Countdown to Africa Nations
Cup 2008
Road map to Ghana
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday,
January 17, 2008
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Kwame
Nkrumah Circle with GCB headquarters in the background.
Pix:
Sun News Publishig
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To echo a cliché, all roads lead to Ghana, this year’s
host of the African Nations’ Cup (ANC) soccer fiesta.
The final matches of this year’s football festival,
popularly called Ghana 2008, after the host nation, kicks
off on January 20, while the grand finale is billed to hold
on February 10. As usual, countless soccer buffs, scouts for
prospective football stars, media practitioners and so on
would trail the players and officials from various countries,
to the tourney’s venues.
Sources indicate as many as 60, 000 participants are expected
at each of the four centres. This translates into almost one
quarter of a million visitors to Ghana.
Although Ghana 2008 is officially a 21-day affair, many visitors
would arrive days before kick-off, and some would definitely
not leave immediately after the end of the tournament. Apparently,
Ghana 2008, like any other event that draws so many visitors,
calls for orchestrated efforts.
Apart from the sports angle, Ghana 2008 is bound to challenge
the local tourism industry, all of which boils down to pressure
on public amenities, such as hotels, transportation, security
and so on. This is the reason Travels went to Ghana two weeks
ago, in order to provide an unbeatable guide for its teeming
readers.
Although Nigerians and indigenes of other Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries do not need
a visa to enter Ghana, a valid passport or ECOWAS Travel Certificate
is required. With the exception of all under 12-month infants,
a health certificate confirming vaccination against Yellow
Fever is also necessary for each tourist. Ghana Tourist Board
(GTB) further informed: “Precaution against malaria,
cholera, typhoid and polio is recommended.”
Travels tips: Aside passport and health papers, each wayfarer
is advised to avoid carrying bulk sums of money on any trip.
A number of Nigerian banks have branches in Ghana and it is
safer to simply transfer funds, especially for those going
to Ghana by road. In any case, also ensure that you fulfill
Currency Declaration formalities at the point of departure
from Nigeria.
While more insights into travelling to Ghana will follow shortly,
we want to warn the Nigerian going to Ghana against changing
his/her money with any roadside dealer. The visitor would
find bureaux de change and several banks across each of the
four Ghanaian settlements, billed to host the 2008 continental
soccer fiesta. Authorized and duly designated financial houses
is where to change your money into the local currency, to
avoid having notes that went out of circulation on January
1, 2008 dumped on you!
Ghana and her new currency
An old habit is not one of the easiest things to part ways
with, and nowadays every resident in Ghana is living proof
of this adage. Today, such is the fashion in that nation that
were a member of the ancient Sumerians, who bequeathed numbers
to mankind, to come visiting, he or she would be left at sixes
and sevens.
Much accustomed to addressing their currency in macro terms
for decades, it is no surprise that today’s descendants
of the famed Akan Empire are having difficulty adjusting to
the new denominations for their currency, the cedi, which
derive from the Ashanti word for a cowry shell.
After a visit to Accra in 2000, I had written that anyone
desperate to join the millionaires club should rush to Ghana.
Until January 1, 2008, less than 110 US dollars fetched the
tourist over 1, 000, 000 (one million) cedis! Another lasting
impression of the Ghanaian currency was invoked by an interview
with Mrs. Frances Ademola, proprietor of The Loom, Accra’s
premier art mart.
This was during an earlier trip in March 1997, when I went
to report on Ghana’s 40th Independence Anniversary.
Mrs. Ademola, a member of Ghana Institute of Journalism Governing
Council, had worked at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC),
until 1956, when the Ghanaian-born broadcaster resigned her
appointment with the GBC and relocated to Ibadan, following
her marriage to Justice Adetokunbo Ademola. In Ibadan, Mrs.
Ademola had joined Radio Nigeria, where she later rose to
the position of Head of Talks. Mrs. Ademola, who spoke with
Travels inside her gallery in Accra, recalled she once worked
under Chinua Achebe at Radio Nigeria, Ibadan, in those days.
On her return to Accra, the lady had floated the first authentic
art gallery in that city. She had named her art house, The
Loom, in memory of a friend’s gift-cum-craft shop inside
the Ibadan-based Premier Hotel, those days. It was in response
to our question about what patronage was like, after The Loom’s
launch, that Mrs. Ademola revealed the extent to which the
cedi had decimated in value.
