by Sydney Blaylock, Bean Soup Times Contributor

For six months Sydney Blaylock, Spelman student and Bean Soup Times contributor lived in Accra, Ghana and learned alot about the culture and its people. Here are the top 8 things she loved about Ghana.

1. Food: Red Red, Banku, Yams, Colby Stew, & Plaintains.

2. System of bargaining and trading

3. Azonto Music and Dance

4. Historical Elements (Slave Castles) Culture and Traditions (I didn't LOVE it, but it was important for me to see these places)

5. The people are inventive, creative, and driven.

6. Ghanaian traditional fabrics

7. Taxi Ride (no pic)

8. Volunteering/Donations

Join the Bean Soup Times email list so you will know when Sydney publishes some of her diary about her visit to Ghana. 

NBA All Star Loul Deng, who moved to London with his family as a refugee from Sudan when he was seven, could face a huge fine for stepping forward at the players' presentation ceremony before the game wearing a simple T shirt with a map of Africa across his chest rather than the regulation team strip for the Eastern Conference which he was representing against the Western Conference. Deng wanted to inspire children from Africa.

"I wouldn't do something that's negative," Deng said. "I wouldn't do that at all. If you look at the T-shirt, it's not of anything. I'm not advertising anything. I just felt like being where I'm from and where I came from, it's something that I always wanted to see as a kid. Now that I'm I here I had a chance (to do that). I'm sure there's a kid out there, or a lot of kids, who really enjoyed it and made them happy to see that."

Bean Soup Times thinks this is 'lame' because it's unfortunate that pro sports players are 'crippled' when it comes to political expression.

Daily Deals from Black Businesses

Check out more on ESPN for more.

Does this image remind you of the 1968 Olympics with Tommie Smith and John Carlos? This was an incredible moment in sports history. 

This does raise another question that should be addressed. How much of a professional athlete's personal convictions stiffled or suppressed for the benefit of the "team" and is it always worth it?