ghana
- burkina faso
march - april 2002
ghana was very
different from ivory coast: it appeared more organized and less corrupt.
the people were very smooth and correct, if a little less lively than
their neighbours to the west. again i had the honour to life with peter
schweizer at the swiss embassy in the centre of accra, where i had an
apartment to myself and a swimming pool in the compounds garden.
pierre, a friend from zurich who had done much travelling in africa, had
given me the address of bijean, his best friend in accra, before i had
left switzerland. i had already met bijean once, under mysterious circumstances,
when i last visited ghana.
now, that i was back in accra, i was often invited to his house and we
regularly went out on 'diplomatic missions' in accras nightlife. we soon
became good friends. he had been in ghana for more than ten years, building
up a pineapple farm which now produces about 10% of the countries export.
after i had obtained the visas for the next five countries i left accra
in april and drove through togo and benin where i left the coast and turned
north. the mountainous border region between benin and burkina faso was
very beautiful and scenic. the villages were made of tiny round huts with
reddish clay walls and straw roofs. it's the kind of african scenery you
see in magazines, hoping they still exist.
i remember well the naked kids which came running up to the road, insecurely
weaving their little hands and staring with big eyes at my two-wheeled
monster as i drove by. in the mirror i could see how they would run after
me, no longer scared but laughing and screaming.
i spent a couple of days in ouagadougo, burkina's capital, where i obtained
my visa for mali. the morning i wanted to leave for bobo dioulasso, nature
had a great surprise ready for me: everything was red! harmattan winds
had blown fine red sand down from the sahara and the air was full of red
dust. i felt like wearing red sunglasses on a foggy morning in london.
visibility was reduced to less than 100 meters and i could only drive
very slowly. difficult as the driving was i loved it; it felt like moving
in a dream, quite surreal.
i reached bobo dioulasso after a worrisome drive. the engine of my motorbike
was playing tricks on me about every thirty minutes by suddenly cutting
out. after being on strike for about five minutes it would then run again,
as if nothing had happened. in bobo dioulasso i found a good mechanic
who detected the problem right away. there had been a bad contact in the
wiring, causing the ignition to malfunction. he fixed it quickly.
the town has a beautiful sahel-style mosque which is also it's main attraction.
i spent a couple of days here, enjoying the good nightlife together with
other travellers who were staying at the same hotel. i also visited the
region around banfora, just south of bobo dioulasso, where i visited a
family of hippopotmus who live in lake tengrela. they greeted me by happily
snorting and wiggeling their ears, like welcoming an old friend.
all the travellers i had met in burkina faso were on the way south, to
ivory coast or ghana. at the same time i was looking for people who would
join me on my trip to mali, niger and around lake chad to n'djamena. (the
route around lake chad is extremely sandy and quite difficult; nothing
that i would attempt doing on my own). unfortunately my timing was bad
this was the hottest season of the year.
cape coast castle, ghana
the castle at elmina
elmina harbor
pineapple planting
harmattan
the mosque at bobo dioulasso
kids in tengrela