>Friendly Faces

>Stumbled across the blog The Face of Afrika (FA) and liked their approach, to “report various constructive initiatives by African people”. The blog does that, and much more like linking to a bunch of interesting African websites. However, who is behind this initiative? Are you writing from Africa or elsewhere? The faces of the four writers of the blog remain invisible. On the right hand bar of the blog the writers names mysteriously link to other African web pages without explanation.

Still, whoever you are I especially liked the FA vision, a webpage that is almost like a collage, filled with inspirational quotes and friendly, highly visible, African faces. Ayekoo! (Well done!)

Just as Toke, I also ran into Chioma who has the blog Celebrate Africa. I acctually read about her blog one day on Toke’s blog and was introduced to her by a friend the same evening! A small world, to say the least. From an ‘on the ground’ perspective Chioma explores a very similar topic by traveling around this fascinating continent. Right now, she should be in Burkina Faso is she still on schedule. Loved what she wrote on Accra, “Africa’s melting pot?” and the link she gave to the intresting essential oil producer here in Ghana.

I get really happy when I get to know about things like these as I am myself trying to write about the positive aspects of life in Africa and Ghana. But maybe one should ask oneself – is there inflation in the subject?

I’d say no, we are not there yet. To balance out all the singlehandedly negative reports from this lush and vivid continent, even a lot more accounts written here and now are needed.

What do you think?

In the pic some friendly faces from an unrelated event.

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>Inspiring People II

> Earlier, I have posted about people in motion, people who want something and who are in themselves an inspiration to others.

For the Swedish speaking crowd, I proudly recommend the radio program with my friend Emilie Persson. She is a truly inspiring person and uses her “hour of fame” on Swedish local radio to discuss political engagement and explore how she went from being a tired student who saw herself as a make-up artist, to someone who is an expert on fair trade, CSR and organic agricultural production and uses her knowledge to lead and engage people. She also talks about her trip to Ghana and says her three months here were exclusively positive. “If you don’t think you don’t dare to go to Africa, take a chance! Ghana is a fantastic, wonderful country!”

For the English speakers, Emilie plays some good music like Ghanaian hip-life (Ofori Amponsah), South African reggae (Lucky Dube) and American hip-hop (Erykah Badu).

In the picture, Emilie is smelling the flowers in Aburi Gardens in Ghana on a visit last year.

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>Extravagant Event

> Tonight I will be attending my first Fashion Show ever. It is the final event for Accra Fashion Week and I am invited by one of the designers, Nanna Nilson, an amazing lady who also is a dancer and choreograph with roots in Sweden and Denmark.

Since one of my big interests after moving here is collecting the “good news” of Ghana, this display of fashion has to be one of them. It will be so interesting to see the cutting edge of Ghanaian fashion, the wax prints and batiks molded in new shapes and most likely some modern, urban, arty fashion that is not specifically “traditional/African”.

But then comes the problem: WHAT TO WEAR TO A FASHION SHOW. I don’t think I have ever felt this self-conscious about clothing. Do I sport a colorful dress or casually come in the pants I wore to work? What in my wardrobe is really new and fresh? How should I keep my hair? What jewelery goes with the outfit? What bag is appropriate? In the end I have chosen to dress in black with Ghanaian accessories and a drop of perfume behind my ears. I’ve heard you can’t go wrong with black.

In the pic some lovely Ghanaian wax prints in braver colors than the author behind this blog. At least tonight.

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>Meet and Greet

>– Aren’t you a blogger…?

Recently I have been running into other bloggers here in Ghana. The first one is a Swedish journalist who is curious about Ghana, etanol production, gold and diamonds and life in West Africa. Emanuel Sidea is spending some weeks in our lush country and posting (in Swedish) about it here.

Two other bloggers I met at the interesting British Council event WAPi on Saturday. Toke who is the mother of two weblogs, I heart Accra and In My Eyes and Kwabena who together with some friends write Ghana Hype.

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>Panafricaism in Ghana

> Check out my article (only in Swedish) in the latest edition of the Swedish Travelling Exhibition/ Riksutställningars Newsletter Spana!.

After visiting the cool national museum in Accra, I wrote about its history, organization and visitors and in do doing managed to combine my two top interests art and politics in one project! Additionally, when interviewing the management of the museum I found that migration/brain-drain is a problem also in the museum sector. As a result this post has the most “tags” I have ever given to a text on the blog.

Enjoy!

Picture taken by me of two young museum visitors, and beutifully reddened by Spana!’s editor Mårten Jansson.

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>Happiness Is Also…

>…finding a site with interesting and entertaining materials, wonderful photos and just a layout that talks to you.

I fully and wholeheartedly recommend this daily source of inspiration.

