TD or Not TD? that’s the question riddling me as my stomach attempts to reconcile with the Ghanaian cuisine that has held it captive…well the proof is in the _____…
Anyway i am up with a quickness as i venture to the Jubilee grounds where the official OPENING of Panafest is to take place…Jubilee was Victoria Park before they decided to have the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s idependence from British colonial rule there…they renamed it JUBLILEE…well i wasn’t too jubilant about attending this event because:
1. i knew it wouldn’t start on time – more like two hours past their posted start time — extreme ‘CP’ time and i am so stuck in European timeliness (ET time)..
2. pomp and circumstance – there would be so much fanfare and introductions and processions and protocol prior to the commencing of the opening ceremony that my TD would not allow me to sit for…not even for a moment to witness a traditional durbar (procession of Chiefs of Cape Coast and surrounding areas)
3. i was so stuck in the experience of the water ride from the nite before that i would have loved a whole day to just sit and reflect…
by 10am i am at the JUBILEE grounds despite the 3 abovementioned reasons not to attend…
i cannot help being on ET time and decide to go shop in close vicinity of the Jubilee grounds…
by 12noon ish the fanfare begins with stiltwalkers and musicians and MUCH pomp and circumstance…
i fade in and out of the introductions and search for G in the crowd…He finally comes up to me and we agree later to meet at the hotel – he has volunteer duties to attend to and so he heads off…no Durbar occurs (at least nothing that i would imagine to be the grand procession) but do catch some North American urban flavah from a Canadian all young men’s group named Baby Boyz….they perform hip lock contemporary movements and motiffs to a pastiche of music…. i, exhausted by the sun and seeking sustenance head back to the hotel soon after they end….
sometime later in the afternoon G arrives at the hotel…after deep and heated discussion related to religiosity and matters i do not wish to disclose, he decides he no longer wishes to continue a close friendship with me …i offer to give him back a gift he had given me, but he vehemently refuses to accept this ‘dash’ – ‘ i dashed you this so you cannot give it back’ – if you try i will be insulted” …a ‘dash’ is an offering one gives to you that often has ‘no strings attached’, but sometimes will require a reciprocation (at least from what some “hustlers” told me later)….i spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening in deep reflection on my connection and dis-connection with G …
that nite at Adisadel blackouts #14 and #15 occur…but this does not dissuade the energetic music and movement of one group of men who decide to continue to have joy and fun in the midst of the darkness….i decide to sit close to them and bask in their joy and the beauty of the moon…by now i had been accustomed to being accompanied by a new friend to the village and around town, but was not afraid of being ‘solo’….
being solo i had opportunity to dialogue with the many vendors at adisadel….northern ghanains from dagoma and tamale…peeps from accra and volta …even some women from nigeria who claim that their craftmanship “is better if not the ‘best’ of the marketplace..”
i particularly enjoy a conversation with a brother from Kumasi – land of the Kente village, Ashanti kingdom known for their mighty warriors….he entices me to go visit there – “it’s only 4 hours away” – so i can see up close how they weave the kente fabric; as well as experience the big city life…he also shares a story of how the warriors fought off the enslavers; explaining why Kumasi’s region remains less impacted by the slave trade…
in the midst of all these exchanges of pleasantries and extended conversations i meet T (another volunteer of Panafest) who becomes very interested in knowing about why i am here in Ghana …why am i here? his querie leads me to an evolving growth of consciousness around connections and disconnections so far to Ghana and its people…
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