Getting Our Groove On in West Africa

Life without music would be meaningless.” - Niezsche
[Taken from a marquee billboard advertising the Ghana Music Awards 2010

One night, as we were wandering through our Asylum Down neighborhood in Accra, we heard some great reggae bumping from a small shop with a corrugated metal roof. Being who we are, and feeling the ongoing inspiration of our portable hard-drive of collected music, we popped in to say hello. To our great delight, we found ourselves in the doorway of the local DJ studio, with DJ Black Shanti hard at work transferring music from records into digital form.

Shanti is promoting some great reggae artists from Ghana and has some ideas about creating an internet radio station. His office and DJ studio is one block from the circle of Asylum Square in Accra. If you are there and want to meet Black Shanti and some of his artists - just ask for the Rasta DJ, everyone knows him.

Thanks to Shanti, we have now have some fantastic reggae from West Africa…coming soon to a city near you! We really look forward to adding it to the 600GB collection at Hotel Oso Perezoso, and carrying it with us to share and enjoy on the rest of our travels.


We had similar good fortune in meeting another local musician in West Africa, again just by happenstance. One hot, sweaty afternoon in Lomé, as we were enjoying a cold Ekko beer at a local bar, a gentleman came up to invite us to his nightclub that evening to listen to some live Togolaise jazz! We started to speak about our jazz culture of New Orleans, but the conversation peetered out: our French was more limited than his English and we seemed to be getting nowhere. But our new friend popped into the doorway next door and emerged with his friend Yawo, who spoke both English and Spanish!. Almost immediately, our ‘translator’ became a great friend. We waxed on and on about music and the United States and cities around the world (Yawo Attivor and his Afro-Fun Band have toured and played with musicians in Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East). We talked politics and economics and global friendship. Yawo turned us on to some great music from Togo, and even shared some of his own tracks with us. We love it! You can get a bit of your own Yawo on youtube.com .

Another music exchange happened in Lomé, where we shared part of our collection to a budding young guitar player who managed the internet café one block from our hotel (La Patience) in Lome’.

And for the music lovers of this blog that need a bit of a soundtrack, here are a few of our other favorites (some of which you can listen to online for FREE!).

Listen to WRIU Rhode Island of Friday night, or Shepherd Mondays on 91.5 WTUL New Orleans. All of these great reggae stars of radio are ‘live’ on your internet dial streaming worldwide.


Pandora


Steve Greer’s awesome blues show on WRVU, Nashville


New Orleans' own WWOZ.


Listen to Black Shanti on radio 98.9 “Happy-FM” Ghana. Or hear it streaming on this site.

Check out our new friend Yawo on his site.

Get your groove on! And keep emailing your songs to us!

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Lomé, Togo: 50th Anniversary

written by Nathan

Protests in the street on the 50th Anniversary of Independence

On the day of our arrival in Lomé, Saturday, we saw mass protests on the boulevard. Every Saturday in Lomé, at least 60,000 citizens rise in opposition to the entrenched oligarchy here and march through the streets. Nearly every weekend these protests are begun with song and dance and ended with teargas and clubbing. After watching the first presidential address to the nation (five years after assuming power) we were dulled into boredom of watching fancy tinted window SUV’s and military might on parade from our TV. Our friend, a local musical celebrity of afro-funk and supporter of the opposition, stopped by and invited us to join him in visiting the celebrations of independence by the opposition.

All three of us loaded onto moto-taxis and rode to the beach where the protest marchers were circling after being refused entry to Lomé’s Independence Square. Meanwhile, the Stalinist-era military parades were taking place on the other end of town, and, while the square remained empty, the opposition was barred from using it (they had also been barred from using their own central church because, apparently, the president has a great fear of the power of burning candles).

