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After over fifty editions exploring the worldwide Black diaspora, this marks a concluding piece. The experience has been incredibly fulfilling, and sincere gratitude directed to all the engaged followers.

A Look Inside the Cultural Week

Attending the exhibitions, presentations and acts of the festival, one sees how the finest art feeds and shapes a country’s history and identity. The focal point was undoubtedly Serge Attukwei Clottey’s exquisite [Dis]Appearing Rituals: An Open Lab of Now for Tomorrow, which put his pioneering afrogallonism on full display: a concept that reimagines plastic containers into mesmerizing art pieces, mosaics of golden hues. The exhibition was designed as a testament to the endurance of this area, a historic area of Accra.

Jamestown – mainly populated by the Ga people, a fishing community – is additionally where many formerly enslaved people came back from South America and settled in the 1830s. Known as the Tabom people, they brought Portuguese language and traditions.

In every part of Jamestown, visitors encounter a fusion of building designs. There’s Franklin House, with its unique European-style brickwork and arched doorways. Another landmark is the prominent Jamestown Lighthouse, erected in the 19th century and subsequently given its distinctive striped appearance.

A Culture of Remembrance

Also remarkable about Jamestown is the ubiquitous sight of funeral posters. Everywhere you turn, whether plastered over walls or on sizable billboards, there are service information and expressions of mourning. In Jamestown, similar to the rest of Ghana, memorial services are large-scale social gatherings.

In this spectacular show, every aspect of the sensory and spiritual landscape of Jamestown are present – especially in the enveloping beach-themed piece. Within it, one is relaxed by the sound of crashing waves with granules underfoot, while shacks, nets and depictions of canoes honour its dynamic, long-standing seafaring tradition. But standing in this venue, one cannot help but think of the heaps of cast-off garments that threaten the beauty and tranquillity of the area.

Apart from the Main Event

The festival program included a great deal more. Inside an unfinished structure at the local university, artist Reginald Sylvester II exhibited a deeply moving minimalist collection, an profoundly affecting, austere presentation that displayed three-dimensional works and artworks created in partnership with metalworkers.

Another key element is the Yaa Asantewaa Art prize for female Ghanaian artists. It showcased the inaugural exhibition of a prior winner, whose work references historical documents to produce a artistic representation of life in post-independence Ghana. The event also crowned a new winner, whose diverse work is particularly invested in the craft techniques of women in a specific region.

A Lasting Legacy

Although the diaspora has grown been drawn back to the region during the western winter, a growing cohort are thinking about travelling some months earlier to experience the area's festival period. From this festival and similar gatherings, what you’ll find are cultural ecosystems that are not simply nascent or “upcoming” but have built up an entire landscape that is here to stay.

In the end, the visit provides a vision of Accra that resembles a declaration for conservation and the keeping alive of culture. It is a compelling homage to perseverance in all its expressions.