Obama Coming

Coming from a country with a long established democratic process, I take peaceful elections and changes in government for granted. Sadly, Ghana is currently one of the very few examples of an African country which can claim such elections. Ghana’s fifth peaceful election and second change in ruling party, late in 2008 continues to draw praise and accolades from across Africa and beyond. There was little mention of President Mills’ recent visit to the UK by the British press (as they seemed more preoccupied with ride-on lawnmowers, pet food and moat cleaning) but the Ghanaian media recorded Gordon Brown’s complimentary remarks on Ghana’s democratic maturity. However, just to prove that some things are the same the world over, the ‘Daily Guide’ published photographs of the lavish Kensington hotel and even the bed where Mills slept. It was clearly indignant about the cost to Ghanaians of taking a party of thirty to London. (A subsequent government statement noted that the majority of the places were actually paid for the British government. Ironically, the Ghanaian government paid for the accompanying journalists!)

For many, however, the ultimate reward for Ghana’s performance will come in July, when Barack Obama will make a one night stop here on his return journey from the G8 summit. Within hours of the announcement by the White House, attention was being drawn to the fact that Obama’s first trip to sub-Saharan Africa (he will be in Egypt in June) will not be to Kenya, his ancestral home, as many expected. Kenya, as the New York Times put it, is ‘deemed to troubled to visit’.

Ghana has clearly caught the attention of the US. It is only fifteen months since Ghana hosted Obama’s immediate predecessor. The image of George W. Bush pounding shea nuts while Laura looked on, in a newspaper photograph is still fresh in the mind, as is the lengthy list of roads which had to close in Accra for security reasons. Added to a visit by Bill Clinton in 1998, this must make Ghana one of a very small number of countries to host three successive American presidents.

To say that Obama will get an enthusiastic welcome here is obviously an under statement. He will be regarded as one of their own by Ghanaians, despite his considerably more eastern origins. In 2008 his election victory was, to my recollection, the only non-domestic news story to make the front page of the ‘Daily Graphic’. I am looking forward to the local souvenir business going into overdrive.

One article I found on the internet was not concerned about Kenya, but was more interested in the fact that Obama would be visiting Ghana, rather than nearby Nigeria. The rivalry between the two most important English-speaking countries in West Africa can be very tense sometimes. Nigeria, the dominant country in the sub-region and comfortably the most populous country in Africa is regarded by many Ghanaians as a very bad place. One timely illustration of this mutual dislike is the ‘sex scandal’ which is currently ‘rocking’ Koforidua. In the past week the ‘Daily Guide’ has reported that a Nigerian videoed himself having sex with a Koforidua woman and them posted the footage on-line. The footage has been widely downloaded. Even the picture on the front of the paper drew large crowds around local newsstands, as Koforiduans tried to identify the woman. She is alleged to come from my district of town. There are certainly Nigerians in Koforidua, but with no actual proof of the identity of the perpetrator, the article on the second day referred to a student from a ‘neighbouring country’. Nigeria was not mentioned at all. The local women, famously known throughout Ghana as ‘Koforidua flowers’, are not amused at this slur on their character. According to the second article, they intend to demonstrate against ‘foreigners’.

Accra

One of the reasons I like Koforidua is that it isn’t Accra, but it is convenient distance – an easy day trip – from Accra. Accra is a something of a necessary evil. If I need to visit the VSO office, want any shopping which Koforidua cannot offer or, more extremely, want to leave the country, I have to go to Accra.

Accra has been the capital of the Gold Coast and later Ghana since the colonial administration decided to move there from Cape Coast in 1877. Also the largest city in the country, it lacks the tradition and ceremony of Kumasi and the history of Cape Coast. It has no real centre, but is rather a collection of smaller communities submerged into one big traffic congested sprawl.

