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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate
Adventures with Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2017-02-03
BUSHNOTE #3: Slaves, Castles, Voodoo and the Gates of No Return
By Land Rover Disco 4, dodging the traffic with the sun still struggling to shine through the Harmattan haze blowing off the Sahara, one is clearly reminded that Ghana is a largely Christian country as can be seen by the delightful use of English signage.
There's the Godly favoured eye care centre,Love-Me Forex Bureau, Heaven city estates, Cock Ministries (I hope it's a spello).
There's the Peace and love cooling technologies, a taxi called True Tithe BLFSSING (I guess the bottom piece of the E had fallen off, unless the owner has a Lithp ), The End Matters, a Hope for the hopeless restaurant and down at Elmina Harbour in the shadow of the ancient Elmina castle of St George the theme continues with fishing boat names like 'Jesus the Truth', The ' essaih', ' Thank You God', and Isiah 41:10.
But not all is godly and a boat called Mafia, flying a large Manchester United football flag, also has a good catch. Much like old Viking boats the colourful hand-built wooden longboats are festooned in colour to include a few South African flags and those of numerous nations and football clubs.
You just have to love creative use of Ghanian English, there's a Bipolar Ave, the Deaf Carpenter Furniture Maker near Teardrop Ave and the Peculiar People's Preparatory School.
We flash by a sign that reads... 'Shrimp Seasoning- discover the taste of addiction' as we slam on brakes to avoid a crabbing overladen truck on the windscreen of which is written... 'If God says yes, who can say No'. Tonight's dinner is chicken stew with Red-Red (Black Eyed beans cooked in Palm oil), plantains and fried rice washed down with some West African Club. This Land Rover Living Traditions is aptly named ' Slaves, Castles, Voodoo and the Gates of No Return - Will keep you posted.