African village life

Start your journey in Accra or simply make it your base from where you can visite various interesting places around Accra and the nearby towns.

We can offer you rooms in the guesthouse Culture House just 20-30 minutes from the airport in Nmair Dzorn a new district of Accra nearby a big market district Madina.

The Culture House is a place of relaxation. The natural wind intruduces you to the coastal feeling of Accra without feeling hot. One of the most known beaches Labadi Pleasure Beach is as well just a few minutes from the Guesthouse. The place is ideal to start your journey, as the access to the new highway to the West and East is just 10-15 minutes away.

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Map of Accra

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Benuye - Academy of tradtitional culture and intercultural studies

Benu ye is an expression in the Akan-language and it means:

Two heads are better than one!

The aim of the academy is:

• To promote African culture through teaching, perfoming and researching
• To promote intercultural learning through discussing, observing and researching.

The research will consist in finding out more about African culture(for example: traditional religion/rituals, social life and its changes in the modern time, musicethnological subjects), and aspects of intercultural learning (for example: how to live together and accept different cultures of eachother, away from ethnocentrism).

• ORGANIZING educational FORUM DISCUSSIONS on topics such as teaching and learning through drama, dance and music, or doing modern research work in ethnology, music, dance and theatre.
• New African and European approaches to intercultural understanding and mutual enrichment, offering students a wide range of possibilities of being ‘ethnic' without becoming ‘ethnocentric'.
• Introducing students of all nations to several handicraft workshops, such as carving, dyeing materials, weaving baskets.
• To support renewable energy and reduce the effects of the climat change. Therefore we are looking for institutions, who will be interested to establish a solarenergy system in the Benuye academy and in the village eguafo. (offering research projects or national service)

• drumming and dancing workshops:Come and experience our dynamic music and dance, rhythms and varities of Ghanaian culture. See and take part in carving and handicraft workshop. Watch the gallery for additional pictures.

Elmina Coconut Groove is a hotel resort with restaurant and bar with a wonderful beach. 

Kumasi - „the garden city" and the royal house: as it is the capital of the Ashanti region it has its special attractions. Especially the markets with its music sounds. Visit with us also the Ghana National Culture Centre, a combination of museum, open air theatre, craft workshops and art gallery.

Bonwire - home of kente: It is nearby Kumasi and is a place to see wonderful symbols from Ghana in textiles designs. Come with us and meet the Kente weavers and experience how they produced the Kente with rhythms with their tools, hands and feet.

Akosombo: is the place of the Volta Dam. Come with us and make a journey with a ferry on the famous Volta Lake up to the northern region. Feel the special power of this lake and enjoy the wonderful view

Tamale:  is a special place in the Northern Region of Ghana and my second home. The place I live far from Accra (a two days journey by road). The one who took care of me comes from Tamale, so I could often join the family in Tamale. That is where my music experience increased.  Come with us and join the wonderful people in their daily life activities and see the special traditional architecture and its beautiful surroundings (subtropical climate).

The Mole national park: Is in west of Ghana at Damongo. Come and see with us the wonderful animals and vegetation in the park. Join us to witness the damba festival, on which you experience very special traditional music and dance. There you can see a dance with a special movement, turning with a wide colorful dress (smog).

The crocodile pond at Paga: Paga lies northwest of Tamale in the North of Ghana directly on the border to Burkina Faso. In Paga are the famous crocodile ponds. The local people can entice the crocodiles out of the pond and play with them. There is a special relationship between the people of Paga and those crocodiles. As a Ghanaian I was shocked to see how people are swimming next to the crocodiles. Women are working around the pond and the crocodiles lying near to them sunbathing. That is amazing to see. This gave me the courage to touch the crocodiles with the special guide we get there. Come with us and experience Paga by yourself.

music and festival journeys

come, meet and learn from the traditional musicians in Ghana and music royals.

