Recently I attended the Ghana Navy’s celebration of 60 years of service. The event was equally as frustrating as it was interesting to attend. My work day started at 8:30am when I arrived at the office and a few hours later I was informed that I would be going out on an assignment to Burma Camp, the military base. My colleague asked if I was reimbursed by the program for my transportation costs, as we would need to take a taxi to the event. With a chuckle, I said no and after a little bit of discussion with the editor we were off.

I quickly learned that nothing in Ghana starts on time, not even military events. I arrived with my colleague around 12:30 for a 1pm start time. As 1pm quickly approached the room was obviously not ready for attendees, let alone for the start of a program.

By the time 2pm rolled around things were looking hopeful. Participants were arriving and being seated. The microphones for the choir were being checked and the projectors were turned on. I was angrily stewing in my seat flipping through the program.

The event was finally under way by 2:30pm and it quickly became obvious that it was a propaganda event over all else. To celebrate their 60 years of defending the nation, the Ghana Navy unveiled a new logo and a book about the history of the Ghana Navy over the span of four hours. This celebration took place in two parts. The first half focused on the logo and the second half focused on the book release.

Throughout the four hours I learned about the many achievements of the Ghana Navy. They invited a guest of honor who sat on stage looking regal and silent. The speakers took many chances to mention that the guest of honor’s wife was once a member of the Ghana Navy, for which she was applauded numerous times. They brought in the Navy choir as well as dancers to perform a cultural display of traditional Ghanaian music and dance.

The propaganda really ramped up when the second half of the program began. It focused on a background of the history of the Navy and then proceeded into a book “review”. I would hesitate to describe the speech as a review of the book because it was more like an extensive recommendation for the book and an overview of what was written.

This “review” seemed to go on for quite a while, but when it finally finished the guest of honor stood up to make a few remarks about the book’s release. After this point a secret guest was called to the stage in order to begin the auctioning of the book. This guest turned out to be non-other than the playwright Ebo White, whose play I had seen just a week prior.

At this point the event pivoted from focusing on the achievements of the military to then focusing on the companies and individuals donating money. In an auctioneer style, Ebo White started the bidding for the first copy of the book. Eventually, people were giving thousands of cedi in order to have their copy of the book.

At this point I had been inundated with nearly six hours of hearing about the amazing things the Ghana Navy had accomplished. I had taken a few hundred photos of the various speakers, performers, and attendees. And yet, it wasn’t time to go. As people filtered out and the employees started clearing the equipment away my colleague insisted that we sit and finish the article. An article that I had no need to stick around for because I was on board as the photographer, but he insisted.

I sat next to him as he used two fingers to type his story, struggle to hear the recordings he had made because he was recording from speakers attached to the ceiling, and then I watched him search for a USB cord. After approximately an hour of watching him work I decided that it was time for me to leave.

After weaving between armed military guards preventing my Uber driver from getting any closer to the building I was finally on my way to dinner.