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Blitz, teenagers, selfies and the Armageddon

The average Ghanaian patronises little or no art at all throughout the year; as such having so much art in one place is fantastic. But is bigger, better? Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu reviews the annual Chale Wote festival.

The sixth edition of the Chale Wote Street Arts Festival just came to an end. Over the past week, artists, filmmakers, poets, musicians and art critics from Ghana and across the world have been showcasing their works to the culture vultures of Accra. Many of these artists would have been working on their craft for over a year with Chale Wote being the biggest platform they have had to showcase their work.

A comprehensive review of the festival should encompass the whole week’s events; but this review is not. For many people, the festival is synonymous to what happens on the weekend at Jamestown, Accra’s historic district, famous for its colonial era architecture, forts, the lighthouse and infamous for stark poverty.

If you ever need an example of how Ghana’s somewhat economic boom has only reached a select few, Jamestown is perfect. The organisers of the festival have done an amazing job at shaking off that image of Jamestown; making it a lot more attractive for tourists and the average Ghanaian who would have simply avoided Jamestown prior to the festival.

This year, just like every year, there was so much art to consume spread across Jamestown and a whole lot to do, from poetry at Brazil House to highlife music at Mantse Agbona (the square in front of the chief’s palace).

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15,000 people attended last year; 25,000 or even 30,000 could be the number for this year. However, organisers may want to consider the ‘quality’ of attendees. There were a lot of kids and these were not the kids of Jamestown who constitute a festival highlight on their own especially with their street boxing.

There is no problem with exposing people to art and culture very early in their life but for many of them, especially those still in high school or recent graduates; they did not seem that interested in the art at all.

For them, art was not the reason why they came; it’s just another place to meet their pals from school and take some selfies.

Just like kids, there were also very many adults who were simply not interested in the art. They saw this as an opportunity to find a white tourist (who could be their visa sponsor in a few months after a sham marriage), meet their old boys from secondary school, harass girls, wear skimpy clothes they can’t wear anywhere else and puff a few joints outside their usual hideouts.

Still on quality, Chale Wote was supposed to be that place where Ghana’s hipsters and progressive minds met to share and express themselves in all manner of ways in such a conservative society (so I thought). However, I fear that the festival may be losing that feel to it as more people come. Of course, it is not supposed to be for a select few dreadlocked, effeminate, crossdressers, but the point is people without that set of values may just be destroying it for the rest of us.

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Again, there was also very little security presence for such a large public gathering in these times of terrorism and how places frequented by Westerners are especially targeted.

Maybe, the police were plain-clothed or there was no intelligence to suggest anything like that; but I just did not see a lot of what looked like law and order at the festival. If indeed the police was there, then they did a fantastically poor job at stopping the groping, the catcalling, the wolf whistling, the littering and pickpocketing.

Does Jamestown have functioning streetlights at all?

The average Ghanaian patronises little or no art at all throughout the year; as such having so much art in one place is fantastic. But is bigger, better? Unlike the last four years I have been attending, I felt I did not see enough this year because it was all just too much art, too many vendors taking space and too many people. Moving from one art installation to the other, one risked being shoved in a human mass with a high probability of not seeing their phone again.

The much-debated media accreditation that forced many photographers to stage a ‘boycott’ did not appear to have worked. Over the years, these photographers ensured that locals who missed the festival rued it with foreigners itching to come down to see it too with their breath-taking photos.

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The whole idea was to prevent people from using photos and videos captured at the festival to make commercial gains for themselves without the hard working artists making anything and in some cases no credit given. This was perfectly understandable to me. But the photographers were not prepared to cough up a few cedis.

While there were not as many dslr-wielding professional photogs unlike in previous years, it was clearly evident that that idea had simply not worked. There were people with dslrs and mega lenses mounted on them without the tags.

Besides, a selfie stick, an iPhone, Samsung or any of these really good smartphone brands can produce some fairly good material nearly as a Canon or Nikon. There was also what looked like amateur photographers and revellers with point and shoot cameras who would simply not produce the quality as the photographers who stayed away. Just have quick look on social media and you would realise this.

This year, my favourite spot was Mantse Agbona where I spent a lot of time drowning myself in great music and grilled meat. Also partly because I really did not feel the need to move through the congestion to see what was out there such as the murals by Nima Muhamachi group and others, whose beauty had been selfie-bombed by teenagers anyway.

That powerful hour long performance by the amazing Blitz the Ambassador and his band, the music installation by Radical the kid (styled as Rvdical) and of course the highlife music from groups such as the Pan African Youth Orchestra, Afrofusion and Indigenous Afrique Rhythms were some of my highlights.

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In all, this year’s festival has shown how what started out as a small art project can greatly transform a people’s way of life in such a short time.

I crossed something of my bucketlist; I went on top of the lighthouse to see my city from the sky and nothing at the festival could have ruined that feeling for me.

Accradotalt (organisers of Chale Wote) will be back Sabolai Radio; an indie music festival, traditionally held in December.

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