The celebrations and speeches on the beach were already wrapped up when we arrived, crowds were either dispersing or joining the mass of the parade back to their headquarters. We enjoyed very much walking beside the quickly-moving parade (at one point thousands passed by us under a massive Togo flag - providing illumination of their country pride and much needed shade to those underneath). The march turned from the beach back onto the boulevard principal and we shortly found ourselves nearing their headquarters.

We arrived to see food and rich shade under a canopy in front of an nondescript building. We were so happy to be shown the ins and outs of Lomé by a local celebrity, people passing greeted us and burst into song from his popular ouvre of opposition music. We had not realized how lucky we would be to have this friend and guide. He suggested that we get going. “The parade did not stop here as I suspected they would,” he said, “apparently they continued back to Independence Square of the Cathedral.” When we turned back onto the boulevard, he said, “we are almost home, it is just a couple blocks. Let’s go back through the neighborhood.” Just as we crossed the boulevard we saw groups running back in our direction, behind them was the army truck that we had seen following the protest march.

“Run!” our friend yelled, taking off running in front of us. Brittany and our friend sprinted in front of me. I glanced behind just at the moment that the army truck turned onto the gravel road behind us. Soldiers were pointing tear gun rifles out of the back of the truck! As I watched, canisters began shooting through the air, tumbling down the street behind us. Families standing in courtyard gates waved to us, “Come in to our house!” they yelled in English. We turned a corner and stopped at the compound of a family known by our friend. “Come in!” they beckoned. We gratefully accepted. Shortly, the excitement died down. The tear gas truck, we were told, had gone off chasing the opposition in other directions. We walked back to our neighborhood watering hole, drank a few beers, recanted the excitement. “This happens every Saturday and has gone on for more than 20 years,” our friend said. “We almost won in 1990,” he told us. “We changed the constitution and had a Prime Minister elected who took power,” he went on, “the army surrounded his compound with tanks, barricades, and artillery until he waved a white flag and submitted to arrest.”

We discussed our experiences of studying Ghandhian thought in India and the powers of its implementation at the “Bapu Kuti” ashram in Sevagram. We shared our pride at the election of the USA’s first black president (with the peaceful transition of power that accompanies our elections). We discussed the history of non-violent civil rights movements in the USA and India - and pressed for their merits to continue here. Our friend shared his own experiences, while living in Chile twenty years earlier, of being part of the peaceful protects against the military dictatorship of Augosto Pinochet in that country; “I hope that Togo has a peaceful transition of power the same way Chile did,” he told us. “But, here, these youth are frustrated. They are asking their leaders for arms.”

Sadly, we will not understand the complexity of Togolaise politics on this visit. We were, however, with the right person to get a view of the very real struggle taking place here. We wish Togo and her people freedom, prosperity, dignity, and democracy in the future.

****

We have been traveling with a half dozen small books by Ghandi we purchased at the Bapu Kuti ashram. One of these, Mohan-Mala, is “A Ghandhian Rosary.” It shares a prayer each day for peace and justice.

On the day of this writing, a day after independence celebrations here, I read today’s rosary;

April 28 -

“Shall we have not the vision to see that in suppressing a sixth (or whatever the number) of ourselves, we have depressed ourselves? No man takes another down a pit without descending into it himself and sinning in the bargain. It is the suppressor who has to answer for his crime against those whom he suppresses.” - YI, 29, March, 1928

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Ghana and Togo for Travelers

We arrived at the Accra airport on 4/21/2010 and left four weeks later. In Ghana we visited only Accra, and in Togo we visited Lome and Aneho.

