(Accra district, Ghana)
On a busy road a stone’s throw from the centre of Accra, I can see an impressive mountain of rubbish in the distance, towering over the shantytown district of Old Fadama. It’s a mountain about twenty metres high, made up of old clothes piled up, plastics, computer waste and also rubbish eaten by cows.
As with transhumance, a herd of cattle lives permanently at the top to extract the organic matter from the rubbish. The organic waste from the “Accra mountain pastures” provides food for the herd. Everything here is surreal and excessive. The cohabitation of animal and man on this artificial mountain of rubbish is surreal.
With the permission of the local king, I climb to the top of the hill to see the Ghanaian capital in the distance.
Christian Barbé 2023
An impressive mountain of rubbish towers over a slum area in Accra, Ghana.