By Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei
In 2011, a small group of artists and cultural activists, led by Mantse Aryeequaye and Sionne Neely, transformed the streets of Jamestown, Accra into a living, breathing canvas of murals, music, and performance. Fourteen years later, in 2025, the Chale Wote Street Art Festival has grown into West Africa’s most celebrated public arts festival, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, international collaborations, and a permanent place on Ghana’s cultural calendar.
Humble Beginnings
The idea was simple but powerful: create a public, accessible platform where art could live outside galleries and connect directly with the people. The first edition lasted just one day, featuring graffiti, street painting, music, and spoken word. Its founders were inspired by global street art festivals but wanted something uniquely Ghanaian — rooted in community, history, and everyday life.
The name “Chale Wote”, meaning “Friend, let’s go” in Ghanaian slang and also referring to flip-flops, captured the festival’s open, welcoming spirit.
Expansion and Transformation
Over the years, Chale Wote has grown beyond Jamestown’s streets:
From a one-day event to a week-long festival spread across the city.
From a handful of performers to hundreds of local and international artists across music, film, dance, fashion, and literature.
From a community gathering to a continent-wide cultural movement, inspiring similar festivals in other African cities.
Venues have expanded to include the Nubuke Foundation, Museum of Science and Technology, Independence Square, and now Osu, reflecting both its scale and its symbolic link with Ghana’s independence and identity.
Themes with Meaning
Each year, Chale Wote adopts a theme that interrogates social, political, and cultural issues. In 2025, under the banner “The Orbs Beneath the Nile Lead to Kongo,” the festival highlighted African spiritual lineages, healing traditions, and liberation struggles, blending ritual with contemporary art.
Ritual processions, community murals, healing labs, and film screenings demonstrated how the festival continues to balance tradition and innovation, offering not just entertainment but spaces for memory, resistance, and renewal.
Impact on Ghana and Beyond
Chale Wote’s impact in 2025 is undeniable:
Tourism & Economy: It has become a magnet for cultural tourism, boosting Accra’s economy during August.
Creative Industry Growth: It provides visibility and opportunities for young Ghanaian artists to showcase their work to international audiences.
Cultural Identity: By rooting itself in Ga traditions while embracing global influences, it has become a symbol of Ghana’s creative resilience.
Global Links: The festival now attracts participants from Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, making Accra a hub of cultural diplomacy through art.
Chale Wote at 15: Rooted and Rising
The 2025 edition marks the 15th year of Chale Wote — and its third staging in Osu. For the Ga people, the number three signifies certainty, a fitting symbol of how the festival has moved from a fragile experiment to a permanent fixture in Accra’s cultural life.
From the burning of Nmatso in sacred rituals, to vibrant street parades, to film salons and healing labs, Chale Wote today stands as a living archive of African creativity and memory.
What began as a grassroots call — “Chale, wote!” (Friend, let’s go) — has become a continental movement of art, freedom, and radical joy.
Special Feature: Chale Wote 2025
The 2025 edition opened with solemnity. The festival’s first day, known as the Day of Remembering, began with a procession from the Osu Klottey Temple, led by Nuumo Noi Osikan III, the Osu Klottey Wulomo, and spiritual custodian Samoah MacHanson. Prayers, libations, and the burning of Nmatso set the tone for a cleansing journey that moved through historic landmarks such as the 28th February Crossroads and the Black Star Gate before culminating at Nationalism Park. There, installations transformed the grounds into an open-air gallery, with works such as Nii Noi Candos’ towering sculpture built from ocean debris offering a striking reminder of renewal, resilience, and humanity’s bond with nature.
As the days unfolded, the festival deepened its role as a space of reflection and renewal. On the second day, medical herbalist and researcher Naa Adjeley Tsofanye led a powerful session on the depth of African medicine and healing traditions, challenging misconceptions while drawing connections between spiritual practice and scientific knowledge. Later, the Film Salon brought cinematic encounters that blended memory with liberation. Ukrainian filmmaker Solomiia Zhmuro’s poetic works explored trauma and healing, while Muhammida El Muhajir’s When Malcolm Smiled offered a rare portrait of Malcolm X’s 1964 visit to Ghana, reframing him not just as a revolutionary but as a man of joy and reconnection.
By the third day, the festival had widened its embrace to include young filmmakers, beauticians, and musicians, creating an intergenerational dialogue that linked play with resistance. Amari Rebel’s performance invoked ancestral wisdom through rhythm and movement, while the Angilo Fashion Institute demonstrated how beauty itself can be an act of empowerment. Films such as Ato Hasford’s Rhythms of Reclamation and Dr. Niyi Coker Jr.’s Ota Benga left audiences reflecting on histories of violence and survival, reminding them that art is not just entertainment but a vital language of memory and continuity.
The city reached another high point with the return of the Gbagbasete Procession, a street takeover that turned Accra into a moving gallery of colour, rhythm, and imagination. With painted bodies, funky music, and bold street murals, the procession was both celebration and defiance, embodying the spirit of Chale Wote as a festival of freedom.
For residents of Osu, this year carried special meaning. The festival has now staged three consecutive editions in their community, and in Ga cosmology, the number three signifies certainty. It was a clear sign that Chale Wote has taken root beyond Jamestown, embedding itself as a permanent fixture in Accra’s cultural landscape.
