THE GOLD COAST 9/27/11
Our first day in Ghana took us on a city tour of the capitol of Accra. We drove by the modern and very interesting government building, built in the shape of a king’s stool, the curvilinear opera house and on to the Kwame Nkrumah monument featured in this picture. It was interesting touring the museum about his life and political career as both the first president of a free and united Ghana and a major world player during the Cold War years. Fascinating pictures of him with Kruschev, Patrice Lamumba, Nixon and others told much about the political environment of the time. Nkrumah is considered the George Washington of the nation of Ghana and we did recognize his importance but as he leaned left and affiliated with the Russians, we got nervous and helped engineer a coup which overthrew him. He went into exile in Guinea and became a co-president in that country. He died outside of his home country, was initially buried in Guinea and then his body moved to this mausoleum. His Egyptian born wife was also brought back to be buried here with him. The Horn Blowers and Drummers around his tomb are Asante musicians playing in his honor. Drums in Ghana were used as a form of communication and have a language of their own, to a certain extent imitating the sounds of speech. They would have been used before telephone and so forth as a means of communication between villages. They were also used ceremonially to announce the arrival of a tribal king or to proclaim his process towards a festival. Dancing and drumming are still part of tribal rituals. Another statue of Nkrumah was decapitated and both pieces are placed separately in the garden appearing almost as a piece of modern sculpture. The sun was directly overhead at the moment we were at the monument and the huge sundial shaped mausoleum cast very little shadow. The park is also home to many trees planted by visiting dignitaries and country presidents, a virtual botanical who’s who of the world. It is interesting to see who has come to pay their respects to the first president of up and coming Ghana.
Our first day in Ghana took us on a city tour of the capitol of Accra. We drove by the modern and very interesting government building, built in the shape of a king’s stool, the curvilinear opera house and on to the Kwame Nkrumah monument featured in this picture. It was interesting touring the museum about his life and political career as both the first president of a free and united Ghana and a major world player during the Cold War years. Fascinating pictures of him with Kruschev, Patrice Lamumba, Nixon and others told much about the political environment of the time. Nkrumah is considered the George Washington of the nation of Ghana and we did recognize his importance but as he leaned left and affiliated with the Russians, we got nervous and helped engineer a coup which overthrew him. He went into exile in Guinea and became a co-president in that country. He died outside of his home country, was initially buried in Guinea and then his body moved to this mausoleum. His Egyptian born wife was also brought back to be buried here with him. The Horn Blowers and Drummers around his tomb are Asante musicians playing in his honor. Drums in Ghana were used as a form of communication and have a language of their own, to a certain extent imitating the sounds of speech. They would have been used before telephone and so forth as a means of communication between villages. They were also used ceremonially to announce the arrival of a tribal king or to proclaim his process towards a festival. Dancing and drumming are still part of tribal rituals. Another statue of Nkrumah was decapitated and both pieces are placed separately in the garden appearing almost as a piece of modern sculpture. The sun was directly overhead at the moment we were at the monument and the huge sundial shaped mausoleum cast very little shadow. The park is also home to many trees planted by visiting dignitaries and country presidents, a virtual botanical who’s who of the world. It is interesting to see who has come to pay their respects to the first president of up and coming Ghana.
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