Hear her: “O, business was very good.
Within a month, it was like everybody was coming in. We were
doing so well...and thanks to the introduction of the calculator,
I was able to keep tab on sales!”
Thus, once, without calculators bookkeeping was almost impossible
for Ghanaian traders but all that is about to change with
the forced reversion of the local money’s denomination
to less cumbersome figures. Although no calculator manufacturer
has publicly complained, chances are high that demands for
the electronic abacus is sure to drop across Ghana, following
the introduction of this latest currency, called Ghana Cedi
(Ghc). As was the case with the former lucre, each Ghc consists
of 100 units, called pesewas. However, this latest denomination
has forced a new arithmetic on that country’s inhabitants,
who now refer to 1 (one) as 10, 000. Truly, old habits do
not perish overnight.
With effect from January 1, 2008 Ghana’s old currency
denominations ceased to serve as legal tender, while the new
cedi, which had been in use concurrently with the out gone
notes and coins for six months, assumed monopoly. However,
the new cedi was not the only new development that Ghanaians
woke up to on January 1.
The dawn of 2008 also brought in its wake new pump prices
of petroleum products across Ghana. By January 17, 2003, when
fuel prices saw another upward swing, the pump price for a
litre of premium motor spirit (petrol) was 4, 000 cedis. During
one of our countless visits (in September 2001) the cost of
a litre of petrol had jumped to 4, 444 cedis.
Other increments in petroleum products’ prices had followed,
bringing the cost of a litre of petrol to over 10, 100 cedis.
And on January 1, 2008, the pump price for one litre of petrol
was again raised by 0.71 pesewas from 101.99 pesewas to 102.70
pesewas.
Similarly, the cost of another product, identified as premix-petrol,
and described in a report by Ghana’s Daily Graphic as
“used and subsidized by the government for fishermen,”
rose slightly from 70.12 pesewas to 70.69 pesewas per litre.
Curiously, however, the price per litre of diesel dropped
from 102.63 pesewas to 101.90 pesewas. Moreover, Ghana’s
National Petroleum Authority (NPA) also announced a 0. 86
pesewas drop in the cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
from 106. 14, to 105.28 pesewas.
These reductions, however marginal, in the diesel and liquefied
natural gas prices elicited a lampoon of Nigeria, where one
respondent said it was a miracle that an aircraft could land,
after take-off in West Africa’s richest country, where
it is widely held that anything that goes up, especially prices,
never comes down again. But let’s return later to fuel
pump prices and how Ghanaians seem to have managed this issue
better than Nigerians. Shortly, we would also dwell on details
of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, which Ghana is hosting
for the third time.
The latest cedis are simply new notes and coins, which like
the abandoned ones carry portraits of the Big Six, widely
held as Ghana’s all time half-dozen greatest statesmen.
However, one single deviation from the old cedi makes all
the difference: Four zeros are stripped from each old cedi,
with the result that 10, 000 cedis now becomes 1 cedi, while
hitherto 1, 000 cedis have plummeted to a paltry 0.1 cedi.
In the colonial era, the currency in the Gold Coast, as Ghana
was then called, were pounds and shillings modeled after what
obtained in England, except that moneys used those days in
the Anglophone countries of today’s ECOWAS, outside
Liberia, were issued by the Bank of British West Africa (BBWA).
When an indigenous currency was subsequently introduced roughly
50 years ago, in Ghana, one cedi comprised 100 units; each
called a pesewa. However, today’s pesewa is nothing
compared to the original coin of that name. In fact, hundreds
of today’s cedi cannot compare to one original pesewa
in Ghana’s economic boom days. As things stand, 10 pesewas
translate to 1, 000 of the recently deposed cedis, while 100
pesewas (one Ghc) is the equivalent of 10, 000 old cedi and
1, 000 pesewas (10 Ghc) means 100, 000 abandoned cedis.
In other words, since 10, 000 old cedis stands for 1 Ghc,
then the recently out gone cedi stands for one-tenth of a
thousandth of the new denomination. Ghana’s Finance
and Economic Planning Minister, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, was
recently in various media explaining that the new denominations
would save invaluable man-hours. According to the minister,
counting of 50 Ghana new cedis, for example, would now take
a mere fraction of the length of time usually spent on counting
say 500, 000 cedis, which was the old equivalent.
But the reality runs much deeper than things appear on the
surface.
