Walking You Through Accra’s Beautiful Attractions

“If we were meant to stay at One place, we would have roots instead of feet”

Living in Accra and not able to tell where to go and what is exciting was such a dreary life, as I had to leave home to work and vice versa, a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly routine that is not only a recipe for boredom but also sickening to the human body, looking at the stress one has to deal with year in year and out.

An outing basically involved visiting the market square, the mall to window shop, buying and eating of all the junk foods one can find and adding up much more weight often the cause of life threatening health complications and also premature deaths.

The awakening came when I took the decision to opt for a change of lifestyle which lured me to the Legon Botanical Garden, located at the center of town though not visible enough to announce its presence and stress relieving potentials.

Legon Botanical garden is not only a tourist site but also a conducive environment for family and friends that makes space for children’s play area and adult party area available to all manner of people irrespective of age, color or creed. Its natural environment is suitable for holding all kinds of events, a canopy walkway for tourists to appreciate a great view of the garden area, a lake with a waiting boat to cruise passengers for a feel of canoe ride among other very exciting sceneries.

This exposé was enough awakening to tour and expose myself to what Accra the capital has for leisure and pleasure.

Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum is my first point of call in my Accra expedition with an amazing touch of artefacts and items belonging to Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah brought back nostalgic memories on the Gold Coast stories from Mr. Boamah’s history class during Primary School.

Next to the Park, is the National Centre for Culture also known as the “Accra Arts Center” which harbors lots of Ghanaian made handicrafts ranging from quality kente cloths, beads, wooden sculptures and other Ghanaian fashion accessories that would bring out the African in you. The W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture a home where Dr. DuBois spent his last years also the Brazil House known as one of the very few Afro-Brazilian houses developed for commercial purposes. It is a typical Ghanaian courtyard-type building dating back to 1836. that has a two-storey building facing the south side with a lovely view of the ocean and a balcony that overlooks the first fishing port in the Greater Accra region believed to be the migratory route of the Tabom.

Accra being the country’s capital and largest city has a population of about 2.27 million people, with a chunk of the population being in the younger brackets numbering 56% under age 24.

Thereafter, Agbogbloshie and Makorla, the busiest market place in the capital especially on Saturdays, will treat you to burning rays from the sun as market women consistently calling for attention to sell their wares ranging from salted fish: “tolo beef”, garden eggs “sebe” and fresh tomatoes popularly known in the Ga parlance as “Amoo”.

You can’t talk about the people of Greater Accra without mentioning the Ga kenkey “Komi”, a traditional meal enjoyed by all with ground pepper “Kpakpo shito” accompanied with fried fish. This popular delicacy can be served with soups or stews. Interestingly, nothing goes to waste with this dish as the water residue from the boiling kenkey called “otinshi nu” is still a very sought for drink for its potent and medicinal effectiveness in curing malaria and fever.To the Oxford Street at Osu, a premier business center located in the Accra Metropolis deriving its name from the famous Oxford Street in London, U.K resulting from its busy nocturnal activities, is a popular den and hotspot for lovers and families to entertain themselves on special occasions especially on weekends and holidays.

That aside, it is the pivot for household foodstuffs shopping with the finest supermarkets such as Koala Shopping Mall, Woodin, Relish, a Natural Health foods distribution company and many others dotted around for all shopping kinds.

Feeling hungry? The best restaurants and eateries are located in and around this street, displaying varied cuisines ranging from Chinese, Korean, Japanese to Indian and our Ghanaian local dishes namely Dynasty restaurant, Frankies, Papaye to mention just a few.

There is a remarkably stunning Night life with the state-of-the-art night clubs, well patronized Ryan’s Irish Pub and Makumba Night Clubs highly recommended.

Fashion is not left out as there are many boutiques on the street. You can find Monte-Carlo, a high-class boutique which carries exotic collections from famous designers around the world. The local kiosks/cabins are not exempted mostly marked with local artifacts and paraphernalia exhibiting the rich Ghanaian Culture.

The people in Accra love to dance and make merry especially during their festive occasions in August, a special month that gave birth to the Homowo Festival aimed at hooting at hunger, calling for plenty and bumper harvest in the months and years ahead to feed the populace.

The celebration begins with a ban on noise making believed to affect crop yield and disturbs the ancestors. The festival is highlights the Ga indigenous music, dance, food “kpokpoi” and exchange of gifts.

Aside these, an alternate platform to expose the culture of Gas into the international waves brings up activities such as the “Charlewote Arts Festival” which engage in street painting, photo exhibition, sports, food stands, fashion market place, street boxing and performances, African cinema pavilion and other African related activities to project the people and culture.

A visit to Jamestown in Accra gives you a great view of how the neighborhood has typically been influenced by the British colonial masters. The Light House located in Jamestown has become a tourist site over a period of time. Take a walk through the spiral stairs of the lighthouse and have a great view of old British buildings and fisher folks along the seashore.

I also discovered that the presence of these colonial masters influenced the name of the Ga people plainly reflected in names like Hutton-Mills, Hesse, Schandorf, Taylor, Smith, Nelson, Lutterodt, Clinton, Mingle, Hammond, Hanson, Ferguson, Bruce etc.

Just find your bearings here in Accra- Ghana and you will understand the history hidden in the land and its beautiful welcoming people, whose nature has earned us the Gate way to Africa.

 

Written by Mabel Delassie Awuku. She is a staff of the Information Services Department”