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After more than fifty issues exploring the global Black diaspora, this signifies a last piece. The experience has been deeply rewarding, and immense gratitude offered to all the dedicated followers.

A Look Inside the Accra Festival

Visiting the showcases, presentations and performances of Accra Cultural Week, one sees how superior art feeds and constructs a nation's past and character. The focal point was without doubt Serge Attukwei Clottey’s exquisite [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which put his groundbreaking afrogallonism for all to see: a approach that converts yellow jerrycans into illusory creations, tapestries of metallic tones. The display was conceived as a testament to the strength of this area, a venerable area of Accra.

The community – predominantly home to the Ga community, a seafaring people – is also where numerous freed slaves returned from South America and established themselves in the 19th century. Called the Tabom, they carried with them Portuguese language and customs.

Throughout Jamestown, one observes a blend of architecture. There’s a historic building, with its distinct European-style construction and arched doorways. Also present is the iconic beacon, built in the 1871 and eventually given its signature red-and-white-striped facade.

Traditions of Mourning

Also remarkable about Jamestown is the pervasive sight of obituary announcements. On every corner, be it plastered over alleyways or on sizable billboards, there are service information and expressions of loss. In Jamestown, similar to the rest of Ghana, funerals are major social gatherings.

In Clottey’s breathtaking show, the entirety of the visual and auditory essence of Jamestown are captured – especially in the enveloping beach-themed installation. Here, visitors are calmed by the recording of ocean surf with granules at your feet, while beach huts, nets and representations of boats pay homage to its spirited, long-standing seafaring tradition. However being present in this exhibition space, the mind turns to the piles of cast-off garments that threaten the beauty and serenity of the region.

Beyond the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features a great deal more. Within an unfinished structure at the local university, creator Reginald Sylvester II exhibited On the Other Side of Languish, an profoundly affecting, austere presentation that displayed sculptures and paintings created in collaboration with metalworkers.

Also featured was the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for Ghanaian women creators. It featured the inaugural exhibition of a recent winner, whose work references familial archival records to create a artistic representation of life in the nation's recent history. The event also announced a current champion, whose multidisciplinary work is deeply concerned with the textile traditions of women in Dabala.

A Permanent Legacy

While the diaspora has more and more been pulled home to Ghana during the colder season, a growing cohort are contemplating journeying earlier in the year to experience the region’s festival period. From this festival and regional art fairs, what is evident are creative communities that are not merely emerging or “upcoming” but have forged an complete world that is enduring.

In the end, the experience offers a perception of Accra that resembles a manifesto for environmental protection and the preservation of tradition. It is a powerful homage to adaptability in all its manifestations.