Accra Archives - The African Mirror

Sep

17

2022

Davido, P-Square, Stonebwoy, Rema, Dadju, Adekunle Gold, CKay to play at Afro Nation Ghana 2022

LIFESTYLE

THE world’s biggest Afrobeats festival has announced a huge lineup for the grand return to its West African spiritual home. Ready to turn the end of the year into an unforgettable party, Afro Nation Ghana 2022 is set to follow up the 2019 landmark African debut in style. Taking place at Accra’s Marine Drive, Black Star Square on December 29th & 30th 2022, and founded to unite the diaspora in celebration of Black Joy, Afro Nation Ghana is back for a celebratory trip of Black culture, vibing music, dance, good food, and so much more. In fitting fashion, today’s biggest…

Jun

30

2022

By The African Mirror

Ghanaians protest over economic hardship

NEWS

POLICE clashed with hundreds of demonstrators in Ghana's capital Accra protesting against fuel price hikes, a tax on electronic payments and other levies as the country grapples with spiralling inflation and an economic downturn. Ghanaians in recent months have been feeling the pinch of record inflation and the fallout of the Ukraine war amid cuts in government spending to avoid a full-blown debt crisis. Hundreds on Tuesday joined an authorised two-day protest led by local lobby group "Arise Ghana" to denounce economic hardships, social media and Ghana News Agency footage showed. Police responded with teargas, rubber bullets and hot water…

May

19

2022

By The African Mirror

When Africans asked for COVID shots, they didn’t get them. Now they don’t want them

COVID-19

EDWARD MCALLISTER and COOPER INVEEN IT"S noisy inside the Mamprobi clinic in Accra as kids clamber over their mothers while they wait to get their measles vaccines. Outside, an area reserved for COVID-19 shots is empty. A health worker leans back in his chair and scrolls on a tablet. One woman, waiting to get her daughter inoculated, is fully aware of the dangers of measles: the high fever, the rash, and the risk to eyesight. But COVID-19? She has never heard of a single case. The perception that COVID-19 doesn't pose a significant threat is common in Ghana's capital and…

Oct

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Accra’s major challenge is that politics gets in the way of progress

AFRICITIES

IN the last few decades, the metropolis of Ghana’s capital city, Accra, has grown rapidly, sprawling into neighbouring districts. RANSFORD A. ACHEAMPONG, Presidential Academic Fellow in Future Cities, University of Manchester A recent study found that the built-up area of Accra and the surrounding districts, that make up the Accra city-region, has increased fourfold, from about 105km² to 468km² over the last three decades. To put this pace of growth into perspective, imagine an area the size of nearly 3,000 football pitches being converted from undeveloped land into developed land every year for 30 years. In about a decade, the…

Feb

13

2022

By The African Mirror

Ghana’s masquerade festival goes mainstream

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ZUBAIDA MABUNO ISMAIL, BIRD STORY AGENCY IT is 5:30 am on Christmas Eve and the Kaneshie bus terminus in the heart of Accra is teeming with life. Kuukua Essoum has braved the early morning chill to grab the earliest shuttle to Takoradi, the epicentre of the Westside Carnival. "Ewuraba ko fom ma yenko" ("come, grab a seat, let's go"), shouts one of more than a dozen touts, all chasing clients for their rides. Essoum obliges and boards the mini-van. For Essoum, each passing minute evokes distant, youthful memories of travelling to the colourful festival in Takoradi. She cannot wait to…

Sep

28

2020

By The African Mirror

How Accra tackled complex challenges in an urban slum

ENVIRONMENT

JESSICA KRITZ, Assistant Professor--Research Track, Georgetown University WHEN I first heard about the community of Old Fadama in Accra, Ghana, I recognised something. A Ghanaian Catholic sister who visited the green market weekly in that neighbourhood told me about it. She worried about a community of vulnerable migrant women known as “head porters” or kayayei, who earned a pittance transporting heavy items balanced on their heads. Old Fadama reminded me of Appalachia, the part of the US where I grew up in the late 1970s. Nearly everyone in my county lived below the poverty line. We learned to work together…

Jun

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana’s “miracle” COVID-19 unit

COVID-19

PEARL AKANYA OFORI THE man behind Ghana's "COVID-19 miracle facility" reflects on what it took to build and how the effort showed that a sense of civic duty is alive and kicking across Africa, a year after Ghanaian civil society came together in unprecedented fashion to deliver the state of the art COVID-19 facility to the nation in record time Building a 100-bed hospital in 91 days may seem unrealistic, but faced with unprecedented healthcare challenges, "ordinary" Ghanaians not only built the country’s first Infectious Disease Isolation and Treatment Centre but did so in record time, a feat that makes…

Jul

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Shito. A tale of far more than a spicy African sauce

NEWS

PEARL AKANYA OFORI HER sauce has built a listed company and her tale is now lauded as one of the region's great export stories. But it took far more than the local popularity of a misnamed pepper, and ten dollars in savings, to bring this startup story to life. A life's determination, sacrifice and considerable entrepreneurial skills were required. Seated in her office in Tema, an industrial hub east of the Ghanaian capital, Accra, Leticia Osafo-Addo wears a big smile as she sifts through a pile of orders for both the local and export market. She is surrounded by awards…

Jul

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana opposition supporters march

NEWS

CHRISTIAN AKORLIE HUNDREDS of opposition supporters have marched through the streets of Ghana's capital Accra, demonstrating against what they described as rising insecurity and lawlessness since President Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017. Wearing mostly red or black, the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) danced through the streets with signs such as "You tweeted for George Floyd... Ghanaians have died, speak up!". Accompanied by the honking of motorcycles and music blasting from pick-up trucks, the group delivered a petition to the offices of the president and the speaker of parliament. The marchers pointed to a string…

Aug

09

2020

By The African Mirror

Volkswagen opens vehicle assembly facility in Ghana

MOTORING

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER ONE of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers - Volkswagen - has expanded its front in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the official opening of a vehicle assembly facility in Accra, Ghana. With this investment, Ghana has become the 5th Volkswagen vehicle assembly location in Sub-Saharan Africa; the other locations are in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda. The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presided over the official opening of a facility that has created jobs in Ghana. Akufo-Addo witnessed the unveiling of the first vehicle assembled in Ghana. The country’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen,…