Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
Friday, July 16, 2010
Assin Mansa
There is really no way to prepare for the emotional journey on which we are about to embark. Our hours long trip is insignificant. The ancestors who were marched to this place often traveled more than 300 miles in heavy chains under the watchful eye of both African and European slavers. At Assin Mansa the enslaved were given their last bath before being locked up and old from the dungeons along the coast.
As we enter the wall of the museum compound, we find the grounds somewhat in disrepair. Along the walls which urround the property are pictures of freedom fighters from throughout the African Diapora including Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass and Sorjourner Truth among other. However, the
individual whose vision of providing a sense of home for Africans taken from this land was missing. The glass which encased the photo of Kwame Nkrumah, lay broken against the wall and the frame hung in piece on the wall and the picture was missing!
More later.
Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
As we enter the wall of the museum compound, we find the grounds somewhat in disrepair. Along the walls which urround the property are pictures of freedom fighters from throughout the African Diapora including Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass and Sorjourner Truth among other. However, the
individual whose vision of providing a sense of home for Africans taken from this land was missing. The glass which encased the photo of Kwame Nkrumah, lay broken against the wall and the frame hung in piece on the wall and the picture was missing!
More later.
Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
We arrive in Cape Coast
We are just checking in to the Sanaa Lodge after a very emotional stop at Assin Manso where two Af
Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
Shopping! Shopping! Shopping!
Akwaaba! This greeting means welcome in Twi one of the more than 500 dialects spoken in Ghana. Though the official language of Ghana is English, like many ex-colonies, Ghanaians are multi-lingual. They speak the official language and are taught 5 or more indigenous languages in schools. According to our guide Mensa, news is broadcast in one of the 5 languages every day!
Here is the official description of todays activities. All I can say is that everyone appears to be broke.
Oh! First I have to make note of the most disapponting breakfast to date. The buffet breakfast (which had two servers) consisted of sliced pineapple (one slice per person unless you were insistent); a piece of watermelon (unless you were insistent); one boiled egg (no matter how insistent you were); two slices of toast; beans (like pork and beans without the pork); and cooked cabbage. This is neither the breakfast of champions nor comforting for mature digetive systems!
The description:
"Depart to visit a few Ashanti craft villages to observe craftmen at work and to purchase souvenir gift items. At Ahwiaa, the woodcarvers village specializing in item such a the Ashanti stool, fertility doll and walking sticks"
It was here that Barbara was crowned Queen of Bartering and Valerie was crowned Queen of the Negotiators! Great deals were made for fertility and praying female figures.
The kente cloth @ Bonwire was fabulous. The craftsmanship on the single-double and triple weave was excellent. Each craftsman was willing to make a deal.
Along the road Mensah had Sam, our driver, to stop so the we could observe the threadding and weaving process. I got a nice piece of white Andinka cloth with black print. Paula triumphed woth a richly woven yellow, green and pink kente.
Didi asked for something with pink in it and was pleasantly surprised when one craftsman brought out a card of pink and green kente bracelet with AKA woven into it. She got lots of pink and green stuff :-).
Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
An Emotional Journey to come
I suppose there are two posts on their way to this site, with pictures. I only suppose. Who knows where they are in cyberspace?
Tomorrow will begin an even more emotional part of this wonderful journey. After breakfast we leave Kumasi for Elmina in the Central Region. We'll stop at Assin Manso burial site where the remains of two former slaves exhumed for New York's Wall Street District were re- interred on Emancipation Day in 1998 and visit two castles in which enslave Africans were held prior to their transport to the Americas.
So many remnants of colonization still exist here. I pray that the Unity and Change required to have Ghana and other African nations reach their full potential comes in my lifetime.
Tomorrow will begin an even more emotional part of this wonderful journey. After breakfast we leave Kumasi for Elmina in the Central Region. We'll stop at Assin Manso burial site where the remains of two former slaves exhumed for New York's Wall Street District were re- interred on Emancipation Day in 1998 and visit two castles in which enslave Africans were held prior to their transport to the Americas.
