Kumasi

Hilly, lush, vibrant, and colonialesque, Kumasi has the same look and feel as Nairobi, Kenya.  A strange clash of rich, western culture and a rich history of the Ashanti kingdom and traditional culture.  Our first stop was the National Cultural Center.  The complex houses the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum, which promises a good introduction into Ashanti history and culture.  The Museum was small, over priced, and the tour guide rushed us and was more concerned with selling us souvenirs at the end then giving us a good tour.  I would have enjoyed it better sans the free tour and just looking at the artifacts and reading about them on my own.  A huge disappointment.  The rest of the National Culture Center was interesting though; very beautiful and well groomed.  We actually saw men watering the flowers and cutting the grass- something that made us both stop and ask “are we still in Africa?”  The majority of the grounds house workshops for brass working, woodcarving, potters, weavers, and other artisans, very much like the Artisan Village we have in Ouaga.  We leisurely explored and I enjoyed getting a peak of the craftsmen at work, however Josh wouldn’t let me buy anything since he was convinced everything would be overpriced. 

  Nany, I took this picture for you since the pottery reminded me of you!

Still wanting to learn more about Ashanti history, the next stop was the Manhyia Palace Museum.  The Palace was built for the Ashanti King by the British and the current King still lives on the grounds, which also house other government-type buildings.  The museum is restored to it’s original 1925 condition and has several life-size wax figures for Ashanti royalty, which, to be honest, were creepy.  The tour was very informative and interesting, this guide being much better then the last, however the guide singled us out right away as the only 2 white people and asked if we were British, then went on to speak unfavorably about white colonialist.  We did the tour with a British/Jamaican family and the tour guide kept telling the women how they looked like the Ashanti queen-mothers and their family MUST have originated from the Ashanti kingdom before they were stolen into the slave trade.  It was a little uncomfortable. 

     Queen mother, yaa Asantewaa, who led a revolt against the British.    

The last stop of the day was to the Armed Forces Museum, Josh’s one request in Kumasi.  The museum is in Fort St George and, as a museum, was pretty good.  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and patient with us and the contents of the museum were very complete.  As for the subject matter, well guns and military history aren’t really of interest to me, but Josh loved it.