Elmina castle and the beauty queens

When I got a request to tour-guide contestants in the Miss Tourism Ghana beauty pageant to Elmina Castle and back, I was like, ‘’where did I sleep last night?’’ Fantastic. I needed the get-away for a change.

Sweet Old Accra is increasingly becoming a drudgery and the pressure keeps piling up. So when that call came through it felt like a lifeline. Boy, it helps to be able to run away from the city. And in pretty company too!

Of course, the first person I had to inform was a certain Mrs. A. ‘’So, can I accompany this group to Elmina?’’ As for the yes, she said it oo. But the kind of look she gave me when I thanked her …hmmm.

On the morning of the journey day, I joined the tour bus at Fiesta Royal Hotel. Aged between 18 and 24 the young girls were all looking prim and sharp even as early as 6 am in the morning.

As we hit the N1 and continued through Mallam, Budumbura and Kasoa, it felt odd travelling against the run of morning traffic jam. As I was used to traffic-prone Accra it was refreshing. In less than an hour we were already in the Central Region.

Moving the Miss Tourism contestants around the country is part of the strategy of their programme ahead of the grand finals. The team had already visited, Shai Hills in the Accra Plains and Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta Region.

The exposure, according to the event management is to transform the girls into veritable tourism ambassadors of Ghana. To understand the calibre of training they had received, please note that as part of their preparatory contests they had been made to study tourism publications on Ghana include books by Yours Truly.

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In addition, officials of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, the Ghana Tourism Authority, and the Ghana Tourism Federation had briefed them on the nation’s tourism sector. These and other programmes show the transformational effort which goes into this contest.

“Whoever ultimately wins will showcase Ghana as a whole so we are looking for smart ladies who can sell Ghana effectively.” Mrs. Brew-Hammond, Events and Operations Director of the pageant, explained.

Since its inception around 2008, the winner of the Miss Tourism Ghana crown has represented the nation at Miss Tourism World, and acted as Ghana’s tourism and environmental Ambassador at official events both in Ghana and internationally.

After two hours of leaving Accra, Elmina received us with a morning crowd. The lagoon area towards the Castle was lined up with young males welcoming fishermen who had returned with the day’s catch.

As they disembarked the chorus and applause for those with the heaviest catch roared up the air. Market women were running to buy fresh, while young ones were also heading towards the commotion.

Inside the Elmina Castle walls, we were received to start a tour which essentially was about 90 minutes of bitter history. My