By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

The serene terrace of the Goethe-Institut in Accra fell into a fleeting silence as rhythms from a xylophone played by multi instrumentalist Aaron Bebe transformed the cool night air into a musical groove.

With dimly lit flashlights glowing in between assorted plants and flowers, Bebe alongside percussionist Mustapha Bortier and bassist Joshua Nkansah, successfully expressed the musical soul of Ghana through a dramatic fusion of diverse indigenous instruments.  

Bebe, who at various stages of the concert, introduced and played xylophone / seperewa from Ghana as well as mbira from Zimbabwe, exhibited imaginative solos from all three instruments that revealed the beauty, diversity and capacities of traditional African instruments.

“The audience had a very close interaction with the three musicians as soft and tender rhythms flowed freely from the stage.  The percussionist surprised me with his rather soft approach to playing”, said Margaret Tinsen, a teacher from the United Kingdom.

An apostle of contemporary Ghanaian music, Bebe created his own world of music in which melody, harmony and rhythm flowed into an unceasing stream alongside lyrics in Ga, Twi, Dagarti and English that comment on love, peace, wisdom and corruption among others.

Complimented by subtle kpanlogo and djembe drumming, the trio transported the audience to rural parts of Ghana with extensions of traditional rhythms that echoed the skills of ancient Ghanaian composers and performers.

The audience could not help but ask for more as Bebe played a couple of tracks from  “N’yong”, a fifteen piece album, which was recorded in The Netherlands during a performance tour that featured the eminent ethnomusicologist Prof. John Collins. 

Currently an instructor at the Music Department, University of Ghana, Bebe has performed with Novisi Dance Group, Ghana Dance Ensemble, Pan-African Orchestra, Abibigromma and Hewale Sounds alongside holding workshops for students and lecturers in the United States, several countries in Europe and many parts of Africa.

The performance, which formed part of “Goethe Abansoro”, a hub that has been providing acoustic music of all genres, was supported by the Goethe-Institut.  

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Nana Oforiatta Ayim, curator of Ghana’s pavilion at the ongoing Venice Biennial in Italy last Thursday declared Ghana’s maiden presence at the 124 year old art festival as a resounding success.

In a presentation last Thursday at The Studio in Accra, she said in spite of the challenges, panics, dramas, chaos and disasters behind the scenes, she and her colleagues managed to put together pavilion that fascinated visitors and critics with its curved galleries and artworks that celebrate Ghana’s legacy.  

The team, which include acclaimed Ghanaian architect David Adjaye alongside priceless advice from the late Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor, created a pavilion that mesmerized visitors and earned rave reviews from diverse journalists, writers and art critics.  

Undeniably, it is an uphill task for African countries to make a strong presence at the Venice Biennial owing largely to economic reasons and the intricacies of the Biennial procedure, which has over the years inhibited participation by various African countries. 

Dubbed “Ghana Freedom” after the late Ghanaian Highlife maestro E.T. Mensah’s song, the elliptical pavilion is characterized by coiled galleries splashed with earth imported from Ghana that recall the skills of traditional Ghanaian architects and craftsmen.

Ayim dilated on artists on display at the pavilion describing them as across generations with works that examine the legacies and trajectories of Ghana’s freedom, which they boldly expressed in diverse, distinct and varied ways.

They include Nigeria based master El Anatsui, United Kingdom based John Akomfrah, Selasi Awusi Sosu and Lynette Boakye-Yiadom alongside Ghana based Ibrahim Mahama and veteran photographer Felicia Abban.

The pavilion is decked with large-scale installations by Anatsui / Mahama, a three channel film by Akomfrah, video sculpture by Sosu and representational portraits by Abban / Boakye-Yiadom, which severally and jointly symbolize and question the sprit of freedom.

The curator stated that one would notice a discourse amongst the artworks as they navigate the elliptical spaces of the pavilion while revealing that the soil imported from Ghana added a visceral depth making the feeling in the pavilion different from all others.  

