The first thing I noticed about Accra, Ghana was its beauty. The setting sun glinting off leaves of lush green trees and shrubs in the cities was reminiscent of Ghana’s abundant tropical forests. Vibrant shops and houses dotted the streets, adorned in brilliant colors of hot pink, lime green, turquoise and deep purple. Rusting tin roofs and peeling paint gave the buildings texture and character. Everywhere I looked, people or cars bustled down the road. Liveliness permeated the air.
The next thing I noticed was the trash. It saturated the streets and sidewalks. Empty plastic water bottles, paper, wrappers and human waste collected in three-foot gutters on the side of the road. These items polluted local streams and floated on top of the stagnant water. They amassed in mounds near the fence of the house I lived in. Occasionally someone would set the waste on fire, creating dark plumes of smoke, which dispelled a sickeningly sweet scent. I was dumbfounded by how much garbage could be in one city. It was a contradiction; the immediate and natural beauty stood in stark opposition to the garbage on the streets.
As a journalist, I have learned that people are complicated. In Ghana, I learned that places are complicated as well. Since returning to America after my six-week study abroad trip in Africa, I am constantly barraged with questions about it. I have discovered that it is difficult to summarize an experience that was so surreal and different from what I’ve known. I grew up in Eugene, Oregon. Prior to this journey, I had never traveled to other parts of the world. In fact, most of my travels have been within the Pacific Northwest. From week one, it became apparent that Ghana would refuse to fit into any schemas I’ve developed; that it would continue to surprise and discompose me throughout my time there.
A 2015 study published in Waste Management journal estimates that the country generates more than 12,000 tons of waste each day. Comparatively, Ghana doesn’t produce an excess amount of garbage. A World Bank report from 2012 found that it is one of the countries that produces the least amount of waste in the world. The main issue is waste management. A 2014 article released by the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 2,800 metric tons of waste are generated in Accra each day and 600 tons are left uncollected, which then leads to pollution of drains and water bodies. However, there are efforts to address the lack of proper waste management. A program implemented through the University of Ghana is attempting to reduce the amount of organic waste at local markets. The program, called the Utilization of Organic Waste to Improve Agricultural Productivity, collects compostable garbage from street vendors and turns it into compost so that it can be utilized to grow crops instead of rotting in landfills.
“Accra has only one landfill, which is almost full to capacity,” a research coordinator for the project, Dzidzo Yirenya-Tawiah, says. “And if the bulk of the waste we are generating is organic, then that can be harnessed out of the waste trips — then we will naturally be doing a lot of good for our environment.”
UOWIAP, which is in its third year of operation, has focused on markets as an entry point for waste management in the cities, according to Benjamin Ofori, a member of the project. Street vendors and city markets make up a large part of Ghanaian culture. Even though there are shopping malls, local and traditional markets continue to prosper, Ofori says, because Ghanaians tend to consume more fresh food items.
The Kejetia Market in the city of Kumasi is an example of a flourishing marketplace. It is estimated to contain over 10,000 shops. These shops are essentially small stands pushed so close together that they are almost collapsing into each other. When I visited the market, about six feet of space was reserved for shoppers to walk through and it was swarming with Ghanaians shopping for their daily goods and market vendors. Goods inhabited any space that wasn’t already occupied by bodies. Brightly colored fabrics were draped from stall doors; vendors laid out woven sacks on the ground containing small red and green peppers; fish, vegetables, fruits and breads were displayed and raw meats were butchered right in front of my eyes.
Although busier than most markets, the Kejetia Market is an example of the chaotic activity one can experience in Ghana. Kejetia is not a tourist market where vendors sell artisan crafts, but is instead a slice of daily Ghanaian life. At Kejetia, there’s so much to see that the eye has no place to rest. The noise of the market comes from every direction, and eventually turns into a buzzing at the back of your brain. The market overloaded my senses and was a microcosm of my experience in Ghana as a whole: at first seemingly chaotic, but bounding in the orchestration of people and commerce.
I experienced the frenetic energy of Ghanaian markets in Kumasi, but I spent most of my time in Accra, Ghana’s largest city. Throughout my time there I felt like two separate narratives were competing for my attention. The uncollected garbage on the streets is one example of Ghana’s juxtapositions. The overcrowded streets and trash-infested gutters overwhelmed me at times, and I felt like I was always being watched. My study abroad peers and I received constant attention from Ghanaians because we were the only “oburonis,” or white people, around. Ghana doesn’t use formal addresses, so when I took public transportation I had to know commonly used names to get around. At every turn, someone was trying to sell me something, which quickly became overwhelming. They would call out to my friends and I when we visited markets and ask us to visit their shops, or they would walk through the streets selling items to drivers when traffic was stopped. These unfamiliar aspects of the culture made Ghana a difficult place to live in, but I also found beauty in people, nature and new experiences.
The vivid colors and natural landscapes gave the city bristling energy, and people were generally helpful and kind. Many Ghanaians I saw on the streets welcomed me to the country and, when I was obviously lost, didn’t hesitate to point me in the right direction. Even though it has waste management problems and was a little disorganized, I appreciated the lively and welcoming atmosphere. I learned to accept both sides of Ghana as one.
Throughout my journey, I often reflected on the contradictions of the city. I encountered many difficulties in Ghana, yet there were overwhelmingly positive aspects as well. Since returning home, I have found that I miss the animation of Accra. Similar to the market, the city could be overstimulating, but now Eugene feels empty in comparison. Being in Ghana felt like being thrown into the core of humanity—in all of its messy glory.
