Kajsa Hallberg Adu, Ph.D
In August, the Jamestown area of Accra is blessed with the Chale Wote street art festival (“chale wote” is slang for flip-flops). It is a vibrant, exciting and young event – I’m sad I was so far away this year!
However, Mesh Ghana provides a vibe from the festival in less than two minutes. Thank you!
Safari on the Blog was also there and took some amazing photos.
See you there next year!
Posts from earlier Chale Wote festivals 2011, 2012, 2013
“Times are hard!”
“It’s someway bi!”
“Chale, where do I start?”
In a recent blogpost, I narrowed the political situation in Ghana down to rampant inflation.
I wanted to explain how inflation makes life hard, how trust in money is related to (lower) life quality for Ghanaians but Sarkodie beat me to it with this rant:
Worth highlighting is how FEW (fuel, electricity and water) problems have not been solved, inflation quickly become serious for the poorest.
What I maybe miss in Sark’s angry rap is the good aspects of inflation, long term they are there! It allows Ghanaian companies to compete with formerly cheap imports making Ghana a producing country again. It makes Ghana cheap for tourists. It makes remittances from relatives abroad last a little longer. Hopefully.
Is inflation on your lips?
Since Taiye Selasi wrote her short story in The Lip magazine “Bye-Bye Barbar” introducing to the world the concept of “Afropolitan” much water has run below the bridge. The concept has been much discussed, for instance by Binyavanga and Ms Minna Salami and at several international conferences. Selasie has also published her first novel Ghana Must Go and received much praise for it. Now she revisits her concept Afropolitan (“Did any Afropolitans actually live on the African continent?“) after having spent more time in West Africa.
About Accra, she writes:
“perfect timing: The first international Salsa Congress has just gotten under way. If ever there were a snapshot of the Afropolitan spirit, it’d be this: West African and Latin American salseros side by side in sequins. Melissa Mensah, the organizer, a glamorous Ghanaian-American-Nicaraguan lawyer, explains that salsa classes are the city’s newest craze. With no more than a DJ scratch, the music goes from salsa to azonto (Ghanaian clubbing music), and the line dancing begins. Limping home an hour later, I’m joyous, dripping sweat, resolved: Accra will one day soon be one of my more permanent homes.”
Read Selasi’s whole essay here. Thanks to colleague Kobby Graham for pointing me to this text.
Loved this portrait of Selasi published in Elle.
I was just reached by the horrible news that developer, social entrepreneur and friend Emmanuel Yaw Amofa Okyere had passed away.
I remember the first time we met. He came to a BloggingGhana meeting, I believe at Starbites in East Legon, and I noticed him as a new face right away. A head taller than everybody else with a wide smile on a handsome face, he stood out. He listened in to the likely long meeting and towards the end made some remarks on how he could help our organisation. I can’t remember exactly what he offered, but I remember it was generous and involved personal involvement on his side. I also remember his infectious smile later when we said goodbye. After this, we would meet regularly at iSpace, BlogCamps, Data BootCamp and other tech events. He would often be called “Chief” by his colleagues and friends.
Emmanuel Okyere and Nehemiah Attigah’s Odekro initiative was one I very much respected and was inspired by. Their latest project was a simple way for people to find voting registration centres – GotToVote.
As a digital citizen, upon hearing the news I went to his Facebook wall and to his Twitter page. His final tweet was almost spooky, as he promised a friend to teach him chess this weekend, but also testament to his helpful ways.
I can’t believe this kind and exceptional man is gone. Although Emmanuel’s passing is a huge blow to the tech and civic engagement community, I fear he will leave an even greater void privately. My thoughts go out to his wife and daughter, colleagues and friends.
Photo borrowed from Sunlight Foundation.
Since I left Ghana in mid-May, politically a lot has happened. Most of it makes me tired, I thought the meme above explains my feelings well. And it seems many other “middle income earners” feel the same type of despair, hence many Ghanaians dress in red every Friday as a clever protest about the negative developments. There are just so many issues…
The Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Governamnce group have summarised the issues as:
“The erratic supply of electricity nationwide. The unreliable supply of potable water across the country. The ever-depreciating value of the cedi. Constant increases in taxes. Inefficient revenue collection. Very poor road networks. Constant increments in utility tariffs. Frequent increase in the prices of petroleum products. Government’s inability to make statutory payments timeously to schools, health facilities and other state institutions. Government’s inability to address labour-related issues on a timely basis. Government’s inability to exhibit decisive leadership in the fight against corruption. Government’s inability to kick out incompetent and non-performing appointees. The over-politicization of socio-economic issues along partisan lines. Government’s inability to create job opportunities for the youth and fresh graduates. Government’s inability to effectively regulate small scale mining (galamsey) activities. Improper administrative decisions taken by some government officials. Lack of proper communicative skills on the part of some government officials. The Non-Passage of the Freedom of Information Bill The Non-Implementation of the Senchi Consensus. Government’s inability to tackle perennial flooding in the capital city and elsewhere in Ghana”
– however I will in a subsequent blog post focus on the issue of rampant inflation.
For now, let’s hear some music: Ghanaian artist M.anifest just released this video that my blogging friend Efo Dela calls “a documentary about suffering” which also illustrates what Ghanaians go through – and their awesome attitude of still enjoying life. Enjoy!
Swedish design brand Gudrun Sjödén has chosen West Africa as it’s inspiration this fall and shot it’s Fall/Winter collection 2014 in Burkina Faso.
Beautiful pics and great to be reminded of that this part of the world is more than Ebola scare and poverty!
An article I have written about political movements in Ghana’s neighboring country of Nigeria was recently published on the CIHA blog( Critical Investigations in Humanitarianisms in Africa).
I wrote:
“In a country where citizens are on their own for organizing almost every aspect of life, be it electricity, health, schooling or security – all this in stark contrast to the affluence the oil industry brings to a select few – there is much to protest about. In Africa’s most populous nation and, since recently, biggest economy, there is diversity in protests as well. While extremist Boko Haram is receiving increased attention in the media worldwide for its horrid and violent actions, nonviolent movements Change Movement Nigeria and Enough is Enough Nigeria work mostly under the international news radar”.
Read the whole article here: Nigeria’s Non-Violent Protest Movements Gathering Momentum.
On the 21st of July I was made a mother of two: the girl I already have and another girl born almost on the hour three years later! We are all well and I think my self imposed blog break is now over.
I missed all of you!
