10 years ago I started an eco-tourism adventure travel company doing trips in Ghana. As part of this I did a research trip to Ghana in 2011. I was living and working in the US then and took almost a month off to come to Ghana and visit eco-tourism sites and hotels all over the country.
One of my ambitions through this trip was to do a coffee table book on the faces of Eco-toursim in Ghana. The book never came to be but I can still share those portraits and the stories that go with them here with you. These images and the visit took place over 10 years ago but It is still like yesterday.
Conservation can come at a price to people living in the areas around National Parks. Much of the resources that were their life lines are now out of their reach by regulation and guarded by park rangers. Young people leave looking for work in the city, and the village life changes and a future is hard to see. Masomagor Village faced these issues after the formation of Kakum National Park (formed in 1992), which is one of the biggest tourist draws in the country, but the visitors or their fund rarely ventured away from the main gate of the park and the population center of Cape Coast nearby. Seeing the problem some of the young men in the village revived a style of music played on hand crafted bamboo instruments to try to rally the village together and attract visitors which help to fund their development, and provide opportunity for the youth to stay in the village.
Yao Mhadi, this man helped us find our way to the village from the junction to the main Kumasi road riding with us back to Mosomagor where he lives. He is an elder of the village helping to create the orchestra about 22 years back according to him. He said the village prospered from the tourism when the village managed the funds themselves, but they have not been getting their fair share since the district assembly has taken over. (this was all learned through translation from our driver)
One of the friendly faces of the village when we first arrived this man and his cute boy came to greet us.
In addition to being able to see unique musical and dancing displays the village has partnered with the wildlife division to offer hikes into Kakum Park and stays for guests in a tree platform. Simidon Dabara (I learned he passed about 8 years ago) one of the amazing Wildlife Division Guides believes the project with the village is running really well, and the district assembly is managing things ok, as an alternative view to Yao's perspective.
The tree platform in the rainforest about 60 feet into the canopy, one of the most interesting places in the world to have a night’s sleep. It was about a 3 hour hike through the forest to get to the tree platform. We were almost not allowed to go because this time of year the forest elephants get quite aggressive close to dark and it was almost dark when we reached the tree platform.
Even with all the challenges this model seems to work well in managing the needs of conservation and that of the people living around the park. In the first picture shown is a seed that grows to be one of the largest trees in West Africa. It is important that there is a healthy population of forest elephants because this particular seed needs to pass through their digestive system before it ever has a chance to grow into a majestic tree.
This is a seed that is very important to the people living in the village and the whole of Ghana and even important to people living all over the world this is a fresh cocoa pod, the seeds are extracted and dried and then usually exported before transforming into all kinds of Chocolate products. Ghana is the second largest Cocoa producer in the world.
Here the chief of the village’s brother and wife are processing palm oil which is a key component in many of West African dishes. It has also become a very important crop for the growing bio fuel industry. Here they are processing it by hand squeezing out what they can of this red oil or palm oil from the pulp of the palm nut.
The village’s share of the proceeds from visitors goes to developing the community in ways that they decide on. Here is their pride and joy a school built and funded by their own community. The mural was painted by some international volunteers.
In the last 10 years I have actually never met a visitor that has gone to the village much less locals. Only people I have sent on tours but that has even been a number of years. I will have to sometime go back and do a follow up and see if this project is still going.
Here are a few other pictures of the area, in the forest and the village.
A flowewr in the forest.
Goats in the village.
Kids posing for a picture with their toy car.
Morning in the tree house.
My dad and our driver Kwame at the foot of large tree.
I could not photograph the scale of this tree but it is said to be one of the largest in West Africa.
My father with a chewing stick from a root of a plant. The bark is bitter but is said to give you a very hard dick. Everything is very sweet after chewing it also.
Myself 10 years ago and my dad.
Our driver Kwame posing with the guards elephant gun.
Some dried coco beans
Drying palm nuts.
All photos taken by myself other than the one of myself taken by Kwame our driver. They were shot with a Canon Eos Rebel in 2011.