Paint the town Rasta

When ten college students go anywhere, they go looking for a party. Accra is no different. On Wednesday night’s, Labadi beach hosts Reggae night and, being in Africa, we all thought it necessary to attend a “real Rasta party.” We were not disappointed. We got to Labadi around 10pm and the place was a little sparse with the exception of the stage. To the left was a band comprised of Bob Marley look-alikes and red, yellow and green instruments. Center stage, a group of men and women dressed in what appeared to be traditional African attire were dancing emphatically. It was only after about 15 minutes of enjoying the show did we realize that this was actually a Ghanaian funeral celebration, popularized by a New York Times article a few months ago. With all of the lights, I could barely make out “In memory of…” on the projector behind the dancers. It was too dark to take pictures of the dancers and in retrospect, this isn’t entirely unfortunate. Some of the women were experiencing “wardrobe malfunctions,” as their strapless tops slipped down to their waist while they danced. So for the next fifteen minutes, ten white kids danced in the middle of an empty, sandy dance floor admiring the traditional and occasionally topless dancers. As the night went on, it became more and more crowded and the stage focused more on solo performers. We continued to dance while occasionally running down to the water to wet our feet. A few of us girls ended up dancing on stage until 1am, when we called it quits and decided to return to our abode. Note to self: a white girl dancing onstage at a Reggae concert in Africa is more of a spectacle than a show.