Further insights: In 1990, a tourist was fined 200, 000 cedis
and sent to jail for one year for lighting his cigarette with
a 100-cedi note. Today, it would be impossible to commit such
a crime using 100 cedis because that denomination had not
only slid into a coin of very little value but has actually
vanished altogether. In Ghana, the current price of the so-called
“pure water” is 5 Gh pesewas. This is the equivalent
of 500 old cedis. Thus, the disgraced 100 cedi with which
the tourist lit his smoke, cannot even buy a sachet of the
euphemistic pure water, today. Such is the level of decimation
of the Ghanaian currency’s purchasing power.
Apart from 100 cedis, the old 500 cedis note had also plummeted
to the level of a coin, and at some point 1, 000, 2, 000,
5, 000, 10, 000 and even 20, 000 cedis notes were introduced
to save “Ghanaians the embarrassment of walking about
with huge wads of money that don’t add up to much,”
as was the situation at the time Messrs Jim Hudgens and Richard
Trillo, authors of West Africa: The rough guide, were working
on that book.
Hudgens and Trillo had further observed: “In other countries,
market women tie up their money in their skirts. But in Ghana,
they keep it in plastic bags.” The introduction of Ghana
new cedis and resurrection of the long-dead pesewas have,
no doubt, spared Ghanaians the embarrassment of carrying plastic
bags of money that don’t add up to much. Fortunately,
it would seem that the days, when the cedi trudged along the
micro or nano paths are gone forever.
Therefore, it is now highly unlikely that any one, however
inebriate, would light a cigarette with any Ghana new cedi
note. The pro-establishment Daily Graphic newspaper also echoed
another view of Mr. Baah-Wiredu, who observed that the re-denomination
has launched Ghana’s cedi into a class of seven, out
of the world’s 220 moneys, considered “a feasible
match to the US dollar.” However, it has to be pointed
out that while one new cedi is worth more than an American
dollar, this is not to say that the status of the Ghanaian
currency has overtaken that of the US. In reality, the cedi
has only changed on the virtual plane: At the didactic level,
things are pretty much the same in terms of purchasing power
parity.
More on cedi’s acrobatics
In 1990, one US dollar exchanged for 400 cedis, and the highest
denomination of the Ghanaian currency was the 500 cedis note.
But when we visited Ghana to witness that nation’s 40th
independence anniversary celebrations, in 1997, the cedi had
plunged 500 percent and now exchanged at 2, 000 to one US
dollar.
Unfortunately, more cedi acrobatics lay in store: On August
14, 2000 one US dollar was worth 5, 700, cedis. Three days
later, a dollar exchanged at 6, 000 cedis and by end of that
month, one dollar commanded 6, 500 cedis. In the early hours
of August 15, 2000 we had bought a 1.5 litre bottle of Voltic
(the local Eva, Gossy or Swan) for 2, 500 cedis. In the evening
(of the same day, at the same store) the price of the same
item had risen to 3, 000 cedis. The next day, we had stopped
over at a little corner shop for a drink of Malta Guinness.
The storekeeper, an elderly lady, loudly announced the price,
"Two thousand!" This was apparently meant as a forewarning,
in case I wanted to change my mind. She had a good reason
for her action. A few days earlier, Malta Guinness sold at
1, 600 cedis per bottle. Sipping our drink, we observed that
the woman kept muttering under her breath.
Curious, we asked had if she was talking to us. “Eh,
my son, I don't know what this world is coming to. Only yesterday,
a coke was 800. Today it is 1, 000 cedis," the woman
rued. As if Ghanaians hadn’t had enough, we discovered
during a subsequent sojourn, in January 2003, that the cedi
had further dipped to almost 9, 000 to a paltry dollar. Such
were the vicissitudes of the old cedi.
Tro-tro, the name of the local minibus, gives a good idea
how badly the value of the local currency has depreciated.
In the heyday of that country’s economy, a bus ride
extracted a fare of three pesewas. This was the equivalent
of three pence, which Nigerians and Ghanaians used to call
tro or toro. That’s how buses came by the epithet tro-tro
(derived from three-pesewas). Today, the least fare for a
bus ride is 2, 000 cedis (20 Ghana pesewas), however short
the distance. Some rides, such as going from Kwame Nkrumah
Circle to Achimota, for example, cost 3, 500 cedis (35 Ghp).
