25. Colours of Africa: a visit to Ghana

We spent the whole of February 2013 in the exotic land of Ghana in West Africa. This being our first visit to Africa, it evoked both excitement and trepidation at what it would be like.

To start at the very beginning – Rajeev’s greatest fear was the yellow fever shot that one has to take before setting foot in Africa. In Maharashtra, yellow fever shots are only available at two locations in Mumbai - Ballard Estate and near the International Airport. So we made a special trip to Mumbai to get the yellow fever shots and the Ghana Visa. Ghana has a Consulate on the Marine Drive in Mumbai, which is authorised to issue visas. By the time we reached Ballard Estate in Mumbai from Pune it was already 11.30 A.M, and we were not expecting to get our shots that day because they only give 100 shots a day, between 10am and 12 noon. Desperate people line up from 6am. Lucky us! We were numbers 98 and 99 in the queue and only one other girl, Tasneem, who travelled from Pune like us and had been returned the previous day, was accepted after us. Tasneem gave us scary details of how she was detained in Nairobi the previous time she had travelled without her yellow fever shot and was “quarantined”.

Getting the visa the next day was a cake walk as we had all our papers including our confirmed tickets. We had booked our flight tickets on the Ethiopian Airlines, which has one of the shortest flight times to Ghana. We selected it because it offered the best rates at the time. 

A picture taken from the window of the aircraft

The flight has a half hour halt at Addis-Ababa, to switch to the connecting flight to Accra. It is a very short window and as feared we missed our Addis to Accra flight on the 1^st Feb.!! Not a bad thing at all because the 11 hour flight after travelling 4 hour by taxi from Pune the previous night and sitting up the whole night at Chhatrapati Shivaji Intl. Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai  had left me feeling less than perfect and in desperate need of a break. We were put up at a nice hotel called Panorama and as we had packed up an overnight bag which we had carried as cabin baggage, we had a comfortable stay in Addis. The hotel provided us lunch, dinner and breakfast at 5 am the next day, before taking us to the airport. Addis Ababa has a few ‘museums, cathedrals, coffee shops, market places and street life’. We, however, decided to give a city-tour a pass as I was not feeling too good.

Nevertheless, we did get to see and get a feel of this ancient land and culture.

Bole International airpot, Addis Ababa

Addis has a beautiful skyline with the Ethiopian Highlands as the background

Hotel Panorama

The Dining Space

Our new found Ghanaian friends - Kofi, Seli, Meri and Wilson with Rajeev on the hotel steps

That's a quaint Church

Ethiopian Coffee (Tea) ceremony

All hotels and homes in Ethiopia will have this very special ceremony for their guests, where the whole ritual of roasting, crushing and brewing of the seeds is done by a lady in an elaborate ceremony.

While waiting in the queue for check-in at CSIA, Mumbai airport we had struck up a friendship with a few Ghanaian travelers - and it became a pattern – broad, friendly smiles, a handshake and a warm “welcome to Ghana” and you get this wonderful feeling of belonging to this beautiful country with its warm, friendly, and trusting people. I enjoyed the flight from Addis to Accra much more after the night’s rest. Rajeev tried a couple of bottles of French Chardonnay served on the Flight, I was more circumspect and stuck to tomato juice while we nibbled on little jet shaped crackers. Cute! Then they served the most delicious lunch of Bassa fish in white sauce and rice I have ever had in any flight anywhere; they even managed a vegetarian meal of fried rice for Rajeev.

 Had a Ghana football supporter sitting next to us who kept us entertained. Football is a passion in Ghana as cricket is in India. As the Africa Cup was going on, people were glued to the TVs and radios and occasionally in the dead of night we heard loud cheering as the home team scored a goal or advanced in the tournament.

 

ACCRA - aerial view

 Our friend in Ghana had to wait a couple of hours before we finally emerged with our baggage after getting ourselves fingerprinted at the Immigration!! While coming out the guy checking our baggage tags asked Rajeev "have you brought a gift for me?" Later we learnt there are other variations to this - "show me some love" or the more common one with the policemen stopping traffic to ask for "chop money" or more subtly "it is very hot here". Akwaaba - welcome to Ghana. 

