🔗 Share this article

After in excess of fifty editions navigating the global Black diaspora, this signifies a last column. The journey has been profoundly fulfilling, and immense appreciation directed to all the dedicated readers.

Exploring Accra Cultural Week

Visiting the exhibitions, installations and shows of the festival, it becomes clear how the finest art nourishes and constructs a country’s past and essence. The highlight was certainly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s remarkable [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which showcased his pioneering afrogallonism for all to see: a philosophy that reimagines plastic containers into captivating creations, assemblages of metallic tones. The display was designed as a tribute to the endurance of the historic district, a venerable quarter of Accra.

Jamestown – mainly populated by the Ga community, a seafaring people – is additionally where many returning Africans arrived from South America and settled in the 19th century. Referred to as the Tabom people, they introduced Portuguese language and customs.

All across Jamestown, visitors encounter a mix of architectural styles. You'll find a historic building, with its unique colonial-era masonry and door arches. Also present is the iconic lighthouse of Jamestown, built in the 1871 and subsequently sporting its distinctive red-and-white-striped exterior.

Traditions of Remembrance

Furthermore remarkable about Jamestown is the ever-present presence of obituary announcements. On every corner, be it plastered over walls or on sizable hoardings, there are service information and expressions of loss. In Jamestown, as throughout Ghana, funerals are significant communal events.

In this spectacular exhibition, every aspect of the visual and auditory essence of Jamestown are evoked – especially in the engaging Jamestown nshonaa work. Here, visitors are calmed by the sound of crashing waves with beach material on the floor, while beach huts, draped nets and images of canoes pay homage to its spirited, generational fishing community. However being present in this venue, it's hard to ignore the heaps of discarded clothing that compromise the charm and peace of the region.

Apart from the Main Event

There is a great deal more. Within an raw space at the University of Ghana, creator Sylvester exhibited On the Other Side of Languish, an emotionally powerful, stripped-back exhibition that included sculptures and paintings made in collaboration with artisans.

And then there is the competition for female artists for female Ghanaian artists. It included the first solo show of a 2024 laureate, whose work draws on familial archival records to craft a depiction of life in the nation's recent history. The event also crowned a new winner, whose varied work is intensely invested in the weaving practices of women in the Volta region.

An Enduring Legacy

While the diaspora has increasingly been pulled home to west Africa during the colder season, an increasing number are contemplating visiting earlier in the year to immerse themselves in the area's artistic calendar. From Accra Cultural Week and regional art fairs, what you’ll find are art scenes that are not merely nascent or “rising” but have built up an complete world that is enduring.

Finally, the journey offers a image of Accra that resembles a declaration for conservation and the preservation of culture. It is a resonant tribute to perseverance in all its manifestations.