Thursday was office work. We sat around our laptops in the Internet Cafe, wrote our articles, worked on pictures, updated blogspot and facebook. We also went to the place where they print the paper. Apparently they can’t open the document with the last edition and are therefore unable to print it. Well, it will be published with a delay.
On friday Kwamina takes me and Felix to the opening of a bank’s branch in Mankessim, a town east of Cape Coast. Frances is watching the Royal Wedding to report on that. At the opening, I am only taking pictures. Sometimes they speak Fanti, so I wouldn’t be able to take notes anyway. As always, there is an opening and a closing prayer. I still don’t understand this passion. May our Lord support the bank’s work, may he make this project a success story. After the speeches the tape is cut and I almost miss it. I don’t really know what is happening so I am too slow and Kwamina has to direct me through the crowd. Well, there is a lot to learn.
Saturday. One of the parties here, the NPP (New Patriotic Party), has elections for presidential candidates today. We agreed to meet at twelve to go to polling stations but at nine Kwamina texts me that they are going right now. First stop is one the huge campus of the University of Cape Coast. The square in front of a big hall is full of people in red, blue and white. There is music. A group of young men is already celebrating, I don’t know what, but as we approach them to take pictures one of them start to shout. It is Fanti, but there is no chance of missing that he is pretty angry and doesn’t want us to film the group. In the big hall, people are waiting on rows of chairs for the event to start. On the stage, three of the five candidates are sitting next to some desks where polling assistants prepare some papers. A commotion outside tells us something is happening, so we hurry to see the arrival of the fourth candidate, a woman who was a minister a few years ago. When the fifth candidate arrived, the ceremony starts. Each of the candidates has five minutes for a speech. They are talking Fanti, but I can hear from the cheering which candidate has the most support. The spectators are extremely excited, outside and inside the big hall. I take some pictures of voters, throwing their vote in the boxes, then we leave Felix and move on to Elmina. Kwamina is constantly on the phone, talking to someone or conducting interviews. I just follow, trying to get the pictures he wants and not to be in the way of someone. In Elmina the voting has already finished as there was only one candidate. Kwamina talks to someone, I take some pictures, then we continue. Next stop is back in Cape Coast at the town hall, where everything is decorated in red, green, black and white. This is a NDC event, the ruling party. “Get Atta Mills endorsed.” I record a number of speeches, in Fanti of course, and off we go again. Next we go to a polling station in a rural area. They have finished the voting here as well and are waiting for the results. Kwamina interviews two candidates. It seems that he is on radio right now. I take pictures and follow him and two other media persons we took with us in the car. It is time to go back to Cape Coast, the results have been announced. While we are in the car, Kwamina collects results on the phone. Back at the university, the atmosphere is even more excited. The big hall is full of people now, held back by police. When they are allowed to move forward, they storm to the elected candidate, try to hug him, touch him. They carry him on their shoulders, sometimes he disappears in the crowd. Outside, Kwamina manages to get him to talk into his recorder and I take pictures as close as I can get. Finally, he gets on the back of a jeep with a number of his cheering supporters and they drive off, squeezed together but happy as if they just saved the world. It gets quieter now, Felix and I are told to wait in the car. Kwamina disappears and we have a rest from the mad rush. It is five o’clock, when we get home. I am hungry but the day was good.
