Ghana is not only full of vibrant markets, beaches, and history, it is also home to powerful literature. Books written by Ghanaian authors bring the country’s cities, towns, and villages to life through stories of love, struggle, history, and resilience. What makes reading these works even more meaningful is the chance to visit the places where the stories unfold. Here is a journey through Ghana, guided by the pages of its most beloved books.
Cape Coast and Elmina: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
This might be the most popular book we’ve seen across our readers here in Ghana. Yaa Gyasi’s acclaimed novel Homegoing begins in 18th-century Ghana, with one half-sister married into a Cape Coast family and the other imprisoned beneath Cape Coast Castle before being shipped across the Atlantic. Visiting Cape Coast and Elmina castles today is a moving experience. The dungeons, the “door of no return,” and the surrounding fishing towns echo with the history the novel captures so powerfully. Standing at the castle walls overlooking the ocean connects you to both the story and the real human past that inspired it.
Looking for a day trip to Cape Coast or Elmina? We can help you with that. We’re just an e-mail away.
Accra: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
Armah’s classic novel is set in post-independence Accra of the 1960s, a city full of contrasts between wealth and poverty, hope and disillusionment. Walking through Jamestown’s historic streets, visiting Makola Market, or even taking a trotro ride gives a glimpse of the daily life that shaped Armah’s writing. Accra is a character in itself, noisy and alive, and still carries the energy of the novel’s setting.
Osu and East Legon: Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo
In Changes: A Love Story, Ama Ata Aidoo explores modern relationships, women’s independence, and the clash between tradition and modernity. Much of the story moves through Accra’s offices, homes, and lively neighbourhoods. Spending an afternoon in Osu, with its cafés and shops, or exploring the leafy streets of East Legon offers insight into the backdrop of the novel. These are the places where modern Ghanaian life and personal stories intersect.
Accra: Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go follows the fragmented Sai family as they return to Ghana after years apart. Much of the novel’s emotional heart takes place in Accra, where the family reconnects with both their roots and each other. Selasi’s descriptions bring to life the experience of coming back “home” after time in the diaspora, a theme many in Accra can relate to.
In the novel, Kweku Sai builds his new life in the suburbs of Accra, spaces that reflect both aspiration and distance. Modern residential areas such as East Legon or Airport Residential echo the type of neighborhoods Selasi describes. Quiet, green, and just removed enough from the bustle of the city center. When the family gathers after his death, it is not only a reunion with each other but with Ghana itself, and Accra becomes the backdrop for reconciliation.
To walk through Accra with Ghana Must Go in mind is to notice contrasts: the lively rhythm of Makola Market, the calm of residential enclaves, and the growing presence of diasporan returnees who, like the characters, are negotiating what “home” really means. The city is less a specific setting than a character of its own. A place that both welcomes and challenges, holding together memory, identity, and the possibility of healing.
Accra: No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben
Set in Accra, No One Dies Yet is a bold, genre-bending novel that mixes queer love stories, crime, and satire against the backdrop of Ghana’s capital. Kobby Ben Ben paints a city that is vibrant and dangerous at once, where elite mansions, buzzing nightlife, and underground scenes collide.
Readers are taken into the heart of Osu, with its neon-lit bars, clubs, and restaurants, where characters chase pleasure, secrets, and survival. The story also moves through the city’s wealthier enclaves, echoing the gated communities of Airport Residential or Cantonments, which stand in sharp contrast to the chaos of the night.
For travelers, reading No One Dies Yet before exploring Accra adds layers of intrigue. A walk down Oxford Street in Osu, with its blend of local street food and sleek lounges, feels like stepping into the novel’s restless energy. Visiting the city’s art spaces or LGBTQ+ friendly hangouts also connects you with the themes of identity and resistance that pulse through the story.
In this way, the book becomes a lens to see Accra not just as a tourist destination, but as a living, complex city where hidden worlds coexist.
From Accra’s Markets to Ghana’s North: The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo
Mamle Wolo’s The Kaya Girl tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two teenage girls: Abena, from a wealthy Accra family, and Faiza, a kaya girl who has migrated from northern Ghana to work as a head porter in Makola Market. Through Faiza’s journey, the novel connects the bustling streets of Accra with the landscapes and traditions of the north.
While most of the action takes place in Makola Market, the story constantly points northward, reminding readers of the distance many young girls travel from towns and villages around Tamale, Bolgatanga, and Wa. These regions, known for their savannah landscapes, mud-brick houses, and rich cultural festivals, stand in sharp contrast to Accra’s fast-paced city life.
For a traveler, the book is an invitation to move beyond the capital. After exploring Makola Market (still one of Accra’s most vivid and overwhelming experiences) you could follow Faiza’s footsteps north. A journey by road brings you into the heart of Ghana’s Upper East and Upper West Regions, where you’ll find sites such as Paga Crocodile Pond, Sirigu’s painted houses, and the wide open spaces near Mole National Park.
Reading The Kaya Girl alongside a trip like this adds another dimension to the journey: it turns a landscape into a story of resilience, migration, and friendship, seen through the eyes of a girl who carries her world on her head and in her heart.
Northern Ghana: Between Dog and Wolf by Kwesi Brew
Kwesi Brew, one of Ghana’s most celebrated poets, often wrote about the landscapes and tensions of Ghanaian life. In his collection Between Dog and Wolf, he evokes images of transition: between night and day, hope and despair, tradition and change. Several of his poems reflect the stark beauty and challenges of northern Ghana, with its wide savannah horizons, dry season winds, and communities living close to the land.
For a traveler, Brew’s work is a poetic lens to experience the north not just as geography, but as mood and metaphor. Reading his verses before visiting places like Tamale, Bolgatanga, or the White Volta River adds weight to the silence of the plains and the rhythm of daily life. His poetry captures the fragile balance between survival and celebration, reminding readers that the north is both a place of struggle and of deep cultural richness.
A literary journey inspired by Brew could take you to Mole National Park, where the endless savannah mirrors his imagery, or to local markets in Tamale, where tradition meets modern pressures. In his poetry, the north becomes a symbol: of resilience, of waiting, and of the thin line between light and shadow.
Are you looking for a community of readers in Accra?
Join us every month at Just Read Book Club. Just bring the book you’re currently reading (maybe one of the ones above!), and start reading. Afterwards there’s time for meeting people and discussing books, live in Accra in general and more.
How amazing would it be to step into the very places you’ve read about? If you’d like help planning, let us know. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll organize a book-inspired trip and experience it all together.