An encounter with Professor Ablade Glover, a revered art scholar,
gallery proprietor and one of Ghana’s most famous artists,
also shed further light on the cedi anaemia. Prof. Glover,
an alumnus of University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, as well
as Kent State and Ohio State Universities, both in the US,
had later taught for 29 years at the Kumasi-based Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology (UST). Glover, who was
at various times Head of Department of Art Education and Dean,
College of Art at UST until 1994, told Travels during a chat
at the old Omanye House in Nungua, that in his primary school
days, three pesewas bought him lunch he could hardly finish.
The meal was rice, beans and a piece of beef, and each item
cost one pesewa. As could be seen, three pesewas paid for
a child’s meal in Ghana’s halcyon days. Today,
you need at least 6, 000 cedis: that is, 2, 000 cedis (20
Ghp), for each item. In new cedi terms, however, this 6, 000
cedis of yore translate as 60 Ghp.
Ghana 2008: All raring to go
Ghana, host of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, has won the
trophy four times and is making its 16th appearance in the
2008 tournament. Nigeria is one of the 16 finalists and had
emerged champions and lifted the cup twice in the past. The
other countries playing in these final rounds are Angola,
Benin Republic, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea,
Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia
and Zambia.
The 2008 continental tournament, the 26th since its debut,
will play out in four Ghanaian settlements including the capital
city of Accra as well as Kumasi, the spiritual centre of the
Asante Kingdom in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. In Accra,
the matches will be played at the Ohene Djan Stadium, which
boasts 44, 000 seats, while Baba Yara Stadium is venue of
the battles in Kumasi. The Baba Yara soccer arena has the
same capacity as the Accra sports facility. Sekondi-Takoradi,
a twin city in the Western Region and Tamale, the capital
of Ghana’s Northern Region, are the other towns that
would co-host this year’s cup of nations final rounds.
The Sekondi-Takoradi as well as Tamale stadium each has a
little over 21, 000 spectators’ capacity.
Sources that spoke to Travels in Ghana enthused that all the
stadia and relevant facilities are ready for the contest.
Many respondents were also eager to add that they hoped their
nation would lift the trophy. They pointed out the “host
‘n’ win” trend of the competition as the
pillar on which such optimism was hinged.
The Ghanaian capital, whose aborigines are Ga people, falls
within Greater Accra Region. Ashanti, Greater Accra, Northern
and Western, are four of the 10 Regions of Ghana. The remaining
six regions are Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Upper East,
Upper West and Volta. The capitals of these six regions are
Sunyani, Cape Coast, Koforidua, Bolgatanga, Wa and Ho respectively.
In that same order, these towns are separated from Accra by
a distance of 400km, 144km, 85km, 810km, 740km and 165km respectively.
Preparation for any international event calls for all hands
to be on deck, and the situation is no different in Ghana,
where the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations (MoTDR)
has also been in the thick of things. An up-to-date Map of
Ghana was published in 2007 as part of this ministry’s
contributions, and MoTDR Minister, Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng,
formally presented this guide to Mr. Rex Danquah, Chairman
of Ghana 2008 Local Organizing Committee (LOC), months ago.
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, who is also a Member of Parliament, as
well as Ghana’s MoTDR Deputy Minister, Hon. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw,
also held meetings with restaurateurs with a view to ensuring
quality services provision during the soccer fiesta.
Furthermore, Mr. Anthony Addiaba, Manager of Raybow Hotel,
one of the lodges, where participants would stay, told Moses
Dotsey Aklorbortu, Daily Graphic correspondent in Takoradi,
that facilities have been upgraded and expansion of the Raybow
complex completed in readiness for the soccer fiesta. Daily
Graphic further reported Addiaba saying that Raybow Hotel’s
Management had also “introduced shuttle services for
those who might like to visit various places of interest in
the (Western) region.” Moreover, Raybow Hotels now boasts
a special food court, where “the teeming supporters
from various countries, especially Nigeria, will purchase
meals, comparable to what they have in their home countries.”
Aside efforts to encourage the kitchen of local hotels to
prepare cosmopolitan cuisine in the interest of visiting participants,
taxi and commercial buses drivers and operators had also undergone
orientation exercises. With such developments, it was easy
to share the optimistic view of Mr. Frank Kofigah, Head of
Planning and Business Development Department of Ghana Tourist
Board (GTB), who enthusiastically declared: “We’re
all ready.”
