The recent years have seen a period of intensified political and economic relations between the Republic of Ghana and Hungary. Within the framework of Hungary’s foreign policy strategy called Opening to the South, Ghana has gained a prominent place, as also testified by the reopening of the Hungarian Embassy in Accra in April 2016.
Accordingly, a large-scale national image campaign entitled Hungarian Cultural Week was launched between 10-18 March in association with the Embassy of Hungary in Ghana, Sena Dagadu and her BlackBird team.
The official events for international representatives, business partners were held in the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra between 10-16 March. The aim was to promote Hungary, our cultural heritage, just like our gastronomy and touristic opportunities. Within this framework the promotion of Hungarian flavours and premium products played a significant role, therefore a Hungarian chef employed by the Kempinski chain itself created Hungarian menu during the whole course of the week in the hotel’s restaurant. Hungarian wineries introduced their wines and spirits, therefore representatives of food chains and catering establishments of the capital city were invited to attend the event. The gastronomic experience was completed by live music: Hungarian musicians performed folk, jazz and contemporary music.
The Second Ghanaian-Hungarian Business Forum was held on 15 March at Kempinski Hotel in cooperation with the Ghana Chamber of Commerce. The delegation included the representatives of about a dozen of Hungarian companies from the fields of agriculture, agro-processing, creative- and health industry.
A cultural program took place at Rockstone’s Office between 12-14 March. Every day from 4:00 pm there were children’s workshops: light painting with the visual team, Hungarian children games, workshops with books of Hungarian authors. The delegation brought 200 books donated by Hungarian book store chain Libri to be brought to Ghanaian children libraries. In addition, the boarder public could taste some of Hungary’s most famous food specialities.
At the same venue a Mini Hungarian Film Festival was taking place: every day from 8:00 pm a Hungarian movie was screened (namely the Liza the Fox-Fairy, The Citizen and the Balaton Method).
The closing event of the Accra program was the Connection Concert at Alliance Francais on 17 March where 16 Hungarian musicians unite their forces with Accra’s own music legends in order to create a unique musical experience. Hungarian urban folk band Zuboly performed alongside Wanlov The Kubolor and Stevo, the kologo player. Sena Dagadu and her band brought Ghanaian megastar VVIP for her performance as they collaborative song Skolom was one of the biggest hits in Ghana. She also invited Worlasi, young rising star and Ghanaian horn and guitar players for her show. Hungarian-Ghanaian band RedRed also performed at this event. RedRed was formed by well known Ghanaian rapper-singer Mensa Ansah and Hungarian music producer Márton Élő. They performed alongside Ghanaian musician legends as Gyedu Blay Amboley and Tumi Ansah.
To represent Hungarian culture not just in Accra, the bands travelled to the Volta region - where family of Sena Dagadu is from -, therefore a concert was held in the village of Tsyome Afedo, too.