Ayim revealed that artworks currently on show will be exhibited at the National Museum in Accra and other locations throughout the country adding that the question of freedom, who we are and how Ghanaians view it will continue to be discussed as part of these exhibitions.

A filmmaker, writer and art historian, Ayim studied Russian Literature and Politics at the Bristol University in the United Kingdom (UK). She has an MA in African Art History and an MPhil in African Languages and Cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, also in the UK.

Currently, the director of ANO, a non-profit organization, which aims at uncovering and creating new cultural narratives of the African continent, Ayim has won a number of awards and has written for publications such as “Frieze”, “Manifests”, “Kaleidoscope” and “African Modern Architecture”.

Established in 1895, the Venice Biennale is one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world – a prestige it has maintained till date owing to its ability to anticipate new trends in art and, at the same time, to present works and artists of every period under renewed perspectives. 

blaxTARLINES Kumasi, Foundation for Contemporary Art Ghana and The Studio Accra organized the programme.

Venice Pictures – Courtesy of Ghana Pavilion

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Ha Orchestra, the first African Symphonic Orchestra in Scotland and the United Kingdom recently charmed audiences in the Scottish city of Edinburgh with slow, delicate and glorious tunes as well as emotionally rich sounds. 

Performing as part of the European Conference on African Studies, the group exhibited high energy and enthusiasm during the concerts, which were characterized by elegant, beautiful, playful and dramatic compositions.  

Set up a few years ago by Ghanaian creative arts director / academic Dr. Gameli Tordzro, the orchestra aims at bringing together musicians from different cultural heritages to create music that sounds different from the western classical music played in Africa and the African diaspora.

It was largely inspired by the late Ghanaian composer Nana Danso Abiam’s practice of integrating regional music of Africa into a new classical synthesis thereby creating a symphonic system, which is different from established western classical repertoire in Africa and the Diaspora.

Based in Scotland, the orchestra comprises musicians from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gambia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Belgium, Scotland, England, Denmark and France, who play diverse instruments from the African continent and elsewhere.

In 2014, the orchestra worked with five learning communities across the city of Glasgow (Scotland) as they set up music making workshops with schools, colleges and communities while creating learning opportunities for children and adults of all ages.

In Ghana, the orchestra worked and performed with the Noyam African Dance Ensemble in the hillside town of Dodowa, while working on a series of programmes with the University of Ghana, Legon.

The group equally offers teaching of African musical instruments, performance opportunities, schools / community events, venue tours and master classes alongside research and knowledge exchange opportunities for academics in high and further education institutions.

Ha Orchestra has also been involved in research at the University of Glasgow’s (Scotland) “RM Borders Production,” “Broken World Broken Word” and a current project dubbed “South-South Migration Inequality and Development Hub.

The hub’s agenda include deepening understanding of the dynamics, transnational interplay between SSM, inequality and development by bringing together an interdisciplinary, cross-sectorial team of researchers from 12 ODA-recipient countries constituting six SSM ‘corridors’ within which there are significant two-way movements of people, goods, money, knowledge and skills as well as social and cultural ideas and relationships.

Examine the ways and contexts within which multidimensional inequalities both create and constrain the opportunities and benefits of South-South migration, exploring both horizontal (gender, age) and vertical (income) inequalities from an intersectional perspective, drawing in other relevant axes of inequality including religion, ethnicity and language.

Others are analyzing how configurations of policies (migration, development, basic services, social protection) and other factors (labour markets, financial institutions, legal frameworks, national/natural disasters, conflict) that intersect with inequalities to migration processes and outcomes for different groups in both origin and destination countries.

Evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and policies designed to tackle inequalities associated with migration including political mobilization and transnational solidarity building, access to legal remedies to deliver an opportunity for those who move and the use of ICT to facilitate access to information and services.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

A cool breeze loosely shifted leaves of trees at the Alliance Française last Saturday – as an artiste taking on the role of a “griot” – begins the narration of life’s journey, which comprised acts that are traceable to our varied art forms. 

