Excellent Photos of Ghana

Ghana Photos

If you are traveling to Ghana, I am sure you will enjoy this simple and quick way to find great photos of Ghana. Basically, head to Google Images and begin a search.

A search of "Ghana" brings back a colourful array of images.

A search of "Wli", which is in the Volta Region and a popular traveler's stop, brings back lots of waterfall pics as well as some from the hike to the Upper Falls.

"Kumasi" gives you both a view of downtown--especially crazy Kejetia trotro and market area--as well as traditional ceremonies.

A quick click on "Accra" gives you a strong sense of the capital.

The photos of "Bolgatanga" are actually very representative and give a strong sense of how the area feels.

Shoot me if the photos of "Cape Coast" don't make you want to visit! And it's sister, Elmina, is just a 15 minute drive away.

Ghana Videos!

You can do the same thing with Google Videos. Here is the link to view videos relating to "Elmina". And videos for Accra, Cape Coast (President Obama in Cape Coast) and Kumasi. There are even some for Bolgatanga!

So, you get the idea. Hit Google images search and type in the name of the place you're coming to visit in Ghana. You will get a sense of the place before you even leave home.

Elmina Castle and fishing photo at top by chris_wilson.Black and White fishermen in Cape Coast photo by See Wah.

Ghana Bloggers Mature

The blogosphere in Ghana has been growing steadily. You can read a lot of the regular bloggers at www.ghanablogging.com.

I was checking out some of my favourites and found some fun and thought-provoking stuff going on.

Accra Conscious Forever posted a brilliant poster of Adinkra symbols. If you visit Ghana, especially along the coast from Accra to the Ivory Coast and inland to Kumasi, and everywhere in between, you'll see Adinkra symbols on pretty much everything that's not moving, and much that is moving too--especially vehicles. You will certainly see a lot of batiked cloth printed with the more popular symbols. If you want to know what they mean, check out Adinkra Cloth Symbols.

Interestingly, here in the far north of Ghana most people have no idea what Adinkra is. It's simply not part of the culture as it's unique to the Akan culture, those areas described above.

Accra Conscious Forever also did an awesome post on music called Blending Visuals into Music - M3NSA

"No.1 Mango Street – the international debut album by MC, singer and producer M3NSA. The single is a cocktail of eclectic Afro sounds infused with Nu-jazz and High-Life delicately underscored with sweet harmonies of rhythm and blues."

Holli at Holli's Ramblings wrote a thought-proviking post about the issue of witches in Ghana. Both the post and the comments are worth reading. This is one of the things you're unlikely to notice while traveling through Ghana for a short time, but if you happen to pick up a newspaper on most days you'll find a story about witches. I live in the far north and hear about these problems often. It's hard to listen to and accept.

I was teaching a young girl how to use a computer and using a Harry Potter excerpt that was nicely formatted to show how the Indexing works in Word and "document map" button and she happened to flash across the mention of witches. I had to explain the history of witches in western culture and the Harry Potter phenomenon. She couldn't believe people wanted to "be" witches. One word, totally different connotations.

Here is a small excerpt from Holli's story:

"Northern Ghana is home to over 10 massive witch camps – each housing up to 1000 people – the majority of these are young children. Soak that in. THERE ARE STILL WITCHES CAMPS IN GHANA IN 2010. All of these people have been banished from their villages for all sorts of crimes, including allegedly killing people who died from ‘mysterious illnesses’."

And Betumi wrote about culinary entrepreneurship in Ghana. Betumi, by the way, is the BEST place to read about food in Ghana online. I was intrigued by this post detailing Fran's recent trip around Ghana collecting more data and researching food prep in Ghana in all its forms. I'm interested to see if she finds the 17th Century translation!

"Over lunch I challenged a couple of the English faculty to begin looking at the portrayal and symbolism of food in African literature, a shockingly neglected area, and especially to examine any gender differences between men and women writers. My sense is that women are more intimately connected to food preparation and socializing around the cooking pot and hence their memories (especially when exiled from their homelands) may be different. I'm curious to see if Helen and Kari take up the challenge. I also have the exciting promise of receiving a 17th century translation (from German) of a document describing the preparation of kenkey. I'm still trying to track down dokono's origins and history. Suggestions made at the luncheon were that, unlike "dokono," "kenkey" is a Malay word, that Northerners have always fermented millet, so they just used the same technique on corn when it arrived in Ghana. I welcome anyone's comments on his subject."

The Definitive Travel Library Revealed

Greetings to fantastic readers and visitors to Ghana Guide and Blog.

