Nubuke Foundation

The Nubuke Foundation is, as I mentioned, in the East Legon district of Accra.  It is a pretty posh neighbourhood, full of Ghanaian footballers and diplomats.  On my first morning John and Quarshie drove me to the Foundation meet Kofi Setordji, eminent Ghanaian artist and one of the founders of Nubuke.  The premises are truly beautiful - calm and peaceful.  The building has a spectacular mural along its frontside, painted by Bernard Akoi-Jackson, a young Ghanaian artist, curator and critic who works at the Foundation several days a week.  The mural is a riot of colours, inspired by both Kente cloth and Sirigu wall embellishment.  We sat on the Veranda, chatting with Kofi and admiring one of his large works, 'Presenting the Bride,' a vibrant canvas clearly inspired by Picasso.  The Nubuke Gallery was still full of works from the 'Rendezvous' exhibition of contemporary Ghanaian art which had officially finished on June 9th.  As Odile Agyare, the Foundation's Director and a prominent Ghanaian art dealer, told me, the luxury of Nubuke's new premises was such that they could afford to leave exhibitions hanging for a few days after closing for any latecomers.  

Kofi was keen for me to hit the ground running so, after a quick tour, I decided to set up in the library.  The forthcoming exhibition at the Nubuke Foundation is of their collection of flags belonging to the Asafo, the warrior companies of the Fante people of coastal Ghana.  The Asafo starting making such flags after witnessing much European military pageantry in what was once known as Gold Coast.  Each flag is brightly coloured and features a simple, cartoonish applique design communicating a particular message from its respective company.  Most designs derive from Fante proverbs and tend to boast of military strength or superiority, or mock the weaknesses of other companies.  As well as a striped border, all the flags feature the Union Jack, or abstracted versions of it, because the British colonial government required the insignia to be included on military banners.  After independence some flags are seen to have the Ghanaian tricolour instead but the majority feature the red, white and blue design.  The flags are beautiful and I spent my first morning reading and researching about them before writing a text for the catalogue.

My second day involved writing an 'appraisal' of the Rendezvous exhibition for the next edition of the Nubuke Journal, ARTfocus.  It was wonderful just be able to walk around the empty gallery writing notes on the many works on show and then to compile a review. Amongst my favourites were an oil on canvas work by Nii T. Mill called 'Legacy' depicting -  in thick, glossy patchwork brushstrokes - a dilapidated, but unnervingly brightly lit, urban scene and a beautiful fragmentary oil sketch of a burdened figure by Chris Charway called 'Life is War (Kaya),' its name evoking the traditional term for a porter.  As I get used to Ghanaian public transport I also appreciated the inherent chaos of Gabriel Eklou's 'Closing Time of Tro-tros.'

My task tomorrow will be to decipher the various proverbs and meanings of the Asafo flags in the Nubuke collection.  It'll be quite a task but its fantastic to be so involved so quickly.  Things will change a little at the Foundation as the old exhibition comes down; already a new researcher, Patrick, has arrived to begin preparations for the future show all about Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah.  This coming Sunday Nubuke will host its regular poetry night so I'm taking several of the Ikando volunteers along and tomorrow night some of us will go the Ablade Glover exhibition opening at the Artists' Alliance Gallery near Labardi Beach.  I hear tell of a reggae party on Labardi Beach afterwards, so who knows...

PS. Today I survived my first (and, I hope, only) tro-tro crash.  The tro-tro I was in was smashed by a lorry that careered across the highway.   Noone was hurt but the tro-tro took a battering, including bursting its two front tyres and cracking the windscreen.  I didn't think it was all that bad until I got out of the tro-tro and heard the audible prayers and thanksgiving of the spectators.  Slightly shaken, I jumped straight into a another tro-tro...back in the saddle and all that.  There's just not time to think about the 'what ifs' in Accra.