Commerce and trade everywhere

We understand that 80 percent of Ghanaian women work as market traders or sellers, and commerce and trade are everywhere. These are two images of a small roadside stand on the busy Cape Coast to Accra road. In any town the stands are very dense and the offerings very great. In addition, there are further retail opportunities at any intersection or stoplight where vendors venture out into the traffic with foodstuffs, drinks and just about anything else you could ever need. One of these nice pineapples goes for about one cedi (50 cents) each.

Bushmeat on the side of the road

On the way back to Accra today (minus the rest of the group), our driver Alex and guide Ernest did some roadside shopping. First stop: 'bushmeat,' in this case the 'grass cutters' that I have mentioned before. The preferred choice was the roasted/smoked ones rather than the fresh ones. There was, as usual, quite a discussion over the price with 50 cedis finally settled upon. The two split one and it was cut into pieces and put into two of the ubiquitous black plastic bags. It will be made into a soup with onions, tomatoes, eggplant, salt and pepper and eaten with fufu.

Anomabo

During the week ahead our students, pictured here with our bus driver Alex, are doing service learning around Anomabo, about half an hour from Cape Coast on the road back to Accra.

In the rainforest

Much of what was once rain forest in Ghana has been over taken by villages, farms and cities. But there is a 375 square kms park in Central Region, near Abrafo, where the rain forest remains - Kakum National Park. We visited there on Saturday. There is an informative museum and one can stay overnight in a vast tree fort (that holds 25), or in tents. We went mainly to experience a 330 meter canopy walk, in seven pieces, through the rain forest. It was very warm and humid inside the rain forest, as it tends to be here, and no cooling ocean breeze. The canopy walk was slightly intimidating but we all made it through. Afterwards, on the way down, we enjoyed fresh coconut water and coconut meat, as one can all over Ghana.

The Last Bath

Today I returned to the Central Region with our students. This time, shortly before Cape Coast, we turned off the main road to visit Assin Manso and the river where African captives were taken for their 'last bath' before they were imprisoned in the dungeons of Cape Coast or Elmina Castle before being loaded onto ships for the Americas. We were told about the last bath when we visited both castles last weekend. The 'park' also celebrates and commemorates those who fought against the slave trade, colonialism and racism and discrimination.

Kofi Annan Centre

Today we visited the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in the Teshie area of Accra - a southern part of the city on the beach. The KAIPTC was established around 2003 and serves as a center of excellence for research and training in peace support operations. While there we met with members of the Women, Peace and Security Institute who provided us with an informative overview of the important work that they are doing around the broader peace and security agenda in Africa. WPSI seeks to support women's contributions to peace negotiations and peacekeeping and security sector reform initiatives that support the peace and security agenda in Africa.

Making bracelets

A very common souvenir here in Ghana are black bracelets adorned with the Ghanaian flag and any name you would like. You just write down the name(s)on a piece of paper and in minutes you will have a personalized bracelet for three to five cedis. Here, watching and waiting while bracelets are made at Cape Coast.

Volta Hall at UG Legon

On Sunday morning Peace and I went for a long walk around campus. We ended up at Volta Hall, the all women residence hall - for ladies with vision and style - where Peace lived for three years while an undergraduate here. A very nice hall! There is also a men's hall and then the rest of the 'hostels' are all 'co-ed.'

Elmina and Cape Coast

Accra is a city of 4 million people and Ghana is a country of 25 million people and, as noted previously, Elmina and Cape Coast are not the sleepy fishing villages I, for some reason, thought they were going to be. Fishing seems the definite mainstay alongside the ubiquitous trading. Each town is dominated by its castle and a fort; both are located in Ghana's Central Region. From Accra, one arrives first in Cape Coast and then on to Elmina. Elmina was established in 1482 at the site of a village called Amankwa, the first European (Portuguese) settlement in West Africa, and served as a provisioning station for ships going farther south to the Cape of Good Hope on their way to India. The Portuguese were originally interested in trading gold from Elmina but that quickly changed to trading in humans. Cape Coast is about 165km west of Accra - on a two lane road - and is about four times the size of Elmina and is the capital of the Central Region. It was also established by the Portuguese in the 15th century at the site of the Fante village Oguaa and, like Elmina, changed hands between the Portuguese, Dutch and British before reverting to an independent Ghana in 1957.

 

The slave castles

For a time the castles in both Elmina and Cape Coast served as 'slave castles.' St Georges Castle in Elmina, the older of the two, was first built to store wares for trading by the Portuguese but that quickly changed to holding Africans in subhuman conditions, waiting to be shipped to destinations in the Americas. We had guided tours with others at both castles, viewing the male and female slave dungeons, the doors of no return from which the captives were walked out to waiting ships after months inside the dungeons, the living, entertaining, worshipping and trading quarters and halls that were above the slave dungeons and used by the Europeans. Both castles are now World Heritage Sites. According to one source, Michelle Obama considers Cape Coast her ancestral home. When she and BO visited Ghana in July 2009 they left this plaque at the castle in Cape Coast.

