Yama
In 2022 I travelled to Ghana with British filmmaker Maddie Meddings to meet up with a pioneering group of female surfers and skaters who are part of a collective called Surf Ghana. We made a short film about it called Yama that toured the globe, winning multiple awards.
Once a stronghold of the transatlantic slave trade and with a history of Atlantic aquatic surf culture that precedes colonial invasion, this is a story of a reclamation and joy.
Aiming to tell a story that challenges the representations that many African nations are commonly subjected to in western media, Yama begins in the bustling city of Accra and travels to the wave rich coastline where there are communities driving the budding Ghanaian modern surf scene.
The Fantes are the people who populate the area where female surfers live. Yama is their name for the wooden boats that still cross Ghana's shoreline today.