Independence Square, also called Black Star Square, is the ceremonial heart of Ghana - the parade grounds where Nkrumah declared independence on March 6, 1957, the arch and monument that commemorate that moment, the space where national celebrations occur. The Black Star that tops the arch represents African freedom; the eternal flame honors those who fought for liberation. The square is oversized for daily use, designed for crowds that gather only on occasions.

The monuments that surround the square tell Ghana's official history. The Independence Arch echoes the Arc de Triomphe; the stands accommodate dignitaries reviewing parades; the scale asserts the importance of what happened here. The beaches that extend from the square offer a different Accra - fishing boats landing catch, football games on sand, ordinary life happening beside monuments to extraordinary events.

The slave castles of Ghana's coast - Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle the most famous - stand as memorials to centuries of human trafficking. Built by Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders, the castles held captured Africans in dungeons before loading them onto ships for the Middle Passage. The Door of No Return, through which slaves passed to the ships, has become pilgrimage destination for African Americans tracing ancestry that slavery severed.

The castles are two hours from Accra but essential to understanding what Ghana means. The UNESCO World Heritage designation has brought preservation and tourism; the Year of Return in 2019 brought diaspora visitors whose ancestors passed through these doors. The castles do not make for comfortable tourism - the dungeons are cramped and dark, the history is horrifying, the connection between past and present is direct. Ghana has embraced this history rather than avoiding it, making the castles central to national identity.

The old neighborhoods of Jamestown and Ussher Town predate colonial Accra, their narrow streets and fishing communities offering glimpses of the city before independence transformed it. The lighthouses that mark the neighborhoods date to the 1930s, their colonial architecture now surrounded by informal development. The boxing gyms of Jamestown, famous for producing champions, operate in buildings that time has weathered.

These neighborhoods face the pressures that urban development brings everywhere - rising land values, displacement of traditional communities, the replacement of character with commerce. The fishing canoes that still launch from Jamestown beaches compete with beach resort development; the families who have lived here for generations find themselves priced out. Accra's growth has made these neighborhoods valuable in ways that threaten what makes them valuable.

Ghana has actively courted the African diaspora, offering citizenship rights to descendants of slaves and promoting return migration. The Year of Return in 2019 commemorated 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, bringing thousands of diaspora visitors to Ghana. Some have stayed, establishing businesses and communities in Accra that create new connections between Africa and its scattered children.

The return is complicated. African Americans who come seeking roots find a culture that has its own history, not simply the absence of theirs. The privileges that American wealth confers sit uneasily beside Ghanaian realities. Yet the connections are real - the DNA tests that link families separated by centuries, the cultural exchange that enriches both sides, the economic investment that diaspora money represents. Accra is becoming a node in a network that slavery created and commerce is remaking.

Makola Market is Accra's commercial heart - a sprawling maze of stalls selling cloth, electronics, food, and everything else that Ghanaians buy and sell. The market women who control trade have political power that their informal status belies; no government can ignore them, and their strikes have brought the city to standstills. The market is not for tourists - the crowds, the heat, the confusion defeat outsiders - but it is where Accra's economy actually functions.

The Osu neighborhood offers a different commerce - the Oxford Street restaurants and shops that serve expatriates and wealthy Ghanaians, the nightlife that distinguishes Accra from more conservative cities. The contrast between Makola and Osu represents Accra's range, the formal and informal economies coexisting in ways that statistics cannot capture.