Culture and the City

Akwaaba! Well, we finally managed to dash around the city and see a few things, and best of all, we also managed to dash out of the city to see something of Africa. These explorations were long overdue as it has been something of a challenge turning our house into a home (more to follow in a later blog, when the wounds aren't so fresh!). Here are some of the highlights--I think I will (mostly) let the pictures speak for themselves, but I will split the trips up into separate log entries, to make them a little more accessible.

This is the final resting place of W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders and great proponents of the Pan-African movement that promoted a deep connection amongst all Africans. While I have learned a great deal about the Civil Rights Movement in North America, I am embarrassed to say that I knew little about the important work that went on in Africa itself. Du Bois was a distinguished scholar and writer (in Africa and in America), most famously conceptualizing and beginning an encyclopedic dictionary for Africa and he was a co-founder of the NAACP.

This marble plaque is posted near the entrance to the main museum. Before I came to Ghana, I searched for literature and authors from/about Ghana and this was from the first poem I found. I didn't make the serendipitous connection until I read it on the wall. It is worth noting that while Du Bois was not born a Ghanaian, he did die one. It is also worth noting that he was invited to work in Ghana by the father of independence, Kwame Nkrumah, whom this poem was penned for.

The drummer and the hornblower herald the entrance to the National Museum and they are ever-present cultural symbols all around Ghana. They remind one of the significance of African roots in most Western music today, and the presence of the drum in every musical history (at least that I know of!).

Many villages, particularly in the more northern regions (such as the arts and cultural capital, Kumasi) are well known for kente, or weaving. This is a particularly vibrant hanging found in the museum. There is a great deal of symbolism worked into the designs of kente and of other works, such as the stools. Sometimes the symbol is attached to an ideal or a proverb. I would be very surprised if our home (this and future homes) didn't have a hanging or two and a stool or two!

Brontë, looking lovely, in front of some examples of traditional carving at the museum. And below, the front entrance, on our way home for the day. Until the next...