Ghana

A roadside stand and village outside of Takoradi, Ghana

 A village between Takoradi and Cape Coast. The front home is painted by Vodofone (local phone company). Vodofone and other business will paint homes with their logo and pay the homeowner a minimal rental fee as well.  TV antennas symbolize that this is a community with resources. Teachers and government workers (the middle class) live in this community.

 Inside the slave castle of Cape Coast. The darkened door in the middle (the door of no return) is where slaves departed the castle in the middle of the night and were loaded onto boats to make the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.

Handmade fishing boats located outside of the Cape Coast Slave Castle along the coast. Boats are handbuilt, carved and painted symbolizing a families boat. Designs include old African images and salutes to the Ghana Soccer Team the Black Stars and everything in between.

Ghana

Ghana is red clay dirt, packed down so hard that only a thin layer of dust is uncovered when the wind blows. The ground is covered with foot trails that run between structures made of sheet metal and wood. Structures that Americans would call shanties and that would be condemned and considered unliveable in most US cities. These structures serve as businesses, homes, schools and churches and are the essence of a Ghanaian village.

Ghana is noise that ricochets with laughter from small children dressed in colorful school uniforms slowly strolling to and from schools as they whisper secrets to one another. Ghana is filled with the chatter of independent business people bargaining prices in open-air markets, the beeps of taxi horns reminding walkers to get out of the way, the phonetic pace of street vendors shouting at you in order to sell their wares carefully balanced in large bowls or trays upon their heads.

Ghana is color that bleeds from the rust covered tin roofs providing shelters for homes, markets and businesses. Bright, bold, wood block printed fabric sewn into women’s clothing for everyday events. Orangish-red shiny tomatoes piled high in bushel baskets stacked high on tables in the market. The red and white colors of coca-cola and vodofone logos that are plastered across the sides of businesses and homes. The clear blue of the Atlantic Ocean that carries fisherman to their livelihood, provides hours of entertainment for families at the beach and serves as a haunting remainder of how humans were exported from this spot hundreds of years before.

Ghana is a country filled with polarities. Ghana provides over 60% of the world’s supply of cocoa. Cocoa beans are harvested primarily by young children who are bought and stolen from the country of Burkina Faso as slaves in order to meet the worlds demand for cheap chocolate. Reminders of the slave trade remain a part of everyday life, yet the people of Ghana do not dwell on their history rather they are hopeful for their future. Ghana has mind-blowing poverty and yet Ghana continues to be one of the most stable and growing African countries.

Ghana is in your face, colorful, loud, chaotic, aggressive, assertive, desperate, disparate, peaceful, hopeful and demanding of your time, money and love.