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As you will be aware from reading the Pompey Chimes, we are encouraged by Bishop Kenneth Stevenson to use the services of the Portsmouth IDWAL Committee to make and/or strengthen links with Parishes in Ghana. Imagine my delight when I discovered that people from Petersfield Deanery were visiting their links in the Diocese of Cape Coast, where our MU link branch at Agona Kwanyako lies, and that simultaneously others, from the Fareham Deanery, were visiting Sekondi Diocese, in which our parish link at St Mary's Church, Axim, is situated. The visit was planned for twelve days but only part of the time was allocated to parish visits, in order to avoid embarrassing the hospitality of our hosts. We arrived in Accra at 11.15.pm on the night of June 12th, only to discover that the coach which had been ordered to take us to our hotel at Abuja (near Koforidua) had not turned up. However, a delegation of ladies, ie. the Diocesan Presidents of Cape Coast and Accra were there to meet me, together with the former Provincial President of West Africa - Mrs Subuola Thompson. They had engaged a video cameraman to film our arrival and much of my subsequent involvement with the MU in the Cape Coast Diocese. We eventually reached our hotels in a series of mini buses and the following morning the coach caught up with us. The driver Alloko, offered to take us to Cape Coast by the inland 'Green Route' rather than the so called coastal 'International Highway'! which was likely to be congested with traffic. The idea was a good one but Alloko lost his way and found himself driving his beautiful new coach on deeply rutted laterite roads! We enjoyed seeing the countryside and rural way of life but the price was a six hour journey. We reached our lunch stop in Cape Coast about 4.pm.
Our hotel in Cape Coast was pleasantly situated on a hill top, overlooking the town. Whilst staying there (six nights) I was visited by a series of visitors, including the Archdeacon of Cape Coast, the Ven. Theophilus Sakyiama and his wife Mary. (The Archdeacon is the son of the former Archdeacon of Kumasi, who was the incumbent of the Anglican Church of Kumasi, when we lived there in the early 1960's.) Theophilus's parish at Saltpond is linked to Greatham in the Petersfield Deanery, which is where the Commissioning Service was held, before we left England. Other visitors included Rebecca, the Cape Coast Deanery Presiding Member and Harriet the MU Co-ordinator for the Finance and Services Unit. On Saturday morning we set out early to visit the castle at Cape Coast, one of the World Heritage Sites, as is Elmeda Castle also. Unfortunately for us the guides were on strike. They had not received their weekend allowances since January. They were very polite and friendly and took pity on us and took us aside and told us about the slave trade and the terrible conditions under which those incarcerated had had to exist. He took us to the seaward side of the castle to the Gate of No Return, now renamed the Gate of Return since the skeletons of two former slaves, one from Jamaica and one from Southern USA had been brought back for reburial in Cape Coast. We were so moved by these guides that we undertook to write a letter, on their behalf, to the local newspaper, in support of their claims. The letter was not published but before we left Ghana we heard that the strike had been settled and we were gratified. Whilst watching the fishing boats returning with their catch one boat capsized in the strong breakers. It seemed that the local fishermen had a routine for dealing with such an occurrence and the boat was salvaged with no loss of life although I can't say the same for the catch for which they had toiled all night. MARGARET SYMONDS to be continued. |
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