Titled “Ajenuloo”, the colourful performance showcased assorted aspects of Ghanaian culture and traditions by members of the Ghana Dance Ensemble – who kept the audience at the edge of their seats with fast moving scenes – that flowed into each other with relative ease.

Indeed, the musical pulse of beat making created an atmosphere of calmness that conformed to ritualism and ceremonialism as the dancers enacted a near forgotten journey that unfolded the story of a country – indeed its people, its culture and its norms. 

Choreographed by Nene Narh Hagoe, acting artistic director of the ensemble, the piece is undeniably a groundbreaking performance that speaks across ethnic, cultural, linguistic and geographical divides while telling a compelling story through riddles.

Accompanied by traditional drummers, flutists, seperewa players and recorded music, the choreographer managed to streamline Ghanaian traditions and culture, which was presented on stage by skillful dancers and musicians.

Along with the music was a tender quality of movement that conveyed a secret language of gesture where trained bodies offered varied constructions of femininity, masculinity and neutrality thereby revealing the complexity and diversity of our lives as Ghanaians.    

With a creative set design that comprised stylized trees and huts by David Amoo, the group created miniature narratives of our life’s story including scenes from formalized practices from Ghanaian traditional religions and social ceremonies.    

Currently based at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana (Legon), Ghana Dance Ensemble was formed in 1962 by the first Ghanaian president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a research institute and performing entity with a mandate to preserve Ghanaian culture.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Dynamic poet / spoken word artist Oswald Okaitei on Wednesday surprised poetry lovers in Accra with a dramatic presentation of strung poems, which flowed into each other with relative ease.

Performing at the Goethe-Institut in Accra as part of a monthly acoustic session, the poet gave a rendition of his own poems alongside works by Ghanaian literary giants including the late Prof. Attukwei Okai, Prof. Lade Wosornu, Prof. Kofi Anyidohu and Dr. Mawuli Adzei.

Amidst applause from the audience, Okaitei performed a conceptualized version of these emotionally charged poems, which he adapted into the era of pre-colonialism while reminding the crowd of the apparent loss of Ghana’s cultural values owing to foreign interventions.   

Together with school kids and a group of ladies known as Achievers Ghana who performed while seated in the midst of the audience, Okaitei showcased the prowess of diction, use of metaphors, alliteration, imagery, witticism, symbolism and other devices employed by these great poets.

“It is refreshing to note that several venues have opened their doors for poets to perform and earn a living in the process. We have indeed moved from the scarcity of opportunities for performance poets. Thanks to the Goethe-Institut for providing a platform for poets”, said Yaw Adu, a poet in Accra.

Undeniably, a cool balance between rawness and style allowed Okaitei’s words to shine and soar through the cool night air as choral music, acoustic guitars and traditional drums provided inspirational rhythms. With an unruffled calmness, he proved that poetry performance could be delivered in diverse ways with varied outcomes.

Through a rather practical, blunt, direct tone and humorous language, his poems moved with controlled energy as stanza after stanza blended into each other with panache. Employing expressive physical gestures that engaged the audience, the poet eventually slowed down and read from a number of his recent works.

Dubbed “Goethe Abansoro”, the monthly acoustic sessions offer artists and their audiences a cozy atmosphere on a decorated terrace to interact while enjoying recent artistic creations.  

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

South African singer / songwriter Pilani Bubu together with GH Jazz Collective on Saturday opened the 2019 edition of Live in Accra Jazz Festival with a magnetic concert at the Alliance Française in Accra.

Momentarily disrupted by a raging fire in a nearby construction site, Bubu dug deep into her rich repertoire and unleashed a cocktail of jazz that have been dramatically interspersed with poetic devices.

With Bernard Ayisa (saxophone), Victor Dey (keyboard), Frank Kissi (drums) and Bright Osei (bass), Bubu delighted the crowd with lucid tunes, catchy rhythms and a distinctive sound that was complemented by a felicitous style from the versatile saxophonist.

