Abelema Afeku’s first task

This week I was in the company of Tourism Arts and Culture officers and journalists that toured the western end of the Western Region – Nzema-manle. It was four days of tears, anger, surprises and pure fun.

On her second regional familiarisation tour since she became the sector Minister (the first being to Ashanti), Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku used the tour to prove to all that when it comes to attractions, Ghana has very few equals; that the only reason Ghana is not on top even in Africa is that we have talked rather than done tourism promotion.

To most of the journalists, it was the first time somebody was showing them forts and castles beyond the over-popularised ones in Cape Coast and Elmina. We had heard of slavery, we had been hinted about the hypocrisy of the European slave masters (in the open they held their noses, claiming that African women smelled, but in the darkness of the dungeons they made love with them). We, however, did not know this fact: that to avoid a revolt from the Africans in town, the Dutch, British and Portuguese tasked their priests (also Europeans) to celebrate the mass as the slave masters whipped, pushed and shoved the shackled Africans through dark tunnels to the slave ships. The mass served to divert the attention of the indigenes from any activity around the area of the fort. We learned this from the tour guide at Fort Saint Antonio, Axim.

Tears flowed at the neglected grave of Paa Grant, the man without whom (most probably) independence could not have been achieved in 1957. It was his money that shipped Kwame Nkrumah back to Ghana to become the chief organiser of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The journalists wondered why for the eight years of former President Kufuor’s rule, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) did nothing to rehabilitate not only the memory but also the physical remains of Paa Grant, a man so rich he was the first African to own a ship and whose house - now in disuse – was such a massive two-storey architectural wonder that it also housed the first merchant bank in West Africa.

Most of the journalists had heard about the Hoerikwaggo of South Africa, the world famous Table Mountain overlooking the city of Cape Town. Adventure tourists flock to hike to the top of this mountain, which has been developed into a tourist product with the addition of the now popular cableway.

At EhuNyame, not far from Nsein in the Nzema area of Ghana, everybody in the minister’s entourage stood aghast at the amazing splendour and mystery of the caves and rocks. For hundreds of years this rock formation has existed. The natives took their sick there and were healed mysteriously after feeling a sharp pain similar to the penetration of a hypodermic injection. Meanwhile, there is no one around! They swear to the unseen presence of dwarfs from whom they receive such benevolence and protection.

Among the journalists, those who had been to Cape Town to experience the Table Mountain wondered why Ghana had been so quiet about the AhuNyame Rocks.
Talking of dwarfs, the Nzemas seemed to have more than a fair share of them. On a slight elevation at Lower Town (Axim), there is a small island on which the European slave traders built a lighthouse. The chiefs tell of dwarfs whose continued presence they swear to. In the quietness of the evening, they say, one hears them whistling.
The fun aspect of the tour is the crossing of the sea from the mainland to the island. It is done by a motorised boat.
But, O, how I wish there were some more convenient, less dangerous way of reaching the lighthouse without having to wade, out of one’s shoes and socks, and stepping on stones, some of which could be sharp edged.

On Thursday, the tour was to take the visitors to Nzulezo, the village that has been built on stilts in water and has existed for over 700 years.
Was the Western Region so touristically rich and we didn’t know?

These trips cost a pretty pesewa, but the expenditure is not a waste. A weekend away from home on a domestic tour is beneficial to the wealth of the country, not to talk of boosting the economy of the receiving community and the health and productivity of Ghanaian workers.

Fact: travel helps improve our problem-solving skills; taking a vacation can lower your risk of heart disease. It has been medically proven that after only a day or two, 89 per cent of people who travel, experience significant drops in stress.

The Christian Bible asks in the Book of Romans: how can people be saved unless they believe, and how can they believe unless they hear; and how can they hear unless someone preaches to them; and who can preach to them unless they are sent?

That is Catherine Abelema Afeku’s task as Minister of Tourism. The first charge she has to keep is to get Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware to spend his annual vacation on tourist attractions in Ghana. As he visits and enjoys the three northern regions, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Omanhen of Essikado, will be in the Volta Region soaking in health from the Amedzofe Mountain and wading through the Wli Falls. Meanwhile the Wa Na and the Omanhene of Cape Coast will be enjoying the treasures of the Eastern or Brong Ahafo regions.