Seeing/Site in Volta Region – Kwanyako, Ghana – Denzel Amoah, MLA Landscape Architecture 2024.
Today (Thursday, August 1st) marks a little over the halfway point of my internship with the Ghanaian Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM). It has been an interesting experience so far with tons of ups and downs but some of the most major highlights thus far has been visiting GYEM, and their sister-org, Wild Rain’s agroforestry sites. As of today, I have been able to visit GYEM’s site twice and Wild Rain’s site once, with each visit being more informative than the last.
My original visit to GYEM Agroforestry site started with an early 2 hour drive to Volta Region located in the South-Eastern part of Ghana. For the moments I was awake, the ride was extremely scenic and really allowed me gain more insights to Ghana’s vast rainforest landscape. Driving over Volta Lake was an amazing experience in particular because it allowed me to finally place an image to a location I have only ever heard about in stories through my parents. We slowly approach a small village located around one singular main road and a calabash tree, which for me served as a landmark.
GYEM’s specific site for the Agroforestry work that they have been doing was located much further behind the village. The site was only accessible by walking through thickets on a red dirt path. It’s currently rainy season here in Ghana, which is when the the coastal portion of the country experiences the most rainfall, so this red dirt road was lined with areas of water subtle movement and accumulation.
Arriving at the site was a nice experience and I was able to see that there was a lot already happening in terms of developing the site as an agro-forest. This original visit was primarily a site introduction so I spent a majority of my time there walking around and viewing the different physical structures, participating in the production activities and meeting with the local workers on site. The second, more recent visit, consisted of more site documentation. I was taking lots of site notes/measurements and was accompanied by a duo who operated a drone that aided in documenting the site for plan drawings to be developed for GYEMs usage.
The other site, owned by Wild Rain was located in a more difficult to access condition. Wild Rain’s site is located on top of a mountain the site behind the main village. Accessing this site was such a terrifying experience and is a walk that the people who labor on this site are constantly taking. The only path to access the site was an extremely narrow dirt walk the scaled up the side of the mountain. This path only allowed for people to walk behind one another. Despite it being an extremely narrow and humbling walk, there were a lot of amazing views that I was able to stop an enjoy upon this upward climb toward the mountain-top agroforestry site.
Upon arriving, the mountain top was dotted with corn plants that surrounded a singular makeshift shed. This small patch of corn was located right next to what other GYEM team members referred to as the Sacred Forest. When doing site documentation we were warned repeatedly to not document the Sacred Forest through image or through drawing. The day continued with more site exploration but that was a primary highlight for me. In reference to the Sacred Forest in particular, I found it really inspiring how traditions are maintained and respected despite global modernization.