“I am greatly impressed with the performance – jazz seems to be having its best and most creative times in Ghana. It is really sad not see any news on jazz in the Ghanaian media”, said an obviously impressed Joan Phillips, a teacher from Bristol, United Kingdom.

With a voice that seemed to soar like a bird in flight, Bubu who enriched her repertoire with influences from Toulouse (France), New York / New Orleans (USA), Dublin (Ireland), London (UK) and Lagos (Nigeria), joyously filled the air with compositions that are equally rich in soul, folk, blues and funk.

Undeniably, they played together with simple clarity and ease that managed to sustain the interest of the audience to the last note. Indeed, it was near impossible to tell where composition ends and improvisation begins.

“It should never fail to amaze any jazz lover who had the pleasure of experiencing this memorable performance by an extra ordinary talented lady with support from equally endowed instrumentalists”, added Kofi Manu, a musician in Accra. 

Bubu’s first EP “Journey of a Heart”, which was produced by RJ Benjamin, was released in 2012. The first single, “Miss Understood” play-listed on 25 radio stations across South Africa while regularly touring and performing internationally. 

Her live repertoire includes a forthcoming album ‘Warrior of Light’ with new big band renditions from her first EP. Bubu has graced the stages of the Drum Beat Festival, National Arts Festival and Fete de la Musique – all in South Africa.

Alliance Française in Accra organized the festival in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Ghana, Best Western Premier Hotel, +233 Jazz Bar & Grill, Republic Bar & Grill and New Morning Arts Centre.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

The Foundation for the Development of African Contemporary Culture in Africa will on Tuesday June 18 open an exhibition of works by thirty African and diasporan artists at the Maison de l’Union in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Titled “Prête-moi ton Rêve”, the works will equally be displayed in other African cities including to Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (La Côte d’Ivoire), Lagos (Nigeria), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Cape Town (South Africa). It is expected to end in Marrakesh (Morocco) in 2020.

This ambitious project is expected to bring together more than 100 previously unseen creations produced by the artists during residencies alongside some of their most iconic pieces. Indeed, it is a reflection of the abundance and vitality of the African art scene.

“Prête-moi ton Rêve” aims to increase the international visibility of local contemporary artists, give rise to a pan-African circuit of cultural distribution and to foster dialogue and exchange between established and emerging artists. 

The artists include Ei Anatsui / Kofi Setordji (Ghana), Fouad Bellamine, Fatiha Zemmouri, Fathiya Tahiri, Mohamed Melehi, Mahi Bine Bine (Morocco), Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), Siriki Ky, Jems Koko Bi, Ouattara Watts,  (Cote d’Ivoire), Chéri Samba, Bill Kouelany, Freddy Tsimba (Congo) and Soly Cissé / Viyé Diba (Senegal).

Others are Jane Alexander / William Kentridge (South Africa), Meriem Bouderbala (Tunisia), Yazid Oulab (Algeria), Adel El Siwi (Egypt), Nenna Okoré (Australia), Zoulikha Bouabdelah (Russia), Olu Omoda (Nigeria), Barthélémy Toguo / Joseph Sumégné (Cameroon) and Omar Khalil (Sudan).   

Chaired by HRH Prince Moulay Ismaïl, the Foundation aims at promoting and ensuring the discernibility of African contemporary art in Africa and the world at large.  It was initiated in 2018 by some members of the art world and entrepreneurs, who are deeply convinced of the wealth of the African art scene.  

The exhibition is being curated by the Ivorian academic / art critic Prof. Yacouba Konate and the Moroccan historian / exhibition curator Brahim Alaoui. Both curators bring on board a wide range of experience that traverse various continents.

Currently the Director of MASA Festival in La Côte d’Ivoire, Konate is a member of the scientific council of the Académie des Sciences de la Culture et des Arts d’Afrique et des Diasporas (Academy of Sciences, Culture and Arts of Africa and the Diasporas) and was in charge of Fondation Jean-Paul Blachère’s African office.

