Tourist Sites Of Ghana: Afdjato and Wli Waterfalls ||
Many believe that travel is the best way to see the world, and I share this belief. Although I don’t travel much even inside my own country Ghana. This is because of the fact that I am still in school and the school breaks are not long enough for me to take long vacations and actually enjoy it. First thing after graduation, I plan to set out and travel through Ghana to see some very beautiful scenes of my country. Let’s see 2 of these beautiful places I talk about.
Mountain Afadja
If you’re a tourist who has visited this place already, you’re probably going to be wondering why I wrote Mountain Afadja instead of Mountain Afadjato like you might have thought. I’ll explain.
Mountain Afadja is the highest mountain found in Ghana and is found in the Volta region of Ghana, the land of The Ewe. “Afadja” is the name of the mountain, and “to” in the Ewe dialect, means mountain. So in essence, Afadjato means Afadja mountain or mountain Afadja.
It is therefore only correct to say mountain Afadja because saying mountain Afadjato will cause a repetition of the word “mountain”. Great, now you understand why it will be a tautology to call it Mountain Afadjato. Like most natural scenes, Afadjato is graced with beautiful creatures like mona and spotted monkeys, and several species of butterflies, among a few others.
Relative to Accra, the capital of Ghana, Afadjato is 178km or 111miles northeast. Mountain Afadja is 885 metres (2,904 ft) above sea level. The history of Afadjo is also a quite interesting one. The mountain was named following some similarities the ewe people saw the mountain shared with the mound of a water yam.
When the Ewe people moved there, the mountain looked like the mound in which water yam is planted, and the fact that there were also creeping plants resembling water yam growing on it led to them naming it “avadze-to”(“avadze” is the Ewe name for water yam and “to” means mountain). The name was later refined into Afadjato to make it more pronounceable for foreigners.
Wli Waterfalls
Wli Waterfalls like Afadjato is the highest waterfall in Ghana. To most Ghanaians, that is all it is. However, it not just the highest waterfall in Ghana but the highest waterfall in all of West Africa. The waterfall is known locally as agoomatsa meaning “allow me flow” in Ewe. Wli waterfalls is approximately 280 kilometres from Accra, and is called Wli because it is near Wli, a village in the Hoehoe municipality.
As can be clearly seen from the picture above, the waterfall is on a very high level and tourists can hike and climb to explore the site. Wli is open year-round. The beauty of Wli waterfalls is most radiant between April to October when the water from the top runs with great pressure to collect in a pool at the bottom of the mountain. In the rainy season, it is mostly scary and a dangerous adventure hiking to the mountain top because the mountain becomes very slippery.
Like I said earlier in my publication, I don’t travel much, but that is only because I am still in school. I plan to explore at least Ghana, my country after graduation in a few months.
References:
I remember visiting Mt. Afadjato a while ago. It is quite a tall one so much that you could see the eastern ghanaian border way up there. Thanks for this.
Must have been fun. I plan to go there sometime. Maybe climbing that high up will help me deal with my fear of height.
Nice sharing. The name mountain afadjato has been used for a long period of time. Since it is in the mind, though you know the right thing but the error is usually made. Thanks for the enlightenment. Keep sharing
Yhh I don’t think even most Ghanaians in particular know the pronunciation we know is actually a tautology.