Touching Ground in Ghana – Denzel Amoah, MLA Landscape Architecture 2024.
This Monday officially marks the third week I have been in Accra, Ghana working in partnership with the Ghanaian Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) and it has been an interesting journey so far. I landed in Accra the night of June 8th and was greeted by a relative who I hadn’t seen since I was much younger. After this reunion I was taken to Achimota, the peri-urban area of Accra that I would be stationed in for the summer.
This first week was one in which I felt myself begin to acclimate to what it means to be an Accra local. This meant adjusting my relationship to time in terms of both recovering from jet-lag as well as coming to terms with what locals call GMT (Ghanaman Time). Different from the Greenwich Mean Time Zone allocation, Ghanaman Time refers to how lateness is typical and to be expected. I found this frustrating at first but also came to terms with the fact that I should not be imposing my Western relationship with time and promptness onto others.
Outside of my very much needed adjustment period, the first week consisted of not only meeting with the GYEM team and getting an understanding of what the summer would look like but also exploring the many different parts of Accra.
Being a part of the operations at GYEM has been an insightful experience so far. GYEM is really active in local climate and pollution advocacy efforts and being able to experience the gravity of their work firsthand was empowering. I was able to attend two major climate and pollution events that GYEM had been a part of. The event titled “Kokuromotie for Climate Awards and Climate for Peace Dialogue took place at the British Council located in Accra near its National Theatre. This event consisted of a discussion panel of different experts and community stakeholders ranging from artists to ecologists. The event was followed by a speech given by Joshua Alabi, a member of former President Mahama’s cabinet, about climate change and the futurity of Ghana. The second conference, Climate Ghana Conference 2024, took place later that weekend at the Accra World Trade Center in which similar discussions regarding climate action took place. One major difference between this CGC 2024 and Kokuromotie was that there were more community organizations present which allowed me to gain an understanding for the wide array of different types of climate change based organizations in Accra.
Outside of working with GYEM and adjusting to the local GMT, Accra has been a wonderful city and I have been enjoying connecting with the local artists and designers.