More Accra modernism: Lasdun’s National Museum
As a building, the National Museum on Barnes Road represents a strange mix of stylistic imposition and local celebration. Commissioned in 1955 in the run-up to independence and opened to mark it in...
View ArticleFort Batenstein with Frank the Juice Man
More or less everything I know about Fort Batenstein began with Wikipedia*. Not a promising start, is it? Let’s backtrack. I’m walking down Busua beach with Frank the Juice Man, who is a minor local...
View ArticlePhotos: Late afternoon on Busua beach
Busua isn’t quite my cup of tea, but one of its charms – perhaps because it has been attracting backpackers for so long – is the relative integration of tourist activity with the rest of the town....
View Article‘Facebook is the internet,’ said no one ever
The Networker, a regular tech column in UK Sunday paper The Observer, waxes concerned: Most new users of the internet in poor countries will be connecting to it via mobile phones. So, according to an...
View ArticleGhana stars in Overlanding West Africa promo
This was put together by professional filmmaker Jamie Noel when he travelled on Overlanding West Africa’s Freetown-to-Accra tour. Look out for Kakum, Cape Coast castle and the Larabanga Mosque, among...
View ArticleWhen life hands you weird honey, make marinade
Look at it. So dark. I doubt that every bottle of Rainforest Honey is as strong and spicy as this one – the stuff they advertise is much lighter, as are other Ghanaian honeys we’ve bought. Season and...
View ArticleSantoku, Dzorwulu – restaurant review
Accra is rising. Literally. Roll around the wealthier parts of town and you’ll notice the spread of high-rise, high-density luxury accommodation, a category whose arrival is fairly recent. Hitherto the...
View ArticlePhotos: The Aburi Gardens helicopter
It is, as far as I’m aware, a Westland Whirlwind, and was apparently left by the British. An urban myth says that it was shot down and crashed here, but there is far too little structural damage for...
View ArticleScarecrow portraits from Biriwa
Ghana’s tourists and tourism promoters make a big deal of beaches. So the plastic crap that the Atlantic washes up can too easily become a reason to stay home, or stay in the hotel. What’s the point of...
View ArticleInformal City blog balances Accra’s present and future
The Rockefeller-sponsored blog Informal City Dialogues is putting out some good pieces on Accra at the moment. I’ve particularly enjoyed a recent run of articles by Sharon Benzoni, taking a detailed...
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