Visit for example the Aboakyer, Deer hunt festival of the Efutus in Winneba, the Nyeyi Festival in Eguafo, the Bakatue in Elmina and the Fetu Afahye in Cape Coast, where you can see for example a woman carries a basket full of seawater through the crowd without loosing a drop of water (see pict. below). Come and see those wonderful festivals. The Homowo festival in Accra, the Hogbetsotso in Anlo in the Volta Region of Ghana. These festivals with its dynamic rhythms and dance will fascinate you.

This year 2011 Elmina celebrates the Bakatue Festival from the 5th July on. The celebrations takes on week and it is interesting to join many activites going on. Meet the elders and get contact with the native people. Experience Elmina, with its beutiful lagoon and beach. You can see how the fishermen arrive with their fishes and sell it to the market women, how they repair their nets and boats. You can buy your own fish and bargain with the fishermen. See how those special canoes are made and experience the daily live in Elmina.

For other festivals and when they are celebrated watch the list in the end.

Visit our gallery for more pictures!   africamusic dance    ↑top

Eguafo is a village in the KEEA district of the Central Region of Ghana. lt is an acient capital of the district and therefore an excellent place as a Cultural Centre. The Academy Benuye is situated between the village and the highest mountain of the area, mount Dumpow, on 5 acres

The village of Eguafo and its distirct is an interesting place for scientists from all over the world. Archeologists from Syracuse University of New York (USA) have been working there for several years.

Visit Eguafo with its butterflyhills, watch how they get palmwine or plug mangos, orange, pineapple, avocado and pawpaw. Have your breakfast with freshly plugged fruits and learn how to prepare our traditional dishes with all the tropical ingrediants.

Come with us and experience the life of farmers, local palmwine producers, market sellers and the cooking with traditional krupots (stove) on open fire.
 

Watch for further informations "Eguafo" in "google" watch the gallery  

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Workshops in Ghana

Come and experience traditional music and dance. Meet our traditional musicians an music royals. Additional you learn the historical background of th westafrican music and its rhythms and dance movements. Every music and dance tells its story.

Offers: We will organize your journey according to your wish and duration of stay. You can also travel by yourself and join us in Ghana.

Accomodation, food and group course organized: 200 Euro a week.

Only the group course:                                    100 Euro a week.

Privat course, accomodation and food:               300 Euro a week.

Only privat course:                                         180 Euro a week

Only accomodation:                                        20 Euro a night / 140 Euro a week

Courses are available at any time you plan to travel to Ghana. Please contact us for arrangements.

Our guesthouse gives you chances to meet families and you can experience the daily life activities in Ghana, either in town or in village.

If you want to visit the local palaces, festivals or if you want to travel in Ghana, we can organize it for you according to your wish with a trained guider.

We are registered at the tourist board in Cape Coast and with the commission of culture in Ghana.

Our moto for all the courses and the travelling is: no stress - no panic

we work in a team, join us and and improve your talent and creativity.

Benuye - newsletter

Since three years we travelled in Europe and gathered experiences and ideas about what will make you happy in your travelling. Additional we release ou first own CD and its concert made us open and appreciated to the public. We gave a lot of courses in various institutions and ourselves took further education in media work and management.

In November 2010 till January 2011 we travelled to and in Ghana. We meet officials and traditional chiefs and discussed about the new development ideas we have for the village Eguafo.

In Eguafo is a bording school. Some of the students stay at the school and some stay in the village. The space of learning and the access to the internet is a problem. So we had the idea to set up a learing place with access to computers and internet. The Eguafo youth union is working with us and will take care of the new learning center. Additional we have teachers, who will teach traditional music and dance.

In December we performed in he village and it was opening up the mind of the audience in Eguafo. They consulted me to form a traditional cultural group. I found it a good idea and accepted it. They made then an announcement in the village and my house was full of interested youngsters immediatly.

Volunteers: For the new learning centre in Eguafo we are asking anybody,who is interested in educating students to use computers. Most of them are beginners on the computer.

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