Academia in Accra

For our first week of “school”, lecturers speak on different topics each morning and we visit various key journalistic locations during the afternoons. On Monday, a vibrant professor from the University of Ghana shared an overview of Ghana’s history with us. Everyone really enjoyed her, she was very dynamic and fun, and spoke eloquently on her specialties: Slavery in Africa, African Diasporas, and Women in African History. She arrived an hour late, modeling typical Ghanaian timing! In her defense, the traffic has been particularly bad on Monday, as Tuesday was a national holiday so people were getting supplies or going out of town. It’s called Republic Day, the 1st of July, which is a sort of 4th of July (though their actual Independence Day is March 6th, 51 years ago this year). It marks the day they officially launched the republic state, entirely independent of British authority.

Other guests were less engaging, the professor who spoke about politics in Ghana especially. It didn’t help that we were crammed in a tiny room with no AC, which combined with the lack of coffee put me right back to sleep! Most depressing (but of most interest to me) was the presentation on arts and entertainment in Ghana, which, in effect, barely exist. Apparently, the mission to ‘Africanize’ Ghana after it gained independence in the late 50s was executed smoothly for a few decades but as technology developed and globalization exploded, the cultural currents dried up. Films/videos are a bust and broke industry in Ghana, theater and poetry relatively dead, and of course the government doesn’t care about the arts and the “Ministry of Culture” is considered totally inefficient. As is the case in the States, it all comes down to money. Ghana, too, is a “money-minded country” in which artists who cannot ignore their creative fervor struggle to survive. What entertainment does prosper? Imported music. Reggae, funk, and rap (primarily) are synthesized with Ghanaian elements, primarily just the lyrics. And thus, a huge absence of authentic Ghanaian culture, a loss of African roots. Its just foreigners like ourselves who seek the traditional arts! I was severely disappointed to hear this. But I took what little hints he gave to any lingering culture (which remains more in tact, I must add, in the most rural – and accordingly most destitute – regions) and re-manifested my distress in determination to discover genuine Ghanaian arts.

Our afternoons have been unfortunately chock-full of visits to what seems like every existing media group in the city. Many of us are pretty disillusioned by the situation. We went to: TV Africa, a private television station; the Daily Graphic, the primary state-owned newspaper in Ghana; JOY FM, a private radio station; the Daily Guide, a private newspaper; the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, both its radio and television divisions, which are owned by the state; and Public Agenda, another newspaper. We missed one, too, which is rescheduled for Monday (at the Ghana News Agency). Overkill, much? It was pretty painful at times, this endless, over-heated, exhausting trek from one bland building to another of relatively similar nature. However, we happened upon a few gems, or at least note-worthy moments…Stay tuned.