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Ghana 1998-1999

Lived in Accra, Ghana for a year. Did some travelling in West Africa as well.

I lived in Accra, Ghana for 10 months in 1998/99. This is the house I shared with my colleague named Bright. I was in a suburb of Accra called Sotoum. High walls are common to keep miscreants out. The view over our wall. There wasn't much in the way of local amenities, including paved roads! After it rained, and it rained a lot, the roads were almost impassable. More Sotoum. The days before digital cameras. All these photos are scanned. Almost as soon as I arrived, I was off on a business trip to Mali. Flying over central Ghana. Near Bamako. Landing in Bamako. I flew on a Ghana Air Force F27, because Ghana Airways cancelled their plane. My hotel in Bamako. Only the best for an impoverished NGO! Breakfast on the banks of the Niger River. Bamako. There was only one building with more than 5 stories in the whole city. Back in Ghana, on a day trip to Lake Volta. The Volta River bridge. It was actually illegal to take pictures of this structure at the time. The trip was actually to a funeral. Here we are having lunch after the service. I bought a drum from these boys at the side of the road. Accra wasn't the most exciting town. Here's a typical Saturday: reading on the verandah. A burst pipe flooded my room one day. Drying off all my worldly possessions. The largest note (5000 Cedis) was worth less than $5. So you carried a lot of cash that wasn't worth a lot. I did all my laundry by hand! My friend Bright, loading up the van for a trip to Sekondi. We stayed in a new hotel "with pool" as advertised. Some wealthier Ghanaian?s houses. Bight?s brother lived in Sekondi. This is his house. The 6/40 jackpot was almost impossible to win. You had to choose the six numbers in the exact order that they were drawn! The neighbours were just getting the pieces together to build their house. Bright's brother Benett. Exporting cocoa: Ghana's biggest export. Sekondi. A great place for lunch! Somehow Shell managed to keep their stations looking first rate. Tampico! New Year's Day festival. Selling. Rural Ghana. Hilltop Fort at Cape Coast. Colourful fishing vessels in Cape Coast. Cape Coast. The only really good photo I took in Africa. Cape Coast Castle. The slave trading fort. The castle is a well-preserved world heritage site. More castle. The castle switched hands many times, before ending up in the hands of the British. Slave dungeons. Made artificially bright by the camera flash. Bright's Niece. Bright's mother and uncle. Pounding fufu, a traditional Ghanaian dish. More cooking. More drinking. Friends at my 30th birthday party. Everyone got dressed up. By special request: no fish for my birthday, only chicken. Friends and neighbours. The house, just after Christmas. Note the plastic tree. My daily ride. Painted blue, as it was a gift from UNESCO to the Ghana Journalists? Association. More fun on the roads. At least it's dry! Home of the Ghana Journalists Association, where I worked. The GMG website! Wow, Netscape. I also worked with the Panos Institute. I lost the roll of film with all my Panos pictures. Film sucks. The canteen at the GJA. Working on the wires at the GJA The lights were always going out. The linesmen saw me taking their pictures, and came by the next week to take theirs away! Hence the dirty thumb print in the corner. This is the only one I got to keep. Bright working the phone. The GJA interns. They spent a lot of time working on their nails. More GJA. More inappropriate behaviour from the interns! She is looking at the previous photo, after it was developed. Designing the Ghana Media Gateway website. Accra street. At first, I thought it was a bakery... but they are selling Mercedes Benz parts, not bread. The New After Eight, where I ate lunch daily. I ate a lot more goat there than I would have liked. Girls selling ice water. Self portrait. The watch and camera are gone, but I still own the T shirt in 2009. Golden beetle. Suburban Accra. People take years to get enough cash together to finish their houses. So a lot of Accra looked like this. Overlooking Sotoum. St. Paul's Catholic Seminary Church. Decorated for the wedding of Bright's uncle. You find God everywhere in Ghana. Ski rack in Ghana? Pimp my ride! Election time in Ghana. My local movie theatre. Waiting at the carwash. The brand-spanking new National Theatre in Accra. I went to see one of the last performances of the famous Ghanaian band, Osibisa. My friendly interns helping me buy traditional Kente cloth. This was the start of a lengthy and unfortunate debate at the GJA about which tribe was best in Ghana. The White House Lawn. No, I wasn't in Washington. But Bright was, and he borrowed my camera. Clinton and Ghanaian President Rawlings. Bill and Hillary. This was at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Bright in the White House briefing room. Accra Kotoka International Airport. Here the Ghana Air force plane I previously flew to Mali on. Alas, Ghana Airways is no more. Here they are in better times. Title: I was visiting The Gambia, on the western tip of Africa. The Gambia is a true banana republic. Here is the triumphal arch and statue of himself that the President erected after his successful coup d'état. It's called Arch 22, after the 22nd of July anniversary of the coup. The President also removed his predecessor from all the banknotes. I was working at the Gambia Press Union... but they needed much more help than I could ever give them. The Gambia does at least have a few miles of nice beaches. The Gambia is heavily Islamic. Here's the country's largest mosque. I doubt Leonardo got any money from this endorsement. And is it a good idea to name your boutique after a shipwreck? Cows: the scourge of beach-goers everywhere! Coca Cola is everywhere. I don't think I've been anywhere in the world where I couldn't get a Coke. And finally, 2 paintings by an artist called Fatuwu, who used to hang out at the GJA. I bought this one for Bright. And I kept this one for myself. It really reminds me of my time as an Obroni in Ghana.