🔗 Share this article

Following in excess of fifty editions delving into the international Black diaspora, this represents a final column. The journey has been incredibly rewarding, with great appreciation extended to all the engaged audience.

Inside Accra Cultural Week

Experiencing the displays, presentations and acts of this event, observers witness how the finest art feeds and constructs a nation's heritage and essence. The highlight was without doubt Clottey's remarkable [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which showcased his pioneering afrogallonism for all to see: a concept that reimagines yellow jerrycans into mesmerizing creations, assemblages of golden hues. The show was created as a tribute to the resilience of the historic district, a historical area of Accra.

This area – mainly populated by the Ga ethnic group, a fishing community – is furthermore where a great number of freed slaves arrived from Brazil and settled in the 1830s. Called the Tabom, they brought Portuguese tongue and culture.

Throughout Jamestown, visitors encounter a blend of architecture. Standing is Fort Vicentia, with its unique European-style brickwork and arched doorways. Another landmark is the famous lighthouse of Jamestown, erected in the 1800s and eventually given its recognizable striped exterior.

Customs of Celebration

Equally notable about Jamestown is the pervasive sight of funeral posters. On every corner, whether plastered over walls or on sizable billboards, you’ll see service information and phrases of farewell. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, final rites are large-scale social gatherings.

In the artist's spectacular show, the entirety of the sensory and spiritual landscape of Jamestown are captured – notably in the engaging Jamestown nshonaa piece. Within it, visitors are calmed by the audio of crashing waves with beach material on the floor, while shelters, hanging fishing nets and representations of canoes celebrate its spirited, multigenerational maritime community. Yet being present in this exhibition space, the mind turns to the piles of cast-off garments that compromise the aesthetics and serenity of the shoreline.

Apart from the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features much more. Within an incomplete building at the campus, creator Reginald Sylvester II exhibited a deeply moving minimalist collection, an emotionally powerful, stripped-back show that featured three-dimensional works and paintings produced in partnership with welders.

Also featured was the prestigious art award for female Ghanaian artists. It showcased the inaugural exhibition of a recent recipient, whose work references historical documents to produce a artistic representation of life in the nation's recent history. The event also honored a current winner, whose multidisciplinary work is intensely invested in the weaving practices of women in Dabala.

A Lasting Presence

While the overseas community has more and more been attracted back to Ghana during the colder season, an increasing number are thinking about travelling some months earlier to immerse themselves in the region’s festival period. From this festival and other major events, what is evident are creative communities that are not merely new or “rising” but have built up an entire landscape that is here to stay.

Finally, the experience leaves one with a vision of Accra that resembles a manifesto for conservation and the keeping alive of culture. It is a powerful testament to resilience in all its manifestations.