Goodbye & Thank You, Ghana

I will miss Ghana and all of the incredible people I have met there who were so welcoming and friendly beyond compare. A special thanks to the following people for making my trip so exceptional:

Francis Boateng – a fun, upbeat, politically-minded, and talented artist who has great hopes and dreams for Ghana. I was lucky to have Francis along with me during most of my travel from Accra, and he introduced me to potters and friends all over the country. He taught me so much about Ghana beyond pottery and art. I will miss our conversations on just about everything.

James Kafui Ahiave – It was an honor to work with such a gifted, humble, and patient person. Special thanks to James for befriending me and teaching me cement sculpting and ceramic firing methods. One of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met.

Aba (Ellie Schimelman) – A former teacher from Boston, Aba lives an important and unconventional life, dedicating the past 20 years to helping the children of Nungua. She was the bridge that connected me to everything in Ghana. I owe her a debt of gratitude for helping me plan my trip to Ghana, arranging for me to meet potters and artists. 

Talk True – (Chef from Aba House) I already miss his food, and even more I miss his friendly and honest personality. Talk True, I hope you write a cookbook so I can try to reproduce your ginger hibiscus iced tea, red red, cabbage stew, fried plantains, banana bread, and African pizza.

Rally Debrah – represents something I found often in Ghana – people juggling a way to pursue their careers while simultaneously dedicating themselves to some kind of public service for the community. Aside from being a professor at NKUST and other ambitious projects, she has started a non-profit to help children go to school, and women from Northern Ghana to learn artistic skills to make clothes. I hope we can stay in touch.

Ben Kwao Adipah – art education consultant and former Ghanaian art teacher - your kindness, conversations with me about Ghana and art education, and your generosity were greatly appreciated. I wish I had much more time to learn from your ideas and experience.

To all the potters and artists who invited me into their homes and studios, and spent countless hours sharing their knowledge and techniques with me, I am forever grateful.

Barrel Firing

James & I teamed up again today to do a barrel kiln firing with the Aba students. We stacked their dry clay works with layers of sawdust and wood chips, and then topped off the barrel with hot coals, which burned slowly toward the bottom in a matter of about ten hours. It was definitely the quickest, easiest method I’ve ever used to turn clay into ceramics. We sent out some of the Aba kids to a local woodworker to ask for his sawdust scraps. The kids came back with three giant bags.

The final layer is on - time to start the fire!

A couple hours after we added some hot coals, the sawdust was burning slow and steady.

The kiln burned all night, which was surprising considering we only used sawdust and wood shavings. It was still too hot to unload this morning, so we used sticks & shovels and rags to start grabbing work to see the results.

Ghanaian Handshake

The Ghanaians greet everyone with this fun handshake that ends with a snap.

Step 1: Start by grabbing each other's fists.

Step 2: Shake hands.

Step 3: As you release the handshake, your middle fingers and thumbs grab each other to snap.

Step 4: Finish the snap.

James Ahiave Sculptures

James Ahiave is an artist from Nungua whose work is all over town. He sculpts free forms from sand and cement such as the alligators below, and he decorates columns and sculpts panel reliefs on local architecture. Today he came to Aba House to demonstrate his techniques for mixing clay sand with cement to use as a sculpting medium. As it slowly dries, it is not much different than carving clay. Thanks, James, for being such a great teacher and friend while I was in Ghana. 

Kakum

Ghana has a lush, green landscape, but because people rely so heavily on wood and coal for fuel and cooking, it is largely deforested. So it was exciting to travel up to Kakum National Park and see the rainforest and towering trees. Kakum has a famous canopy bridge that rides 400 meters in the air! A series of boards on horizontal ladders are suspended from the trees by rope. I did my best to face and overcome my fear of heights, but I was only able to brave three of the seven levels. 

 The Canopy Walk

Bamboo

Ceiba Tree Roots

I look happy here, but in reality I am frozen with fear and recovering from a small heart attack.

If I could come here again, I would camp overnight or stay in the Kakum tree house so I could venture out at dawn. Early in the morning, there are a variety of monkeys and birds for nature lovers.

Cape Coast Castle

We had an extra day in Kumasi before traveling back south to Accra, so we altered our path and looped down to the Cape Coast. Even though it wasn’t part of my travel plans, I felt I couldn’t leave Ghana without visiting the infamous castle that links our two histories – the place where African slaves from the Gold Coast region were held before being shipped to the United States and the Caribbean. Nearly all slaves that arrived from Africa to the present-day United States can trace their origin to this castle.

Initially, the Portuguese, Dutch, and finally the British, came to the region to trade for gold and other raw materials and eventually began trading liquor, tobacco, and cotton to local chiefs in exchange for slaves.

Hot branding irons scarred the initials of the owners into the slaves’ chests or arms. Arms and legs were shackled together in groups of four to ten people.

This is one of the dungeon cells that housed 200 slaves for three months until they were sent by ship to the Americas. The captives were left in horrendous conditions, up to three feet of their own excrement, and many died while some committed suicide. An endless supply of humans was provided to fill the supply upon their deaths.

This is what a cell looks like on a bright, sunny day without my camera flash.

Ironically, a church was built by the British directly above the dungeons.

Present view of fishermen from the “Door of No Return” where slaves were marched to small boats that would shuttle slaves onto ships away from Africa.

Sankofa is one of my favorite adinkra symbols and one cherished by the Akans. Today I thought of its special meaning as I reflected upon the history of the Cape Coast Castle. The symbol represents respecting the past and traditions and literally means "return and get it," but according to many locals who tried to explain it to me, it is about courageously facing the past for good and evil, pride and regrets. One friend here said, “We remember our mistakes, and we don’t try to hide from them, but we learn. We move forward with our new understandings.”