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“Let’s go out clubbing tonight!”
“Where? Here in Accra? Are there even clubs here?”
That conversation showed how clueless I once was about Accra’s nightlife scene.
There are many ideas that people have about Africa that are so incorrect. I remember once after having my mom watch the Amazing Race’s Ghana episode, her telling me that she was surprised that there were such big buildings. I guess she never gave much thought to the idea that I probably stayed in an actual full-scale hotel. My brother’s pictures from his time with the Peace Corp in Mali probably further fueled her skewed perception of life in Africa…he lived in a small cinder block house in an outlying village and there were many pictures of him standing out in the plains with nothing around him as far as the eye could see.
But, if you think about it, many people’s experience with Africa is limited by what they see on television. Older people grew up watching Marlin Perkin’s Wild Kingdom on Sunday nights. African villagers, life in huts and on the plains was always shown as the norm. This part of Africa still exists, however, today, many African cities are almost as modern as the one you live in.
In Accra, new construction is present everywhere you look, thanks in part to the gold boom. There are shopping malls, fast food chains and many tall buildings popping up all over the city. For every beat up taxi driving the streets, there are Lexus’ and Range Rovers following right behind…quite a far cry from the Ghana I remember from my first visits.
Years ago, I remember always asking for a hotel room with a market view. A bit of a voyeur, I loved watching the people at the colorful market across the street, busy as bees, on their way to and from whatever was on their agenda that day. Today, the market is gone and a tall, glass office building has taken its place. And…no longer do we stay in that same hotel. As newer luxe hotels have begun moving into the city, we have changed accommodations which include “heavenly beds” and infinity edge pools.
In Dakar, Senegal, one of the hotels we have stayed in recently, is a very high end brand. I will never forget ordering a beer at the pool and finding out that I was charged $7. “Well, that’s what you would pay in New York!”, one of my crew members said to me, to which I replied, “Well, that same beer in the supermarket near the hotel is thirty cents and I am in Africa, not New York!”
That first night we went out dancing in Accra, I was blown away. Tucked away on a side street in Osu, were many clubs. Not having prepared for the nightlife scene, I had nice clothes, but some of these people were really decked out. High heels and sexy outfits were the norm and I am sure that my coworkers and I stood apart. But what surprised me most, was that if you had blindfolded me and asked me where I was, I couldn’t have distinguished it from any other city that I’ve traveled to. Great music and an awesome atmosphere…we danced the night away. When I described the night’s experience to someone, I could see the confusion on their face…I’m sure a night of dancing in Africa, in their imagination, entailed drums and a village fire.
Since, that first night, I have visited many other clubs in Ghana, Senegal and South Africa. But, what I think I took away from that first night is that everyone should always experience everything that you can in any city. Always take advantage of whatever any city has to offer…what is there, just might surprise you!
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