Kwame and his wife, Comfort, drive from Accra to Kumasi with their English friend Tom Arthur. This is Tom’s first visit to Ghana. He is surprised to see the amount of food that is displayed along the road for sale to passing motorists. He is even more shocked when Kwame stops the car and Comfort begins negotiating with the shopkeepers who gather around the vehicle to promote their wares.

To Tom, the further they went, the more dramatic the scene seemed. The trees grew even closer and closer to the road. He bathed his eyes in a greenness that he had never imagined existed and that he found gently soothing. It was a green enlivened by frequent flashes of brilliant scarlet or gold as they passed the trees in full bloom. However, not all views were pleasant. Tom was disturbed by the sad procession of animal carcasses along the road. Held aloft by their tails by children and youths, freshly executed mammals and reptiles of great variety were offered for sale to passing motorists. When Tom expressed his disgust at him, Kwame explained that bushmeat was highly sought after in Ghana and that many drivers stopped and bought. The most common bushmeat on offer was forest snails, the size of tennis balls, sold alive and strung in bunches on tough braided strands of elephant grass. Their abundance was testimony to their almost universal popularity.

After they entered the Ashanti region and continued on to Kwame’s hometown of Konongo, the road rose and fell with a regularity that monotonized frequent travelers but fascinated Tom. It’s like riding a low-frequency radio wave fused into red laterite, he mused. The roadside goods became more attractive with each ripple. Masses of tomatoes, oranges and bananas came into view, stacked on wooden tables at strategic points of sale. Sidings made it easy to park off the main road, and numerous cars stopped at each spot. Agricultural products less familiar to the English were also offered: yams, bananas, papayas and avocados.

When the car stopped at one of those roadside markets, Tom was alarmed to find the vehicle immediately surrounded by a crowd of women and children, all shouting the supremacy of their wares. Each vendor balanced a round tray of produce on his head as he held up a sample specimen for instant testing. Tom tasted an orange. He was equally surprised by the greenness of her exterior and the sweet juiciness of her interior. He had previously assumed that all oranges were orange. He now knew that some of the sweetest ones were green. The downside was that they were also full of nuggets.

Comfort took the opportunity to stock her pantry for the following week. The staple items were yams and green plantains. Tomatoes, onions and bell peppers took next priority and then smaller amounts of most other staples on sale. Tom was amazed at the ferocity of his bargaining. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, but he thought she got the sentiment. Each price, it seemed, was gross exploitation and only within the reach of a wealthy foreigner. They were playing Rule Britannia? Through a long talk of decreasing volume, all prices were reduced to a fraction of the initial demand. Then, most surprising of all, an extra amount of product was invariably added when the deal was made. No offense was offended by either side. Both sides seemed to enjoy the confrontation. In the end, the buyer and seller parted ways like the best of friends, vowing to do future business at every opportunity.

They drove to Konongo with the car full of forest farm products. Tom hoped that no wild forest animals in the form of snakes, scorpions or spiders had accidentally gotten on a ride, hidden in the bulky bunches of bananas. Comfort assured her that he had checked everything carefully before loading it into the car. There was some bushmeat that even Ghanaians didn’t enjoy, he joked. In response to her question, she assured him that the snails couldn’t escape his bondage either.