Day 5 - The trek to Anomabo and Fort William

Today we woke up very early to head southeast along the coast from Accra to Anomabo. The village of Anomabo houses Fort William, a colonial fort that was part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and actually used as a prison up until about 15 years ago. It is at Fort William where we will set up tents and this will be our lodging and study headquarters as we travel to historic Kormantse to excavate.

View of some of the hillside along the Accra-Cape Coast Road.

A few unforeseen errands and miscues in West Adenta caused us to get on the road a tad bit later than we had hoped and we sat in terrible horrible knucklehead traffic for some time. Luckily car ride conversation was lively and a soccer game on my cheap Nokia phone I bought in Adenta two days ago kept me occupied when I was bored. I had a sleep for about an hour and a half and I woke up not seeing the ocean quite yet and we stopped for breakfast. Our standard breakfast has been eggs boiled, scrambled, or fried, usually with onions and sometimes green pepper and a spot of tea. There was only about 30-45 minutes until we arrive in Anomabo and Fort William.

We arrived in Anomabo around half nine and moved through the village waving at curious onlookers seeing a bunch of white people. Tom has worked in this location for a few years prior and people waved at him, especially people he knew or recognized by name such as shop owners and village elders.

At the end of the street at a bend lies Fort William. We parked outside, exited the car, and entered the fort. We were greeted with much delight by a Ghanaian man named Phillip, which Tom has sometimes referred to as Uncle Phillip. Phillip is the caretaker of the fort and the other site known as Fort Amsterdam near the village of Abandze. He was very happy to see us and we met his family. He and Tom were both speaking Fante, the local language along the coast in this area.

View from inside Fort William. You can see our tents in the upper right corner.

We pitched our tents and headed to Cape Coast, a larger town further southeast to run errands. We stopped by Cape Coast Castle to initially meet with some Antiquities and Monuments board personnel, purchase some gear for our stay in the fort, and made a quick trip to the University of Cape Coast to talk with a professor who has conducted a study of local shrines as well as some of his students.

Shortly thereafter, we took a needed lunch break.

My stomach was feeling very well and breakfast went down nicely. I was anxious to try Ghanaian food. I wanted to eat the fufu but our driver Peter had recommended I try banku first instead to get my stomach used to pounded cassava. Banku is pounded cassava that has undergone more straining than fufu thus reducing some of the starchiness and is softer and more dough-like than fufu. And consequently, this is much easier on the stomach. I had banku with tilapia with plenty of onions in a crushed red pepper sauce that was extremely spicy.

When one orders fufu, banku, or light soup dishes, a bowl of water and soap arrives at your table to wash your hands because you are not eating these dishes with a fork; actually you are washing the right hand predominantly. Just as in parts of the Middle East, the left had is seen as dirty, so it should not be used to eat the banku in the case as the left hander would be seen as filthy.

The food arrived and the banku looked like a pile of dough with the pepper sauce underneath and a whole tilapia toppled with onions. To eat this dish, the banku is grabbed and molded into a bite-size ball and dipped in the sauce with onions. Unlike the fufu, one can politely chew the banku. You can add some fish to the morsel before consuming it as well or just pick at the fish solely. The banku went down easily and the whole dish was rather delicious. I loved it! No real eating of the stomach meat, head meat, or eyeballs of the fish like the locals…but for some reason I feel compelled to try it before I leave.

After the late lunch, the banku was like a huge weight in my stomach and a well needed nap and relaxing evening of reading and writing ensued….or merely playing the soccer game on my phone and enjoying the sound of the crashing waves.