Much of the early development was along the coast around the three remaining European forts – to the east Osu Castle, formerly Christiansborg Castle and for the time being the seat of government and to the west neighbouring Forts Ussher and James, most recently prisons and both now open to tourists. The British expanded the city from the forts. With the departure of the colonialists, Nkrumah created Independence Square between Osu and James Town. The square is a vast empty space bookended by two arches one classical in design to the north, the other more reminiscent of MacDonald’s ‘golden arches’. More recent development has come around the city’s ring roads – the Nkrumah Circle transport hub, embassies, hotels, NGO headquarters and the Osu shopping district off the inner Ring Road and the airport and Accra Mall on the outer one. Between these stands the brand new Jubilee House a replacement for the Osu Castle government offices, empty and awaiting the President’s decision to spend the $12 million needed to complete it. The coast in the centre of Accra has been ignored, other than as in an informal rubbish dump. Only to the east of the city is it nearly pleasant enough for a handful of large hotels to have opened. Their pool areas remain considerably more attractive options than the adjacent beaches.

Despite my dislike for the place, exploration of some of the older quarters has provided some rewards. Architecturally there is little of any consequence. What remains of the pre-independence era is not that striking and uniformly in a state of neglect. The newer stuff is on the whole ugly with only Jubilee House making any kind of visual impact, but the streets around Ussher and James Forts are of great historic value. Accra’s first school, hotel and some of its oldest churches are here. The fishing harbour was the most important in Ghana until the development of Tema and Takoradi and many of the streets are named after the mixed heritage British families who resided in the area. Nkrumah made many of his early speeches at the Palladium, a former music hall and his political party, the Convention People’s Party was launched there in 1949.

When I was in Kumasi recently I picked up a booklet which provided a guide to this area. I had been to James Town once before, about 18 months ago. It had been a grey, damp day. The road was being completely rebuilt and there was dust and earth everywhere. The James Fort prison was still in use and the whole scene was very depressing. During the week, I visited the area again. It was a completely different place. It was sunny; the sea was aquamarine, the road complete, the prison shut and generally the tone was much more upbeat. The map in the guide was good and I found many of the landmarks mentioned. I visited the Ussher Fort Museum, although disappointingly the ruins are not safe to explore. I was able to catch a glimpse of one the rings in the local boxing clubs. I could see just enough to know it was being used as a washing line, rather than for a quick spar. I climbed to the top of the 30m high lighthouse for commanding views across the city and up and down the coast. Just as much fun though, was sitting on shaded benches with locals showing them the pictures of their neighbourhood in the booklet.

Jackson Park

It is a long time since I made specific mention of Jackson Park in the heart of Koforidua. By European standards, its hard surface and lack of grass makes it more a square than a park, but either way it is an excellent facility and as far as I am aware unique amongst regional capitals. It hosts everything, from the grandest funerals, parades and durbars to ping pong for the children, basketball for the wheelchair team and the weekly bead market.

For Ghana’s Golden Jubilee, each regional capital created a new Jubilee Park to perform a similar role to Jackson Park. For reasons which are not entirely clear to me, rather than refurbish Jackson Park, an entirely new ground was constructed near the regional police training school. It was said that refurbishment would have meant the loss of the name Jackson Park in favour of Jubilee Park. The result is that Jackson Park continues to get steadily scruffier and the new Jubilee Park stands almost entirely neglected. The police seem to use it for practice drills and I have seen it used as training ground for learner drivers but its inconvenient location means it is unlikely to have much of a future.

On Friday, Jackson Park was once again packed for a night of music sponsored by the French Embassy and the currently ubiquitous Vodafone. I arrived around six and sat on the edge of the stand to watch the final light and sound checks. After a couple of wet and overcast days, the sky had largely cleared but it remained pleasantly cool. Behind me the sun was sinking, creating a striking sunset and bathing the scene in a golden glow. The final egrets flew to their favourite tree in the corner of the square after a day spent stalking the local cattle. In front of me, the almost full moon emerged from behind Obuotabiri and began its ascent into the now inky blue sky.

A couple of rows of chairs had been set up in front of the stage. These had been monopolised by the local kids. Some of them were briefly distracted by the arrival of the tall white man but they were generally happy to watch the proceedings and dance to the test music booming from the speakers.

