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After over fifty issues delving into the global Black diaspora, this marks a last dispatch. The experience has been deeply rewarding, with immense appreciation extended to all the attentive followers.

A Look Inside the Accra Festival

Experiencing the showcases, artworks and acts of the festival, observers witness how exceptional art sustains and shapes a nation's past and identity. The centrepiece was undoubtedly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s exquisite a profound exploration of ritual and time, which displayed his pioneering afrogallonism on full display: a concept that converts yellow jerrycans into mesmerizing art pieces, assemblages of yellow, brass and gold. The display was designed as a homage to the strength of Jamestown, a venerable neighbourhood of Accra.

Jamestown – predominantly inhabited by the Ga people, a seafaring people – is also where a great number of formerly enslaved people came back from Brazil and established themselves in the 19th century. Called the Tabom, they introduced Portuguese language and culture.

All across Jamestown, visitors encounter a fusion of building designs. There’s Fort Vicentia, boasting its distinct Portuguese masonry and door arches. Another landmark is the famous Jamestown Lighthouse, built in the 1800s and eventually sporting its recognizable banded exterior.

Traditions of Remembrance

Equally remarkable about Jamestown is the ubiquitous presence of funeral posters. Wherever you look, be it affixed to walls or on larger hoardings, there are funeral details and expressions of loss. In Jamestown, as throughout Ghana, final rites are large-scale community celebrations.

In this breathtaking show, the entirety of the sensory and spiritual landscape of Jamestown are present – notably in the immersive shoreline installation. Within it, one is relaxed by the audio of ocean surf with beach material at your feet, while beach huts, draped nets and depictions of canoes honour its spirited, long-standing seafaring tradition. However standing in this exhibition space, one cannot help but think of the mountains of textile waste that compromise the charm and peace of the region.

In Addition to the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features additional highlights. Inside an raw space at the campus, creator Reginald Sylvester II exhibited On the Other Side of Languish, an incredibly moving, austere exhibition that displayed three-dimensional works and canvases produced in partnership with artisans.

Another key element is the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for Ghanaian women creators. It included the first solo show of a recent winner, whose work draws on personal family archives to create a artistic representation of life in post-independence Ghana. The event also crowned a new winner, whose multidisciplinary work is intensely invested in the craft techniques of women in a specific region.

A Permanent Impact

While the global African community has more and more been pulled home to west Africa during the colder season, more and more are thinking about journeying some months earlier to engage with the region’s artistic calendar. Between this festival and regional art fairs, what is evident are creative communities that are not merely nascent or “rising” but have forged an whole universe that is permanent.

Ultimately, the experience offers a vision of Accra that resembles a statement for environmental protection and the keeping alive of heritage. It is a compelling testament to adaptability in all its expressions.