Five Years of Providing Vignettes of Accra Life to You!

This blog was born on 25 April, 2006. It's very first post was profoundly minimalist. You can read it here.In that respect, I consider April to be its birth month--and appropriately so, as 26 April is my own birthday. To say that there is some existentialist connection with this blog would probably not be far from the truth.

At the time I created it, I knew nothing of the citydailyphoto blogs, mooted by Frenchman Eric Tenin, who created Paris Daily Photo.

Back in 2006, there were few indigenous bloggers blogging about their home country--let alone indigenous bloggers blogging about their city, so inevitably, I became a kind of pioneer in that genre. My entries have waxed and waned. There have been times I have had blogger's block, but I always returned, trying to ensure that I portray not necessarily the best parts of Accra--but the parts that made the whole experience real. 

To be honest, I am surprised that in less than a month, this blog has been nominated for two awards. First, the tripbase; now this "Go Overseas Top Blog", which you can find here: http://www.gooverseas.com/ghana-blogs. 

In this category, I came 6th of out 10 blogs. The criteria for the selection is listed below :

GO! Overseas editorial staff evaluates blogs with the following criteria:

• New content is posted at a minimum of once a week.
• A writing style which is both clear and interesting.
• A website which is constructed in a manner that provides a user-friendly interface and is maintained regularly.
• A target audience which goes beyond providing friends and family with updates. Our editorial staff is looking for content which appeals to a wider audience.
• Content that is relatively error free and grammatically correct.
• A blog site which engages users on the website and is responsive to regular contact.

from: http://www.gooverseas.com/featured-blogger-badge.

Back in 2007, academic Rebekah Hurt wrote what was in essence a biography of me through my blogs, which she mysteriously pulled down. Before she did, though, I had managed to copy her work, which I reproduced on my website here: http://www.ekbensah.net/pb/wp_fccca1c0/wp_fccca1c0.html. I copy below what she wrote about Accra Daily Photo at the time it was using a pink interface:

Accra by Day & Night is designed in pink tones and is headed by an elaborate banner where different photos rotate within a fixed screen, overlain by moving star characters and blue spots which contain occasional captions. Beneath this very advanced blog feature is the following short description, “Accra is the capital of the small, West African country of Ghana, which achieved its independence in 1957 from its colonial master, the United Kingdom. It celebrates 50 years in 2007, and is projecting itself fast and furiously as ‘gateway to West Africa’. It’s an exciting city, with its unique problems, but with it close to the Atlantic ocean, and many beaches, who can resist not [sic] coming here? Come along...” Along with this header, there is another unique and advanced inclusion of a background song that can be turned on and off with the click of a speaker icon and that, when on, plays on repeat the theme-appropriate song, “Ocean Sized Love” by Leigh Nash[2]. At the top of the page there is a link to the Ghana at 50 website, and then down the right hand margin of the page appears Bensah’s profile, a selection of his favorite videos with embedded media, followed by an extensive list of links to other city photoblogs across the world, a Zooomclouds cluster box which highlights the words most frequently appearing in the blog, and a list of previous posts. The governing order of this blog is that Bensah posts a new photo or photos from daily scenes around Ghana (primarily Accra and Legon) with short captions, comments, and observations...

Suffice-to-say, I am very humbled by the accolades. If anything, it has given me more vim to continue this blog. As I am human, there will be times when there will be hiatus, but I hope to continue offering aspects of Accra life in the quintessential ways in which I have delivered them.

Thank you to all those who have commented and helped encourage me to get this far. Five years is no mean feat! Thank you!!