I feel like we shouldn't be here ...

Day 19 - Techiman to Kumasi 

Driving south towards Kumasi we stopped to visit a cocoa planation, and learnt about the industry in Ghana. Ghana is the second highest cocoa exporter in the world, the highest is Côte d'Ivoire to the west. Cocoa grows well here without the need for additional irrigation, and the government subsidises the industry by providing loans and support like free advice and cheap agricultural products. We were also shown a cashew tree, with it's juicy fruit and the single cashew nut at the top.

The roads were getting busier, and we appeared to be entering the more densely populated part of the country, and the massive roadworks in Kumasi didn't help, we were caught in a traffic jam as we reached the outskirts of town. To make matters worse, the aircon in our van had stopped working, all we could do was open the windows to get a flow of warm air.

Kumasi was (and still is) the capital of the Ashanti kingdom. The Ashanti king is still revered by the people, and also has an influence on politics in Ghana. We visited the Ashanti cultural centre, where we were given a guided tour of the exhibits and learnt about the war with the British and the exile of the royal family to the Seychelles.

A replacement van arrived which took us to our lunch stop. There had been some grumblings by others in the group about the quality of the accommodation we'd experienced so when we arrived at a very up market restaurant and given free champagne we wondered whether this was an attempt to appease the group!

After lunch we were taken to an Ashanti funeral - it was quite a strange experience! We weren't told anything about who had died (though there was a big board with three people's photos at the front of the open area), but we did find out he'd already been buried and this was the celebration of his life.

The family were dressed in red and others dressed in black, we'd been pre-warned about the dress code, so K was wearing black and M did his best with a red shirt. We were warmly welcomed with smiles and handshakes, and as we walked past the seated onlookers to get to our own seats we smiled and waved at everyone as we had been told this was the correct etiquette. We sat down and were offered cold water, then we watched the proceedings for a while. Others would walk past and wave to us, we would wave back. Music was playing, but every now and then a heavily distorted announcement was made of the donations that had been made, who by and how much. Our guide had given a donation on our behalf, so we guess at some point it was read out but we couldn't really understand what was being said.  

As we stood up to leave a number of the women from the family came up to us and asked us to dance with them, we did our best with this (while cringing internally of course), and were finally able to leave. Overall it was quite a weird but also very interesting experience. 

Our guide later told us that the money that was donated could be used for a number of things, firstly the celebration we'd attended could be quite expensive. In addition, the money could be used to service any debts the deceased owed, or to help other family members who had financial issues.