At the beginning of September was the annual Cape Coast Festival (Afehye ; pronounced ‘a-fesh-ay’) so on the Saturday we headed into town to see the procession. We had asked a number of people what time the procession would start and the answers ranged from 9am – 4pm so we went around 9.30 am pretty confident that we wouldn’t have missed it! One thing we have learnt from experience here is to use a large ‘sample size’ when trying to find out information from people. The chances are, however many people you ask no two answers will be the same, but if a few are vaguely similar you are likely to be on the right lines!Anyway, back to the Afehye festival (which incidentally passed through town around 1 ish). We had a good view of the passing procession from the ‘balcony’ of a shop on the main street, along with many other people, all trying to get a good view.
The procession consisted of many groups of people, some singing and dancing, various bands, and the many sub-chiefs of Cape Coast along with their entourages including their ‘Queen Mothers’, followed by the ‘top’ chief of Cape Coast. The chiefs travelled in Palanquins, each carried on the heads of 4 men, under giant decorative parasols. The streets were packed with crowds of people and there was a real atmosphere of excitement and celebration.We made our way behind the procession to Jubilee Gardens (a sports ground by the castle) where the chiefs meet together with along with the Ghanaian president. As we understand it, this traditionally is the opportunity for the chiefs to tell the president of any difficulties in their communities and to see how he can help. We caught a glimpse of Ghana President Atta Mills as he arrived. We have to say security wasn’t nearly as tight as when President Obama visited.
Another interesting occasion recently was attending the celebration of the enstoolment of a new chief in the nearby town of Dukwe. We were invited and taken by Becky, a friend that we have made here, who is the sister -in-law of the new chief.
There were many people gathered at the family home and the new chief was sat outside in a yard / courtyard on a throne-like chair. He was wearing a traditional cloth worn like a toga, special sandals and a huge gold ring bearing a big gold symbol of his clan. Either side of him sat one of his elders and a row of guests, with many more guests seated nearby. When we arrived we followed the tradition of greeting all the other guests individually (where possible, although we didn’t manage everyone as there were so many people!) and greeted the chief himself before being seated, right next to the chief and his elders. No chance of blending into the background and observing from a distance!
The formalities of the enstoolment had taken place during the previous week so this was the celebratory social gathering, and people were just sitting or chatting. It was very interesting to chat to the chief (who interestingly is from Brooklyn, USA !) although he told us that he should only converse through his elders who were also his spokesmen (oops) and to speak to his elders (after we’d learnt this!) about traditions of chieftancy. Actually, that was only one of many social ‘faux pas’ we made that afternoon, but not having a clue what to expect or what was expected of us in such an unfamiliar situation (neither of us having been to many enstoolments of chiefs in our lifetimes !) we hoped people would understand our ignorance and not be offended by our errors.
Anyway, all of a sudden the chief got up and left and we were taken to meet one of the other chiefs who was at the celebration. Unfortunately it all happened so quickly we hadn’t had time to pluck up the courage to ask to take a picture but to be honest it didn’t feel appropriate. So forgive the lack of photo at this point !
Last week we took a few days off work to travel into the Western Region past Takoradi to small town called Beyin not far from the border with Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It was interesting to see how the landscape and settlements gradually changed becoming more and more rural and poorer as we travelled further West.
Three different types of endangered turtles nest on the beach at Beyin. Ghana Wildlife Society run a turtle conservation programme at Beyin and offer guided walks on the beach to see the sea turtles nesting and baby turtles hatching and running for the sea (if you are lucky). We took our chances and signed up for a 4 a.m. night walk along the beach. We were not lucky however and only saw the tracks of a female turtle and the hole which she had made and laid her eggs in before returning to the sea. Our guide removed the eggs, counted and weighed them. There were 131 eggs ! Unfortunately we were told that typically only 1% survive to adulthood. The weight indicated that they were the eggs of ‘Olive Ridley’ turtles. Vicky is convinced this must be Cockney rhyming slang for something (anyone any ideas ?). The guide then made a new hole in a safer location of the beach and put a protective cover over the top. We then proceeded to have a 3 hour route march along the beach with no sighting of anything turtle related, just the occasional washed up flip-flop and a heck of a lot of sand !
From Beyin we took a canoe trip to the nearby village of Nzulezo, a village built on wooden stilts over a lagoon. It was a lovely canoe journey, harder work for Steve than Vicky as he was helping to paddle. We travelled through the Amansuri wetland, apparently the largest intact swamp forest in Ghana, passing through marshes and areas of jungle.
The Nzulezo people originally settled on the lagoon around 500 years ago when they were fleeing from Nigeria and a rival tribe during a war. Now around 500 people live in the village. There is no mains electricity, running water or health care facilities. It does, however, have a school, 3 churches and a bar ! In order to travel to the nearest town, the villagers have a one hour canoe journey. 
Earlier in the year during the wet season (which we are told was a particularly wet one this year) there was severe flooding in the village and the water level was higher than the wooden walkways between people’s homes.
We found ourselves wondering why people continue to live in such a place with all it’s difficulties…..
We found ourselves wondering why people continue to live in such a place with all it’s difficulties…..
On the way back to Cape Coast from Beyin we stayed at an Eco-Lodge a few kilometres outside of Busua. It was interesting to see the measures they had taken to make the place more environmentally friendly, including the pit latrines which you had to scatter two scoops of ash into (to stop any smells). Showering in the solar heated showers in the open air, in large dry stone wall cubicles was a weird experience, especially by moonlight, but strangely liberating !
Busua beach is a popular beach and surfing spot, so Steve hired a body board and hit the waves. There was also an interesting contemporary art project on the beach, with many ‘exhibits’ made of washed up items and general beach rubbish (more sandy flip-flops !).There was also the opportunity for the kids hanging around the beach to take part and be creative, which is something that children do not often have the materials or opportunities to do here.
Update from Vicky
Despite my initial apprehension about lecturing Orthoptics at the uni, I have settled into it now. I still find it a challenge and there’s a lot of preparation to do each week, but I am enjoying it. I have quite a small class of 14 students ; they are very motivated and eager to learn.There have been some comedy mix ups with which room we can use, invariably part way through the session another class turns up, expecting to use the same room. It’s not rare to have to pack up and find another venue part way through the lesson. In fact the second lecture I did, I ended up doing part of it outside because we couldn’t find a free room! Like many things here, it’s all about flexibility!
The eye-centre continues to be busy, especially in the weeks when the visiting surgeon is here. Last time he was here, one day he didn’t finish his surgeries until midnight. It was a seriously long day for him and also for the nurses who were assisting him (who incidentally were back at the eye-centre at 8 am the following morning to help run the post –op review clinic, ouch !).
Update from Steve
I am now back teaching at Cape Tech after the summer vacation. Schools in Ghana are not quite like the UK in that not all the students (or for that matter teachers!) appear on the first day school reopens.
The new first year students have not yet started, although I am told that they will be here sometime in the next couple of weeks to start their studies.
Over the vacation the school had a long awaited delivery of computers. These have now been set up and networked by the IT department. I have been asked to teach some of the teachers the basics of Autocad (the computer software I use all the time for work in the UK). This is proving interesting as some of the teachers have hardly any experience of even using a computer.
I am hoping this week that the 2nd and 3rd Building Construction students from the school will be starting practical work on the Mothers Union Counselling Centre and I have been spending some of my time preparing equipment and materials ready for them.
