Holiday was Italy and
structurally unsound towers; or America and discount shopping or France
and baguettes. Not Ghana, longstanding "frenemy "of Nigeria, with the
football team we all rooted for in the last World Cup. Yet, that's no
reason to actually visit the place.
Now I know it is
hackneyed and passé and terribly clichéd to praise the hospitality of
the locals and so I make the next statement knowing that I tread on
imperial ground: Ghanaians are nice.
Coconuts on Osu "Oxford" Street.
The friendly coconut
seller in the photo above is just one of the myriad of fresh produce
vendors that are dotted around the city. You spy a coconut, you pick a
coconut, he splits the coconut and you drink the water out of it, right
there and then on the roadside. No preservatives, no plastic bottles,
just coconut.
Chibundu Onuzo
I've often wondered why
the global indexes drawn up only rank things like "Ease of Doing
Business" or "Democracy," with criteria that leave African countries
nearer the bottom than top. If only someone would draw up a ranking for
Fresh Produce Consumption.
This love of fresh food
was on one occasion, however, taken to a rather bizarre extreme. My
hotel restaurant didn't have half the dinner menu because the necessary
ingredients were always bought fresh from the market and the market was
closed!
Speaking of hotels, due
to exceptionally bad planning, I found myself staying in three hotels
over eight nights. The last, The University of Legon Guesthouse, was the
best value for money. For $60 a night, I got an air-conditioned ensuite
double room, beautifully landscaped grounds, the fastest internet I
have used in West Africa and reasonably priced meals in the restaurant.
Read this: Ghana, the jewel of West Africa
Now, as an original
Lagosian, I haven't been to a place unless I've gone shopping in a
place. I hit Oxford Street, Osu, on my second day in town. It's a
roadside market that caters to the cravings of an ankara lover like
myself, or 'African print' to those not quite in the know.
Touring Ghana's Makola Market
However, for more
upmarket shoppers who want their air-conditioning and shopping trolleys,
there's the Accra City Mall in East Legon where Ghanaian designers sell
their work alongside international brands. In my humble opinion, local
content was winning but I'm a little biased.
There are of course
conventional touristy things to do in Accra. For the reasonable sum of
six cedis, you can enjoy The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, final resting
place of the first President of Ghana. It's a serene venue for
contemplation. The museum on site sheds some light on the man behind the
leader that was a pivotal part of the independence movement in Africa.
Yet I also like to see
the places not fashionable enough for the beaten track, places that
probably wouldn't make it into a glossy tourist brochure.
Ghana, beautiful as it
is, is still a developing country. There are shopping malls and
skyscrapers -- one born every minute -- but there is also Nima, where I
met a lady who chops firewood every evening to cook her meals.
I had open access to Nima thanks to the organization Invisible Borders
and their partnerships in the area. Perhaps not all the Millennium
Development Goals have been met in Nima but there were other signs of
development that international agencies don't often look for. I had my
first private art viewing in Musa's studio in Nima. Only a stone's throw
away from that was a photography exhibition in Nima Roundabout.
It wasn't all
sightseeing and games though. I also went to Accra for the very serious
business of book promoting. I've never been on radio in West Africa.
It's no different from being on radio in England except the presenters
on Joy and Citi FM understood my accent.
I left Accra determined to go on holiday in more African countries. Forget Paris, Milan and Prague. Maputo here I come!
No comments:
Post a Comment