yesmonassa

[yesmonassa]

Hitch-hiking over the past few years has given me so much insight into culture, people and attitudes all around the world. On this sunny afternoon I was making my way through Togo and here in West Africa, every car is a potential taxi. It wasn't long before we stopped to pick up two passengers waiting patiently by the roadside.

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Akodessewa Fetish Market, Lome TOGO

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Voodoo and the Dance Battle, Benin

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The Voodoo Festival, Benin

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fire brigade 

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The Ghanaian wedding

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BUKOM street boxing - Accra I happened to be wandering around Agbogbloshie - the world’s largest ‘E-waste’ dumpsite and toxic hole when I met a lethargic guy called Elijah. I was heading towards Togo the following day but Elijah and I swapped numbers and he promised that he would take me to the monthly boxing bout on the dumpsite when I returned. I’d been in Ghana only 4days and I already had more than a dozen locals’ contacts. Ghanaians like to call you up all the time without a reason, just to chat - it was cute (in the beginning).

The big day came and I was back in Accra, a couple of calls and some hours later we weren’t heading toward the dumpsite anymore, but further south to a neighbourhood called Bukom.  We were early, it was still too hot to fight. I was invited in for a tea to the organiser/referees’ ‘office’ where he explain that the program was set up to get youths off the streets and give them some focus in their lives.  “This small neighbourhood has produced 5 world champion boxers” The poverty and motivation to escape it combined with programs like this is producing badass boxers. The final bout was straught in controversy though, when the weaker of the two boxers was crowed champion. Apparently it was linked to a sponsorship deal and he HAD to win but the crowd didn’t like it. I got called in to strap the belt around the champ’s waist. 

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Two letter words; so go lo no he be up us A visit to the local school with mother Ghana. Nima, Accra.

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MELONY

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THE EVANGELICAL CONVENTION It all started on new years eve in Accra. I met a mexican girl who’d lived in a mountain village in central Ghana, called AGOGO. Based on the name alone I decided to give it a visit and with her friends’ contact I hopped on the fun bus the very next day. Driving into the town in a banged-up trotro, we passed banners reading ‘53rd True Faith Evangelical Church Convention’ which happened to be in Agogo that weekend! HALLELUJAH!! I quickly met a lovely bloke called Nats, a priest, who explained that on the first and second days everybody traditionally dressed in white, he invited me to come at 6am the next morning to be blessed by the Bishop, the third and final day when the congregation would be cladded in red - symbolising the blood that christ spilt, of course. I rolled up the next morning at sunrise with hens cluckin’ and horn already beeping and was basically taken under Nats’ wing for the morning, paraded around and even ended up giving a speech in the center of the area to the 2000 disciples listening at what this whiteman had to say. I told them that I loved them, and it was true. Since arriving in Ghana, that was what I felt..that I was returning to the motherland and somehow things made sense to me here, the simplicity and honesty you could feel in the people, the sharing, the smiles and especially the music - which filled the air both near and far and flowed through the body of all Africans. The convention took all of this and multiplied it with faith love and song, so that you couldn’t help but move your feet and adore the community. It felt like a unit, and although I’m not a religious man, what I felt in their presence was joy and happiness. Before long I was challenged to a dance-off and found myself knee-pounding along side the bishop. After this Nats introduced me one-by-one to the 12 most important pastors, bishops, apostles which had made the trip here, and then, I was finally blessed.  AMEN.

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An afternoon stroll to Hwidiem waterfall, Ashanti state GHANA

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I was couchsurfing in da ghetto with Erik, a NIMA resident and all around bongo banging nice guy. Five minutes after arriving I had a spliff in one hand, beer in the other and was bootyshakin’ to some fresh afrobeats in a makeshift ghetto bar sheltering us from the sweltering afternoon heat. Pheew.  Nima is one of Accra’s most impoverished and multicultural neighbourhoods, the first stop for many migrant workers arriving to the Ghanaian capital. I was absorbed into the community - sweat, music and smells booming out of every orifice and spending time here meeting the locals was one of my fondest experiences in Accra.

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Towards the end of the summer, there’s a tradition in Sweden. You have a party, eat shitloads of crayfish, drink lots of schnapps and sing songs. This is our kollektive, these are my housemates, and this is our crayfish party. yeah.

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allan & ronak go fishing  (& i caught my first ever fish!)

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I hope you have enjoyed following my photographic journey over the past 18months, through 28 incredible nations and I sincerely hope that you have learned something about the world we live in - that’s why I have shared my journey through my tumblr blog. I made it back to the UK and was dropped off on my doorstep by my final ride on the evening of december 24th (thanks mark!) just in time to surprise my family for Christmas day, 2014. Here are a few of the people I hitched with with on the last leg of my overland voyage, from Armenia to the UK. Taken from my www.instagram.com/yesmonassa Check it. Since then I have moved to Sweden, hitchhiked around Norway and jived with voodoo priests in west africa. Pictures coming soon. Yeah. Thankyou and goodnight. Peace. aL//

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golden frost

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sarajevo