'Welcome' in all the languages of Ghana

ABOUT GHANA

The History

Ghana means a “Warrior King”. Before the British colonised it, Ghana was divided into a number of Akan kingdoms which included the Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Bonoman, the Denkyira and the Fante. Non Akan states created by Ga and those by Dagomba also existed. The Akan gold wealth brought in the Europeans – the Portuguese in the 15^th century, the Dutch in 1598, not to be left behind, by mid 17^th century they were joined by the English, Danes, and Swedes etc. The Portuguese and the Dutch withdrew and the British established a protectorate naming it the Gold Coast Crown colony in 1874, over a part of the country. Along with gold, the Europeans were also trading in slaves. 

The Gold Coast got merged with British (earlier German) Togoland by a UN sponsored plebiscite in 1956 and was renamed Ghana. Ghana got independence from the UK in March 1957 and thus became the first sub-Saharan African nation to do so. The name Ghana was chosen after the ancient Empire of Ghana which had extended, about 500 miles, over much of West Africa.

The Flag and Emblem:

Ghana has a red, green and gold flag with a black star in the centre. The red represents the blood spilled to get independence, the gold, the mineral riches of the country, the green symbolises the rich agriculture and the black star is symbolic of African emancipation.

                                                            
                                                      

The Geography

Ghana is located on the Gulf of Guinea, very close to the Equator, giving it a warm climate. It lies between latitudes 4 deg and 12 deg north and longitudes 4 deg W and 2 deg E.  Perhaps this puts Ghana closest to the geographical centre of the world! The Prime Meridian passes through the country putting it in the same time zone as UK.  It covers an area of 238,500 km. It has 2 main seasons, the wet and the dry seasons. We visited it during the dry season and found our friend very apprehensive of bush-fires. At this time Ghana experiences the Harmattan, which is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. We were much fascinated by little whirlwinds forming in the dust and one huge one while we were at the Mole National Park. We awakened from our afternoon siesta hearing the noise on the hotel roof and rushed to the window and saw this huge whirlwind moving across the ground.

Ghana is divided into 10 administrative regions subdivided into 170 districts.  Kumasi is the capital of the region of Ashanti where we stayed. Accra is the capital of Ghana and falls under the region Greater Accra and is also the regional capital.
 

The Economy

Ghana, a middle income country, has more than twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. It is one of the world’s top producers of gold and the second largest producer in Africa after South Africa. Apart from gold Ghana produces cocoa, crude oil, natural gas, timber, electricity, diamond, bauxite and manganese. After 55 years of independence Ghana, however, remains a developing nation. The Akosombo Dam which was built on the Volta River in 1965 by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah provides hydro-electricity for Ghana and its neighbouring countries.

Tourism is growing in Ghana because of its economic and political stability and as English is widely spoken here and is its official language. In many ways Ghana is like India.

Everybody in Ghana speaks at least a smattering of English. Even the tiny tots who followed me around whenever we stepped out of the house or came and swung on Arvind’s gate would say ‘O Bruni give me my toffee’ (Bruni meaning a ‘foreigner’). Its another thing that most of them lisped 'balooney' instead of 'bruni'.

Adorable!

Hard bargaining for a toffee!

Every village in Ghana has a school, a football field and a chapel. The villages are clean with no garbage lying around or open drains. 

Religion

Ghana is primarily a Christian country. As per the 2000 census 68.8% people were Christians, 15.9% Muslims, traditional religion was practiced by 8.5% and 6.1% were atheists. Interestingly, as of 2009 there were about 10,000 African Hindus in Ghana and there is a Hindu Monastery headed by Swami Ghanananda Saraswati.