Alaoui has written numerous books and catalogues, notably on contemporary Arabic artists and is one of the rare thinkers to establish connections – both in his texts and the exhibitions he has organized – between the art of the Arab world, European and international art scene.

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By Alfred Tamakloe

(In Copenhagen – Denmark)

When Gyedu-Blay Ambolley recorded his maiden album “Simigwa Do” with Uhuru Dance Band in 1973 and released on Norman Bentsil Enchill’s Capeside Records label in Cape Coast, Ghana, he brought another dimension to Ghana’s highlife music. A blend of highlife, funk, disco and rap, Simigwa Do, launched a new sound, a new lyrical communication and a new dance on the Ghanaian music scene never heard before. It is Ambolley’s claim to be the first person to have commercially released a rap record, contrary to the claims of the Guinness Book of Records.

Today Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is one of Ghana’s leading exponents of highlife and experimenters in the genre with a strong charismatic stage personality. He is a singer, tenor sax player, not only famous in Ghana but has become currently well-known internationally with World Music fans around the world even among the black youth of the coastal Cartagena Region of Colombia whose “champea” music has been influenced by the music of Ambolley and other African musicians introduced by visiting African seamen since the 1970s. Even though Ghana’s popular music genre, Highlife, is said to have emerged around the 20th century, it actually goes back to the 1880s through to the 1900s.

According to Musicologist, Professor John Collins, a Ghanaian of British musicologist, the first form, the “adaha” brass band music on the Fanti coast to the west of Ghana, was triggered by the regimental bands of six thousand West Indians soldiers stationed at Cape Coast and El Mina slave castles by the British colonialists. Adaha music spread very quickly throughout southern Ghana. According to John Collins, those small towns and villages that could not afford expensive brass instruments, created a poor-man’s ‘drum-and -voice’ version called konkoma or konkomba which developed and spread quickly as far as to Nigeria. The “adaha” and konkoma were followed by another form of highlife – the Fanti “Osibisaaba” – a traditional Fanti recreational music and dance for fishermen.

One important influence came from the kru or kroo seamen of Liberia, who in the 20th century, pioneered Africanised two-finger guitar plucking techniques on the high seas. Highlife gained the most mainstream popularity in Ghana after World War Two, splitting into two major styles and scenes: guitar band and dance band. Guitar band highlife music was most widespread in rural parts of the country. Because traditional music in these regions had a longer-standing history of incorporating stringed instruments, musicians readily accepted and incorporated the guitar into their composition. When it first emerged, it was associated with Ghana’s aristocracy as it was performed primarily at exclusive clubs along Ghana’s coast. Most Ghanaians did not have the wealth or social status to enter these venues, so the music earned it the name “highlife”.

Music for the rich and affluent

John Collins notes that, “the diversity of Ghana’s traditional performing arts is therefore enormous- and so it is no wonder that, their dance rhythms and melodies have been and still are being incorporated into many of Ghana’s popular dance music forms stretching from brass-band and dance band highlife, odonso highlife, sikyi highlife, and osoode highlife to Afro-rock and Burger highlife”. Others are Ga kpanlogo highlife, Palmwine highlife, Asiko highlife, Dagomba highlife and Kwao highlife forms.

Growing up as a boy, I heard Ambolley’s music very much at home as my father was a collector of vinyls from all over the African continent. But Ambolley’s record became controversial and was banned from being played on radio in Ghana.

Ambolley is from Nzema or Nzima in the western Ghana, the birthplace of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, an area with a rich highlife tradition that spreads into Cote d’Ivoire. He was however, not born there but in the twin harbour city of Sekondi-Takoradi. Ambolley’s first musical influences were two-fold: the military music of his father who played the flute and was a soldier during the Second World War, as well as highlife music of local dance bands like Broadway.

