The Ghanaian government announced earlier this year that October 15thwould celebrate the important Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, or the "festival of the sacrifice".The day honours the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his young first-born son Ismail as an act of submission to Allah's command, and his son's acceptance to being sacrificed, before Allah intervened to provide Abraham with a Lamb to sacrifice instead. This sounds remarkably similar to the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. In fact Muslims and Christians share a lot of stories. Although Muslims make up just 16% of Ghanaian citizens, according to Isaac, the current Prime Minister, John DramaniMahama,is seeking their votes in the next election and so declared a public holiday for them.
Despite the slightly unsettled feeling this
might give some erudite or politically aware Ghanaians, most of us were pleased
not to have to work on Tuesday.Isaac took Katie and I to Aburi Gardens, which
rests about an hour’s drive from the city centre.It was incredibly refreshing
to leave the choked up traffic, dusty red dirt tracks and roadside street
vendors to tootle up the windy hillside road to Aburi. Aburi itself was a small
town at the top of the hill with an amazing view of Accra spread out below,
surrounded by a more familiar African savannah scape. The scene was awash with the
greens and browns of nature, a few umbrella trees and farms dotted around, with
the backdrop of more hills and clouds.
Isaac had said that I didn’t need to bring
my sun umbrella because the weather would be like Europe. I didn’t really understand
until we got there. Aburi Gardens is like a magical botanical garden. It’s cool
and refreshing, and quiet with trees planted from all over the world. It’s well
maintained and the grass surrounding the trees is kept trim. Through the grand
entrance gate, large straight trees that looked like giant-sized poplar trees
adorned the road edges within the gardens. First built by the British in 1890,
the gardens were later intended to form part of Nkrumah’s presidential palace,
but after the coup in it’s now a public space and different significant people
of Ghana come here to plant various rare or imported trees. In one particular
place a tree stump had been elegantly carved into a sculpture displaying
African creatures like giraffes and elephants, as well as human figures and
traditional instruments. Apparently the tree was going to be removed but two
artists decided they wanted to protect it and so carved it for their community
to enjoy.
On the way home we stopped at the roadside
to buy some boiled corn on the cobs that had been soaked in coconut milk, which
also came with pieces of chewy coconut. We arrived back into the city to
enormous cheers and the sound of cars tooting as Ghana scored its first goal
against Egypt in the World Cup play-offs. The game was taking place in Kumasi,
which is Ghana’s second largest city. As we journeyed in further and the
traffic thickened in the forest of pollutant vehicles, the Black Stars scored
more goals against the rapidly losing Pharaohs. On the radio, the commentary
was spoken by a chap from somewhere in the north of England.
Isaac pulled up at Ghana’s largest shopping
mall. I was quite intrigued because the building reminded me of South Africa,
where roadside malls are extremely popular for friends and families to hang out
in at the evenings and weekends. They are super malls like Blue Water that
house everything from cinemas to bowling alleys to restaurants and worldwide
designer brands. As we entered there was an electronics shop on the left with a
crowd of men grouped around the outward facing TV screen displaying the
football match. Some were holding babies and didn’t even seem to mind as long
as they didn’t move too much or distract them. Another whoop which rippled
across the mall indicated the score was now 4-0.We passed the overpriced
birkenstocks and Tom Toms and the Nandos knock-off in the food court.
I was enchanted by one particular shop that
had a security guard operating the spotless large and slender glass door.
Through the glass were mannequins wearing extremely elegant modern dresses and
gowns with traditional African colours and designs. Some dresses had more than
one pattern, with a different fabric for the sleeves or body. There were walls
of fabric. It was like Charlie’s Chocolate Factory for textile procurers, seamstressesand
pattern designers. Shelves lined up to the ceiling with gold thread, yellow
cultural designs on blue, pink horses on green backgrounds, stars and hearts. For
about £600 you could choose your pattern and then the fabric and have a
dresscustom made.
After buying only a smoothie, we returned
to the car and ventured homeward. As we approached Oxford Street, the main
thoroughfare had been shut off to traffic, making way for huge TV screens and
tooting fans. The match came to a close at 6-1 and Isaac hooted and whooped. Despite
being billed as the
tightest of the five African play-off ties that will decide who will make it to
next year's tournament in Brazil, Ghana is now almost guaranteed to be on
the plane to South America after the huge win.
That evening we went to a bar called
Republic to take part in a pub quiz that happens every Tuesday. It was a very
international audience, with an American team from the previous week administering
the questions. They seemed, however, unaware that the round on New Jersey might
not be accessible to much of the audience. We sat at tables outside, and,
despite doing badly on a few rounds, managed to come
third. This means that we get a round of free drinks next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment