More Relaxed Trip to Kumasi

Travel in Ghana is rarely an easy task if you are going by public transport somewhere outside of Accra. Our trip to Kumasi was a perfect example.

Sarah and I never seem to be able to plan our trips in advance. With her being busy with classes and me busy at work and our evenings flying by, we are often planning our trips on Thursday. This week was no exception! Our delayed planning and frustration of phone numbers never working for the hotels we call led us to deciding to leave on Saturday instead of Friday evening.

We arrived at the bus station Saturday morning at 4:30 hoping to get on a bus before 6am. We witnessed the most crazy argument at a bus station as two different groups of people started their own lines at the bus station. Instead of dealing with the issue in a multitude of ways, they chose to yell and scream at each other. Not the greatest start to my day. The trip between Accra and Kumasi is supposed to take four hours but for us, it took seven.

Our first stop was Fort Kumasi which we were able to use our guidebook map to find. We even walked there from the bus drop-off point! Quite impressive.

The Fort is a small red structure that doesn’t look particularly imposing from the outside. The appearance of the Fort doesn’t give much indication to the importance of this structure. The British colonialists established the Fort as a training grounds for the Gold Coast Regiment. Joining the army provided some benefits to the soldiers, including teaching them how to read and write and providing employment. The original signboard has a different spelling of Kumasi than the current spelling. The reason for this is simple; most people were illiterate. When the signboard was outside, it meant new recruits were welcome. 

Original Signboard 

Sarah and I were given an excellent tour of the Fort and our guide was very knowledgable about the history of the Fort and the involvement of Ghanaian troops in both the First and Second World War. Without boring people who have little interest in military history, Gold Coast forces participated in both World Wars. WWII saw forces fighting in West Africa, Burma, and Sri Lanka under the British. A lot of the items kept at the Fort are items seized by the soldiers when they defeated the opponent. There was a lot of Japanese mortar weapons and Spanish swords and even Italian plates. 

The Fort wasn’t a slave trading fort as it was a military base. The Fort has two separate cell blocks that held prisoners who committed crimes. The severity of your crime dictated whether you were placed in the reasonable cells or the incredibly cramped and dark cells. If you had committed a terrible crime like murder, you would be placed in one of two tiny windowless cells with many other people until your death. You had no sunlight, no bed to sleep on, you would be crammed into the cell given one meal a day that you would have to consume in minutes, or else the guards would remove the food. Pretty awful place to be. It was astonishing how many people they were able to cram into these tiny cells. The other cell block was more humane and was for people who had defected or committed lesser crimes. Nana, the woman who led the Ashantis in their fight against the British in 1900 was kept here after her capture before she was transported to Elmina Castle where she was held until her death. This iconic battle saw the Ashantis defeat the British despite having less sophisticated equipment.

Isolation cell - 8 people would have been
kept in this tiny cel

The following day we went to the Manhyia Palace, the former home of the Ashanti King. The Palace itself is a modest colonial style home on beautiful grounds with manicured lawns. The house doesn’t look very regal by today’s standards, but at the time when people were still sleeping in primitive huts, it was quite luxurious. I will be honest, I think the tour at this attraction was far too long and less interesting than the Fort tour. Much of the tour involved the guide trying to explain the incredibly complex family structure of the Ashanti people. I would be lying if I said I fully understood it. What I was able to gather from this discussion was that the inheritance system is matrilineal as opposed to the rest of the country which is patrilineal. If you are a child, your mothers sisters are not your aunts, they are also your ‘mother’. But you can have uncles, but you can’t have cousins. This fact seemed particularly puzzling. The other fact that we argued with the guide was why the King was allowed to have many wives, but the Queen Mother, who maintains a certain degree of power, is only allowed one husband. Well, he didn’t really have a good reason for that! From the pictures and the wax statues, there was no doubt that the Ashanti Kingdom earned its name as the Kingdom of Gold. The King is draped in gold jewelry. I think the Palace is worth a visit to learn more about the Ashanti people however it wasn’t my favourite place we have visited.

Manhyia Palace

Our last stop of the day was the Central Market. I only took a picture from the entrance because I didn’t want to be flashing my camera about in the crowded market. This is the  largest outdoor market in all of West Africa. It has burned down a few times most recently in 2009, but we couldn’t tell of any lingering damage. We were there on a Sunday and I think that was a wise move because it was less busy than it would normally be. I found it really impressive how organized the market was. There is a distinct area for food, cloth, baby supplies, machetes, shoes etc. The price of things was also much lower than it is in Accra, unsurprisingly. It was impressive how much stuff we were able to purchase for so little.

I really enjoyed our trip to Kumasi despite our short stay and transportation issues. The roads in the city are much better than the roads in Accra and we didn’t get hassled nearly as much as we do in Accra. Kumasi had a lot of character to it and the buildings were different than Accra. 

Entrance to the market