Dear Tshego
I am writing to you from Accra City today , 3rd December 2022.
It was raining this morning so I doubt I will manage to get to the ocean. I have been struggling a lot with the meaning of love in my life. Being in Ghana has overwhelmed me with this big love & I am not sure how to describe it, everyone is so keen to talk about our blackness I even met a prophetess whilst getting a meal in the inner city . A lovely lady prepared home made tilapia fish for us, which was so yummy !
I visited the Black Star monument & it was so hot, inside there I also started noticing the famous Adinkra signs. These old symbols each carry a meaning linked to an African proverb. They are quite broad and are like a set of values people live by in Ghana. The most famous one is Gye , the omnipotent God.
Its world cup season & Ghanaians love to watch ! We watched soccer at the office, during lunch and at a local pub which was so interesting because they get very emotionally charged up, like Soweto Derby Days.
At the Labadi Beach I met 2 people of a band called United Abbysinie Band who explained that they moved to Ghana from Jamacia and have been here since. The had me pay for a small performance at the beach and said their message to Africans is that we need to unite and take care of our own. They believe there are no black foreigners in Africa, and I agree.
A lady sold waist beads to me, at the beach, explaining that in Ghana, they are seen as sexual symbol for attracting men but in Nigeria, they are more of a taboo much like in South Africa.
I passed the Cape Coast Castle, with the dungeons where black people were held as slaves on their way through the door of no return. Just walking there, you can feel the heaviness of all those black bodies screaming from the walls. They had very little light coming into the dungeons so you can imagine, that’s no way to treat a human being. I couldn’t stomach it all. I tried to disengage & take in the scenery, got a small book & I left.
I asked a few people about their clan names, and it’s not so common in this part of town but they appreciated the question. I was told it’s only the older women in the villages who would still remember clan names. I noticed that there is also a “big religion vs black culture question”, years post their independence which is a common matter amongst my people. They could see I wasn’t from here but because they speak English here, it’s easy to make friends. There are mainly Christians & Muslims & only a few people openly practice their African spiritual cultures. I learnt that they speak mostly Twi , Ga & Ewe. Variations of Twi are linked to the Fenti & the Ashanti tribes. The Ga and Ewe are also the larger tribes dominating the Accra area.
The route between Accra & Takoradi is beautiful, you see many clusters of small towns & as you approach Cape Coast, the beach is even more pretty . Cape Coast was a central port of departure for slave traders, but they enslaved people from all over the country. I learnt that for $1000 you can get a plot of land (70x 100 metres) in the Central Daboase area.
Takoradi has a very different construction, very high white walls type. It’s beautiful and I hear they have an annual Festival to die for that’s starts 24th December every year , wink wink !
Thanks friend, we should come back here, they truly believe in enjoyment.
Will see you soon !