He learnt to play drums and guitar, then in 1963 at fifteen, joined his first band- Tricky Johnson’s Sextet based in Sekondi as a vocalist, the leader of which was one-time guitarist of E.T. Mensah’s Tempos dance band. From there Ambolley move to another band in the locality, the Railway Band led by Sammy Lartey, who together with another member Ebo Taylor, were to become his mentors. Ebo Taylor taught Ambolley to play the bass guitar.

I asked him in a recent interview in Ghana’s capital Accra, before his 2019 European tour with his full-fledged Ghanaian outfit -The Sekondi Band – what the name of his album ‘Simigwa Do’ means. “Some believe ‘Simigwa Do’ is profane, but in Fanti – my language – it is a proverbial phrase which means the sort of composed dance done by a chief or a well-established person. He is sitting on a chair with so much pride as if he has achieved something and is in a happy mood. Then an inner feeling makes him get up for a moment and dance. People thought it meant, “let’s go and have sex”, but it wasn’t like that. One thing that pains me was that this record was assessed at Ghana Broadcasting House and I wasn’t called upon to analyze the phrase. But they just decided to ban the record. I tried to explain on television and so on but with no result”.

The album cover has a photo of Ambolley dressed up a small boy with a cloth around his body tied up at the back of his neck and has twisted his mouth at right angle to the normal position. Lyrics of Ambolley’s Simigwa brand of highlife cut across love to serious issues of corruption and injustice in African politics. Other times Ambolley is just murmuring very funny things to make you laugh and happy.

This side of him shows, when I ask him about his own musical language, he tells me how the Ghanaian king of highlife E. T. Mensah, James Brown and himself integrate food in their music: “If you look at James Brown singing about mashed potatoes and popcorn, you can come to Ghana and E. T. Mensah will be singing about “Abele”. That’s why I put food into my music. Because nobody can live without food.”

Since his debut over four decades ago, this unstoppable musician, songwriter, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and producer has collaborated with such icons as Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, churning out over 30 albums such as “The Message”, “ Akoko Ba”, “Simigwa Soca” and “Burkina Faso”, which have been re-issued on 12” vinyl on Analog Africa label.

Note:- Ambolley played his first ever concert on Danish soil at the winter Jazz Festival in February at Alice in Copenhagen as part of his 2019 European tour. This article is also published in Danish in the maiden edition of the Danish Music Magazine “The Looking-Glass”- March 2019.

Pictures:- Crawfurd Media – Film and Photography

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By Wilfred Clarke

(In London – United Kingdom)

As the world keeps evolving and revolving with its advantages and disadvantages, there are some people who have taken it upon themselves to help solve the world’s global warming.

And one of such people is a leading personality from the north of Africa, Morocco to be precise. In her first solo gallery exhibition in London (UK) at Sulger Buel Gallery, the acclaimed Moroccan artist, Ghizlane Sahli has done her work by utilising some remarkable understanding of space and form to present series of three dimensional bas-reliefs.

Combining both drawings and sculpture in the exhibition, she challenges art patrons on an inner and organic minefield fused with a universal theme. And she believes this imagination allows the viewer to transcend what would normally exempt humans from seeing “Universality” and its complex and sophisticated mechanism.

Looking upon her work of art, one can detect a certain sense of inclusion that behoves on everything she encounters on her journey to either drawing or sculpturing. Ghizlane Sahli’s philosophy seems not to claim or condemn anything. To her, ‘belonging’ is a fragmented prison, and identity, a notion far too complex to confine or freeze without risking alienation.

In this light, she consciously sees and takes substitution and the exploration of what is most fundamental and common to humanity, in its primitive origin. The cleaning of all the stigmas that make a distinction or belonging, with regards to factors such as culture, society, religion, geographical, race or gender is her focus.

Being trained formally as an architect in Paris, Ghizlane Sahli uses a technique to shape, arrange and physically present in space by creating abstract assemblages of individual concave elements that together harmonise into groupings that evoke the organic, while bearing no direct comparison or model in nature itself.

