Awhile back my sister, Sue Lynch, urged me to recollect in writing some of my 18 years of work in West Africa, 1956-1974, thinking they might be of interest to my children and grandchildren. I regret having failed to keep a diary of those wonderful years, and urge young people to keep some record of their early life experiences–but will do my best to remember them now, some 50 years later.
In the 1950’s there was no such thing as email or internet. Phone service everywhere was very expensive. Working overseas for the US government we relied on letters sent through the diplomatic pouch or cablegrams for urgent communication. Fortunately, my mother saved most of my letters home and they have become the primary source for remembering and recounting the times and the life I led in West Africa.
Africa had been a subject of study for me at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and as a Fulbright student in Geneva and Paris in the early 1950’s. Most all of Africa then was under colonial rule (England, France, Portugal) but independence movements were underway. I read lots of African history and the political and economic consequences of colonial rule. I particularly admired the work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa. My research in Paris at “Science Po” was on French colonial policy.
In 1956, I passed the examinations and was offered a job with the US Information Agency. I waited six months for security clearance, finally taking the training program in Washington D.C. I had requested an African post and was assigned a position with the US Consulate in Accra, the Gold Coast. My starting salary, the same for all new Foreign Service officers, was $4,650 a year, and I thought that was pretty good. The Department bore the cost of shipping my personal effects (which weren’t much), from Madison, CT to Accra.