Arts and Crafts

Textiles are a very important part of the Ghanaian culture. Different colour weaves and different symbols in the design mean different things. Kente is the most famous of all Ghanaian cloth. Kente (derived from kenten meaning basket) is an Akan ceremonial cloth hand-woven on a horizontal treadle loom traditionally by men of the Ewe and Ashanti tribes. 

A horizontal treadle loom

The Ewe belong to the Volta region which falls in the path of the Great Migration therefore their designs consist of animal and human motifs, whereas, the Ashanti designs are geometric. 4 inches wide strips are sewn together into larger pieces of cloth. These come in various sizes and designs and are worn during very important religious and social occasions; earlier it was only worn by kings. The designs tell stories and recount history. The initial kente weavers used raffia fibres to weave cloth making it look like a basket (kenten), hence the name. We went to the Bonwire village which is considered the heart of Kente to see the original Kente. The Kente is woven in thin strips, (a few of which we bought for 15 Gh cedis each ie. about Rs 450/- each, bargained down from 20 Gh cedis), and sewn together to make larger pieces. It is very expensive material and was earlier worn only by the royalty, now of course it is more common, though we did not see people generally wearing Kente. The shopkeeper let me and Rajeev wear a whole piece so we could get the ‘royal’ feel and called Rajeev “Big Chief”.

Kente strips

"The making of the Big Chief"

 

Adinkara on the other hand, a textile design unique to Ghana, is seen to be commonly worn. Symbols are carved onto a piece of gourd which is then dipped in a black tar like substance and stamped on the woven cotton cloth. The designs have meaning and traditionally were stamped on black cloth by men and worn to funerals. Now Adinkara comes in cloth of many colors but the designs are always in black and they are also worn on many occasions. It is much cheaper than Kente. One usually sees people wearing Adinkara material on the weekends which are funeral days. We visited the Adinkara craft village but I didn’t have the heart to spend 100 Ghana cedis (Rs 3000) for the material, so instead I bought a pair of uncomfortable slippers, which I will never wear, for 25 Gh cedis.

Adinkara cloth

 

Adinkara cloth with symbols

Slippers I bought never to be worn!

Stool Carving is a very important craft to the Ashanti. They believe that the stool is the receptacle of the soul. Chiefs are enstooled rather than enthroned and when they die their stools are kept in shrines with much fan fare.  In daily life stools are used extensively instead of chairs and range from simple to the highly decorative. Legend has it that a Golden Stool descended from heaven for the first Ashantehene (king), Osei Tutu and the Ashanti have fought a number of wars to preserve this stool.

Typical Ashante stool with the Gye Nyame symbol

Traditionally Basket Weaving was a craft followed by men of the FraFra tribe of Northern Ghana, especially in the city of Bolgatanga. Now basket weaving has more modern designs and is also being undertaken by women to supplement their family income.  

Bead making is a craft followed by the men using wood-burning kilns. I bought a necklace made of terracotta beads because the salesman, who did not have a mirror, suggested Rajeev take a picture of me wearing it and show me - he deserved a sale for quick thinking!

The Wood Craft of Ghana is quite unique. The Accra Craft Market mesmerized me and I ended up buying a lot of stuff. The sales people in their distinct Ghana style can really convince you to over shoot your budget.

We bought these two masks depicting the "Gye Nyame" symbol and the "Bosumchwe Lake" (named after an antelope which was saved by the Lake-God)

Check out this video of Baros playing two stringed dried gourds filled with seeds called the Televi Shaker, while he raps, most of which he makes up impromptu. Needless to say I bought them!

 

Cities visited

Aburi

On arrival we stayed overnight in Accra, capital of Ghana, at a place 30 km out of the city on a hill top, called Aburi. Away from the hubbub of the city it is a quiet and scenic place. There was a nice and interesting place called Hillsbury which was full as it was the weekend so we stayed in a little place called Sweet Africa. It had a large room overlooking the valley and we had the most gorgeous view of the rising sun the next morning. We had our first encounter with some African birds and had a great time seeing and clicking them. Before driving off to Kumasi we spent some time at the Botanical Garden which has been in existence since 1890.

