Flowers for All Seasons

By Amba Mpoke-Bigg

Life in Ghana today is a melting pot of many cultural influences. From villages to cities, large portions of our society observe western holidays and religious occasions like Christmas, Easter, church weddings, christenings, even birthdays.
The increasing popularity of the more commercial celebrations like Mother’s and Father’s day, and St Valentine’s, are signs that we are truly becoming a hybrid society. These western imports come with a variety of integral associations – gifts, wrapping paper, cards and of course flowers.
Flowers: the ultimate symbol of beauty, romance, and love. To a large extent, middle-class Ghanaians have adopted these ideas and associations, using flowers to express their affection on birthdays, anniversaries, and most certainly on Valentine’s Day.
So strong are these influences that sometimes it’s easy to forget that traditional Ghanaian aesthetics often have a very different set of references. Culturally for example, for the average person, flowers are not given out as gifts.
Indeed Ghana has an abundance of beautiful tropical flowers and plants, all growing effortlessly underfoot, almost everywhere and all year round unlike many countries in the western hemisphere, which have to wait for summer.
So to residents of a small village in western Ghana, the charm of orchids or some other exotic tropical flower would naturally seem commonplace –after all they grow wild and are seen every day.
It is not surprising then that when a group of women selected randomly across the capital for a television survey recently were asked how they would respond to an expensive bouquet of flowers, their response was unanimous: no thanks, money is better spent on more “important” things.
Indeed, and with typical earthy Ghanaian wit, one woman asked:
“Can you eat flowers?”
It was a funny moment, but it also got me thinking.


The answer is, actually, yes. You can “eat” flowers - in the sense that the commercial cultivation of flowers is an important source of revenue for many. Just like cocoa, coffee and tropical fruit, flowers can be produced for export.
This is one of the underlying messages of the second annual Ghana Garden and Flower Show which is an initiative of Strategic Communications Africa (Stratcomm Africa). Stratcomm Africa’s goal is to highlight the benefits of garden and flower cultivation to the general public and to promote tourism and healthier lifestyles.
According to Ghana’s Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Ghana is lagging behind its fellow flower-exporting nations, wasting potential for millions of dollars in revenue and employment opportunities.
Ethiopia, the fourth largest flower exporter in the world, has a flower export market which significantly boosts the country’s economy. Kenya also relies on flower exports to generate millions of dollars for the national coffers.
Stratcomm Africa hopes that this year’s theme – “Gardening for Value: Health, Beauty, Jobs and Income” will resonate with the public as many Ghanaians search for extra income to pay their bills and feed their families. The organizers say they will focus on Business and job opportunities that come with horticulture, and will set up workshops to explore the many avenues of generating income from gardening and commercial flower ventures.
So let’s pause for a minute and stop asking questions about whether flowers can be eaten or not.
Flowers, for the modern Ghanaian, are both beautiful and “edible.”

Editors Note: The second Ghana Garden and Flower Show is to be held at the Efua Sutherland Children's Park, Accra, from 29 August - 8th September, 2014.