FIRST INDEPENDENT AFRICAN COLONY
By Bob Van Leer

  (TEMA  ACCRA), GHANA, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001) - Betty and I took a long tour today through this country, the first African colony to gain independence, in this case 1957.
This is equatorial Africa. The weather today wasn't too bad, but the temperature got into the 90s and humidity must have been 100%. Tema is the port city for Accra, the capital of Ghana. The country is located on the Gulf of Guinea only a few degrees north of the Equator.

  In our tour around, our general impression is this country is doing better than Senegal. There are shanty towns, but generally the country appears more prosperous. This is a former British colony and our observation over the years is that the former British colonies do better than other countries' colonies.

  The country in area is 92,000 square miles, about the size of Illinois and Indiana combined. Population is about 17.5 million. This is the first country we have visited on this tour that is not primarily Muslim. In Ghana, about 35% are Christians, 31% indigenous belief and 27% Muslim.

  The Ghana equivalent of George Washington is Kwame Nkrumah, who led the country into independence from Britain. He is buried in a massive monument in a special park named after him. However, in his lifetime he was not treated as well. He led the country to independence and was the first president. But he ran the country into the ground and was overthrown in a coup in 1966. He died in exile and then later he was polished up and made the country's hero.

  In recent years the president and strong man has been a military officer, Jerry Rawlings. He just served eight years as president and stepped down. However, he stepped down once before and took back over when the country wasn't run to his satisfaction. This time, his hand-picked candidate didn't win, so the new management better look sharp or their term in office might not be long.

  Our tour took us to the usual museums and public buildings. One outstanding place was the Centre for National Culture, a large craft fair. About half was devoted to cloth and the other half to wool carving and metal objects. The next time we have a day at sea, we are to have an African Party, and I bought a local outfit for the party called a "gran bu-bu". It is a bright green tunic, pants and hat and is heavily embroidered. A local specialty is "Kinte Cloth", woven in 6-8 inch strips and sewn together. It is cotton and silk blend and very popular.

  One interesting place we visited was a casket factory. This is not your ordinary casket factory, caskets are made to order depicting one's profession in life or other significant representation. An on display while we were there were coffins, gaily painted, in the shape of a turkey, airliner, shoe, village, rooster and others. We were told they just cost $500 to $800.

  The capital, Accra, has its share of monumental public buildings that look the same world over, expensive, cold and not very inviting.

  We had lunch in the La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel that must have been a four or five star hotel. I asked for rates and was told to stay there was $250 per night, single, and $260 double. Since the per capita Gross Domestic Product is $340 annually, the hotel is probably not getting much local trade.

  We were entertained at the hotel by the Abibigromma Resident Theatre Company, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, who presented Akan Ceremonial Court Dance. Ghana was originally known as the Gold Coast. Originally, Europeans came here for gold, but found another profitable commodity, slaves.

  At the National Museum there was an estimate that 12-13.5 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic, and an equal number may have died in the handling. Selma Edwards, guest lecturer for the ship, said more than 10,000 slaves per year were shipped from Ghana for 250 years. She said the trade was just as lucrative for Africans as for Europeans. The slave trade became more lucrative to Ghana than gold. Europeans didn't capture their own slaves, they were brought out by Africans and sold or bartered to Europeans. The trade continued into the 19th century.

  Today the main cash crop is cocoa which provides about two-thirds of export revenue. There is one aluminum plant which uses electricity from the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River. For trivia buffs, this dam backs up Volta Lake, the largest man-made lake in the world and is 325 miles long.

  Laurent Kabila, former president of the Republic of Congo, apparently is dead, at least his funeral is being planned. His son is taking over in his palace. The chances of this kind of a change in government lasting very long are not good.

  Tonight we are making a short run (127 nautical miles) northeast to the city of Lome' Togo.