With regard to the nuisance value of undesirable elements,
both domestic and foreign, who trail bona fide participants
to venues of major events, Mr. Kofigah pointed out that the
GTB had curtailed such menaces through tourism awareness campaigns.
Kofigah again: “The GTB also carries out training programmes
for stakeholders, especially courses that emphasize vigilance
on the part of hotel workers. Across Ghana, hotel proprietors
and workers, especially front-office personnel are under strict
instructions to immediately alert security agencies of any
suspicious move by any guest. Hotels are under incessant watch
across Ghana, and we are doing our best to curb the negative
impact of tourism.”
The GTB staff also revealed that security operatives were
doing their best in the hinterlands, even as frontier security
personnel were forever improving and drawing up new strategies
to bar troublemakers from entering Ghana. “So, we are
optimistic that Ghana 2008 would be hitch-free,” he
concluded.
Akwaaba
Most people are familiar with Ghana 2008, but ambiguity shrouds
the etymology of the name of this country. Sources reveal
that the original land called Ghana never lay within the territory
of the former Gold Coast, which was renamed Ghana by its founding
ruler, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. The closest any one came to
helping out was that “it was somewhere in the western
part of the ancient Sudanese Empire.” But this threw
up another problem: Sudan, we gathered, derives from the Arabic
phrase Bilad al Sudan, “Land of black people.”
In that case, the original Ghana could well lay anywhere from
East Africa to Mauritania or the Congo Basin through the Cameroons
into Nigeria or deeper still, as far southwest as Namibia.
This is Ghana, land of Akpeteshi alias kill-me-quick, that
notorious native gin, which Nigerians call ogogoro. Ghana
is also famous as "Home of Highlife Music," among
others. Welcome to Ghana or Akwaaba as the indigenes say.
It is worth noting that this greeting is also common to the
people of Cote d’Ivoire and Togo to some extent. However,
Ghana is not only about Akwaaba, which also denotes a fertility
effigy: Ghana is the land of Kente, one of the most popular
indigenous fabrics of this world. Ghana is also home of Adinkra,
an ancient form of writing, similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphics
and Efik Nsibidi.
Ghanaians belong to various ethnic groups but the Akan people
(which include the Fante and Ashanti) predominate. Many aborigines
of Ghana’s northern parts include the Dagomba and Mamprusi
to the northeast, Wala (who speak the More tongue) in the
northwest and the Dagarti, whose language is Grusi. Other
Grusi-speaking peoples in the northern parts include the Frafra,
Sissala, Kassena and Talensi. Another major ethnic group are
the Ewe and Ga-Adangme, who principally occupy the southern
and eastern Volta Region parts. Thus, like Nigeria, though
to a much lesser extent, Ghana is also a melodious symphony
of heterogeneous tongues. Ghana’s land area of less
than 240,000 sq km amounts to barely one-quarter the size
of Nigeria.
Getting there
Though located three countries west of Nigeria, Ghana is only
an hour behind the former by way of time zone. For example,
the time would be 1pm in Nigeria, when it is 12 Noon in the
former Gold Coast. Ghana’s geographical coordinates:
Latitude 4 to 11.5 North, and Longitude 3. 11 West and 1.
11 East, places her at what locals are wont to celebrate as
Centre of the World. This is because Ghana lies along the
Greenwich Meridian and shares the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Given her geographical coordinates, Ghana’s climate
is similar to Nigeria’s, which means that the Nigerian
would not need special clothing and vice versa, while visiting.
Nonetheless, travelling to Ghana holds much in store for each
Nigerian visitor. Even for the habitué coming from
Nigeria, the pace of development across Ghana means plenty
of culture shock, not to talk of staggering surprises awaiting
any Nigerian going to Accra for the very first time! The Ghanaian
capital boasts smooth roads complete with street lamps and
traffic lights, and across the country there is satisfactory
energy supply, efficient public transportation, better security
and healthcare delivery, to mention a few. But, weighed against
the tremendous resources, both human and material, thrown
up by Africa’s Giant in the Sun, Ghana pares to little,
in contrast with Nigeria. However, the onus is on Nigeria’s
class of largely kleptomaniac political elite to prove it!