So many remnants of colonization still exist here. I pray that the Unity and Change required to have Ghana and other African nations reach their full potential comes in my lifetime.
Monday, July 12, 2010
I may have to try a different approach here. Narrative now, pictures later. It has been an exhaustively enjoyable 5 days here in Ghana. Today was a long one. We were at breakfast at 7(ish) for an 8:00 departure (actually about 8:30, but it was OK). We no longer had our 20 passenger bus, but were now nicely accommodated in a Ford van. Luggage packed in back, Valerie and I with space to put our feet up and comfort for all involved.
Barbara, our trip leader, provided us with a wonderful opportunity to visit the Fiankra development just outside Akosombo. Fiankra, means coming home. It's a settlement set aside by the government of Ghana for African American to return to. We came to a security gate and Mensah explained our purpose for being at that place to the guard. We were later told that such security was necessary because some of the residents are only there part time and there is a lot of construction taking place. As a result there would be possibilites for squatters to take over land and buildings and for building materials to disappear.
After the explanation, the guard recorded our tag number and we drove about a quarter of a mile down a red clay and stone road, turned left and pulled up in front of a neat yellow house with a red roof. Standing outside in a light-blue eyelet dress was The Queen Mother who welcomes our unannounced visit.
We are able to meet other members of the community including her sister whose home had been completed just 3 weeks before. These women have decided to make Ghana their home and are enthusiastic about their new, lower cost lives here.
We were able to meet two other families who allowed us to tour their homes and who shared their reasons for moving to Ghana. The homes have been designed to support Ghana's green Movement. Two of the homes are made with thatched roofs and wall made of adobe, a mixture of clay, sand and some material used from termite mounds that make the structures both cool, strong and impermeable.
Because of the stones along the pat to Barbara's friends house, we were unable to drive to that section, but instead some walked. Didi and I tried, but by the time we got to the top of the hill, Barbara and Barry were on their way back to the van.
More about the 5 hour trip to Kumasi and pictures from Fiankra the next time I have an opportunity to post. There was no Internet access at the hotel in Akosombo. We're 5 hours ahead of the eastern US. I am signing off at 11:04 because I need to get re-energized for another full day tomorrow. There is so much more to share!!
Barbara, our trip leader, provided us with a wonderful opportunity to visit the Fiankra development just outside Akosombo. Fiankra, means coming home. It's a settlement set aside by the government of Ghana for African American to return to. We came to a security gate and Mensah explained our purpose for being at that place to the guard. We were later told that such security was necessary because some of the residents are only there part time and there is a lot of construction taking place. As a result there would be possibilites for squatters to take over land and buildings and for building materials to disappear.
After the explanation, the guard recorded our tag number and we drove about a quarter of a mile down a red clay and stone road, turned left and pulled up in front of a neat yellow house with a red roof. Standing outside in a light-blue eyelet dress was The Queen Mother who welcomes our unannounced visit.
We are able to meet other members of the community including her sister whose home had been completed just 3 weeks before. These women have decided to make Ghana their home and are enthusiastic about their new, lower cost lives here.
We were able to meet two other families who allowed us to tour their homes and who shared their reasons for moving to Ghana. The homes have been designed to support Ghana's green Movement. Two of the homes are made with thatched roofs and wall made of adobe, a mixture of clay, sand and some material used from termite mounds that make the structures both cool, strong and impermeable.
Because of the stones along the pat to Barbara's friends house, we were unable to drive to that section, but instead some walked. Didi and I tried, but by the time we got to the top of the hill, Barbara and Barry were on their way back to the van.
More about the 5 hour trip to Kumasi and pictures from Fiankra the next time I have an opportunity to post. There was no Internet access at the hotel in Akosombo. We're 5 hours ahead of the eastern US. I am signing off at 11:04 because I need to get re-energized for another full day tomorrow. There is so much more to share!!
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