VISAS
We wrote a blog on our experience of arriving in Accra sans-Visas. With our two day transit visas, we traveled to Togo by bus, which is only 2-3 hours by bus, and 5-6 cedis per person. Upon arriving at the border, we obtained a seven day Togo visa which cost us 15,000 Togo dollars each. We thought that we might go all the way through Benin to Lagos, but the visa for Benin was only two days, and cost 10,000 Togo dollars. Although unable to confirm our assumptions, we would most like need to pay again at each border to cross back through. While in Lome we visited the Ghana embassy and secured our 30 day visas. So, instead of paying $150 USD each at the Accra airport for a 30 day Ghana visa, we paid a total of $91 USD ($20 Ghana transit + $8 transportation to Togo + $20 seven day Togo Visa + $40 Ghana visa from the embassy in Togo + $3 in required visas photos that we forgot to bring with us + $8 transportation back to Accra) each. The excess of almost $60 paid for our hotels, food, and general fun in Togo. Accra is more expensive than Togo, so we made out pretty well.

VISA AND MASTERCARD
If you happen to be traveling with a Mastercard debit card, almost none of the banks will accept it. EXCEPT Stanbic Bank! We were delighted to figure this out halfway through our trip. The branch we used was on Ring Road, behind Asylum Down.

LOME, TOGO
Lome has a few hotels to choose from, we definitely feel that we found the best one. Hotel Patience is very close to the BTCI building on the main boulevard, two blocks toward the ocean and one block heading down the boulevard. Just ask, people know where it is. We got a room for two, with private bath (cold water shower), cable television (with three channels, all in French), outlet, and an ancient but powerful standing fan for 4,500 Togo francs ($9 USD). Friendly staff, great location, only downside is the sometimes-raucous and late-night church choir across the street at Zion (we made the mistake of staying there the first night - same price, but the Friday night music rattled our room ALL night).

BTCI is a major bank in Lome and the only one that would accept one of our Visa debit cards. All of West Africa is without (to our knowledge) Mastercard facilities. Take cash to exchange or ensure that you have a few Visa cards on hand.

In Lome, motocycles are much less expensive than taking taxis, assuming you can handle the thrill. The drivers are generally extremely good drivers and don’t poke fun if you ask them to slow down. The price for motos is 100-250 Togo francs.

ACCRA
We really enjoyed our stay at the Times Square Lodge in Asylum Down. Not too many foreigners around and it was within (courageous) walking distance of downtown and other fun neighborhoods. Our room for two was 20 cedis per night: large, spacious room with ceiling fan and outlet. Very clean shared bath and shared tub/bucket shower. Pleasant and friendly staff. Good deal in a city where you can’t find a hotel much cheaper….we looked.

OUTSIDE ACCRA
The beach in Accra is kinda gross. Better to take a bus 2 hours west and spend a few days in nearby Winneba. This University town has many hotels, but a visitor quickly realizes that many of these are rented out long-term to students. There are a few options right on the lovely St. Charles Beach, our recommendation is Manuel’s: 20 cedi’s a night for a rather nice room, fan, quiet, bright white sheets, private bath, two beds.

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The Benin Border

written by Nathan

 

On the border with Togo, we will not go to Benin. We have come as far as Aneho, the capital of Voodoo religion in Togo and apparently West Africa. People here have symmetrical scarification on their faces. There are goats and chickens a plenty; but we have not found that there are botanical shops or idols being sold in the street as advertised on Lonely Planet or other tourist info sites. What we are finding is that the people are very pleasant. We exchange all the French pleasantries we can think of on the spot, ‘Como c’est va? C’est va bien? Bon soir.’

As our taxi driver told us, voodoo is common in the villages. Actually, he said pueblos. The most unbelievable set of circumstances, you are not going to believe this, put us in a taxi with a Togolaise conductor who spoke perfect Spanish, (Brittany is getting REALLY annoyed here, in French speaking Togo, at my habit of mixing Spanish/English liberally with my tiny French vocabulary). But, the crazy part is not that Ignacio was so completely fluent in Spanish, the crazy part, super crazy, super loco to be mas exacto, our Togo taxi driver had learned his Spanish in Colombia!!

If any Voodoo spells were cast on me I have worn them well, while I sputtered and complained for more than an hour after choking on a fish bone at lunch, I was given a smart cure of swallowing large bites of Fufu (pounded yucca flour porridge balls?).

