo we remember how our ancestors survived a terrible famine when they arrived in Ghana. During Homowo, our chiefs walk the streets of the town and throw food on the streets to celebrate the abundant harvest and to “hoot at hunger” which means Homowo. I talk about this cultural tradition because the activities during Homowo like throwing food on the street forms part of our figured world. Other ethnic groups and outsiders may consider this wasteful, unnecessary and crazy, but for the Ga people, it means everything. Of course, in Ghana when anyone in seen walking the street and throwing food, we would think the person is crazy or is having a meltdown but every August when the Ga people do this, it carries meaning.