Preview: In the hot seat with Joy's Golden Boy

Listen to extracts from our exclusive interview with Joy FM's Super Morning Show host, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah as he discusses life as Ghana's top radio broadcaster, filling Komla Dumor's sizeable shoes and why he left the UK for Ghana... and never looked back.

You can read the full article in the forthcoming issue of What's On Ghana magazine, out next week and available to buy online at http://www.whatsonghana.com/.

Chelsea FC to visit Ghana

English FA Cup holders Chelsea will embark on their first humanitarian visit to Africa with a trip to Ghana next week.

Manager Jose Mourinho will head the delegation, that includes BBC African Footballer of Year Michael Essien, to inspect projects run by the charity Right To Play.

The delegation will be Accra and Tamale from 29 May until 3 June to visit projects run by the club's global charity partner.

Links: Right To Play

Skinny-only message to African models

ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters) -- Skinny African girls may get to strut on Western catwalks but the fat ones have to stay at home.

This is the message being delivered to the 500 or so Ghanaians who have registered with the country's only international modeling agency, Exopa.

"A lot of them want to go. But not everyone has the chance to go because of the size the Europeans want them to be," said Exopa's Ghanaian director Sima Ibrahim.

As models on Western catwalks get thinner and thinner, their hungry look has sparked noisy debate about the pressure this places on girls and women to achieve perfection even if perfection means Size Zero, the smallest American dress size, the equivalent to a British size four.

In Africa, rolls of flesh are usually seen as a sign of wealth and status, not of ill health.

Few aspire to a skinny look, as those who look starved and ill too often are that way through misfortune, not choice.

But just as Africa's youth find themselves choosing between Western music and clothes and those rooted in their own tradition, they are now faced with two opposing images of beauty -- the Western ideal of an ever thinner frame and the African one of a buxom and well-rounded figure.

Nowhere is this debate clearer than in the African fashion industry.

Those who want to make it as a fashion model in the West are well aware they need to conform to Western sizes.

"Those that come here who are skinny, they know they want to go international. The others, they know they are big, they want a job here in Ghana," said Exopa's Ibrahim.

Freema Agyeman interview

Question time
Freema Agyeman makes her debut as Doctor Who's companion this Saturday. She talks about Billie Piper, race and kissing a time lord
Interview by Hannah Pool
Thursday March 29, 2007
The Guardian

BBC World Service Network Africa Ghana @ 50 coverage

6th March 2007
Live from Accra
Komla Dumor is live from the hub of the celebrations at Independence Square, where the party got underway at midnight and Ghanaians and visiting dignitaries have been enjoying the day.

Slavery's 'door of no return' in Ghana open to tourists

Story Highlights

• Elmina was "door of no return" for many Africans shipped off to slavery

• The fort was built by the Portuguese, later held by the Dutch and British

• Britain will mark bicentennial of its abolition of the slave trade on March 25

ELMINA, Ghana (Reuters) -- For many, it was their last glimpse of Africa.

Pushed through the "door of no return," millions of Africans were shipped from places like this whitewashed fort in Elmina, Ghana, to a life of slavery in Brazil, the Caribbean and America.
A band of light from that same door now cuts through the air in a small, dank room crowded with about 30 tourists.

"We are very lucky. Today we can go back out of this room the way we came," says Robert Kugbey, their soft-spoken guide.

As Britain marks the bicentennial of its abolition of the slave trade on March 25, Ghanaians are still coming to terms with slavery's impact on their country's development and the role Africans played in the capture and sale of fellow Africans.

More on this story...

Don't miss this event

Thank U, in collaboration with Ghana High Commission invites the Young people in your family and friends to come and celebrate Ghana's 50 anniversary at this fun-filled Edutainment Prom on Friday 9th March 2007.

They will learn about History and culture of Ghana through games, quizzes, film, competition and a delicious Buffet Dinner.

There will be a competition on the night to select 10 boys and girls to go on a special summer camp programme to Ghana in July 2007 (which may be subject to funding).

Tickets are: £10 per person. Ghana @50 Souvenir booklet: £3

Make your cheque payable to: THANK U and send it to : Thank U Edutainment, 20 Abbey Gardens, London, W6 8QR.

Please send a self-addressed envelope and with your cheque.