If you are not ECOWAS Community of West African States citizen, all of these countries are hard to visit on-the-fly. Benin, which was one of the most exciting conceptually to visit (especially since we will not make Gambia - close on the map of Africa - but really five countries north from here). Benin offers a 2 day Visa at the border ($20 US) which is fine if you plan to stay a while because you can ‘renovate’ your visa in the capital. But, this was an impossibility for us when coupled together with the fact that we are on day two of our 7-day visa to Togo. Actually, I have never been in countries before offering such short Visas. We had thought China’s 30-day Visa a Communist Era aberration.

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Lomé, Togo: West Africa

We are lucky to have arrived just a few days before the auspicious occasion of the 50th anniversary of Togolaise independence. But, luck in this instance is a learning experience to further our understanding and impressions of Africa, to get a slight interpretation of the massive affects of 400 years of colonial rule, and to explore, for ourselves, the ways that Togo has had impacted our lives in unanticipated ways.

Lomé, capital of Togo, is home to more than 2/3 of the country’s inhabitants. It is a sleepy slow city, at first impression, milling and humming on boulevards by motor bike, constantly avoiding the heat of day. Like most tropical cultures, though, Lomé comes to life after sunset, with visiting, cooking, partying, and general merriment that occurs until the wee hours of the morning.

Lomé is not impressive. There are perhaps a half dozen buildings over six stories scattered across its horizons. It has a port; but the port seems mostly to be set up to import basic necessities such as oil. It had (or has still?) a railroad. It has two perpendicular transit routes, one 56 km across its coast, another north all the way to Burkina Fassao.

Lomé is a history that encapsulates Africa’s suffering and injustice. The current president is the chosen son (among dozens) of the recently deceased one who ruled Togo for nearly forty years. It is a democracy in name only. Recent elections handed the president a resounding victory (monitored by U.N./E.U observers -who paid for the observations and then paid the observers who apparently treated the elections as a tropical vacation, were paid, and created a perfect economic loop before returning their opinion that there were not ‘enough’ irregularities to call the election a farce), while 80% of the population supports the opposition. Of course, the opposition is divided and unsteady.

While Togo is poor, corrupted, bureaucratically vile - the government is not the people. They are kind.

The manners are like home (the US South): everyone responds with greetings on the street. Children and old folks are so happy to speak to us. Like our discovery of other countries, people want the same basic necessities - quality life and economy, opportunity and hope, education and self-sufficiency, pride of culture, freedom of movement and expression, better lives for their families and neighbors.

Having just been in Ethiopia, it is easy to draw comparisons of what democracy has not done for Africa: Empowerment of elites and oligarchies; Replacement of colonial powers with neo-colonial entrenchment; Ruination and vast degradation of environments and natural resources. None of this, however, should be any reason not to visit. If anything, African and ‘3rd World’ democracies do envy most western democracies - in their worst sense. Entrenched oligarchic rule benefits elite and self-centered powers that have little interest in the people suffering under them. Participatory democracy may not herald better times; however, honest reflection on history seems to point to one unjust and corrupt government being swept away and replaced by something similar. As our friend said, sometimes the opposition just prefers the ‘devil you know, to the one you do not.’

While these themes of graft and corruption prevent progress and democratic participation, the heartbeat of West Africa is strong. As visitors and ambassadors of the western power structure we can show our solidarity in visiting; we can explain and measure the poor performance of government and ‘true’ democracy by sharing some of the failures of our own histories. We can enjoy and engender new forms of trust and affection between our peoples.

***

See “Zeitgeist Addendum” a movie on world monetary systems

1% of the world’s populations own more than 40% of its wealth.

50% of the worlds citizens survive on less that $700 U.S per year or >$2 per day

Think of an item that you spent $700 on. We spent almost five times this on each of our ‘round the world’ tickets. Is your item worth it? It is a question worth pondering….

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