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After over 50 editions exploring the global Black diaspora, this represents a last dispatch. The tenure has been profoundly gratifying, and sincere gratitude offered to every one of the engaged readers.

Exploring Accra Cultural Week

Attending the displays, presentations and performances of Accra Cultural Week, one sees how superior art nourishes and builds a nation's history and character. The highlight was certainly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s stunning [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which displayed his innovative afrogallonism for all to see: a concept that converts water vessels into mesmerizing creations, mosaics of golden hues. The show was conceived as a testament to the resilience of Jamestown, a venerable quarter of Accra.

Jamestown – largely inhabited by the Ga community, a fishing community – is additionally where numerous freed slaves arrived from South America and made their home in the 1830s. Known as the Tabom people, they brought Portuguese language and customs.

In every part of Jamestown, one observes a blend of architectural styles. Standing is Franklin House, featuring its unique colonial-era construction and curved entrances. One can also see the iconic beacon, built in the 19th century and eventually featuring its signature striped appearance.

A Culture of Celebration

Furthermore notable about Jamestown is the ubiquitous sight of obituary announcements. Everywhere you turn, be it plastered over buildings or on big billboards, there are funeral details and phrases of farewell. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, funerals are large-scale social gatherings.

In the artist's breathtaking exhibition, every aspect of the sights, sounds and religious textures of Jamestown are present – particularly in the immersive shoreline work. In this space, one is relaxed by the audio of ocean surf with granules underfoot, while beach huts, nets and representations of canoes honour its spirited, generational seafaring tradition. However experiencing this gallery, it's hard to ignore the piles of cast-off garments that threaten the charm and peace of the shoreline.

Beyond the Centrepiece

The festival program included much more. Within an incomplete building at the campus, creator Sylvester presented On the Other Side of Languish, an emotionally powerful, austere show that featured three-dimensional works and canvases made in partnership with metalworkers.

And then there is the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for women artists of Ghanaian origin. It featured the first solo show of a recent laureate, whose work references familial archival records to craft a depiction of life in post-independence Ghana. The event also honored a latest champion, whose multidisciplinary work is particularly focused on the textile traditions of women in a specific region.

An Enduring Legacy

While the diaspora has grown been attracted home to Ghana during the winter months, a growing cohort are contemplating travelling some months earlier to experience the region’s festival period. Between this festival and regional art fairs, what is evident are art scenes that are not merely emerging or “upcoming” but have established an whole landscape that is here to stay.

In the end, the experience provides a image of Accra that resembles a declaration for conservation and the keeping alive of culture. It is a resonant tribute to perseverance in all its expressions.