Enroute we halted for lunch at an eatery called Linda Dor. Great food and the fried wedge plantains they served was something to die for.

Hillsbury Resort

 

Aburi street

Eggplant, avocados, mangoes and pineapples

Scenic cottages of Aburi

View-point - 'Sweet Africa'

Rajeev and Arvind discovered some innovative weights made of cans filled with concrete!

Really tall Palm trees in the Botanical garden

A Ceiba tree trunk!

 

Totem tree

Hollow tree

Inside the hollow tree

Kumasi

The nearest city to Krobo, where we stayed was Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti region. Located near Lake Bosomtwe, it is popularly known as “The Garden City” or “The Heart Beat” of Ghana because it has so many species of flowers and plants. It is a royal city as the King of Ghana resides there, of course since Independence the King’s role is only symbolic. It is here that Okomfo Anokye had received the Golden Stool from the heavens, which embodies the soul of the Ashanti people. It is the second largest city of Ghana after the capital Accra, with a population of about 15,17,000.

The main square

The biggest mosque of Kumasi

The King's Palace

Our favorite eating place in Kumasi

Kumasi has been a major gold mining area. Its major exports are teak and cocoa. 50% of the timber industry of Ghana is here employing about 4000 people. 

As we are bird-watchers, the first long outing Arvind took us for was to the Mole National Park
and Larabanga Mosque

Cape Coast 

No trip to Ghana can be completed without a visit to the beautiful Cape Coast. The history of Ghana can be traced from the Cape Coast. Its about 3 hours drive from Kumasi after you have managed to beat the city traffic, for us it was an additional couple of hours to Kumasi. The drive was very pleasant except we missed a vital diversion which added an hour to our driving time. But on the flip side we passed through the gold mining town of Obuasi.

Pra River. dredging here will give you gold nuggets!

In Cape Coast we stayed in this lovely place called the Hans Botel, which is a nature lover's and bird watcher's paradise. The pictures below will tell you why.

The colourful restaurant

Having breakfast while the weaver birds are busy making their nests around you - my kind of heaven!

The boat type restaurant earning it the classification Botel!

 

Funny Instruction on the swimming pool

The most endearing weaver birds weaving nests at an arm's distance

A Jacana

The Weavers

The ubiquitous, colourful Agama lizards

Fearless and bold - and everywhere!

The less colourful female Agama

   

That's Big Brother!

  While at Cape Coast we visited the famous or should I say infamous Elmina Castle (covered in a separate, detailed article on this blog)  and the Kakum National Park.

The Equatorial Rainforest

     

Accra  

We caught our return flight from Accra, the capital city of Ghana and spent a couple of days there again. Accra is a big and a beautiful city near the coast.  The drive upto Accra, like in most parts of Ghana, was beautiful.

The 'bush-meat' always marred the beauty for me

While at Accra we stayed at a small but pretty hotel peculiarly called the 'Golden Lemon Guest House'.

They took their name seriously!

Breakfast on the house

  A Mall has lately opened in Accra which attracts a lot of crowd in the evenings.

Colours of Africa

   

Independence Square where the celebrations for the 56th anniversary of Ghana's Independence was underway

The Sports Stadium

The Craft Market

     We had a wonderful time while in Ghana - exploring the history, geography and culture of a nation. We came away feeling just a little sad because the wonderful people of such a beautiful country so richly endowed by nature, deserve more. As an Indian I could appreciate the wisdom of the founding father of my own country, Mahatma Gandhi, who had laid so much stress on 'self-reliance'.  
     

Links:

1)  The Adinkra symbols of Ghana, West Africa

2) Mole National Park, Ghana

3) El Mina Slave Castle/Fort, Ghana

4) History of coins and currency of Ghana  

5) Larabanga Mosque and the Mystic Stone

6) Food and Culture of Ghana

7) Funerals are a celebration in Ghana

8) Bosumchwe Crater Lake, Ghana

9) Oware: The ancient National board Game of Ghana