There are so many things that make me smile on a day-to-day basis. Normal really is a relative term. That seems like a random comment, but you will get what I mean as you read this.
When you move through Accra and throughout the entire country, what you find is that images and slogans are everywhere – and often in places that you don’t expect to see them.
One very common business is that of signmakers. There shops are unmistakable, as they decorated with portraits of famous faces serving as a testimony of the quality of their work, though most of there business is for stenciled lettering.
One billboard that I just passed said:
“Avoiding AIDS is as easy as…
Abstain
Be Faithful
Condomise”
Some of these portraits include one Jean Claude Van Damme and another of Whoopi Goldberg sitting as a Queen adorned in gold (I later figured out that the film Sarifina is very popular in the country, and that is what she is most known for).
Some of the most popular faces you will see are:
George Bush
Osama Bin Laden
Bob Marley
Kwame Nkrumah
Kofi Annan
50 Cent
R. Kelly
Nelson Mandela
President Kufor
Eminem
Some more honourable mentions go to:
Snoop Dogg
Nelly
Former President J.J. Rawlings
Rocky Balboa (Sly Stone)
Allen Iverson
Music is also everywhere you go. I like to hold an annual BBQ in the summer at the house in Richmond Hill. Every year the police come by around 11pm warning us that they will shut us down if the music doesn’t go down by 11:30pm. That doesn’t happen here. There is music in the taxies and in the tro tro’s. Speakers blast at weddings and funeral. You constantly hear cell phone rings with songs as the rings and you can almost always see a music video on the local channels.
The music that Ghana is known for is Hi-Life and it’s contemporary incarnation Hip-Life. Aside from that, Reggae, Old School, Hip Hop, Country and love songs are what you hear most often.
Here are some of the top artists (sort of a national 'most played' Ipod list):
Akon
Sean Paul
Celene Dion
Wyclef Jean
Westlife
50 Cent
R. Kelly
James Blunt
Beyonce
Shakira
Some more honourable mentions:
Lucky Dube
Kenny Rogers
Whitney Houston
Shaggy
Lionel Richie
While in the car with Ato, a Celene Dion song was on the radio. I was visibly enjoying the song.
Ato, noticing that, asked, “Do you like Celene Dion?”
That’s only a question that I’ve been asked in Ghana, and I’m not always sure how to answer. I do, but I have this deep sense that, as a Canadian, I’m not supposed to.
I told him, after hesitating, “yeah, she’s good. She makes nice songs. She can sing”.
“That’s a first”, he replied, “most Canadians don’t like her, they say she’s corny. I say, ‘what’s wrong with corny?’ Who is a better vocalist than Celene Dion?”
I know they are out there, but I was stumped. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here saying Celene Dion is the world’s greatest female vocalist…why didn’t I say Yolanda Adams?...oh well…anyway, the point is…you have the point, I’m sure.
Another aspect that took my eye in Ghana was that most taxi’s and tro tro’s have a slogan on the back or front window. I also noticed that business names are made up of similar slogans.
There was one tro tro that I saw, that surprised me: across the front of the tro tro (hailing to the driver’s love for 50 Cent and Christianity) were the words G-Unit (50’s crew) with a picture of Michaelangelo’s painting of Jesus where the dash should be.
Another highlight was a restaurant called “God’s Time Fast Food”.
“Black Taliban Cell Phones and Repairs” was a bit concerning. For the most part though, the slogans refer to Jesus in the south of the country and Allah in the north of the country.
Many businesses can be seen such as “God Provides Construction”, “En-Shahallah Provisions”, and “Jesus is King Rasta Styling and Hair Care”.
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