Ghanian Bolt Food Driver Thought I was White Threw my Food on Ground Threatened to Beat Me

Monday, 1 May 2023

By: TB Obwoge

After 2 years living in Ghana, writing about the race issues because I was assumed to be a white person because my barely light skin. I have been getting threats, harassment, insults and even people stalking my social media pages. One person sent messages to me insulting and threatening my life, the profile was simply created just to send me that message.

Even with posting of screenshots from the racist comments from Ghanians I am being called a liar. One man from a fake account, claims he's never had anyone report on racism in all of Ghana. As if he's some official racist complaint department of Ghana.

In typical fashion for Ghana he then pointed to Nigeria, claiming this is an issue in Nigeria. Because of the extreme xenophobia in Ghana towards Nigerians this wasn't an unexpected comment.

This person went onto pretend that they weren't a Ghanian, even though all their comments they spoke as a Ghanian. He's saying ALL expats in Ghana all think the same way. Because they've spoken to each and every expat personally but I'm an expat and I'm wrong though.

This fake Facebook account which only has one friend, which is probably the actual person posting from the fake account.

Again this is common in Ghana, most never take responsibility for their negative behavior. Everything they do from calling you obolobo (fat in Twi) to screaming "White Woman" at you in the streets is supposed to be polite.

Africans will live in Western Countries and post about the racism but they don't have any in their countries. This is typical, since no one writes about racism in African countries, it's a school of thought that it doesn't exist. When one Ghanian admitted the comments were racist they also added so what the white man started it first.

One day I order KFC from Bolt Foods, Bolt is likened to Uber and Bolt Foods is likened to Uber Eats. I got a call from the rider saying they were outside, my phone died during the call, so I plugged it into the charger.

When I arrived outside of the compound, gated building which my apartment building is situated on, there were more than 4 food delivery drivers outside. I looked around, none of them were approaching me, one man asked if I was a name which he had on his order, I replied sorry that's not me.

Down the road but facing my home was a Bolt rider, he was on his phone talking to someone. Thinking that's not me, I waited, soon all the people came to collect their food. I was still waiting.

I returned to my phone to call the driver, I called there was no answer, the phone battery was low but I brought the phone outside with me. A driver with a Bolt foods bag drove by me, he looked at me but never stopped driving. I called again, the man answered finally, he comes back it was the driver that drove by me.

This man had been on the road for 15 minutes I was outside for the same 15 minutes. He refused to come to me, even after 1-2 drivers came to me with others orders. I asked him why he refused to come to bring me my food, he said I didn't think you were the one.

I asked how, when everyone else came for their food, why would I be standing outside looking up and down the road? He replied with something then loudly said he would beat me, wait, what? I asked what are you talking about? He then repeats himself, I said I dare you to put a hand on me.

At that time he climbs off his bike, this man is not even 5 feet tall, he's in my face threatening me, to which I'm waiting for him to touch me. He gets close to my body, at this point I am loud, so loud people are looking.

Two men from my apartment building who hear my voice come to see what's happening. One is from Cameroon, the driver starts to speak in Twi to him, Noah and I looked at each other. We both laugh, Noah speaks French, English and another language but not Twi.

The Ghanian Bolt driver thinks because he's a Black man that he's one of them, he's rambling in Twi. Then he claimed that he tried beeping his horn at me when he drove past me, that isn't true. He also didn't use the word beep, I had to ask Noah what he meant by the word he used, I was then told he meant honk his horn.

The man throws the food at my feet onto the ground. He drives off. With Bolt food you can be charged a credit for your food if you don't pay at that time, the balance will be added to your next order. This way him throwing my food on the ground and marking it as delivered will make me have to pay for the food.

I'm not eating food from the ground, I just am not. I wasn't going to pay for the food either. I kicked the food which was at my feet, the photo shows it laying in the pile of rocks.

When I contacted Bold Foods the driver lied, he said that I refused to take the food and he placed it on the wall of my home. I went to take a photo of the wall. The photo was taken within the Bolt Foods app but here is a photo of the wall, if I had a closer photo you can see you can't place food on the wall or anything else from the outside of the compound.

I also took photos of the high grass he would've had to walk through to get to the wall. The food was also no longer on the ground when I returned to take the photo, I don't know who removed the food.

After hours Bolt Foods gave me a credit and issued an apology. I had to ask my ex at the time to bring me food. He also called the Bold Foods driver who he said was rude to him, he screamed at him and hung up on him. The man referred to me as the 'White Lady", this is how I know my treatment was because he thought I was a white person.

Indomie is one of my favorite things to eat in Ghana, however they cover it in nothing but pepper. Making it so hot you can't taste anything, it also upsets my stomach so much. My ex doesn't care that I can't take the pepper he never listened. I was unable to finish the food and refused to place another order the rest of the day.

My time in Ghana was filled with incidents like this, I rarely documented them but now find myself being called a liar. As a Black American woman that never expected this treatment from Africans, after living in Kenya where this wasn't common place.

I regret leaving the safety of Kenya for the horrific issues that I would have never expected from Ghana.

Thank you for reading 🙏🏽 Please consider buying a coffee for Lacey's House efforts in Gender Equality & Children's Rights.

©️TB Obwoge 2023 All Rights Reserved