To get to Ghana, the tourist setting out from Nigeria would
cross Benin Republic and Togo before hitting the Ghanaian
border town of Aflao, next to Kodzoviakope, the Togolese frontier
settlement. Despite standing three countries away, it is worth
noting that travelling to Ghana from Badagry in Lagos takes
roughly as much time as heading towards Aba in the eastern
Nigerian State of Abia from Ojota on the eastern fringes of
Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence. Apart from ABC, Chisco,
Cross Country and other commercial bus operators, whose fleet
ply the ECOWAS region, the traveller would also find taxis
heading direct to the Ghanaian capital from Mile Two, Lagos.
For a direct journey, the fare ranges between N4, 400 and
N6, 500. While this fare is roughly double what the frequent
traveller would normally spend, for those not very familiar
with this route, a direct ride is probably their safest option.
But for the obfuscating traffic bottlenecks along the Lagos-Badagry
Expressway and delays at Seme/Krake, Hilla Condji/Sanvee Condji
and Kodzoviakope/Aflao, the borders between Nigeria/Benin,
Benin/Togo and Togo/Ghana respectively along the way, the
trip by road from Mile Two in Lagos to Ghana wouldn’t
last longer than 9 hours or exceed N2, 500 in fares. Unfortunately,
frontier desk workers on all sides ensure that your bills
are higher because of extortion. On the average, the more
malleable tourist would need an extra N600 to appease corrupt
personnel at various borders. This brings the total one-way
transport cost to roughly N3, 000.
A breakdown: Fare from Mile Two to Seme is N600 and trip duration
at 100km per hour is within 90 minutes. Seme to Cotonou trip
is roughly 30 minutes at fare of CFA 1 (roughly N280), Cotonou
to Lome would not exceed 210 minutes and the fare is CFA 3,
000 (N840 approx), while the final lap of Aflao to Accra would
last 210 minutes with bus fare of the equivalent of N750,
that is 5 cedis (50, 000 old cedis since Ghanaians are still
struggling to put the recently abandoned denomination of their
currency behind them). In naira terms, the fare for this three-and-a-half
hour journey still boils down to less than N750. This is a
world of difference from what one pays to travel from Lagos
to Benin City, usually over N1, 000 for an equidistant ride!
Another provocative example comes from paying more than N1,
500 for travelling from the Cross River State capital, Calabar,
to Ikom in the central part of the same state.
While the exploitative Nigerian commercial transport operator
may want to throw up the terrible state of Nigeria roads as
excuse, his argument flies in the face of fuel cost comparison.
At a price of N70 against the equivalent of about N150, which
his Ghanaian counterpart pays for one litre of petrol, the
Nigerian bus operative/owner is exposed for the wolf he/she
is.
To worsen matters, three passengers sit per row inside a Ghanaian
bus, whereas four and in some models five commuters are cramped
into a seat in buses plying Nigerian roads. Moreover, Accra’s
taxi fleet throws up sleek cars unlike the rickety quasi-scrap
automobiles that struggle across Nigeria’s mostly dilapidated
roads in many cities.
Within 15 minutes after departure from Aflao, the vehicle
would turn right: This is Denu Junction and the journey has
just begun.
In another 30 to 35 minutes, the wayfarer would hit Avalavi,
some 32km from the frontier. Twenty minutes later, the driver
would veer left at a very busy intersection in Akatsi Town.
Within the next 50 minutes, the vehicle would, like all other
automobiles, as the tourist would notice, deviate from the
road and pull to a stop. This is Sogakope Checkpoint, where
personnel of Ghana Police and the Customs, Excise and Preventive
Service (CEPS), carry out inspections of each passenger’s
documents as well as luggage. At this point, as at between
Hilla Condji and Sanvee Condji, as the traveller would recall,
every passenger must disembark from the vehicle and walk to
the other side, to enable the officers do their jobs well.
It is possible that most travellers welcome the stop at Sogakope,
for it not only serves as an opportunity to stretch one’s
limbs but also a chance to pick up some snacks from the dozens
of traders that have put up makeshift stalls, where they sell
fried yam, akara, dodo, brodo (bread), choffie (turkey butt)
and so on.
Many hawkers also brandish yogurt, milk, water and other drinks
around this spot. Usually, the journey resumes within five
minutes, and barely a minute from here, the vehicle would
be crossing a bridge of roughly 100-meter span on the way
to Vume. Look out for Vume, the village with 1001 pottery
marts. It remains unclear how Vume, which stands 85km from
Aflao, came to spawn so many earthenware sculptors but this
village is really lovely to behold with numerous ceramic,
terra cotta and other clay pieces displayed especially to
the right as one heads towards Accra, which from here stands
roughly two hours’ drive away. You know you’re
about 90 minutes to Accra, when Prampram Junction around Dawhenya
comes into view. A road sign informs that Dawhenya is 152km
from Aflao.
