🔗 Share this article

Following in excess of fifty installments delving into the global Black diaspora, this signifies a last piece. The experience proved profoundly gratifying, with great thanks directed to every one of the engaged followers.

Inside Accra Cultural Week

Attending the exhibitions, installations and acts of this event, it becomes clear how exceptional art sustains and shapes a nation's history and essence. The highlight was without doubt Clottey's stunning [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which put his innovative afrogallonism in full view: a philosophy that converts water vessels into captivating works of art, tapestries of golden hues. The display was designed as a testament to the strength of the historic district, a historic quarter of Accra.

Jamestown – mainly populated by the Ga people, a community of fishermen – is additionally where a great number of freed slaves arrived from Brazil and made their home in the 1830s. Known as the Tabom community, they introduced Brazilian language and traditions.

Throughout Jamestown, you can see a fusion of building designs. Standing is Fort Vicentia, featuring its characteristic European-style brickwork and curved entrances. Another landmark is the famous beacon, constructed in the 1800s and subsequently sporting its signature striped exterior.

A Culture of Mourning

Furthermore notable about Jamestown is the ever-present presence of memorial notices. Everywhere you turn, whether plastered over alleyways or on big billboards, there are service information and phrases of farewell. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, funerals are large-scale social gatherings.

In Clottey’s impressive exhibition, the entirety of the visual and auditory essence of Jamestown are evoked – especially in the engaging beach-themed installation. Within it, visitors are calmed by the audio of ocean surf with granules on the floor, while shelters, nets and representations of canoes celebrate its spirited, multigenerational seafaring tradition. Yet experiencing this venue, the mind turns to the piles of textile waste that threaten the aesthetics and tranquillity of the shoreline.

Apart from the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features a great deal more. Within an incomplete building at the campus, creator Reginald Sylvester II showcased On the Other Side of Languish, an profoundly affecting, austere show that displayed sculptures and paintings made in partnership with artisans.

And then there is the competition for female artists for Ghanaian women creators. It included the first solo show of a recent laureate, whose work references historical documents to craft a visual impression of life in post-independence Ghana. The event also crowned a new winner, whose diverse work is intensely focused on the textile traditions of women in a specific region.

A Permanent Impact

Although the overseas community has increasingly been drawn back to the region during the western winter, an increasing number are contemplating visiting earlier in the year to engage with the region’s cultural season. Between Accra Cultural Week and similar gatherings, what emerges are art scenes that are not simply nascent or “rising” but have built up an whole universe that is here to stay.

In the end, the experience leaves one with a image of Accra that resembles a statement for environmental protection and the safeguarding of tradition. It is a compelling testament to resilience in all its forms.