🔗 Share this article

After more than fifty installments exploring the worldwide Black diaspora, this signifies a last dispatch. The tenure was incredibly rewarding, and immense thanks offered to all the attentive followers.

Inside the Accra Festival

Attending the showcases, artworks and acts of the festival, it becomes clear how the finest art sustains and builds a country’s past and identity. The highlight was undoubtedly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s remarkable [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which displayed his innovative afrogallonism for all to see: a philosophy that converts plastic containers into illusory art pieces, assemblages of golden hues. The exhibition was designed as a homage to the resilience of Jamestown, a venerable area of Accra.

This area – mainly home to the Ga ethnic group, a seafaring people – is also where a great number of formerly enslaved people returned from Brazil and made their home in the 1830s. Referred to as the Tabom people, they carried with them Portuguese language and customs.

Throughout Jamestown, visitors encounter a blend of building designs. There’s Fort Vicentia, with its characteristic European-style masonry and curved entrances. Another landmark is the famous lighthouse of Jamestown, built in the 19th century and subsequently featuring its signature red-and-white-striped appearance.

A Culture of Celebration

Furthermore striking about Jamestown is the ever-present sight of funeral posters. Everywhere you turn, whether plastered over walls or on big hoardings, you’ll see service information and expressions of farewell. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, final rites are major communal events.

In Clottey’s impressive exhibition, all of the visual and auditory essence of Jamestown are present – particularly in the engaging Jamestown nshonaa installation. In this space, visitors are calmed by the sound of the sea with sand on the floor, while beach huts, hanging fishing nets and depictions of vessels celebrate its spirited, long-standing seafaring tradition. However experiencing this gallery, the mind turns to the piles of textile waste that compromise the aesthetics and peace of the area.

In Addition to the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features additional highlights. Within an incomplete building at the University of Ghana, creator Reginald Sylvester II exhibited On the Other Side of Languish, an emotionally powerful, stripped-back exhibition that featured three-dimensional works and canvases created in partnership with metalworkers.

Another key element is the prestigious art award for female Ghanaian artists. It showcased the first solo show of a prior recipient, whose work utilizes historical documents to craft a artistic representation of life in the nation's recent history. The event also crowned a new champion, whose diverse work is deeply invested in the textile traditions of women in the Volta region.

A Lasting Presence

Although the global African community has increasingly been pulled back to west Africa in the winter months, a growing cohort are thinking about visiting for the cultural season to experience the region’s cultural season. From Accra Cultural Week and other major events, what you’ll find are art scenes that are not merely nascent or “upcoming” but have established an complete universe that is here to stay.

Ultimately, the journey provides a perception of Accra that resembles a statement for environmental protection and the preservation of tradition. It is a compelling homage to perseverance in all its expressions.