Excursions

7 July: Half day City Tour with lunch

On the registration day (preceding the conference) a local tour will be available for all participants.

The tour will depart in the late morning. It is planned to visit Jamestown, which is the oldest district of Accra, and where one of the city’s iconic landmarks, the Jamestown lighthouse, can be seen. The group will then have a chance to visit the Memorial Park and Mausoleum of Kwame Nkrumah, the first African-born Prime Minister of Ghana, who helped lead the country to independence in 1957. He served as President from 1957 to 1966.

Lunch will be at a restaurant in town. Then other planned visits include Christianborg castle, a world heritage site, which in 2017 was converted to a Presidential Museum, and today houses artefacts and personal possessions of past leaders; and the National Museum, where there are three main galleries focusing on: Ghana’s history; current traditions; and, national art and culture. There is also a sculpture garden.

8, 9 and 10 July: Accompanying persons’ programme

A package of three cultural tours is planned for accompanying persons, during the three-days of the conference. The following details are provisional plans at this stage, and precise itineraries for each day will be announced shortly.

8 July: A visit to the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm, which is the founding cocoa farm of Ghana, and the first to grow cocoa from seeds, which the legendary Tetteh Quarshie brought from Fernando Po island (in Equatorial Guinea). The group will learn how cocoa is planted, picked, and how the fruit tastes before it is processed into chocolate.

Another visit will be to the Aburi botanical gardens, in the more mountainous northeast part of Accra. There are many native and imported species of plants, and also an abundance of birds and butterflies living among the exotic plants.

9 July: Options for this day include either a trip to the Cape Coast castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site. There will be an enactment of a traditional Ghanaian naming ceremony. A stop would be made en route to see the Anomabo Fort and Heroes’ garden.

Alternatively, if the weather forecast is good, the group could travel to the Shai Hills Reserve, where five hills are covered with forestland, while grassland and low-level dry forests are in the intervening canyons. Baboons, green monkeys, antelope, zebras and more than 172 bird species may be spotted. A packed lunch would be provided.

10 July: A visit is proposed to learn about the rich history and meaning of Kente cloth to the people of the Akan lands. Its distinctive style is easily recognizable, but this will be an opportunity to learn more about the meaning behind the colours, the symbol of individual patterns and the importance of meaning in each design. There will be a demonstration of the weaving process of this silk and cotton fabric.

A workshop on traditional Ghanaian cookery, led with a demonstration, and then with full participation of the group, will culminate in lunch together, enjoying the results of the lesson. Specialities may include, for example, rice balls, groundnut soup and fried plantain.