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Following more than fifty issues exploring the global Black diaspora, this signifies a last column. The experience proved incredibly fulfilling, and great gratitude directed to every one of the dedicated readers.

Exploring Accra Cultural Week

Visiting the displays, installations and performances of this event, one sees how exceptional art nourishes and constructs a nation's heritage and identity. The focal point was certainly Clottey's exquisite [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which showcased his innovative afrogallonism in full view: a approach that converts yellow jerrycans into captivating creations, tapestries of golden hues. The exhibition was designed as a tribute to the resilience of Jamestown, a venerable neighbourhood of Accra.

The community – largely populated by the Ga community, a fishing community – is also where many returning Africans returned from South America and made their home in the 1830s. Known as the Tabom people, they carried with them Portuguese tongue and traditions.

Throughout Jamestown, visitors encounter a mix of architecture. You'll find Franklin House, featuring its characteristic European-style brickwork and arched doorways. Another landmark is the iconic lighthouse of Jamestown, built in the 1800s and subsequently featuring its distinctive red-and-white-striped facade.

Traditions of Remembrance

Furthermore notable about Jamestown is the pervasive presence of obituary announcements. Everywhere you turn, be it affixed to buildings or on big billboards, there are service information and terms of loss. In Jamestown, similar to the rest of Ghana, funerals are major social gatherings.

In this impressive exhibition, every aspect of the sights, sounds and religious textures of Jamestown are captured – particularly in the enveloping shoreline installation. Here, you’re soothed by the audio of the sea with sand underfoot, while shacks, hanging fishing nets and representations of canoes honour its vibrant, multigenerational fishing community. Yet standing in this exhibition space, the mind turns to the heaps of cast-off garments that mar the beauty and peace of the region.

Apart from the Centrepiece

There is additional highlights. Housed in an unfinished structure at the local university, artist Reginald Sylvester II showcased On the Other Side of Languish, an incredibly moving, stripped-back presentation that included three-dimensional works and paintings made in partnership with metalworkers.

Another key element is the competition for female artists for women artists of Ghanaian origin. It included the inaugural exhibition of a recent laureate, whose work references historical documents to create a depiction of life in Ghana after independence. The event also honored a latest winner, whose multidisciplinary work is deeply concerned with the textile traditions of women in a specific region.

An Enduring Legacy

Although the overseas community has increasingly been pulled home to Ghana during the colder season, a growing cohort are thinking about travelling earlier in the year to immerse themselves in the region’s cultural season. Between this festival and regional art fairs, what you’ll find are creative communities that are not merely nascent or “rising” but have established an complete landscape that is permanent.

Finally, the experience offers a vision of Accra that serves as a declaration for ecological stewardship and the keeping alive of tradition. It is a compelling tribute to adaptability in all its forms.