Accra

Accra the capital of Ghana, a modern bustling city of over one million people.  Travelling on public transport in Ghana was certainly no hardship.  From the modern air conditioned public service coach on our  way to Accra we saw more of the old British trading castles dotted along the coast.  They were built between 1660 and 1690 to protect the trade in gold and slaves from the Portuguese, Dutch and Danish traders.

Ghana achieved its independence from Britain in 1957 when it was one of the most prosperous countries in West Africa.  Its first president, the forward looking Kwame Nkrumah advocated a pan African union on a socialist model. He is still looked up to as the father of the African Union. While he invested heavily in major infrastructure projects, like the Akosombo hydroelectric dam the world price of cocoa beans fell and he generally miss-managed the economy. As his term in office lengthened he became more and more autocratic and despotic until he announced he would be president for life. Despite this Kwame Nkrumah is remembered with affection and we visited the monument and museum dedicated to his life in a well maintained park in the centre of Accra.

On New Years day, 1 January 2006, we took a quiet stroll around Accra.  We saw the Freedom Arch, the opera house and then we walked to James Town, a small enclave near the beach.  This was supposed to be a picturesque part of the town, harking back to colonial days but it was decayed and dusty and too much like Banjul to have much appeal for us.   In general though Accra looked to be much more prosperous than the other West African cities we had travelled through.  The streets were clean and the offices and shops seemed modern and well maintained.

It is always nice to be able to speak to the locals and get their take on things. So we were delighted to meet James, a quiet Ghanaian who drove a taxi.  We asked our hotel for a car and a driver to explore the surrounding area and James turned up.  After establishing that we were living in West Africa, and were not tourists the daily hire rate plummeted to more realistic levels.  James had a wife and two boys.  He came from the Akosmbo area where his brothers and sisters still lived.  According to James the relative prosperity of Ghana was down to the sheer hard work and determination of the people. A more recent president, Jerry Rawlings, had brought the economy so close to ruin that the people had to take matters into their own hands or starve. So modern Ghanaians were now more inclined to work hard to safeguard their own future.

 So Accra looked good, the people were friendly and we found an excellent Indian restaurant where we toasted the new year.

This article is part of a series describing our tour of West Africa
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