Going to university

We decided to postpone our departure for Cape Coast by a day to visit the University of Ghana about 8 km outside of the city. Shawn’s professor at PSU, Kofi Agorsah, generously gave us names of colleagues of his in the Department of Archaeology.

After navigating traffic, which compares to any that might develop in the event of an approaching natural disaster, we landed at the school. The campus occupies acres and acres of land, stretching off in every direction like it has been pressed down and flattened by the sun. Luckily for us, as we didn’t know where we were going, the Department of Archaeology stood just inside the main gate.

With a bit of wandering and a question or two we tracked down Dr. Ako Okoro after making our way down a flight of stairs, through a door marked “Archaeology Annex,” and down a hallway cluttered with large bags of rocks and other specimens presumably gathered during recent field work.

A knock on the office door was answered by a hearty welcome. Dr. Okoro is a man of definite professorial bearing wearing a crisp shirt, glasses and graying goatee. His office is what one might expect of man of numerous interests and parallel research projects. Every surface is covered in stacks of paper the organization of which is hard to discern. Bookshelves are full to overflowing, and the floor covered in more paper, dusty bags, and boxes.

“I am so glad to meet you,” he said, offering as well a rough, hearty laugh that it was soon clear was the most natural thing to him. He welcomed us with incomparable good will, dismissing it as the common practice of Ghanaians.

For the next hour we discussed Dr. Okoro’s two principal projects, one devoted to fighting what he calls “water poverty” in the villages and the second to building a cultural program in which visitors to Ghana are allowed to experience first-hand various facets of Ghanaian life. We were both inspired by his passion and very appreciative of his hospitality.

When we left, we promised to come again when we returned to Accra. Shawn hopes to seek his advice about her PSU-based classwork on slavery, a specialty of Dr. Okoro’s, and I hope to take advantage of his invitation to sit in on a lecture.