Ghana memories. When I was six years old my family lived for about nine months in Ghana. My father was an engineer working on one of the big prestige projects that the Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah had set in motion. Dad’s project was the Tema-Accra Highway.
Tema
We lived in Tema which was then a small town along the coast east of the capital Accra. Nearby was the second major project, the deep sea port that became Tema Harbour. The third project was the construction of the dam on the Volta River a few miles inland in the mountains towards the eastern border. When completed this became the Akosombo Dam.
A lot of the families of the engineers who were working on these project lived in Tema and we kids went to school there.
Ghana memories
Most people first begin to have longer memories of their childhood from their sixth or seventh year. If something dramatic happens at that point, I think most people would develop and hold onto strong memories. For me, the experience of being taken away from cold, grey England to vivid, warm West Africa, left me with memories that stretch for days and that I can date to 1964 and 1965.
Growing up, I always assumed that everyone in my family had similar memories. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I realised my Ghana memories were unique. My sister, who is two years younger, only has a fleeting recollection of our time in Ghana. As for my parents, the nine or 10 months we spent in Tema were a short interlude for them in their very active lives.
From my thirties onward, I talked about Ghana and my childhood memories much more freely. Probably more than I needed to. And people would say to me: are you going to go back? I would reply, yes. But I never took it any further.
Birthday present
Two years ago, in 2018, I turned 60. As a birthday present Mrs SC presented me with airline tickets to Accra. We would fly together and be in Ghana for a 10 day period over New Year.
This was generosity in overdrive, a most unexpected gift. I was delighted. However, as the time for our departure drew closer, I became increasingly nervous. It would be 54 years since I was last in Ghana. My memories were those of a six year old child. How much must have changed? How reliable were my memories in the first place? And – swelling to overwhelm all the rest – what happens if the holiday is a failure and my wife will have spent so much money for nothing?
I have a tendency to over react like this. I’m also a very nervous pre-journey person. Once the journey is underway I most often calm down very successfully and enjoy the whole experience, but over the years my nervousness in the run-up to making a journey has just got worse.
High tension
The six weeks or so before we flew were a period of high tension in this household.
But the flight – to Amsterdam and then to Accra – went very smoothly. The arrival, and the heat stepping out of the air-conditioned airport building, was astounding and full of memory.
Our first full day was not so happy. But Mrs SC is something of an Africa hand after recent missions for her work, she got me over it. She and Patrick, a former colleague of hers from Brussels days. He was home for Christmas and met up with us on the evening of the first day. We shared a beer and he gave me a pep talk.
“You have to get into a Ghanaian mindset. Relax. Go with the flow. Enjoy it,” he advised.
I promised to try.
Round trip and more to come
Everything was easier after that. It helped that we had two very competent and understanding young drivers. Richmond drove us out to explore Tema the second day and then ferried us down to Cape Coast Castle on New Year’s Eve. On 2nd January Julius picked us up from our hostel and took over our itinerary. We visited the old slave fort at Elmina Castle and various points of interest in the area before heading inland to Kumasi in Ashanti and then turning east ultimately to visit the Akasombo Dam and finally back to Accra for the flight home.
This post is by way of an introduction. I’m planning a number of other, more detailed Stops and Stories posts in the near future looking at some of the things we did while we were in Ghana. I kept a diary and I took photographs and even filmed a little, but it’s taken me nearly a year-and-a-half to digest our 10 day holiday. Now, though, it feels ripe and ready to share.
Dear John, I chanced upon your blogs about living in Ghana as a child and your trip back there in 2018. What a find! What a delight for me! Why? Because I lived in Accra as a child from 1955 to 1964 (when I was ten) and look back on my time there as maybe the happiest of my life. What’s more: I nearly went back for a trip in early 2019 but unfortunately had to abandon the project for health reasons. So it was wonderful to read your memories.
Our family lived in Cantonments in a traditional colonial bachelor bungalow on stilts (all of which seem to have disappeared in the meantime). I and my two brothers went to school, first, at the Ridge Church School and then to the Services Primary School in Burma Camp, Accra. Like your father, my father was also an engineer, in his case in the field of telecommunications. He was the Principal of the Telecommunications Engineering School in Achimota (where the zoo is!), which seems to have been swallowed up by one of the university institutions in the meantime. We returned to London when a Ghanaian candidate was found to take over the position.
As a child, I did not spend time in Tema, but we made several trips to Akosombo to see the dam under construction. We also went to the Aburi Gardens. A most favourite spot (which you may or may not have known) was Teshie Pool. The pool has since been abandoned but I can just make out the outline of the unused pool on Google Earth.
In one of your blogs I read that you live in Sweden. I’m sure it is a lovely place to be. I have been living in Switzerland very happily since 1978, apart from ten years in New Zealand where I have family.
Wishing you all the best, Helen
Dear Helen,
Thanks so much for your comment. How wonderful to read it!
Since you were a child in Ghana for so much longer than me, the memories you have will be that much more, but I am happy if my little essays here have brought some of it back for you.
The return trip in 2018 was indeed fascinating, for so many reasons. I discovered, for instance, that fresh Ghanaian pineapple tastes completely different from shop-bought pineapple here in Europe (even if it claims to come from Ghana), and it is redolent with memory.
While there were things that I remembered, there were so many things that were completely different. So much has changed in 50-odd years. Some things for the better, some things for the worse, but mostly there were just so many things I saw differently, experienced differently, either because they are truely new, or because I was seeing them with an adult’s eyes.
Ghana is a different place now. I would love to return and explore more. Maybe one day.
Achimota is a name I recognise, though I can’t put any memories to it, but I don’t recognise the Teshie Pool I’m afraid.
I’ve lived in Sweden now longer than I ever lived in England and think of myself as, if not exactly Swedish, then certainly Swede-ish. It is indeed a lovely place.
Thanks again for the comment.
With my best wishes,
John