Where to stay
Collectively, the four centers of Ghana 2008 throws up hundreds
of hotels. Believe it or not, the number of hotels in Ghana
has doubled within 10 years. In 1996, there were 703 hotels
in this country but by 2006, their number had skyrocketed
to 1, 406. Interestingly, this figure does not include 47
new lodges, whose constructions were at various stages of
completion by October 2007, in five of Ghana’s 10 Regions.
Evidently, accommodation is not likely to pose a problem to
foreign participants in Ghana 2008.
However, the tourist must bear in mind that staying at Accra
Novotel, La Palm Hotel, Golden Tulip, Shangri La, and other
elite hotels would certainly cost more: But you can be sure,
you’d get value for your money.
The tight-budget traveller may want to explore the possibility
of accommodation at the Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA) hostel in Asylum Down. There is the women’s equivalent
also nearby, and the rate for a four-bed room costs 2.5 Gh
cedis, while a bed in the two-man lodge comes at 8 Gh cedis
(approximately N360 and N1, 200 respectively). But more well-off
tourists would prefer somewhere less crowded than a dormitory.
The idea is to contact Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), which has
a regional office in 10 settlements, including the Ghana 2008
centres, apart from their headquarters along Achimota Road
in Accra’s Tesano area. However, depending on room category,
location and amenities, the fee of a night’s stay ranges
from 18 to 36 Ghana cedis at any of the numerous middle-level
inns across Accra.
However, the tourist must note that every year, the GTB inspects
each hotel to ensure that standards are maintained. If an
expansion had taken place or more facilities added to warrant
an upgrade, the GTB would promote that hotel by way of rating.
And the opposite applies, where facilities and quality had
dropped. In any case, where the GTB is satisfied with the
state of affairs, the hotel is issued a certificate, which
is valid for 12 months. Any hotel, which failed the GTB inspection,
would usually not get a current certificate.
Not surprisingly, each approved hotel proudly displays this
GTB certificate conspicuously at its Reception. Therefore,
even though a GTB officer made it sound like a joke, the remark
that “any guest, who checked into a hotel, which does
not carry the GTB imprimatur does so at his own risk”
should be taken serious.
Where to eat
I like many things Ghanaian, but their cuisine is not one
of them. Jim Hudgens and Richard Trillo attest to this in
West Africa: the rough guide, which states, “In Ghana’s
northern parts, inhabited by the Dagomba people, clay-baked
lizard … even rat, cat and dog” are among flavours
the adventurous tourist might want to savour.
Thus, for many years, my one problem with going to Ghana was
coping with the local’s gastronomy. However, this is
not to say that the former Gold Coast’s cuisine is not
vast and varied. Like Nigerians, our Ghanaian kiths and kin
also ingest fufu (cassava dough) but in place of eba, they
prefer to swallow banku (Tuwo masara or Nri Oka).
Ghanaian cuisine also includes Abenkwan (palm nut soup or
banga), Nketia wonu (groundnut soup) Ampesi (plantain and
yam mash), Gari foto (gari mixed with some palm oil) and shito
(pepper soup). Moreover, Wachey, same as Nigerian Hausa-speakers’
Wankey (mixed porridge of rice and bean) is also among the
most popular indigenous staples. As could be seen, many meals
are common to both Nigerians and Ghanaians. But the Ghanaian
delicacy to beat is Apapransa. Unfortunately, this is not
a chop-bar offering.
However, the meal most popularly associated with Ghanaians
is Kenkey, a sort of cornmeal like tuwo masara or nri oka.
But unlike Nigerians, who wash down tuwo masara or nri oka
with soup, say okra, our Ghanaian cousins prepare kenkey to
be eaten differently. To make kenkey, the maize is ground,
often into an uneven paste, then wrapped in the peel of the
produce and boiled for over an hour. Instead of swallowing
morsels of kenkey with soup, Ghanaians eat it with fried (over
fried?) fish broken into little pieces inside what must be
the sauce or stew.
In many instances, the sauce comprises tomatoes, pepper and
onions simply ground together and consumed uncooked. For some
Nigerians, this lubricant could turn laxative and induce a
stomach upset. Ghanaian |
