Did you know that Ghana’s coasts are home to Coral Reefs?
If you didn’t know, you may be sharing the same sense of curiosity and awe that George Amado once did, an awe that guides much of what he does to re-story his beloved home country, Ghana.
A mathematician by education, his passion is teaching. Not just numbers, but any and every thing he learns along the way. Guided by his faith and inspired by how the life in the ocean and on land is connected, this husband and father of two is a man on a mission to re-story Ghana’s Corals Reefs, teaching drowning prevention and establishing a whole new dive industry on his local coast.
Growing up I had a near-drowning experience in the ocean. It was only after my university education that I took swimming lessons to deal with the fear so that I could to go back to the ocean and face it squarely and see what was out there.
Dealing with his fear all those years ago and combined with his passion for teaching, George has been teaching people in his community, church and more recently, even young babies swimming skills and water safety. Leaning further into his curiosity about the ocean, he saved to travel to Johannesburg (South Africa )in 2018 to do an Open Water SCUBA course, not realising at the time his reason for doing it would be defeated since the training took place in confined water - not the ocean.
On how he discovered Ghana’s corals, he recalls taking a trip with his now wife (at the time they were not even dating), to Nzulezo where they went to teach drowning prevention and safety skills to the locals. This village of more than 500 people live on stilted homes perched on platforms right on the water, but often don’t have sufficient water skills to stay safe.
On their way back they passed through his wife’s home town, Saltpond. He remembers seeing the oil rig, abandoned and scheduled to be decommissioned, from the shore where it stuck out like a sore thumb piquing his curiosity. He later met Mr. Kingsley Ako Odoi, a commercial diver whose team was contracted to inspect and seal off valves and other potential openings underwater, now almost 15 years ago. The video footage from this inspection (part of the preparation to decommission it) found the submerged supports of the rig completely encrusted with coral life.
He showed me the footage knowing I was curious about these kinds of things. I watched it and thought WOW! There is this thing here in Ghana that nobody is aware of? I didn’t feel that was right - so I registered Coral Reefstoration Ghana as a the first step to advocating for the protection of these corals. I then happened to teach some marine scientists at the University of Ghana and met their professor, Dr.Edem Manu who also works with coral - and so we’ve kind of teamed up to collaborate and see what we can do to completely stop the decommissioning.
In a welcome twist of fate, the decommission project didn’t happen, buying them more time while George applies for a special license to explore the rig with the hopes of getting new footage of the coral and their current state.
The plan is to make a film that shares the wealth on the coast with the community, creating a sense of national pride and awareness he hopes will inspire locals to assist in conserving the biodiversity. The big dream is that through re-storying these reefs, subsistence fisherman and the local communities who live along the coast will be newly incentivised to combat the plastic pollution prevalent on many of the beaches as part of a holistic shift to creating new industries. A mission that is very possible given that the privately owned beaches and areas that accommodate foreign visitors are kept clean to benefit the tourist economies.
The fact that Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first African-born Prime Minister whose bold leadership and dynamic vision led Ghana to independence in 1957, set up his office in the region is a nod to the historical importance of this area. Taking strides for conservation in the region also ensures that all historically significant sites on land and underwater are preserved and shown to the world through the lens of locals - and for the benefit of economies that contribute rather than strip.
Understanding the importance of these stories, attending the West African Marine Science Symposium in August of 2023 with Dr.Edem Mahu, it struck him with just how many African marine scientists were under the same roof. Furthermore, many had been contributing to science for many years… yet couldn’t swim.
Here, George got to share his swimming journey, teaching and dream for Ghana’s corals with Noel Kok (Co-Founder and Executive Director of NEWF) in person, leading to an invitation to the 2024 Fellows Summit and Congress in Durban and a training program hosted at eKhaya Storytelling Centre based in Sodwana Bay. Apart from his advancement towards his Divemaster, George also had the opportunity to certify as a Level 1 Freediver facilitated by Argonaut Science.
Recognising the undeniable need for collaboration George has already borrowed a GoPro and befriended a few local fishermen who have invited him to join them at sea where he’ll drop off the side of their boats to investigate what can be seen. These missions back home are preparation for others to join him in the work of re-storying Ghana’s coasts one dive and one story at a time.
A testament to his commitment to kickstarting locally inclusive recreational diving on Ghana’s coast, his time away from his family training diligently is a reminder of the sacrifice that accompanies pioneering. When he returns home, still only having started his journey to training others locally, he is bridging more than a gap separating his community from the ocean. Each of his personal training milestones supports the creation of pathways for locals to train right at home while continuing to earn an income. Each step taken towards the milestones lined up before him brings him closer to activating an industry he hopes will be a source of income for communities and something they are part of from inception.
Having inched his way through the rigorous Divemaster program with a handful of hardworking dive buddies with similar aspirations for access and industry in their home countries, he has been giving back to other fellows in the dive lab programs by assisting Sli and Nkosi with pool training. While this aligns closely with the access work he does in Ghana, it has been a valuable exercise while continuing his training based from eKhaya Storytelling, Research and Dive Centre. Reaching his next milestone, George and fellow instructor-in-training Mbonea Mdoe are celebrating qualifying as open instructors as this updated story goes live.
This is the Africa we dream of. This is the Africa our mission work is defined by.
These milestones are investments into the industry the NEWF community seeks to take up space in - and the stories we wish to tell about our people, coastlines, coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves and the blue economies led by passionate African scientists, explorers and advocates.
Congratulations to Sli (Instructor), Nkosi (Instructor-in-training), George, Mbonea and their collective training and support teams for this deeply significant and exciting shared milestone.
Africa Refocused - it’s a thing! If you would like to support the largest ocean access program for African scientists, conservationists and storytellers, get in touch via connect@newf.co.za.
This story was updated in November 2024.
