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After over fifty installments delving into the global Black diaspora, this marks a last column. The experience proved deeply gratifying, with sincere appreciation extended to every one of the attentive audience.

Exploring the Cultural Week

Visiting the showcases, presentations and acts of Accra Cultural Week, observers witness how exceptional art sustains and shapes a country’s history and identity. The focal point was undoubtedly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s remarkable a profound exploration of ritual and time, which displayed his innovative afrogallonism for all to see: a philosophy that reimagines plastic containers into illusory art pieces, tapestries of yellow, brass and gold. The exhibition was created as a tribute to the resilience of the historic district, a historic area of Accra.

Jamestown – largely populated by the Ga ethnic group, a seafaring people – is additionally where many returning Africans came back from Brazil and settled in the 1830s. Referred to as the Tabom community, they introduced Portuguese language and traditions.

In every part of Jamestown, visitors encounter a fusion of building designs. You'll find a historic building, with its unique Portuguese masonry and arched doorways. Another landmark is the prominent beacon, built in the 1871 and subsequently given its recognizable red-and-white-striped appearance.

Traditions of Remembrance

Equally striking about Jamestown is the ever-present presence of memorial notices. Everywhere you turn, be it affixed to walls or on big signboards, there are funeral details and terms of loss. In Jamestown, mirroring customs in Ghana, funerals are significant community celebrations.

In the artist's impressive exhibition, the entirety of the sensory and spiritual landscape of Jamestown are present – particularly in the enveloping Jamestown nshonaa work. In this space, one is relaxed by the recording of ocean surf with beach material on the floor, while shelters, nets and representations of vessels honour its spirited, long-standing fishing community. However experiencing this exhibition space, the mind turns to the heaps of textile waste that mar the aesthetics and tranquillity of the region.

In Addition to the Centrepiece

The festival program included much more. Within an incomplete building at the campus, artist Sylvester presented a deeply moving minimalist collection, an incredibly moving, stripped-back presentation that featured sculptures and canvases created in partnership with welders.

Also featured was the competition for female artists for Ghanaian women creators. It featured the first solo show of a 2024 laureate, whose work references personal family archives to craft a depiction of life in Ghana after independence. The event also announced a new champion, whose varied work is deeply invested in the weaving practices of women in the Volta region.

A Permanent Presence

Although the diaspora has increasingly been attracted back to west Africa during the winter months, a growing cohort are considering travelling some months earlier to experience the area's festival period. From Accra Cultural Week and similar gatherings, what emerges are creative communities that are not simply new or “rising” but have built up an whole universe that is permanent.

Finally, the journey offers a vision of Accra that serves as a manifesto for conservation and the keeping alive of heritage. It is a compelling testament to adaptability in all its forms.