This post should ideally have gone up in March 2007, shortly after I returned from Accra. But it's never too late to tell good news. Read on......
Africa's Biggest Street Party in 2007
Take a stroll down 'Oxford Street' in the bustling Osu district of Ghana's capital Accra, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the colours red, yellow and green were Ghanaian. Well actually many other African countries' flags feature these colours in numerous combinations, but what sets the Ghanaian drape apart is the black star at the centre. My research trip to West Africa's, and indeed Africa's, rising 'Black Star' could not have been more timely because it fell during the country's 50th independence anniversary celebration. Ghana has much to celebrate, and part of my mission on this research trip was to find out why, though the sheer hospitality of Ghanaians meant I occasionally forgot I was on a business trip!
Ghana is conspicuous in a region haunted by instability and conflict. With a post-independence history as turbulent as many of its neighbours, President John Kufuor's government has managed to re-ignite international business interest in the country through a rigorous programme of reform. The numbers of African American visitors (some in search of their ancestral roots) for instance testify to Ghana's appeal to the unexposed tourist. Ghana may not be the Maldives, but it certainly offers its fair share of relaxation and leisure in the Cape Coast and beyond. The continued boom in real estate, and array of construction works dotted all around Accra city speak of a vibrant economy and untapped potential. Traffic lights that work and are obeyed, clean streets and miles of paved roads can often be taken for granted here in the West, but you only need to catch a one-hour (and a bit) flight west of Ghana, over Togo and Benin to sub-Saharan Africa's most populous city (you do the guess work) and you'll understand why people like myself appreciate Accra a lot!!!
William, the driver of the car hire company I 'patronised' (African talk), was my one reliable source of non-stop political and social commentary on Ghana. His lament on the enormous amounts of money - an estimated US$20m - spent on the Golden Jubilee celebrations, as we drove past queues of workers waiting to board public transport or 'tro tros' home snapped me back to the reality of everyday life for ordinary Africans. In a sense Kwame Nkrumah's struggle for Ghana's independence, which eventually bore fruit in 1957 and paved the way for the rest of the continent, continues to be replicated in a struggle for economic emancipation among those on the fringes of society in Ghana today. In fact, there's a running joke that in his independence speech Nkrumah delivered his punch line as 'Ghana is free to suffer' rather than 'Ghana is free forever'. Granted, Ghana is not where it should be, particularly when compared with the likes of Asian economies such as Malaysia, which had a comparable GDP to Ghana back in the 1960s. However, Ghana is not where it used to be. Almost 40 years or so ago, food shortages, high inflation rates, a rapidly depreciating cedi (local currency) and political uncertainty threatened to wreak havoc on the fragile economy.
Throughout my ten days in the country, I spoke to entrepreneurs, journalists, students, and politicians in a bid to gauge the tide of opinion on Ghana@50. Politicians on the government side were naturally optimistic. However, having a power cut in the middle of my 'investment environment' conversation (Analysts, I am sure you know those ones) with one of them, in the foyer of Parliament House for that matter, made me feel slightly embarrassed on his behalf and didn't help his investment pitch. The energy crisis was perhaps the loudest undercurrent in conversations I had for the entire duration of my trip. The government did almost make true its promise of uninterrupted electricity in the lead up to and shortly after the 6 March anniversary celebrations. From what I heard the blackouts had been much worse recently. However, despite these shortcomings, many Ghanaians remain proud of their country, and the air of patriotism and flag-flying about the place make the flying of St George's cross or the Union Jack in England during a World Cup look like a garden party in comparison.
As a West African I felt completely at home in Accra, that is until I came across a passer-by with a T-shirt that read '4-1'. I was later told the shirt depicted Ghana's scorching defeat of the Nigerian football team in an international friendly that broke a 15-year jinx of Ghanaian losses to Nigeria. So much for Nkrumah's Pan-Africanist vision!!! Anyway, I accept defeat gracefully, and will gladly say that the Black Star of Africa is fast rising. With plans for an offshore financial services sector in the making, the construction of West Africa's largest shopping mall by SA investors, and the planned redenomination of the cedi (so you don't have to hire a truck to carry around the local equivalent of £100!!!!), I can only hope that the momentum of change in the country continues once the celebrations are over.
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