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In the wake of more than 50 editions exploring the international Black diaspora, this marks a concluding piece. The experience proved incredibly fulfilling, and immense gratitude directed to all the engaged followers.

Inside the Accra Festival

Attending the displays, installations and performances of the festival, one sees how the finest art feeds and constructs a country’s past and character. The centrepiece was certainly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s remarkable a profound exploration of ritual and time, which displayed his innovative afrogallonism in full view: a approach that converts water vessels into illusory works of art, assemblages of metallic tones. The display was conceived as a tribute to the resilience of Jamestown, a historical quarter of Accra.

This area – mainly populated by the Ga ethnic group, a fishing community – is also where many returning Africans came back from Brazil and established themselves in the 1830s. Called the Tabom, they carried with them Portuguese tongue and culture.

All across Jamestown, one observes a blend of architectural styles. Standing is Franklin House, featuring its unique colonial-era brickwork and door arches. Also present is the prominent Jamestown Lighthouse, built in the 1871 and subsequently featuring its distinctive striped facade.

A Culture of Mourning

Equally striking about Jamestown is the ubiquitous sight of funeral posters. Wherever you look, be it plastered over buildings or on larger hoardings, one finds service information and expressions of mourning. In Jamestown, similar to the rest of Ghana, funerals are significant communal events.

In Clottey’s spectacular installation, the entirety of the sights, sounds and religious textures of Jamestown are present – particularly in the immersive shoreline piece. In this space, you’re soothed by the recording of ocean surf with beach material at your feet, while beach huts, draped nets and images of canoes celebrate its dynamic, generational fishing community. But being present in this gallery, the mind turns to the heaps of cast-off garments that mar the beauty and tranquillity of the shoreline.

Apart from the Centrepiece

The festival program included additional highlights. Housed in an unfinished structure at the campus, creator Reginald Sylvester II presented a deeply moving minimalist collection, an emotionally powerful, austere exhibition that featured sculptures and paintings made in concert with welders.

Also featured was the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for women artists of Ghanaian origin. It showcased the debut presentation of a prior laureate, whose work utilizes personal family archives to produce a depiction of life in Ghana after independence. The event also announced a current champion, whose diverse work is intensely invested in the textile traditions of women in a specific region.

A Permanent Impact

While the global African community has more and more been pulled home to Ghana during the colder season, more and more are thinking about visiting for the cultural season to experience the region’s artistic calendar. From this festival and regional art fairs, what is evident are cultural ecosystems that are not simply emerging or “rising” but have forged an entire world that is here to stay.

In the end, the journey offers a image of Accra that resembles a statement for ecological stewardship and the safeguarding of tradition. It is a resonant tribute to resilience in all its expressions.