>Swedish Television in Ghana

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Swedish Television is currently broadcasting a documentary series about the life of Diplomats. In the fifth program of the season, which was broadcast on Monday, they follow a diplomat to Ghana. In the clip above we get to take part of the motorcade taking the Swedish diplomat from Hotel La Palm to the Kotoka Airport in Accra.

I never thought of how scary it must be to actually be part of the motorcade.

The program in Swedish also discusses gin and tonic as a cure for malaria and poor documentation of aid projects. Nothing new there…

Interestingly, a clip of the Swedish diplomats being shown a dirty lagoon when asking to see a successful development project is featured on Ghanaweb under the heading “Who chop-chop the aid money?” I wonder how the clip in Swedish got there.

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>Salsamania in Accra

>Tomorrow it is Wednesday and I am going dancing!

A few weeks ago I decided to take a friend to the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Ridge in Accra on a Wednesday evening to see if the latin rhythms still was shaking the place. And if they were! I now cant remember why I ever stopped going and quickly made myself a promise to make it every week.

Local radio station CityFM are nice enough to offer this weekly Salsamania program free of charge. I try to arrive a bit early, around 7 PM to get a parking space in the neighborhood. At 7.30 there are classes on beginner and intermediate levels. I have learned some moves in the intermediate group, but it seems the purpose of the class is to get people moving rather than really transmit dance steps. Then after some 20 minutes of class we gather round the pool and start the row dancing (see pic), for instance to Mambo no 5 (which is the only one I have really mastered). This is so much fun!

Ok, people have stepped on my toes and some combinations seem impossible to ever learn. But the feeling when you get a few steps right in the big crowd of like-minded people! If I am lucky I then find some good salsa dancers for the next section of proper salsa music for proper salsa dancing. Most Ghanaians seem to have adopted something close to Cuban style, which is (lucky me!) my preference. Also, quite contrary to salsa dancing in Sweden, there are two guys to every girl, which makes it easy to pick good dance partners.

There is also really good chicken khebabs to eat and drinks to gulp down in the still warm tropical evening (strictly water for us dancers!)

After just an hour of salsa, I can’t be upset regardless of how my day has been. Sweaty and happy and sit in my car around 10 PM, driving home.

Listening to salsa, of course.

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>Ghanaian Beads

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Glass, recycled, clay, brass, silver, ceramic

Beads in Ghana is big business. In 2007, I made a web search for “beads” and “Ghana” and got 609 000 hits, today I got 655 000 hits. My love of beads which I have written about here, here and the other week here have recently been upgraded to obsession.

Most importantly, I have joined the Ghana Beads Society which convenes the first Thursday of every month at 4.30 PM at DuBois Centre in Labone, Accra. The meetings are enthused gatherings of bead nerds as myself, mostly other (female) obrunis and some (male) Ghanaian bead traders (where are the Ghanaian women who most often wear beads?). In the beginning of each meeting, wonderful beads are being sold for bargain prices, the peak of the meeting is spent learning about beads, feeling their delicate textures, getting shocked by how difficult they are to make/bring into the country and marveling at their various colors. There is also some networking and meet and greet with the founders of the GBS and other bead experts.

I have gotten to meet with bead enthusiasts and bead entrepreneurs like Kati Torda of Suntrade and Trish Graham of Ahene Pa Nkasa. It is truly inspiring how they have rediscovered Ghanaian beads and though determination and a will to learn have upgraded the traditional bead into modern use. See for instance the lovely bead work Kati Torda did for Miss Ghana 2005 here.

And I have started thinking about setting up my own bead business. If I did, I think I would be focusing on bracelets – which I love – and “over-the-top pieces” which would be overtly elaborate combination of the West African beads I have come to enjoy so much. In a few weeks, I hope to go for a “stringing” class to learn how to successfully create jewelery with the beautifully rustic and colorful beads I have already purchased over my first two years in Ghana. Then we’ll see.

I only know, this is not the last time I write about beads.

Pic borrowed (and cropped) from Kati Torda’s photostream on Flickr.

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>Kokrobite Beach Vacation

> There’s a beach just west of Accra called Kokrobite that seems so far from my everyday life of metro-boulot-dodo, but in geographical terms is not. This is where I spent this past weekend.

Kokrobite(some native English-speakers spell it Kokrobitey to underline the correct pronunciation, including the “e”) is situated one hour from Tema, 30 minutes from Accra on a good day with little traffic around Mallam junction leading out west from Accra. This backpackers hide-out is complete with cheap accommodation (can wholly recommend Bah’doosh where I stayed this time), Rastafarians, palm trees, cold beer and a beautiful and crowded beach with a glittering and wavy ocean.

Everytime I go, I bring only a pair of flip-flops, a piece of African print that can make a dress or a wrap or a towel or a headgear, a flowy white cotton top to avoid sunburn and my colorful patchwork trousers (bought in Kokrobite last year)- all of which goes with a bikini and some beads around the wrists.

My husband and I also take a long the books we never get to read. In the mornings we have breakfast in the shade reading together, something that is terribly nerdy, I know, but just screams vacation to me. Swedish celebrity blogger Alexandra Pascalidou has made beach life her everyday life in Thailand for a couple of months. It should be possible to do the same in Ghana.

Some people might have ulterior and somewhat more “smokey” reasons to come to Kokrobite, but as for me I just find it relaxing without any additives. It is like I took a plane to vacation land. But I didn’t. Did I say this place is an hour away from home?

Pic: This is how happy I feel on the beach.

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>Post Election Thoughts

>As the sun sets on the Ghanaian elections of 2008, here is my post election column for the Swedish newspaper AiP.

