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Following more than 50 issues delving into the worldwide Black diaspora, this signifies a final dispatch. The journey proved profoundly fulfilling, and great appreciation extended to all the attentive readers.

Exploring the Cultural Week

Attending the displays, installations and acts of this event, it becomes clear how superior art sustains and builds a nation's past and character. The focal point was without doubt Serge Attukwei Clottey’s stunning [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which showcased his groundbreaking afrogallonism in full view: a philosophy that converts yellow jerrycans into mesmerizing creations, assemblages of yellow, brass and gold. The display was created as a homage to the endurance of this area, a historic neighbourhood of Accra.

This area – largely inhabited by the Ga people, a community of fishermen – is furthermore where a great number of freed slaves returned from South America and made their home in the 1830s. Referred to as the Tabom people, they brought Portuguese tongue and customs.

In every part of Jamestown, visitors encounter a blend of architecture. Standing is Fort Vicentia, featuring its characteristic European-style construction and arched doorways. Another landmark is the prominent beacon, erected in the 1800s and later given its recognizable red-and-white-striped facade.

A Culture of Celebration

Furthermore remarkable about Jamestown is the ubiquitous sight of memorial notices. On every corner, whether covering alleyways or on big billboards, you’ll see funeral details and expressions of farewell. In Jamestown, as throughout Ghana, funerals are major communal events.

In this impressive show, all of the sights, sounds and religious textures of Jamestown are evoked – especially in the immersive Jamestown nshonaa work. Here, visitors are calmed by the recording of the sea with sand at your feet, while shacks, draped nets and representations of canoes pay homage to its spirited, generational fishing community. Yet experiencing this exhibition space, the mind turns to the heaps of textile waste that threaten the aesthetics and peace of the area.

In Addition to the Main Event

Accra Cultural Week also features a great deal more. Within an raw space at the local university, artist Reginald Sylvester II exhibited a deeply moving minimalist collection, an emotionally powerful, minimalist exhibition that featured three-dimensional works and paintings produced in partnership with welders.

Also featured was the prestigious art award for Ghanaian women creators. It featured the inaugural exhibition of a 2024 recipient, whose work references historical documents to craft a visual impression of life in Ghana after independence. The event also crowned a new winner, whose diverse work is deeply concerned with the craft techniques of women in the Volta region.

A Lasting Legacy

Although the overseas community has more and more been pulled home to west Africa during the winter months, an increasing number are contemplating travelling for the cultural season to experience the region’s artistic calendar. Between this festival and other major events, what emerges are creative communities that are not simply new or “rising” but have built up an entire landscape that is enduring.

In the end, the journey offers a vision of Accra that feels like a declaration for ecological stewardship and the safeguarding of culture. It is a resonant testament to resilience in all its manifestations.