Going to Ghana and it’s a blank sheet. The Lonely Planet (LP)
is the thaw that colours the castles of slavery, turtles burying eggs along the
coastline, fiery sauces or soup and Ghana’s peaceful democratic history. Beaches
are “buttered with thick white sand” and the “dance floor is where the music
comes alive” with “relentless rhythm”.
Facts known previously are that Ghana is home of the djembe (goblet
drum played with bare hands, skin-covered and rope-tuned). The drum’s purpose
is defined by the saying, "Anke djé, anke bé" which translates as "everyone
gather together in peace". I first touched the instrument on the island of
Ioujima in Japan, where certainly it held its own as a means of bringing the
islanders together for nightly sessions of enjoyment, community and
harmonisation. According to LP, I can take up lessons on the beach not too far
from where I’ll be staying in Accra.
The other schooling I had about Ghana, fleshed out through a
year at SOAS, was the successful long-standing reign of Kwame Nkrumah, who
became one of the most powerful leaders to emerge from the African
continent. He led Ghana to become the first West African country to gain
independence in 1957, and changed the name from the Gold Coast under British
rule, in favour of the first Great Empire in West Africa, Ghana, famed for
wealth and gold. Since then, Ghana has been regarded as West Africa’s golden
child with a stable and promising democracy. Now a relatively safe and welcoming place, the Lonely Planet describes it as “Africa
for beginners”.
Reading on, LP is relentless in its distribution of information;
clans are matrilineal and children dance in the street. Half can afford
textbooks but their cousins can’t. Newspapers, fruit and snacks are shared on
buses. Paragraphs thicken with hippos and Islamic architecture, hiking and
waterfalls and talk of the world’s most inexpensive safari.
