Dear Father
A photo poem
In recent times, I have travelled back more often to Ada, my father’s hometown. Despite it being a place of mystery, it still creates a sense of home. The relationship between me and my father has improved thanks to the frequent visits. We have been reconnecting over the fact that for both of us, our grandfathers’ homes remain unknown. For now, my experience is limited to the physical space; I listen to my father’s stories which reference places that are no more due to coastal erosion and rising sea levels. My father’s sources of inspiration don’t exist anymore, and so I am left with his imagination which now becomes a source of my inspiration. Connecting to the past, I stand at the beginning of something new.
In a quest of slowing down, and thus to be better able to connect to the past and be in the present moment, I shot and developed the project on black and white 35mm film.
Shot in Totope, Ada, Ghana, a community still facing the effect of sea erosion, 2019
Dear Father,
I went back to your father ́s home
There, I realised your father is my father
Hence, your home is my home
The foundations of your home formed the basis of your stories
Your stories formed the basis of my imagination
My imagination formed the basis of my destination
I found my salvation was not tied to your destination
Only my source of inspiration was tied to yours
My destination was not founded solely on my imagination
But also that of my father, multiple times
Your father’s destination doesn’t exist on the shores of his imagination anymore
Your inspirations are not tied to his destination anymore
The shores have been washed away, and with them, old imaginations
The old ties still exist
New destinations await, filled with new inspiration
Words: Ofoe Amegavie
Model: Desire Eli-Zafoe