I don't know if you've heard of Wangari Maathai? She is a Kenyan environmentalist and all round bad-ass change-maker. Well, you'd say bad-ass if you were in Government in Kenya in the 90's, but we're using it in a positive sense here. As in, the kind of person you want on your team when you set out to change the world.

What has Wangari Maathai done?

• She set up an organsation that has planted over 4 million trees across Kenya
• She prevented monstrosity skyscrapers from being built in Nairobi's equivalent of Hyde or Central Park
• She helped get political prisoners released
• She helped establish true democracy in Kenya
• She made corrupt leaders listen to Kenyan women
• She wrote an autobiography for which former President, Clinton, gave a front-cover endorsement.

And soooo much more. No wonder she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since our internet connection is something like 100 BYTES per second (yes, sad little bytes from a time-traveling parallel universe circa 1993 I think) I cannot upload any photos with this post.

This is not from a traveling parallel universe, however. I submitted a guest post for a truly wonderful blog called A Traveler's Library.

At A Traveler's Library writers are invited to share books that inspired them to travel to a place. I came up with a short-list. I even submitted my two book titles. And then I changed my mind (erm, what's new?) and chose Maathai's biography, Unbowed.

It's not that I've been inspired to visit Kenya. It is, however, that her story inspired me to another kind of travel. Some travelers are inspired to seek greener pastures after reading a travel-themed book: check out the blog for some ideas. Reading Unbowed inspired me to help make the "grass" a little greener right here in Ghana.

Read why here.

GTV's Breakfast Show

Hey all,

Just a very quick note to say to watch GTV on Monday morning at 7 am. You'll see some absolute rubbish on your TV screens :). Of the Trashy kind. This lap top case is made entirely of recycled pure water plastic pages.

Are You Faking It? You Know What I Mean!

Hi Y'all,

I'm not really a Texan, but I do like saying y'all. And, on that note, I would love to let you know about a couple of posts about stuff you might love too.

This is all about being who you are supposed to be and doing what you do because "you can't help it"-- because if you don't you'll go mad!


It comes in two parts (no pun intended, seriously).

Five Years of Faking It: Part 1

When I was a teenager my Dad went off on one of his famous lectures again:

“I don’t care if you want to go and sit on mountains and meditate for the rest of your life, just make sure you’re the best damned mountain meditator in the world.”

Yeah right.

“And I don’t care if you want to be a beach bum, just make sure you’re the best damned beach bum in the world.”

Bet he wouldn’t have said that if I wanted to be a politician or a stripper.

and
Five Years of Faking It: Part 2

When someone asks me why I do what I do, all I can say is: “I can’t help it.”

I can’t help it in the same way you can’t help writing, for those who feel the need to write, or calculating planetary orbits, if that’s what rocks your day, or teaching others how to do something, if that’s your heart starter, or meditating on mountain tops, if you dare.

Different things drive different people. Porches for some. Fame for Miss Hilton. Status for Mrs Becks. Creating for the Coen Brothers. And Danger for the Real Madrid goalie.

It’s the “helping” thing that gets my groove going.

But we need different types of passions. The helping people, the innovating people, the Barry Manilow people, the sensible people, the wordsmiths—and you don’t have to be one or the other, you can be many of these people at once.

Liking + Winning Recycled Bolga Baskets

Hey everyone, if you have just arrived for the first time, or if you're returning to our blog: thanks so much for visiting. I hope you can see the box for the awesome facebook page: G-lish--on the side bar.

This is the place to see those great photos and learn a little more about what G-lish Foundation is doing in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, simply by "liking" the page when you visit on Facebook (hint: click "G-lish" in the box on the right), you can win baskets! Every month all lovely Facebookers who are liking the G-lish page have a chance to win a recycled Bolga basket delivered anywhere in the world. Woooooo! Yay.

Click it already! :)

The Interview with Expatify for Ghana Expats

I completely forgot about this interview I did with Expatify ages ago. They wrote to tell me it was online in July. We've had so many problems with terrible internet connections here in Bolga that I completely forgot about it. 

The interview is helpful for those planning to move to Ghana for an extended period of time, like expats, workers, volunteers, and so on. If you're planning to visit Ghana for a short stay, you may also get something from it. I added a few tips that will help anyone planning to travel or work in a developing country too.

A short excerpt:

"Unless you’re in Accra or Kumasi, there are no luxuries like coffee shops, cinemas, or large supermarkets. However internet cafes are improving dramatically everywhere. Water supply and electricity are notoriously unreliable, but you learn to cope."

* The Kosa I refer to in the interview is owned by Dutch, not Germans. 


I took that photo in Cape Coast some years ago. It's the fishermen pulling in nets together. It's awesome to watch them work like that in rows all along the beaches, hand over fist, a kind of dance and song to ease the drudgery, I guess.