Day 12 - The trek back to Accra and the Ghana National Museum

Today we head back to Accra to pick a van that has just been serviced for our travels along the Gold Coast. Also, Tom’s girlfriend Aimee is heading back to Portland where they reside.

We got up early in the morning and headed to a junction about 20 minutes west. To get to Accra there are a few options. The option we were taking was a comfortable air conditioned bus to a junction in Accra and then a taxi to the Jempat Hotel in Adenta where I first stayed upon arrival.

The other option is to take a small 9-person van known as a cho cho that escorts people to many places around the area. The cho cho drivers in Accra make for most of the traffic and hold ups I imagine. They make all sorts of dangerous passing maneuvers and line their vans on the side of the road and block traffic repeatedly. The also like to pass on the shoulder and squeeze in busy traffic, even on unpaved shoulders with extremely rocky paths. They are quite a site to see, but I would not be caught dead in a cho cho. They are often involved in many fatal accidents and many people involved in the accidents rarely survive. Though the danger of the cho cho might be exaggerated in this instance, many Ghanaians use the cho chos as a prime method of transportation and they are much cheaper than a taxi. Yeah, the air conditioned bus sounds like a much safer and smoother ride.

Another interesting thing is the hand motions that are used while in the cho chos and on the side of the road. Most often there is someone with their arm outside the cho cho window making hand signals as well as those on the side of the road communicating with the cho chos and drivers hopefully willing to pick up a hitch-hiker. When zooming by, Ghanaians in the cho cho and the side of the road will point to the sky meaning that the cho cho is going a far distance (and making less local stops) or the hitch-hiker wants to go far. Conversely, if one points down, this means that the person would like to only go a short distance; a little more complex than just a thumbs up for a ride.

We made it back to the Jempat in Adenta, dropped off our things and headed straight to the Ghana National Museum. This was an important place to visit since there was some background information to soak in at the museum. As we approached the museum counter, I noticed that the memory card in my camera was still in my computer. Blasted! So I’m sorry no pics! Believe me I am just as disappointed.

The museum appeared fairly well kept with artifacts, pictures, and recreations from many tribal areas of Ghana as well as the Ivory Coast and other places in West Africa like Nigeria if I can remember correctly.

There are some examples of bark cloth and a number of ceremonial seats for chiefs. There were also some amazing instruments made of wood and wire including a lyre and yes a xylophone! One of my favorite pieces was a necklace made of human teeth. A number of other pieces included wood sculptures depicting everyday events and a recreation of a tribal kitchen, which included a mortar and pestle presumably to pound cassava and plantains. Other areas of the bottom floor had a history of the slave trade with many captions about places that I have already been like Elmina and Cape Coast Castle.

Upstairs were some displays of archaeological excavations that had been conducted in the recent past in areas just north of Fort William, around Accra, and in Kumasi. Knowledge of these archaeological sites is significant since they house comparative samples by which to better contextualize historic Kormantse, and overall, populations that are part of the African Diaspora.

I love museums, but they always drain me of energy. After a long day of travel and nerdiness, I relaxed in my hotel room yet the museum actually motivated me to do more nerdy things by conducting some more background research on the history of bioarchaeological research in the Americas, including the last 50 years or so of the proceedings of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology. I know, to most of you, an evening bursting with excitement.