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After more than fifty issues navigating the worldwide Black diaspora, this represents a last column. The tenure has been incredibly fulfilling, with immense appreciation extended to all the dedicated readers.

Exploring Accra Cultural Week

Experiencing the showcases, presentations and acts of Accra Cultural Week, one sees how exceptional art sustains and constructs a country’s heritage and identity. The focal point was certainly the artist's remarkable a profound exploration of ritual and time, which put his pioneering afrogallonism in full view: a approach that reimagines water vessels into illusory works of art, tapestries of golden hues. The display was designed as a tribute to the endurance of this area, a venerable quarter of Accra.

This area – mainly inhabited by the Ga community, a community of fishermen – is also where numerous formerly enslaved people came back from Brazil and settled in the 1830s. Called the Tabom community, they brought Portuguese language and culture.

All across Jamestown, visitors encounter a mix of building designs. You'll find Franklin House, with its distinct colonial-era construction and curved entrances. Also present is the prominent Jamestown Lighthouse, built in the 19th century and eventually given its signature red-and-white-striped facade.

Customs of Remembrance

Equally remarkable about Jamestown is the pervasive presence of funeral posters. Wherever you look, be it affixed to alleyways or on larger billboards, one finds service information and phrases of mourning. In Jamestown, as throughout Ghana, funerals are large-scale communal events.

In Clottey’s breathtaking show, the entirety of the visual and auditory essence of Jamestown are captured – especially in the enveloping Jamestown nshonaa installation. In this space, you’re soothed by the audio of crashing waves with beach material underfoot, while beach huts, draped nets and images of boats celebrate its spirited, generational fishing community. However standing in this venue, it's hard to ignore the mountains of textile waste that threaten the aesthetics and serenity of the region.

Apart from the Headline Act

Accra Cultural Week also features a great deal more. Inside an unfinished structure at the campus, creator Reginald Sylvester II exhibited a deeply moving minimalist collection, an incredibly moving, austere show that included three-dimensional works and canvases created in concert with welders.

Another key element is the prestigious art award for Ghanaian women creators. It featured the first solo show of a recent recipient, whose work draws on personal family archives to produce a artistic representation of life in post-independence Ghana. The event also honored a new winner, whose diverse work is intensely focused on the craft techniques of women in the Volta region.

A Permanent Presence

Although the global African community has grown been pulled home to the region during the colder season, a growing cohort are thinking about visiting for the cultural season to experience the area's festival period. Between this festival and similar gatherings, what you’ll find are art scenes that are not simply new or “upcoming” but have built up an complete landscape that is permanent.

Finally, the journey provides a vision of Accra that resembles a declaration for environmental protection and the preservation of tradition. It is a powerful homage to adaptability in all its expressions.