Accra and Goodbye Ghana – August 3

We wanted to make a few last touristy stops around Accra to see the important monuments and other miscellaneous places that we hadn’t seen, since we had only been in the city for a few hours on the day we first arrived in Ghana.

Our first visit was to the tomb of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah who declared Ghanaian independence in 1957.  His tomb was a large marble enclosure, Designed by a Ghanaian architect, constructed by the Chinese, with marble from Italy.  It was shaped like a sort of tree trunk with all of the outside walls curving upwards.  A nearby guide told us that the tree shape had been cut off to represent works unfinished by the President, whose government was overthrown by a military coup.  Later, driving by the very large Flagstaff House estate where the current President’s of Ghana always live, we could see that the massive Presidential Palace was also designed similarly.  In front of the tomb, pointing inland towards Ghana, was a large statue of Nkrumah, supposedly on the exact spot where he stood to declare the independence of Ghana.  Seven other statues of horn blowers on each side, as well as one statue playing native drums and one playing a native string instrument to represent the North and the South cultures of Ghana flanked the statue.

The Tomb

A horn blower

The Presidential Residence

After visiting the tomb we took a quick tour through the Kwame Nkrumah Museum nearby, which housed many photographs of him with famous figures like, Queen Elizabeth, Fidel Castro, Chairman Mao, and President Kennedy.  They had others artifacts too, like pens or desks corresponding with some significant time in his life.

The next visit was to the large indoor art and Ghanaian wares market at the Cultural Center not far away.  It reminded us particularly of a less overwhelming and smaller Central Market of Kumasi, but the whole thing had a roof over it.  We had a chance to pick up any last minute souvenirs and gifts that we had missed from the rest of our time here.  Most of the market contained what we’d seen all over, like masks, jerseys, cloth, kente, all concentrated in area (and for higher prices too).

Our final stop in Accra was the Mall, a place that was eerily American.  We ate in the food court to provide a variety of options, both Ghanaian and American.  Here we were also able to print off a photo of us with Emmanuel to put into the frame that we all signed for him as a thank you for all his work with us!  After picking up our things from the guesthouse, we headed straight to the airport to check our bags in.  That gave us a brief time outside to say our goodbyes to our friends Emmanuel, Govina, Cornelia, and Baba.  The international terminal in Accra is very nice and we had a good time swapping photos as we waited at our terminal, but all too soon the time came to say goodbye to Ghana and to say goodbye to Helena, who took a flight to visit family in Austria before returning to the US. 

Down to just four, we safely boarded our flight around 9 PM Ghana time and started our journey home!

Written by Clayton and Mollie