Akwaaba: The muAccra Experience
“We face neither East nor West; We face forward” - Osagyefo Dr. Francis Kwame Nkrumah
A month ago, I was seated at a hall in the Abokobi region of Ghana, participating in the muAccra community engagement session (Yes, I did go back to check the schedule). It seems like it was just yesterday but time has been moving and I have been procrastinating on the right time to sit down and write this article. Documenting experiences is something I find interesting and I myself, am fond of reading about my past experiences.
When I saw a tweet pop up about muAccra while I was online, which I am chronically fond of, I was like, this is a Zuzalu-ish event. I am now fond of calling pop-up city events, Zuzalu-ish as that was the event that sort of kicked the ball rolling for such events in the web3 ecosystem. And it was one I was really looking forward to attending but didn’t due to visa issues. I was excited about muAccra. A 2-week ecosystem event happening in Ghana? Sign me up. My body and spirit were willing to attend but my pocket was weak. I had previously embarked on some capital intensive project so I was somehow spread thin.
I had a conversation with Mr Eric Annan (founder of AyaHQ) about renewable energy (Have I become a Solar bro?) for the recently commissioned Aya Labs Hacker House. He asked if I was coming to muAccra, so I could get to take a look at the facility during my stay at muAccra. I told him things were still shaky but I’ll see what happens. That day I applied to attend and somehow, I got to attend ( largely thanks to the DeSci Gitcoin Grant round).
I arrived at the venue on a Sunday night, just in time to miss the community dinner. I got into my accommodation and it was a smooth co-living experience. I had never been in something like this before. It has been conferences, mixers and meetups mostly. However, staying with over 85 people from diverse backgrounds and skills was really an eye-opener. If my memory serves me correctly, we had over 19 communities across Africa participate in the community engagement session. I got the opportunity to speak with a lot of people and learn from them, mostly in casual settings. From when I took late evening walks to buy waakye (which turned out to be my dinner most of the time), to eating the free breakfast to walking back to the hostels etc.
We had over 25 sessions, ranging from Starknet Bootcamp to Real World Asset Tokenization to ODHack Meetup, during our stay and I got to give a talk on Decentralized Science, and also got some conversations going on about it, with ideas dropped. Some community members got to organise a tour for us and it was so fun. We started with a hike and later in the afternoon, we visited Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, the Accra Arts Center and finally Labadi beach. It was really a fun weekend and I got to see a good number of nice things in Ghana. I also got to meet some Devconnect Scholars (Blessing, Ifeoluwa, Halima, Likem and Lance) from last year, who I didn’t get to meet due to visa issues with attending Devconnect Istanbul. The hackathon day was quite an interesting one and I had to make a Twitter post aggregating the projects that were pitched.
My last night in Ghana was an eventful one. I had told myself there was no way I would leave Ghana without experiencing the nightlife there, and I am glad I did. The live band at Zen Garden was amazing and I was dancing to the music, despite not understanding what was being said. The music ended around 12:3am but to me, the night was still young. I asked around and got directed to Kona in Osu. The place was like an open-air club packed with people and a lot of vibes. It was a beautiful night with the group I was with. If there was going to be another mu event in Africa, I would be there no matter what. I can’t wait to see what people build thanks to the rubbing of mind at muAccra. Also, the MVP at muAccra for me was Kweku Tech who was behind the camera. Thanks to him I have a ton of pictures.
Oh and before I forget, I did eat Ghana jollof rice and it was nice. However Nigerian jollof rice tastes better. Thank you.
