Waka-About

The Average Ghanaian Is Consciously Neat.
Waka-about catches up with a Nigerian who has just returned from a vacation in Nkrumah's country. Interview by Pelu Awofeso

WAKA-ABOUT: You just returned from a weeklong holiday in Accra. What's your impression of the city, of the people of Ghana?
Sola Ojo: There exists a semblance of orderliness about the city of Accra. Things do really work and by that I mean power and transport; and there is also a modicum of security; the people are generally hospitable.

W: What informed the choice of Accra as a holiday destination for you, and not The Gambia or SA for instance?
SO: The Accra decision and choice had always been there and was just waiting for the opportunity to arise and it just did. More so, I had been there before to work and realized then I just need to be back there, not to work but to holiday.

W: How did you travel: by road or by air, and why your choice of transportation?
SO: we travelled by road. Land travel had always been my best mode except of course we those that can't be made by road. Road work always gives the opportunity for you to really see more of the country side and meet and appreciate more cultures en route i.e before Accra. you see the major towns like Hilacorgi, Aflao, Segekope, Volta region(with its Volta river), then you see Tema, which is the industrial layout of the country: you get to see all of these before getting to Accra. it may be pertinent to note that in some of these major adjoining towns, they do get power failure from time to time.

CRUISING into Port Harcourt overland from Onitsha I was preoccupied with the thoughts of what story I could focus on about the city I do my best to love each time I am in it. I didn't have to think for too long: just some feet on the right lane on Aba Road, after Rumuola and not too far from the Presidential Hotel junction, I saw the side view of a Hyundai Accent car, painted in blue and yellow colours; under a feminine black image by the driver's door were the inscription ESI LADY CABBIES.

NIGERIA-based tourism outfit Five Star Travel Limited in partnership with City of Choice Travel and Tours, South Africa has announced a Business & Wine Tour to South Africa (BWTSA).
According to Rosemary Duamlong, General Manager, Business Development, for Five Star, “BWTSA is designed to give investors and marketers in the wine business and other specific sectors an avenue to explore the business opportunities that are open to both Countries. It will also provide an opportunity to understand the dynamic and rapidly expanding market in South Africa and its significant influence on investment and business in Africa and the World at large.”

LATER this month (22-26 August), a UNESCO-supported Colloquium on Slavery is to be hosted in Osun State, South-West Nigeria, to discuss all issues relating to the Triangular Slave Trade which ravaged Sub-Saharan African for centuries. The Colloquium, adds Professor Adi Derefaka, chair of the organising committee, “is also to commemorate the UNESCO International Day for the Abolition of Slavery and Slave Trade, which is marked annually on 23 August.”

PELU AWOFESO is taken on a guided tour of the palace of the Ooni of Ife, the most influential king in Yorubaland
IT is not for nothing that the gate to the palace of the Ooni of Ife is one of a kind. By rights, the Ooni  is first among equals, the most regarded king in Yorubaland, for the fact that Ife was where Oduduwa, the ancestor of the Yorubas, first reigned.  The Ooni's special status among Yoruba traditional rulers is enhanced further by the fact that the Are Crown, believed to have been first worn by Oduduwa, is in his domain.

In this third instalment of a continuing series of dispatches from the road, PELU AWOFESO shares some of the spectacular stories that makes Nigeria's South-West region a cultural hotspot.

THE six-inch tall bronze figurine behind the glass is believed to be the image of Oduduwa, standing by his queen Olori Olokun; both of them, dressed from head to toe in ceremonial costume, lock arms and wear a ring on their second toes.

In this second instalment of a continuing series of dispatches from the road, PELU AWOFESO shares some of the spectacular stories that makes Nigeria's South-West region a cultural hotspot

CURATORS Emmanuel and James were standing outside the Owo museum of Antiquities when I walked in that Wednesday morning at ten; some of the other staff members were also around somewhere, unable to work in their offices because there was a power cut. The resulting darkness also meant that I couldn't be taken through the exhibition galleries, which was the reason I was visiting.

In this instalment of a continuing series of dispatches from the road, Pelu Awofeso attends a Church service that reminds him of his boyhood.

AFTER taking my time to savour the living exhibition of Ondo kingdom, especially through  the worn traditional dresses  and then talking to some of the traditional leaders present in the Osemawe's palace, I felt a stirring to go find a place where I could get at least a cap or two as keepsakes. I was pointed in the direction of the Oja Oba, the King's market.

I have since learned that every Yoruba community that has a king has a King's market not too far away from the palace. “This one's a very big market,” the okada rider who picked me said, “there's nothing you want that you won't find there.” And truly, there was everything from Agro-chemicals to imported shoes.