Trip to Kumasi

This past weekend, CIEE took us on a trip to Kumasi, which is the capital of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The Ashanti people are actually the Asante (in local dialect), but they are often called the Ashanti because it was easier for the colonists. Anyways, the Asante people are one of the most culturally intact ethnic groups in Ghana. They are also led by the Asante hene, or the Asante king, seeing as (way back when) there was actually an Asante Kingdom that covered most of Ghana and parts of Togo and Cote D’ivoire. The Asante king actually holds a great deal of political power, not only in the region, but also with the national government. Essentially, if the Asante hene has something to say, people listen. For this reason, due to the king’s initiatives, Kumasi is a much cleaner city than Accra. The king has also created a national education fund that puts a lot of kids in need through school (not just Asante children).

Anyways, Kumasi is about five hours north and we left bright and early on Friday morning. When we got there we checked into our very nice (and air conditioned) hotel and had lunch. Then, we went to Manhyia (pronounced Manshia) Palace, which is the former home of the Asante King. It was pretty much a museum with a lot of stuff that the king used way back when.

After that we went to Kumasi Central Market, which is the largest open-air market in West Africa, and (I think), the second largest in Africa. The market was MADNESS. There were more people than you can imagine- selling and buying just about anything that you could think of. The smells and sounds were a total sensory overload, but I still managed to have a good time. I bought a necklace and batik (a type of dying) fabric for really cheap. I also got to practice my Twi with some of the women in the market! As we were leaving the market, the sky started to get really dark and we all realized that it was going to rain, very soon. But, since we all split up in the market, we had to wait for everyone to find their way out in order to get the bus. In this period of waiting, the sky just opened up on us. Just as a side note, rainstorms in Africa are different than America. In the US, everyone is prepared with umbrellas and raincoats and rain boots- not the case in Ghana. When it rains, everyone gets off the street and finds shelter. So, we sprinted across the street into some sketchy building where there were hundreds of other people waiting for the storm to pass. Eventually, the rain slowed down enough for us to go outside and get on our bus.

The next day we started off at the Kente weaving village. Kente cloth is a type of cloth that is culturally tied to the Asante people. It is woven, and it comes in all different colors and is very pretty (and also pretty expensive). We got to see how the cloth is made, and also the different meanings behind the patterns. I also bought some for myself and as souvenirs for people at home.

After that we went to the Adinkra cloth village, which is another type of artwork. Adinkra symbols all have a different meaning, and they are often stamped onto fabrics. So, we learned how they make the black dye used to stamp the Adinkra symbols and also got to stamp our own fabric with the symbols of our choice!

Next, we drove about an hour to Lake Bosumtwe, which is a huge lake made by the impact of a meteor a long time ago. It is in a huge crater and a lot of villages are situated around the lake. We had a delicious lunch and then got to canoe and go swimming. The water was super warm (warmer than Marlborough Lake), so I didn’t really want to go swimming because it wouldn’t have been at all refreshing. But, I did take a nice canoe ride around the lake.

We went out to dinner that night at a very nice Chinese food restaurant, which was a nice change of pace in food. The next morning they gave us some free time to explore on our own, but I took the change to sleep in the air conditioning, which was wonderful! After that we headed home to Accra.