Although the brief text unfortunately is in Swedish only, the heading optimistically reads “Ghana visar vägen i Afrika” – in English “Ghana Shows the Way Ahead in Africa”.

In the pic, the beautiful sunset over Tema/Sakumono beach yesterday evening.

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>Employment in Ghana

> I thought I should share some local job opportunities. Even if I am not looking, I belong to a generation who likes to know the options…

I am on a few mailing lists, and recently a couple of interesting jobs caught my attention. Firstly, African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) is looking for new staff. They are searching for experienced policy experts, but also HR and some other research staff and interestingly offering “competitive international remuneration packages”. More on the organization and the job openings here.

Some of my information I get through the International Development Jobs Newsletter, which lists all kinds of jobs all over the world in the “development industry”. To subscribe visit their webpage. Other jobs come though the site/newsletter Find A Job in Africa.

Last, but not least, there is also the Ghanaian site Jobs in Ghana which lists all kinds of jobs, currently themselves are also hiring.

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>Cinema Celebrations

> This weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the newly opened Silverbird Cinemas in Accra. I am not the biggest fan of watching films in company of strangers, so bloggers Abena, Maya and Que beat me to it. However, not even having the option to go, makes the cinema love grow…For the longest time – probably since early 1990s when TV-sets and videotapes came to Ghana in bulk – Ghana’s capital Accra has been without a cinema. Ok, there are the dubious “video houses” where you rent a film that comes with a private room for you and your company. The one I went to last year had a sofa bed with a rubber cover, hm, wonder what goes on in there…

However, that is now in the past and Accra has now its own five screen cinema, located in the Accra Mall, a shopping complex put together by Broll Management of South Africa, according to afridigital.net. There is popcorn scent all around, red cosy chairs, people to sell tickets (GHC 10 each) and others to rip them apart and say, “welcome, there is free seating”. There is Bond and College-films, Indian Golmaal and the occasional comedy.

So now, when the sun is just too much, there is an opportunity to go into the dark, heavily air-conditioned cinema hall and be swept away. My tip is, bring a blanket and someone you can wrap your arm around. It was really very cold in there.

Pic borrowed from Abena.

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>Lunch with Bush and Bin Laden

> We go to a restaurant close to work to have some lunch. I order a salad. And then look around the big open space. And see following mural.

Saddam, Blair, Bin Laden and W. Bush are enjoying a meal together! Interestingly they are all eating Ghanaian dishes. Saddam eats banku and dried fish, Blair fried rice, Bin Laden dips his hand into fufu with goat soup and Bush plantain with kontomire stew. Maybe a top-level meeting like this could have solved some issues? At least it would’ve spread the word about the delicious Ghanaian cuisine.

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>Moringa Miracles

> A friend here in Ghana told me about the many healthy effects of the moringa tree (“benzolive” in French, “drumstick tree” in English) some time ago. I had never heard of it, but through a little research online I now know my friend was right to sprinkle dried moringa leaves on her kids’ food.

It contains vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3 and C) as well as calcium and potassium. But the miracle is it also contains complete proteins, which few plants do. Another example is the soy bean, but moringa is much richer in protein! According to Trees for Life an organization promoting the use of Moringa to combat hunger, the leaves also prevent various diseases. Download Trees for Life’s interesing PDF on possible uses of Moringa here.

You simply eat the fresh or dried leaves with your food or brew tea out of it.

The Moringa tree grows in tropical areas and the fast growing tree requires little water and no particular soil. It’s leaves can be fed to animals, a meal made from the seeds can purify water and be used to produce bio fuels!

On my way home from work I always pass a little shed with a “Moringa is sold here” sign (opposite the Shell station at the end of the Tema motorway leading towards Achimota). I always used to wonder, what IS Moringa anyway? Now I know.

Pic of the moringa leaf from Trees for Life

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>African Wax Print Fiesta!

> My love relationship with African wax print, the widely used cloth in bright colors, has just reached another level. I think I have always associated Africa with bright colors of clothing and from my very first moment in Ghana (Dec 2004), I have been on the hunt for colorful material of this kind.

I like that its most often sold in “half piece” or 6 yards at a time, I adore the colors and the wild combinations of patterns. Speaking of patterns, I love certain ones, most notably the “water well” pattern, which looks like big kind of dotted circles. I have it in several (5?) different colors.

So of course the next step was to make clothes out of it. I have two seamstresses I frequent. It is so much fun to be able to decide the style myself and most of the days here in Ghana you will see me in some kind of African garment, be it a top, a skirt or the traditional top and bottom kaba and slit.

Recently the ready wear has enetered the Ghanaian market. So recently, I have also bought a wonderful dress (and probably will add another one to it soon) at the Ghanaian designer house Kiki’s Clothing. Their designer introduced me to the wax prints deluxe that on top of an elaborate and colorful print has another pattern in gold over it!

But now Boxing Kitten has arrived. Just like Kiki’s clothing she is mixing patterns and colors without fear. Less is not more, more is more. And my love for African wax print has suddenly reached a whole different level.

Pic from Boxing Kittens fall collection, isn’t it just beautiful?

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>Pop’Africana is Pan’Africana?

> Stumbled upon (whilst out walking on facebook) the new initiative Pop’Africana, an art/style mag created by some creative minds, amongst others the Editor Oroma who’s blog you can read here.

It seems like this is the time for patriotic initiatives and pan-africaism. Here in Ghana we see a lot of similar initiatives that I have written about before with magazine Canoe, T-shirt companies quoting Africans, websites with African names and content as well as flags everywhere, Ghanaian, Nigerian…Is this a trend or am I imagining it?

The interesting pic stolen from above mentioned mag.

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