Technology is a good thing. In fact, technology has made our lives so much easier – microwaves, blenders, washing machines for clothes and dishes, vacuum cleaners, dry-cleaning shops – that the real work that our grandparents, and even our parents, did at home is now a thing of the past. In modest Ghanaian homes in Accra, Kumasi and some of the large cities across the country, one will find some of these comfort-producing and labor-reducing technological tools, making the work of the housewife or maid a lot easier than it used to be. These are the good aspects and good applications of modern technology in Ghanaian society.

Conversely, there are aspects of Western technological advances that have crippled our women completely. What do I mean? Well, I chose the word “crippled” because the applications of these modern technologies have caused our women to throw away their authenticity, embracing values that have now taken away their self-worth and genuine identity. Today in our nation, one will find women with fake hair; fake half- to one-inch nails; fake breasts (sometimes surgically augmented and sometimes not, which means that some cheap foams are being used to prop up those twin dangers); fake lips (the Angelina Jolie wannabes); fake noses (usually surgically minted to look more Caucasian); fake skin (yeah, all those cancer-producing skin-lighteners!) and even fake buttocks! Yes, all these enhancements are now possible, so some of our women, either because of low self-esteem or the desire to appear “prettier,” indulge in these temporary and permanent appearance-altering practices.

Let us begin with the fake hair syndrome. Perhaps 80-percent of all our women wear fake hair, taken from Caucasian and Indian women! And what about fingernails? It does not take a physician or manicurist to notice that one’s fingernails are fake. So what exactly is the motivation for wearing laboratory-made nails that only harbor millions of germs underneath them? Does the hair have to be long and straight to be considered beautiful? Personally, I love those bold women who wear their hair the natural way, for these women are displaying, in essence, their God-given features and are proud of what they have. Today, we claim that we are free from colonialism, but our behaviors are vestiges of neo-colonialism – we are yet to wean ourselves off the values of the white man!

Fake breasts are possible by means of foams or surgery. The fact remains that many of our women use foams to prop up their twin dangers, but those who have the resources do go for surgery instead to make the enhancements permanent. So, if a guy approaches a woman with fake breasts, will he be right to leave her once he sees the real breasts and realizes that he had been duped? This is a serious ethical dilemma! The augmentation of buttocks is becoming common too, except that many in our nation, luckily, do not need the procedure – they have plenty and even some to spare! However, the fake-skin syndrome is the worst of all the neo-colonialist activities our women engage in! Why do we think that by ending up with a Fanta-like face and a Coca-Cola-like body, we become more attractive? Attractive for whom, if I may ask? We need to stop devaluing our God-given features, for they are truly beautiful!

The sad conclusion resulting from these fake enhancements and accoutrements is that when one runs into a woman trapped in such a world, one only “hears” the words “fake, fake, fake!” And the next relevant question any reasonable man interested in the pursuit of love has is the following: “If her hair is fake, her nails are fake, her eyelashes are fake, her skin is fake and her breasts are fake, what else is fake?” Should he not conclude that everything she says is thereafter also counterfeit? Is it possible then to trust the words of another person who is completely counterfeit in appearance? Is it any wonder that many are struggling to keep their marriages together, especially those based overseas, since these women, somewhat emblazoned with warning signs that these trapped men so tragically missed (or perhaps they chose to look the other way and ended up gambling with the Devil himself!), soon transform from sweet pussycats to terror-inducing tigresses, with strabismal imaginations?

Kwabla Vogah