Jamestown my favourite city – Australian High Commissioner

Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Andrew Barnes, has said Jamestown in Accra is his favourite place in Ghana.

Mr Barnes said in his close to two-year stay in the country, Jamestown stands out for him due to its architecture and history.

“I enjoy Ghana’s Jamestown a lot. Jamestown, I think, encapsulates the early days of Accra and the fort and the lighthouse and the fishing village and some of the old architecture there, is wonderful,” he told Dr Etse Sikanku on Class91.3FM’s World Affairs programme, which was aired on Friday, 9 March 2018.

Mr Barnes continued: “My family and I, we enjoy going to the Jamestown Café in Jamestown and the owner there is a good friend of mine. He is an architect and has the passion for preserving the architecture of old Accra. It is a lovely place to go and hang out and soak up some of the real feeling where the local people are”.

For him, “it is a great thing for Ghana that the old buildings there are still preserved”.

Located directly east of the Korle Lagoon, Jamestown and Usshertown are the oldest districts in the city of Accra, Ghana. They emerged as communities around the 17th century British James Fort and Usher Fort on the Gulf of Guinea coast.

These towns were heavily developed by the end of the 19th century, and following the rapid growth of the city during the 20th century, became areas of a dense mixture of commercial and residential use.

Today, Jamestown remains a fishing community inhabited primarily by the Gas. Although in a state of decay following years of neglect, the town is a popular tourist destination for those seeking to see the remnants of Accra's colonial past.

The original Jamestown Light, built by the British at James Fort in 1871, was replaced in the 1930s by the current Accra Light, which is 28 m (92 ft) tall.

Currently, plans are afoot to re-develop Jamestown and Usshertown, both of which constitute Old Accra or Ga-Mashie with the inauguration of the 2015 Old Accra Strategy.

According to Mr Barnes, his favourite Ghanaian dish is fufu. He said he likes jollof rice and other less-spicy foods.

“I like the fufu and the rice dish, jollof, of course. I like chicken and I’m very well set out for Ghanaian food,” he added.