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Opinions of Monday, 31 October 2011

Columnist: Bonsu, Ama

Whites only Resturant In Ghana?

There is a 'degustation club' in Ghana that is for whites only.

Unbelievable right? Well believe, because it exists, and ONLY white people are registered members. This happens because some foreigners who live in Ghana think Ghanaians are inferior to them. The abuse continues, here is a verbatim account of what happened to a Ghanaian lady.

"I wish to bring to light an incident that occurred in a restaurant that I visited recently that has left me dumbfounded and completely infuriated that this could happen in our country..

Atlantic Lobster and Dolphin Ltd is a shop down Papaye road in Osu which deals in seafood. They recently opened an open air restaurant above their shop serving seafood.

They have recently converted the restaurant into a “degustation club” for lovers of seafood. There is a GHc20 registration fee and you are then issue with a membership card.

My 2nd visit there was on the evening of 26th October. I was invited there by a Japanese colleague who is a member of the club and we went with another colleague who is Spanish.After our meal our host (my Japanese colleague) asked for the receipt upon which we were presented with a piece of paper bearing a handwritten amount of GHc180. When he insisted on a proper receipt one of the Italian owners by name AXL told us that this was all they gave as they were a club and not a restaurant. My colleague was told that if he insists on a receipt he would have to come to the shop the following day to be issued with a “receipt” for the purchase of seafood from the shop and not for the food we had consumed.

Nevertheless, as our Spanish colleague wanted to join the club too our host informed the owners and they fetched their membership register for him to join. At that point, I asked if I could also join to which he replied “No, it is for white people only” and then laughed. I was completely taken aback and rendered speechless that this man could have the effrontery to make such a bigoted and racist statement. We left the restaurant shortly thereafter.

It is my sincere hope that this matter will be taken up by your good selves and the public made aware that such an establishment is our midst. We cannot be subjected to open racism in our own country and we need to send a clear message to expatriates living here who mistreat their local staff and look down upon us Ghanaians that we WILL NOT stand for it.