After last week’s emotional breakdown I was able to
come out of myself and have a bit of fun. I had an interesting weekend. Like ending
up in the biggest celebrity in Ghana’ house interesting. A friend of mine from
London had given me the details of her friend who lives in Accra and said to me
‘If you want to have a good time, call him’. And I did. The first thing he said to me was ‘You’ve
been in Ghana for this long and you’re only now calling me?’ like we were
school mates.
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| Me with my new friend who took me under his wing |
We arranged to meet the following day as his friend was having a
show and he wanted me to come. I took a taxi ride for about 30 cedis from where
I was staying in Abokobi to where he wanted to meet at a place called Vienna
City in inner Accra. All throughout the taxi ride I was thinking I’m in a
foreign country being driven by a random taxi driver to meet a random guy I’ve
never met going to a random location I’ve never been to. But when I tell you
Ghanaians are probably some of the friendliest people I’ve ever come across, it’s
no joke.
The guy picked me up in his swanky white Mercedes
and the first thing he said to me was ‘Are you hungry?’ I replied sheepishly ‘I
am’. We went to meet another of his friend who also wanted to eat and they
asked me if I’ve ever tried a dish called ‘Wajke’ (rice and peas, with spaghetti and meat on the
side, with some cheese on top). I told them I had it that morning and I liked
it but not sure if I wanted to eat it again. They assured me ‘Once you eat this
wajke you will not like all the others you’ve tasted’ and they were right! It
was the best meal I had since I landed.
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| I forgot to take a picture of my waache but this is how it looks source:google |
We then went to a hotel and believe me I freaked out
when they told me where we were going but not knowing the company I was with, I
played it cool like I wasn’t scared. We were encountered by 4 more guys who
were their friends. As if reading my mind, the main one said to me ‘Don’t
worry, these are your brothers, be cool with us’. I asked them why we were in
the hotel room and they replied they were waiting for their friend the artist
to get ready so they can go and get him to perform. I asked who he was and they
responded ‘Shatta Wale’ but the name did not mean a thing to me. One of them
said to me ‘ You will know who he is once we get to the show’ and indeed I did!
Before we got to the show we went to a modest sized house, again I
was greeted with more men, weed and loud music. By this time, I began panicking,
and as if reading my mind another of the guys said to me ‘Since you are the
only girl we will treat you like a queen because you are our sister’. I ended
up sitting in a studio with my new friends and a few men dressed in army gear
and dark sunglasses who looked rather intimidating. I later found they were
Shatta Wale’s bodyguards and entourage. When they spoke however, I found it
didn’t quite match their image. They were actually quite funny. So I did what
most people do, I took snaps J.
Random much?? Shatta Wale came inside
and greeted me with nothing on but a pair of shorts. I didn’t recognise who he was until he left
and I asked who he was and one of the guy responded that’s the artist and you
are in his house before they all
laughed. I felt like quite the fool.
On our way to the Accra stadium at around 3am where
Shatta Wale would perform, there was about 8 cars all tailing each other with
hazard lights on to escort him. I was in the first car. The guy who’s car I was
in shouted to me over the loud music he was playing ‘Are you starting to
realise how big he is? We run this city!’ Well if going past traffic lights,
stopping cars and creating a nuisance on the road was running a city then they
surely did.
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| At the Shatta Wale concert in Accra Stadium |
The stadium was filled with people! On our way in I
caught a glimpse of Sarkodie coming out escorted by soldiers. I was able to go
back stage on the show to watch the performances because like my new friend
said ‘we run this city’!
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