Email journal: July 19, 2006, Ghana

Today I travelled to Accra to pick up my passport that I had left at the Immigration Office for a visa extension. I also manged to visit some of Accra's important sites relating to Pan-Africanism, the first being the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre. Du Bois was a colleague of E. Franklin Frazier, a Clark graduate and the individual who is the focus of my honors thesis.

At the Centre, which was the house that Du Bois lived in during his two years in Ghana, there was on display an honorary degree awarded his wife from UMASS Amherst. I was also shown a map, drawn by Du Bois, of the 'state' of Philadelphia. The contents of the Centre were viewable in about 45 minutes. From there I left the suburbs of Accra and ventured to the city center where I explored the Padmore Research Library. Padmore was a leading Pan-Africanist from Trinidad who also spent two years in Ghana before he passed away, shortly before Du Bois.

The Padmore collection was quite extensive and there was also a sample of his own personal library that he kept in Ghana. Interesting to note, there was one book in each individuals' library written by Frazier. After all this walking I relaxed with some Jollof rice at the Mokola market where I went to pick up an essential commodity, toilet paper.

Brooks