The components that make up her work at the exhibition stand proud from their flat base on the tops of recycled plastic bottles, meticulously enrobed in silk thread. And this gives each texture, lustre and an optical quality that varies depending on the viewer’s position and the light conditions in which they are seen.

The shimmering, jewel-like constructions, speak of the transformative power, which is a concern for the environment. This idea is coupled with a technical mastery of material and deep understanding of the workings of shape and form in space, which can evoke both the artist and the viewer alike.

In a dialogue Ghizlane said: “This work is the exploration of the human body. Each artwork is zoomed into different parts of the body. “I have seen thousands of parts of the body, and having those images in my mind, I have tried to express them through my work.”

As a daring artist who is embarking on her very first solo exhibition, she is leaving no stone or fabric unturned, saying: “I needed to explore a universal subject: to which we are all connected regardless of the notions of education, religion, gender or society.

Choosing one out of all the metaphors there are, she said: “The human body was the best metaphor I could find, and through it, I wanted to work on emotion.” Alluding to some omnipotent or a certain supremacy above human understanding she emphasized that: “I always have that idea in mind, of a big hand taking the human body and shaking it ‘clean’ from all the ‘pollutions’ brought by education, religion or society and keeping just the core of it.

“The pure part is the part that I want to show as a tribute to our body.” She concludes. One amazing piece of her work is the addition of a characteristic ‘heart’ free-standing sculpture and a series of drawings in a symbolic unification of the mind, body and soul.

This exhibition is imminent in offering some London-based patrons of African art, an opportunity and scope to see a fresh and exciting new voice in the continent’s constellation of up-and-coming contemporary artists.

Simply or arguably the world and its environment is ecologically and drastically changed these days due to the gradual or rampant increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere by some human activities.

This situation is generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by the world’s increase levels of carbon dioxide and some other pollutants. Asked as to whether she is intentionally changing the world through the usage of reliable materials, the ever-smiling Ghizlane Sahli replied: “If my effort is truly saving the world then fine.”

Aptly titled Histoires de Tripes Charpter II, Ghizlane Sahli’s  art at the exhibition ranges from four hundred and fifty to fourteen thousand nine hundred pounds, showing at Sulger Buel Gallery in London.

Photos: Aaron Akrong

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By Alfred Tamakloe

(In Accra – Ghana)

A local community group including direct descendants of former slave traders are excavating the seventeenth century Danish trading post, Christiansborg at Osu in Ghana’s capital Accra, to learn more about their history. Ghana’s first female archaeologist Prof. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, is leading the community archaeology project at Christiansborg or “Osu Castle” as is known by the local people.

She is the great great great great great granddaughter of Carl Gustav Engmann, a Governor of Christiansborg Castle (1752-1757) who survived the Fredensberg slave shipwreck off the coast of Norway (1768), and later, a Board Member of the Danish Slave Trading organization (1766-1769), and daughter of Chief Tette Ahinaekwa of Osu.

Under the auspices of Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project (CAHP), they have excavated an extensive pre-colonial settlement including the foundations of houses and retrieved a large collection of local and foreign manufactured objects obtained through the transatlantic trade.

“This is the first archaeological excavation of the site”, says Engmann, the first researcher granted access to the castle. She trained at Columbia and Stanford Universities and is currently a Professor in Archaeology at Hampshire College – all in the United States.

As a child, Engmann grew up with the belief that her family descended from a Danish Christian missionary stationed in Ghana. However, about 13 years ago, her aunt advised her to visit the castle. Sure enough, when Engmann visited, she discovered a water cistern in the castle courtyard, inscribed with the name, Carl Gustav Engmann. Archaeological work at the castle since 2014 to date, comprises excavation, photography, documentary filmmaking and ethnography.

“The team is composed of members from the local community, including direct descendants. Lecturers and graduate students from the University of Ghana trained the team. The number of team members has grown over the years. Currently, there are thirty participants, which includes men and women ranging in ages from sixteen to late sixties. Team members are recruited by word of mouth”, she says.