It is an online magazine for “women of culture” (probably meaning black, but hey I’m an African now) and according to the founder of the site Ericka Taylor the name stands for You Make It Beautiful. And it is beautiful! (and a bit Martha Steward-y, but thats fine).

Pic taken from abovementioned America-produced website. Can we do stuff like this in Africa?

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>How To Carry A Child On Your Back – Ghana Style

>Since my last post I have tried to find a site that explains how to tie a child with a cloth on your back the way EVERYONE does it here. I (and others with me) have searched, but found very little on the simplest of baby carrying systems. The answer was of course YouTube. This is what I’ve found!

This lady does the tying just like they would here in Ghana. Just a pointer, the tying up top is more a fold, like you would to hold up a towel. Below, it crosses twice and then gets folded in, this way, the baby’s weight secures the arrangement. Sometimes the baby’s arms are tied into the cloth, that way he or she can’t move much and will go to sleep in a jiffy.

I dedicate this post to Clara and Leja in Sweden, now I think you can do it!

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>Swedish Midsummer in Ghana

> Date: 21st of June
Time: 3 PM onwards
Place: My Place in Tema

We meet and cook and drink together while the sun sets. I have a grill and a lot of glasses and plates. The rest is up to you. It will be a “knytis” to create a Swedish feel to the event… Everyone with a Swedish connection is most welcome!

Just drop me an email if you want to come.

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>Goat News

> Today, I have a bunch of fun errands to run in Accra. I have to look at some cars (will be buying one soon!) with a mechanic friend, do some journalistic digging (for an article I will link to here if it gets published), have fika with some Swedish friends I have reconnected with through SVIV and then finish off with dinner and “Varieté” at Alliance Francaise (8PM, probably a few cedis entrance fee). Maya informed me there is now a page that vows to collect all events in Ghana. The initiative which Ghana’s Ministry for Communication and UNDP stands behind is called Aponkye – goat! I thought that was hilarious!

This type of webpage is exactly what I was talking about. However, after a quick browse I wonder – why are many events taking place in the US?

In the pic the abovementioned goat.

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>World Artist in Town!

> This Saturday, May 17th, the Jazz Society of Ghana (JSG) and Nooq Entertainment presents Richard Bona in Concert. This worldknown bassplayer and singer just came from Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Krakow, Amsterdam, Oslo and will after Accra continue his tour in US and Europe. He is by some called “the African Sting”.

I was happy to see that our splendid wedding band Takashi is the opening act when Mr Bona plays at the National Theatre in Accra, 8 PM on Saturday! Tickets are GHC 50 a piece.

Now to connect this piece of info to my previous post, I will stop the celebration and be a bit serious. This information that a world artist is coming to town was given to me in an email from FCA, an art club. The organizers JSG and Nooq seems to have done little to advertize for this concert apart from producing the flyer you can see above. They are also strangely absent on the internet. JSG hasn’t uppdated its webpage since 2005 and Nooq doesn’t even have one (as far as my searches go).

Sure there are newspaper articles about this, but key information (where, what time, how much) is unfortunately not something they transmit.

So now I hope I will be given a couple of free tickets for my marketing efforts, most likely the only to be found in cyberspace.

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>Whats Up, Ghana?

> Being a curious cultural consumer, I have spent my first year in Ghana trying to experience as much entertainment as is only possible. There are lots of cultural events going on in Accra and its surroundings, many of them free or very cheap, but I have found one major problem. Getting to know about the events – before they take place – is often a mission impossible!

Many institutions rely heavily on placing a banner outside their premises as their only form of marketing (!) The University of Ghana, the British Council and the National Theatre are a few examples. Others place ads in the newspapers, unfortunately these ads easily get overlooked if missing to buy the paper one day. However I have found that some institutions have e-newsletters, which is more visitor friendly in my opinion.

If you want to know what goes on in Accra, sign up for the newsletters of
Goethe Institute,
Alliance Francaise (send an email to info@alliancefrancaiseghana.com) and
Foundation for Contemporary Art
to get a few hints.

The Goethe Institute often have events including exhibits and concerts on Tuesday nights, while Mercredis de la Paillote (Wednesdays in the pavillion) have become the trademark for Alliance Francaise. The FCA arrange contemporary art exhibits and exciting, but unfortunately not very well known Meet-the-Artist sessions.

The events page of the Ghana Tourism Council will tell you about the big events, but unfortunately the Ghana Web events page seems sadly nonfunctioning.

The information gap is a big problem not just for the entertainment business, but basically for all sectors in Ghana. I have had similar problems when I wanted to buy furniture, for example. Maybe there is something we bloggers in Ghana could do about this problem? For starters, please let me know if there is more information to be had about events in Greater Accra. I still have some nights open this week!

In the picture Ivorienne artist Dobet Gnahore at Alliance Francaise the 20th of February this year in one of the best concerts I have ever seen (thanks to their newsletter).

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