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The Auditor General Kokrobite President Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, is buried in the Great Mausoleum in Accra.
Because the car Prempehs some mechanical problems, my plans to explore Accra were quite severely reduced Mr. Prempeh suggested I explore the capital in the company of one of its pilots, but with no available car kept things get delayed .
My first tantalizing glimpse of Accra was in the dark on the road to the bus station at home Prempehs, but my first experience Accra in broad daylight was a trip with driver in the internet cafe and return it soon became apparent that where I am staying is completely different from Accra center, with its pollution, traffic chaos and friendly; residential district Airport in Accra that Kensington in London, and the streets are wide, clean, empty, dotted with travel agents, Internet cafés, well-stocked shops, medical clinics and sports embassies palms and I marveled lawn well watered, but like all relatively modern residential neighborhoods, it has yet to develop a soul Suburbia is a great place to live; it is not a great place to relax.
But hanging was all I could do, so when M. Prempeh suggested a Tuesday afternoon drive, I certainly was for her it was only to provide papers and have two or three meetings with people on repair work on the car, but we brushed the ring road of the capital and I felt a sense of humanity that makes compacted African and Asian cities so fascinating to visit in the comfort of an air conditioned Rover range places like Accra take a look quite different to explore without breaking into sweat profusely every few steps is a luxury that is hard to beat more than once it hit me that this is why the houses in the residential area airport have razor wire feed and guard; once you've settled in upholstered seats transportation with driver, you do not want to return to sweat your way through the dusty streets of the city.
The beach behind the Independence Square was my first glimpse of the ocean from Senegal.
By Wednesday the car felt better but was still not perfect, so instead of exploring Accra we spent the afternoon driving to a plot that Kwesi, my brother's friend, was bought in a suburb called East Legon, near the University of Ghana, and M. Prempeh proudly showed me the view from the plot.
The airport is there, he pointed This is great, because Kwesi loves airplanes, and we will build a balcony overlooking the flight path, so when the planes go past, it may look.
It is strange, the thought of someone who really wants to watch the planes fly past most people prefer to Hounslow aircraft simply screwed the camp and left alone but all the time we plodded around the field of Eddie and Nick , not a plane flew over the Accra flight path is not perceived as a bad thing; living near the airport is considered a positive advantage, East Legon, to the airport, is a very desirable address indeed.
At this point, the plot has been leveled, said Mr. Prempeh, showing me where the bulldozers had done their work, we need to remove some old foundations of a building that was there before, but we're almost ready to start building.
The people enjoying a dip in the waters off the heady beach in Accra.
This depends on the speed of cash flow in England, he says Of course I thought it that people build in Africa, they buy everything a little at a time when they can afford it, rather than saving and buy everything at once, which is the norm in England the main reason is cash flow; Property and buildings are good investments in times of economic crisis, if the buildings go up in stages, often with long periods of rest between half-built shells of buildings are very common in West Africa, the rods steel concrete reinforcement sticking up in the air like lightning rusty.
But the field of Nick and Eddie is a little dream Give it a few years and the surrounding concrete shells become wired fortresses razor rich and famous, and East Legon is a luxury paradise suburb Even given the shakiness of the economic situation of Ghana, it is easy to see why you might want to buy a plot of land in Ghana a few kilometers from the bustling heart of Accra, you can live in a cocoon of luxury, with your very own guard dogs, night watchmen and chauffeur After living in cramped London, it is another world.
On the way back to the plot Mr. Prempeh Eddie took me around the grounds of the University of Accra and his old school Achimota School, the best school in the country, and finally I'm a taste of some much history here were the buildings of the colonial era, extended and expanded over the years to accommodate more students, and administrative blocks and old houses of the school were beautiful There m 'gave Accra want to visit more, and finally, on Thursday, I had my chance.
This time the problem had not been with the Range Rover, which was humming along nicely, but with the absence of a pilot Godfrey took a day off, so as a compromise a domestic workers caught me taxi rank on the corner of the house and found me a respectable taxi driver to take me into town so I rang Prempehs time to time during the day to say that I am sure everyone would be happy, so I jumped in the taxi and felt the glow happy to be free to explore what I liked, when I liked.
Nkrumah mausoleum is surrounded by fountains and statues.
Accra is a sprawling place, but it is easy enough to explore on foot if you got a lot of time I asked the taxi drop me off at Independence Square driver, a huge outdoor parade ground by the sea hints of post-colonial presidential rule; a massive concrete arch dominates the floor of stadiums empty concrete parade, while Independence Arch stands with the middle of a roundabout close to celebrate the independence of Ghana in 1957, I was not too bothered by the place itself, but it was a strange sight as the wind blew black plastic bags across the dusty expanse of the parade ground, but I did see the sea Accra is a coastal town and I hadn t seen the sea from the Gambia, and just behind independence square towers of the Atlantic ocean against the beach, dumping alternately and eliminate waste stream and refuse is not the most pleasant beach experience on the planet that hundreds of school children leaping into the water didn t seem to care, but I felt a sense of accomplishment to have reached the water again; Mali has felt a long way from the sea.
All along the coast Independence Square is the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, an elegant tribute to the first President of Ghana, who was ousted in mid 1960 and spent the rest of his life in exile in Guinea Nkrumah is going through a little revival in Ghana, and its impressive mausoleum sits in lush gardens around which the parties of school children chattering astray; Meanwhile, hidden in the back, behind the mausoleum and the statue of Dr Nkrumah laying looking every inch the leader, is a museum to the life of the president is a revelation.
The museum doesn t contain much, but what it contains are many pictures of Dr. Nkrumah with some of the most famous people of the 20th century, I traversed the photos, amazed to see how many people the most emblematic of the century were depicted shaking hands with the founder of modern Ghana There was Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, John F Kennedy, Sir Alec Hume, Queen Elizabeth II, Harold Macmillan, Pope Pius XII, Egyptian President Nasser and countless leaders of countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Niger and Nigeria, I was impressed; in tribute to Nkrumah, these photos are about as good as you can get.
The little finer gravel Accra is in James Town.
After the Peace Garden of Remembrance, I plunged into the chaos of James Town, the dilapidated area of the city that juts out on a small peninsula south of Accra I finally found a real piece of Africa among the posh suburbs and impressive monuments, because here the streets are crowded with people, playing drums, shopping in markets and usually amble around the city the way everyone does in the tropical heat small children waved Hello obruni and I nodded; Ghana obruni is the equivalent of Toubab and you hear everywhere, especially in places like James Town right down to the edge of an old lighthouse looks over a sordid cast of the water jutting into the sea, next to James Fort, which is now an ill-looking prison it oozes atmosphere, and Sá world outside the airport residential area, rubbish heaps and shacks half in ruins show I remembered a couple of English girls I met who lived in James Town, and they described their address past human shit Lake and next to the goat market that pretty much sums; it is a great place to explore.
North of James Town is the main market of the city, just walk into the melee took an hour just pours over street vendors street, pedestrians, stalls, you name it and it Sá colorful chaos you can buy practically everything I'm not fussed by the business side of the market as I rarely buy anything and I'm incredibly lazy negotiator, but wandering through a market like Accra's is an experience in itself if only because of the tide of humanity that sweeps you along, dodging traffic and dodge to avoid the huge bundles that women wear on their heads, I thought it was great; Accra was what I was looking for, and I'm glad I was not experienced by the air conditioning window of a car more, Accra friendly people so you do t associated with major cities and I was only bothered once in ambulation the day after Dakar and Bamako Sá serious luxury, shit or not shit.
Accra Ghana Mark Moxon Travel Writing, Accra, Ghana, brand, Travel.