Accra Navigations: An American's Impressions of Urban Life in Ghana: Nkawkaw

Nkawkaw from above

Since I got to Ghana, I've been so busy trying to established myself in Accra and get settled into my new job that I hadn't even left the city until very recently. Finally, last weekend, I went up to Nkawkaw to visit a friend who lives up there and works as the chief engineer at a radio station called Obuoba FM. We met before over the net when I applied to his station without realizing that it was in the Eastern Region, a 3 or 4 hour drive north of Accra. When I came to Ghana, he provided me with contact after contact at the radio stations around Accra until I got hired. He even came down to help me in person once.

I got to Nkawkaw by bus, and as soon as I arrived my friend took me directly to his radio station to show me around and introduce me to his coworkers. He explained that the transmitter is located on top of a tall local mountain (the Eastern Region is one of Ghana's most mountainous) and that Obuoba consequently has the widest broadcasting radius on Ghana. The Obuoba signal can be picked up in 7 of Ghana's 10 regions.

The next day, we went up to the top of the mountain where I got to look at the transmitter and the broadcasting tower. The mountain has also become famous as a launching site for paragliders, who come mostly from abroad during the city's Easter Festival to jump off one of its ledges and float above the city, eventually landing in the soccer stadium. On top of the mountain, we met a sightseeing couple from the Brong Ahafo region on the mountain who had come in a car, so we joined forces and for most of the morning and part of the afternoon and drove around the mountain towns together.

I found the scenery around Nkawkaw and the neighboring towns incredibly striking, especially in contrast to Accra's urban and often crowded aesthetic. I've included a couple of my favorite pictures from our trip below.

A side view of the cliff face that overlooks Nkawkaw

Shrouded in the morning mist a little before 9 am, this is the mountain that houses Obuoba's transmitter. It's also the mountain from which the first two pictures were taken. I took this shot from the opposite side, in a town called Obomeng. The concrete blocks in the yard are for sale and will most likely be used to build houses.