“To date, we have excavated an extensive pre-colonial settlement. This includes the foundations of houses and what we tentatively think is a kitchen since it contains three stones (for balancing a cooking pot) and charcoal, in keeping with local cooking area design. We have also retrieved a large collection of local and foreign manufactured objects obtained through the transatlantic trade.

We have identified what are commonly known as ‘African trade beads’ that were produced in other parts of Africa, as well as Europe, including Italy and Holland. Ceramics include Chinese and European ceramics, as well as local pottery. An African smoking pipe and numerous Dutch, English, German, and Danish clay smoking pipes were recovered from the site. European glassware ranges from every day usage to refined, luxury ware”.

“There are a number of other small finds including a slate fragment, typically used for writing, as well as faunal remains, seeds, metals, stone, daub, cowrie, and other shells. With the assistance of local fishermen, we even excavated a canon immersed in sand that had fallen from the castle above down on to the beach below.

Under the castle, we also discovered the entrance to an underground tunnel that led to the nearby Richter House, formerly owned by two successful ‘mulatto’ Danish-Ga brothers who were important slave traders. This tunnel meant captive Africans could be transported from the house directly onto slave ships at sea”.

Christiansborg Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, former seventeenth century trading post, Danish and British seat of colonial government administration and until recently, office of the President of the Republic of Ghana. Today, it is known in local parlance simply as ‘Osu Castle’ or ‘The Castle’. Queen Margrethe of Denmark visited Christiansborg in 2017 when she went on an official trip to Ghana.

History of the Castle

The Swedes built Christiansborg Castle in 1652 as a trading post. In 1661, Denmark purchased the site from the Osu Paramount Chief for 100oz of gold in order to conduct trade. The Danes constructed Fort Christiansborg (‘Christian’s Fortress’), named after the King of Denmark, Christian IV. Over time, the Danes enlarged and converted the fort into a castle.

Denmark occupied the castle until 1849, with the exception of a few brief periods: between 1679 and 1683, it was sold to and occupied by the Portuguese, and renamed Fort Sao Francis Xavier; between 1685 and 1689, it was mortgaged to the British; and in 1693, Asameni, a trader and chief of Akwamu, in Ghana’s Eastern Region, gained possession of the castle through subterfuge and acted a ‘governor’, but sold it back to the Danes in 1694. 

Christiansborg Castle contained a courtyard, chapel, ‘mulatto school’, warehouse storerooms, residential quarters, dungeons, bell tower, cannons and saluting guns. The castle walls depicted the ciphers of Christian VI and Christian VII. In the castle courtyard, a cistern was inscribed with Governor Carl Gustav Engmann’s name. 

Enslaved Africans were sent from the castle to the Danish Virgin Islands, namely St. Johns, St. Croix and St, Thomas (today the US Virgin Islands). In 1685, Christiansborg Castle became the Danish administrative headquarters in West Africa, and along with nine other forts and lodges, enabled Denmark to acquire a near monopoly of trade on the coast. Christiansborg Castle was so vital to the Danish economy that between 1688 and 1747 Danish coinage depicted an image of the castle and the inscription, ‘Christiansborg’.

The Danish Edict of 16th March 1792 officially marked the abolition of the Danish transatlantic slave trade, but it was not enforced until 1803. In 1849, Denmark sold Christiansborg Castle, along with its other forts, together with the plantations in the Akuapem Mountains to the British for 10,000 pounds.

 Life in and Around the Castle

Danish men married Ga women creating the emergence of a Danish-Ga community, in an area that became known as ‘Danish-Osu’. Today, the Lutterodt, Quist, Wulff, Hansen, Richter, Aarestrup, Jacobsen, Lokko, Malm, Palm, Pedersen, Quist, Sonne, Svanekjær, Truelsen and Engmann families still carry the names of their seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century predecessors. Many Danish-Ga direct descendants continue to live close to Christiansborg Castle.

Pictures: Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project

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