Out and About in
Accra
The National Museum in Accra is one of the oldest museums in Ghana.
Established in 1957, the museum was officially opened by Britain's Duchess of
Kent on the eve of Ghana's Independence, a
fact of which they are rightly proud and will relay often and to anyone who
stands still long enough. The museum is relatively small; more of a collection
than a fully sized national museum, but it contains some fascinating exhibits
that are a part of the country's historical past.
The
collection in the museum ranges from pre-historic, archaeological discoveries,
to colonial antiquities and exhibits of contemporary African art. Unfortunately
very few of them are helpfully labeled.
If you are lucky enough to find a marker it will give a basic and
factual description of what you can see in front of you, rather than a full explanation putting the item into context.
On numerous occasions you will find yourself looking at “various pottery
shards, from various dates”. Yet you
never find out where they would have been used, by whom or what the cultural
significance may have been.
There
is a permanent exhibition in the ethnography gallery that contains objects such
as indigenous musical instruments, gold-weights, stools and pottery, as well as
the famous Ashanti gold weights used long ago to determine the value of
goods. This does cover some of the
heritage but not in the depth one would expect from a museum of this note. I have to say that until recently I had given
very little thought to museum layout, style and set up- however having been
educated by friends at the highest levels I do have a new found respect for the
amount of work that goes into a display.
It isn’t just the scribble on the card that tell viewers a little of the
history, but the whole ambience and approach to the cases that has to be taken
into account.
I
am sure a lot of this has been developed since 1957- when Ghana gained its
independence - but maybe they need to look at updating their ideas and displays
to reflect the ever changing nature of society and the way in which our past
can impact us now. Or maybe I am once
again, looking at this with far too much of middle class, European upbringing.
Courts- Supreme, Commercial and Commissioner of Oaths
The Supreme Court was built and established in 1876 as the
highest tribunal in Gold Coast when Ghana was under British colonial rule. As such it looks like a Victorian neo-classical building and has a justice model similar to that found in the UK- along with the
red robes for judges, black gowns for barristers and white wigs for use in the
court. I found this twice as funny when
compared with the Commercial Court which is built right next door, and is much
more modern in design and style; it also afforded a great juxtaposition of the
traditional and the accepted way of doing things. On the day I was in the area not only were
there barristers in wigs outside the very “traditional” court house, but
standing next to them outside the modern architecture of the
commercial court were the tribal chiefs in full-on tribal regalia.
It is here, outside the courthouse that you will also find a
Commissioner of Oaths, an extra-ordinary man who sat in the doorway of his
brightly painted hut looking for all the world like he had just stepped out of
a 1920s newspaper office. He was wearing
a pin stripped suit, a bowler hat, and he was frantically punching the keys on
a typewriter and returning the carriage with a hefty slap as the “ding”
signaled the end of the line. Carbon
paper, cigarettes and people shouting after documents only heightened the
effect.
All documents for the court need to be filed by 2:00pm if
they are to appear on the docket for the following day, and all papers need to
be seen and agreed to by the Commissioner of Oaths, so the hustle and bustle to
get to the front of the queue and to gain his signature was intense. When I did get to the front, he shouted at
a girl who read the papers, nodded and ran off round the back to attach a red
rosette shaped sticker.
The last activity for this weekend has been a trip to the
National Arts Center in Accra. It is
noisy, it is hustle and bustle, it is full of tiny narrow twists and turns and
whole lot of people who claim to know you. I am fairly sure that I have no idea who most of these people
are- especially those who think I have visited them here before- I would
remember something like that; but they were all incredibly friendly and had so
many products to share and show, all of which I would have taken home given
half the space in which to store them.
National Arts Center
I was there for a reason.
I knew what I wanted- a carved African box. I had seen them a few weeks ago at the
Christmas Craft Market at the Trade Center but hadn’t been able to get them
home, so a few phones call, and a few weeks later I found myself in a workshop
looking at some of the most amazing carving and jewelry I have seen since I
arrived. It really was fantastic. The haggling on price was interesting, in
that it went precisely… nowhere! After
giving a price and then inviting an offer, the guy selling the boxes decided he
actually couldn’t do any better and that was the price after all. But he has promised that next time… and I do
think there will be a next time... he would give us a good deal, because now we were brothers. I do
after all really like the boxes and I am quite a fan of the carvings, stools
and silver jewelry he has in his workshop.
I really am enjoying the colors and vibrancy of this
country.
Having been told off for having my camera out and trying to
take photos of the courts I have to admit to having “borrowed” these off Google
images- the policeman had an AK47 at the time and I wasn’t about to argue with
him.
