Our Adventure in Makola Market

Our adventurous spirit led us to visit Makola Market with a few friends that knew the "path through this jungle." We left home at 7 a.m. on a Saturday hoping to beat the crowd and we still found it shoulder to shoulder from the moment we arrived. Truly, it was a flowing sea of humanity, with an occasional goat or truck in the mix.

Makola Market is where all the locals from Accra and surrounding areas go to find and buy what they need. It covers 12 or more square blocks of tightly packed buildings, booths, and people. Although there are still a few fresh food items left in the market, now it is mostly things. You can literally find anything you want at Makola Market if you are willing to take the time to look for it. You can find dress shirts, to fabric, to prepackaged goods (who knows if they are genuine or not), to used parts, to wastebaskets, to luggage, to propane tanks and anything else your mind can imagine.

Gregg and I have been to markets, bazaars, and "souks" in many places including Istanbul, Cairo, Amman, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Mexico City, Juarez, and Sharmel Sheikh. However, Makola Market in Accra, Ghana is now one of our favorites. There was not one "tourist" item for sale and not one vendor begged us to buy anything. Other than our little group, we never saw another white person (obruni) the entire time and no one gave us a second look. It was still fun to bargain, but the prices were low and fairly firm.

Gregg bought several nice things: four dress ties, a bow tie, and cuff links all for about $10. I saw a cluster of women tightly grouped around a vendor on the sidewalk and poked my head in to happily discover Ghanaian Batik fabric for a good price. Yes, I bought two pieces (about 3 yards each) for about $12 total.

Although we went early in the day, it was very hot and humid and Gregg quickly became completely soaked in sweat. At the end, our little group had bought so much that we needed to hire a little lady to carry our bounty back to the car. She placed a flat board on her head and had us stack it several feet high. Gregg had so much fun; he can't wait to go back. I asked him, what would you buy? And his reply was, "I'm sure we could find something!"