Coconut Grove Beach Resort

We are staying for two nights at the Coconut Grove Beach Resort, right on the Atlantic Ocean and just beyond Elmina. It is very nice, with lots of coconut trees everywhere. It is not very crowded, mostly a group from Barclay's Bank Ghana and a few others are around, though things could liven up on the weekend. We are here with our friend Peace Medie, whom we know from the 2010 APSA Africa Workshop in Dar es Salaam. In the evening it has been high tide and there is a nice breeze; though in not very long one also feels sticky, presumably from the salt. Kuno is having a blast in the waves and playing pingpong and walking along the beach is fun as well. The food is fine and we have finally even tried Ghanaian chocolate - a brand called Golden Tree. It seems to have much less of either sugar or fat, or maybe both, than the chocolate we are used to. There is lots of fishing activity around us - large groups of men pulling in vast nets on ropes by hand or fishing boats heading out to sea at dusk (just as they did in Dar es Salaam) to attract fish with lights - and then return again in the early morning.

A trotro to Cape Coast

We went to the coast today, specifically Cape Coast and Elmina. I want Mave and Kuno to get out of Accra and to see the ‘slave castles.’ We took a ‘trotro’ from the Kaneshie bus station and market in Accra; I thought we would be taking a ‘very nice bus,’ but instead it was Ghana’s ubiquitous form of public transportation, the trotro, what in southern Africa is called a kombi and what in southern Africa is always white and somewhat more pristine, shall we say. We were fully loaded, of course. There was lots of traffic along the way and frequent road signs warning ‘overspeeding kills’ and then listing the number of ‘persons’ killed on that spot. The towns that we passed through were bustling and there was commerce everywhere; foodstuffs included tomatoes and potatoes, papayas and pineapples, coconut, plantains, watermelon and cassava among many others. A local delicacy is very large rats, otherwise known as grasscutters, that were also in abundance. [Kuno did some research on these and found out that they are also called cane rats because they eat sugar cane; also that people actually raise them for consumption.] We saw blue plastic bags piled high with (cooked) kenkey which is basically fermented (cornmeal) pap and which is a staple in Ghana. I saw everywhere the second hand fridges that are imported from the US and Europe that the government of Ghana is trying to discourage and get rid of. And of course second hand clothing everywhere as well - the single largest export from the US to Africa! We saw many primary schools and kids in their brown and yellow uniforms to match their brown and yellow schools. Once we got to the coast we saw wooden fishing boats being carved from felled trees. At all junctions there are vendors of every imaginable item or food stuff one might need. There were many police check points along the way though we, in our old trotro, were never stopped by any of them. Wherever we go we also see lots of campaign posters left over from the presidential election. Once in Cape Coast we got a taxi to our hotel, the Coconut Grove Beach Resort, which is just beyond Elmina. I was surprised at how densely populated Cape Coast and Elmina are - definitely not sleepy fishing villages - and a smell of fish pervades everything everywhere. All in all our ride had been quite a dusty one and had taken us more than four hours.

Tailor-made clothing

A seamstress named Elizabeth has graced us with her presence and her talents. She comes to Yiri Lodge with an array of stunning fabrics and takes orders for dresses, skirts and shirts. Everyone is measured and a few days later she returns with beautifully crafted clothing. The cost for the finished product, material included: 28 cedis or 14 dollars per item!

A presidential inauguration

Not able to attend the presidential inauguration in the USA since we will be here, we were instead very fortunate to be able to attend Ghana's presidential inauguration at Independence Square this morning. It was so much fun! We took our bus to a vast parking lot in front of Parliament and from there walked to Independence Square. We seemed to arrive just as President Mahama was being sworn in, marked by loud gun salutes. The opposition boycotted the swearing-in and the crowd was a sea of NDC supporters. The women were adorned in NDC finery and the men in smocks and NDC shirts and hats. There were many vendors selling NDC ware, in addition to foodstuffs and drinks. For sound effects there were mini vuvuzelas which Kuno was quick to purchase. Since the ceremony was still going on, we got seats in the shaded stands and so were able to participate in full. There were large screens on which we were barely able to make out the stage. The person who got the most roaring applause from the crowd while we were there was Jerry Rawlings (and his wife). It was quite remarkable. We could also clearly see Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, one of 11 African heads of state to attend the ceremony. We also think we picked out, from his trademark hat, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Ghana's own Kofi Annan. It was pretty cool! Before we knew it the inauguration was over.

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park

Today we went to Accra to do some 'sight seeing.' We enjoyed Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park where we visited a small but informative museum about Ghana's first leader. I learned something new and that is that after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 he became a co president of Guinea with Sekou Toure! He died in Bucharest in 1972 while seeking medical treatment and his body was in a few places before finally resting at the mausoleum in front of the museum. We also saw the (now headless) statue of Nkrumah that was toppled during the coup with the head only retrieved years later and now placed beside the headless statue. A newer bronze image now stands in front of the mausoleum on the exact spot on which Nkrumah declared Ghana's independence in 1957.

We drove quite a while on High Street which was Accra's original main thoroughfare and has now been renamed John Atta Mills High Street in honor of the late president who died in July. We drove through Jamestown and other parts of Old Accra. We also visited the Centre for National Culture otherwise known as the Arts Center, which is basically a shopping spot for tourists and said to be the most visited site in the country. Lots of haggling over inflated prices as we made our purchases. We ended up for lunch on Oxford Street.

Note to students: the name Accra is believed to come from the Akan word nkran which means ants and refers to the numerous anthills around the city!

University of Ghana Legon

We are on the edge of the University of Ghana Legon campus and today we got a much better sense of this sprawling lovely campus. UG Legon is one of several universities and tertiary institutions in the country with nearly 40,000 students. It is one of the oldest and one of the best universities in West Africa, founded in 1948 in affiliation with University of London, attaining university status in 1961. We started at the famed Balme Library, in front of which we took a group photo of our students.