My trip to Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in Ashanti Region, and it is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. It is near lake Bosomtwe, in a rain forest region. Kumasi is also known as “The Garden City “because of the beautiful flowers and plants. Some example of the flower is a Rose flower and as everyone knows the Rose flower has a beautiful smell that is fabulous to the nose. Since Kumasi has a lot of beautiful flowers like Rose it attracts a lot of people to the place. Even though the Rose has a beautiful smell one can get hurt if you try to grab it because it has a lot of thorns on its stem.
A couple of years ago I went to Kumasi. We stayed in a town called “Bantama”,which is a very busy place with a large market and many buildings. I went there with my family for a one-week holiday. We could go by Air that is served by the Kuamsi Airport, Bus or taxi cab that is provided by transit buses owned by individual or companies. We finally decided to go by bus because we were looking forward in having a lot of fun and new experiences with other passengers. The whole journey was a 5-hour drive, which took longer than expected because some passengers were buying stuff from the roadside. A typical conversation between a passenger and a hawker would go like “give me two loaves of bread, one for my grandma and the other for an in-law” and when the bus it about to take off another passenger would scream to the driver that she forgot to get one for her family home and the poor driver would have to listen to the request of these annoying passengers before continuing the trip.
We didn’t do much sightseeing; however, Kumasi itself has a long and fascinating history so went to the local palace in order to learn more about it. Getting into the central part of Kumasi we headed into this huge building that had a lot of porcupines and peacocks in its garden. We walked passed these huge muscular and terrifying men dressed in lion skin clothing’s with swords and whom I later got to know were the warriors that guard the historic palace. We were ushered in by these vibrant, young ladies who were completely wrapped in colorful beaded dress. It took us an hour and half to get around the palace called Manhyia Palace, which is the current residence for the Ashanti King called Omotufo Tutu the second, whom we had the privilege to greet after our tour in the palace, an experience I will forever cherish.
As sunset we checked ourselves into a nearby local restaurant where we enjoyed a local recipe known as “Fufu and Palm nut soup” a favorite delicacy for the typical Ashanti man. The “fufu” is made from cassava and plantain and the palm nut soup is made from palm kernel. Licking my fingers, I consumed two bowls of the fufu with assorted bush meat, one may ask what is a bush meat? well is any animal that comes from the forest becomes bush meat ,seafood and chicken which I fought over with my little sister. I still remember the taste of this delicious and popular food.
We were able to witness one of their festivals named the Akwasidae Festival celebrated by the Ashanti people and chiefs in Ashanti. The festival is celebrated on a Sunday, once every six weeks. This festival is celebrated to remember the ancestors and its marks the season and timings for various agricultural activities. This is also the chance the chiefs, elders and community have a time to make decisions that bring developments to the town. The community holds a colorful durbar of chiefs and their queens on this occasion when they all turn up in full regalia, dancing to the beats of drums is pageantry. Also, people pledge their confidence in the present king. Some of the deserving people are given awards for the good works which contributed to the development of the community. The king holds a private celebration within the palace for his royal family and other officials.
I would definitely like to go back to Kumasi one day, though next time I would probably make more effort to see the amazing sights of the rest of Kumasi like their parks. However, come think of it, spending another day in Kumasi wouldn’t be that bad considering all the eventful time I had there with my family. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking to get away from work or the normal busy city life as the city has a lot to offer visitors. In fact, I think I would plan a summer vacation to Kumasi come next summer.
