Event offers sights, sounds and taste of Ghana
Alan Morrell
Staff writer
(November 11, 2007) — Visitors to the Baobab Cultural Center on Saturday got a taste — and a lot of information — about the Republic of Ghana, a country in western Africa.
Baobab, at 728 University Ave. in Rochester's Neighborhood of the Arts, is a resource center and gathering place for African arts, culture and dialog. Nita Brown, a native of Ghana who runs a travel agency from her home, explained her homeland to about 25 visitors through slides, music and other media.
The event, which included native foods, was held to educate people about Ghana and Africa as a whole, said Brown, who works for the Rochester School District.
"A lot of people see Africa as a country, not as a continent," Brown said. "But it's discrete, with different customs."
Visitors learned about a market in Kumasi, the downtown area of Accra, about the slave trade that thrived in Ghana, and a village where people co-exist with monkeys.
Brown's tours to Ghana, she said, are not about elephants and crocodiles — they are about people, architecture and landscapes.
Ghana is a country of roughly 18 million people, in a tropical climate with a multi-party democracy.
Josephine M. Perini of Rochester was among those listening.
The self-described "person of the world" said she hopes to visit Africa in 2008.
"If we all tried to understand each other, we would be more at peace, and one world," she said.