Election Season Heats Up...Cape Coast Not Excluded

Let's start with the number plate: whenever you see a Ghana number plate with "CR", it means that the car was registered in the Central Region. Offlate, one sees very few of CR-registered cars in Accra. I wonder why...

Either way, the poster is clear for all to see. Like the much-watched US elections, Ghana's election year is also in 2008, with voting starting on 7 December. Over the weekend, Ghana's Electoral Commission re-launched its website to remind Ghanaian citizens to remain vigilant about voting peacefully and lawfully. The site can be found here: http://www.ec.gov.gh/.

If all that is Greek to you, many apologies for not reminding you that Cape Coast is the capital of the Central Region, and used to be the capital of Ghana before its independence in 1957.

It might interest you to know that, thanks to Ghana's first President Dr.Kwame Nkrumah who built secondary schools at breakneck pace in the 1950s and 1960s, Cape Coast plays host to some of the best schools that spawn some of the brightest graduates in the country. These schools are reputable ones in Ghana and include:

* Wesley Girls' High School
* St. Augustine College
* Mfantsipim
* Adisadel College (ADISCO)
* Aggrey Memorial AME Secondary School (AGGREY)
* Ghana National College (GHANACOLL)
* Holy Child Secondary
* Cape Coast Technical Institute (CAPETECH).

Ghanaian Schoolchildren Going Home

Note the different colours they are wearing (brown/yellow; blue/white) Each coloured uniform connotes a different school. It is generally the private schools that have very different colours--blue or otherwise--from the usual brown bottom (skirt/shorts for girls/boys) and yellow top.

I didn't quite get the sharpness of the pictures--next time--but for sure, they seem to be happy going home around 3pm, when schools close!

If You Ever Doubted You were Watching Accra...

...well, I guess, now you don't!;) I have to confess that I have been excessively attached to taking pictures of the Accra Mall, which has become a de rigeur kind of place to take and visit.

Let's just say I ain't refraining any time soon!

Seriously, it's a place, where changes are most visible quickly, and the psychedelic nature of it all makes for a great place to snap pics of.

I like this picture for the way in which it captures the signboard indicating Accra, Tema, and Legon and juxtaposes it against the front of the Accra Mall.

It was not deliberate to omit mentioning Achimota. It is important to add that both Legon and Achimota are lexicons of academic excellence, with the former being the site where the University of Ghana is located, and the latter a seriously awe-inspiring name that is also a by-word for excellence as far as schooling is concerned. Ghana's first (and late) president Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah and former President (1992-1996) Jerry John Rawlings are alumnae.

More on Achimota on another date, but suffice-to-say that it is a place where the so-called crème de la crème mix and mingle with a view to becoming the "best" in society. It is, ofcourse, only one of many schools in Accra and the country, but is certainly the most well-known.