🔗 Share this article

After more than fifty issues exploring the global Black diaspora, this represents a last column. The tenure proved incredibly fulfilling, with great appreciation directed to all the attentive audience.

Exploring the Accra Festival

Attending the showcases, presentations and performances of this event, it becomes clear how exceptional art nourishes and constructs a nation's past and character. The centrepiece was certainly Clottey's stunning [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which displayed his groundbreaking afrogallonism in full view: a approach that converts plastic containers into captivating creations, tapestries of metallic tones. The show was created as a homage to the endurance of the historic district, a historical neighbourhood of Accra.

Jamestown – predominantly home to the Ga community, a fishing community – is additionally where numerous formerly enslaved people arrived from Brazil and made their home in the 19th century. Known as the Tabom people, they brought Portuguese language and customs.

In every part of Jamestown, you can see a mix of building designs. You'll find a historic building, featuring its characteristic Portuguese brickwork and door arches. Another landmark is the iconic lighthouse of Jamestown, constructed in the 1871 and eventually given its recognizable striped facade.

Customs of Celebration

Furthermore notable about Jamestown is the ever-present presence of obituary announcements. Everywhere you turn, whether affixed to walls or on larger hoardings, there are funeral details and phrases of farewell. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, memorial services are large-scale social gatherings.

In this spectacular exhibition, the entirety of the sensory and spiritual landscape of Jamestown are evoked – notably in the engaging Jamestown nshonaa work. Within it, visitors are calmed by the recording of ocean surf with beach material at your feet, while shelters, draped nets and depictions of boats pay homage to its dynamic, long-standing fishing community. Yet being present in this gallery, one cannot help but think of the mountains of textile waste that compromise the aesthetics and tranquillity of the area.

Beyond the Headline Act

There is much more. Inside an unfinished structure at the University of Ghana, creator Sylvester exhibited On the Other Side of Languish, an incredibly moving, minimalist exhibition that displayed sculptures and paintings produced in partnership with metalworkers.

And then there is the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for female Ghanaian artists. It featured the first solo show of a recent recipient, whose work references familial archival records to craft a artistic representation of life in Ghana after independence. The event also crowned a current winner, whose multidisciplinary work is deeply focused on the weaving practices of women in a specific region.

A Permanent Legacy

While the global African community has grown been pulled home to west Africa in the western winter, more and more are contemplating travelling for the cultural season to immerse themselves in the region’s artistic calendar. From Accra Cultural Week and other major events, what you’ll find are cultural ecosystems that are not simply nascent or “upcoming” but have established an whole universe that is here to stay.

Ultimately, the visit offers a vision of Accra that feels like a declaration for environmental protection and the keeping alive of tradition. It is a resonant tribute to perseverance in all its manifestations.