With the sun finally gone, the park was lit by a combination of strong moonlight and stronger stage lights. One or two Fan Milk boys tried to sell a few more meat pies and ice creams before calling it a day. The park gradually filled. The giant screen started showing looped Vodafone commercials. (Vodafone now owns a large chunk of Ghana Telecom and almost overnight it has rebranded it. It says something about the precarious quality of the mobile phone services here when Vodafone selects as its slogan: ‘The network that works’.) Eventually some hours after the billed start time, a DJ appeared and started the proceedings. It was 10:30 before the main act began, a mixture of rap, traditional drumming and some strong Malian influences. I had been joined by my friends by now. We enjoyed it and the audience was appreciative but it had been a long day and by 11:45 most of us had given in.

Zoom Lion and the Wheelie Bins

There is a new noise on the streets of Koforidua. If we didn’t have enough already, we now have to contend with the music which signals the arrival of the Zoom Lion refuse collection truck. The music is loud (of course) and mainly of the gospel variety. Fortunately they are not using Praye’s Zoom Lion Song produced for a ‘Keep Ghana Clean’ campaign. It has the inspiring lyric ‘next to Godliness is cleanliness (my brother), If you live on health, no more sickiness (my sister)’.

Zoom Lion is the intriguingly named contractor which is gradually sweeping up all the district assembly refuse contracts. They have done a good job in tidying up the skips (not sure whether they have designated these as civic amenity sites, but they probably will) and they do clean some public places.

Over the Easter weekend they began the next phase of their operation. I got back from the coast to find the neighbourhood dotted with smart blue or orange wheelie bins. There is even one in our compound. Nothing has been said about it. Nobody seems to know quite what to do with it. Still in its plastic wrapper, it keeps appearing in different places between the houses. They seem far too nice to put rubbish in and as Zoom Lion will charge to empty them they probably won’t get much use. While there are plenty of small boys to take your rubbish to the nearest skip and you can burn the flammable stuff in your yard, the wheelie bins seem a bit pointless. What will happen to them is anybody’s guess. Ghanaians have a knack of recycling otherwise redundant equipment. You can be looking at the girl carrying chilled water sachets on her head, when you realise the receptacle being used is a drawer from a fridge/freezer. The car wheel and oil drum barbeques are other favourites.

There is no doubt that Ghana could be significantly improved with some investment in tidying up and better disposal of waste materials, but are domestic wheelie bins really part of the solution?

A regular feature of the volunteer experience is playing host to friends and family from home. As I mentioned in the last item, we have had a run of visitors to Koforidua over the past month, often overlapping. Many itineraries have been planned and replanned, hotels booked and guidebooks thumbed. You want to make sure visitors have a good time and go home reassured that their distantly located friend or family member is in relative comfort and safety.

My parents have just returned to the UK after just short of two weeks in Ghana. They did not get off to a good start. Fog at Leeds/Bradford Airport led to them missing a connection in Amsterdam and a rerouting via Dubai. They arrived 17 hours late and had travelled more than twice as far as necessary. Their luggage arrived later that evening having waited in Amsterdam for the next direct flight. We hung around in Accra while we waited for it to show up.

Things improved. In Koforidua, neighbours and work colleagues were all delighted to meet them. I was a little surprised to find nodding acquaintances proudly claim that they were my sister or mother. They met all the Koforidua VSO volunteers and a few from other areas. We squeezed most of Ghana’s top tourist attractions into barely a week – Cape Coast Castle, Elmina, Kakum Canopy Walk, Kejetia Market, the Manhyia Palace and National Cultural Centre in Kumasi, Wli Falls, The Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, the Nkrumah Mausoleum and Independence Square in Accra, Boti Falls and Lake Bosomtwi. They visited five out of Ghana’s ten regions. They used countless taxis and tros, they spent a morning in church, tried Ghanaian food (steering clear of the more ‘hardcore’ dishes), bought beads and cloth and waved at ‘obruni’ shouting children. They saw crocodiles, fed mona monkeys, watched drumming and dancing and waited for an hour on the roadside outside Asamankese while a replacement was found for a sick tro tro.

I returned them to the airport on Tuesday in roughly the condition they reached it in and was back in Koforidua before they took off.