Guest Contributor Ms A Reviews “Pleasures”: A Ghana based Sex Shop

Ghana, 2009. There’s a church or mosque on every other corner. Our national image is still one of conservatism, good behaviour and high moral standing. Sex is strictly the preserve of married couples, and only for procreation, if you please.

Imagine mine and Nana’s surprise then, when we discovered a couple of sex shops in Accra. One Monday afternoon, we cleared our diaries to check out one of these shops. Called Pleasures, it stands out proud along the busy Spintex Road. Surely, they’ll only sell sexy undies and glass heeled stilettos, we thought to ourselves. Sure enough when we entered that’s all that met our gaze. Very kinky undies, cheap looking padded bras and tacky heels.

By the time you take the five steps from the front door to the back of the shop, you’re soon greeted with fruit-flavoured lubes, fluffy handcuffs, nipple rings, dirty DVDs and assorted accessories. Whether you’re bi, straight or gay, there was something for you. After checking out the products on the shelves we thought that was it, and turned to thank the sales assistant. But then we spotted the dressing room area and behind the curtain was a plethora of sex toys, from your basic vibrators to the more intricate, multi-performing gizmos. Now this was more like it, we thought. But it didn’t take us long to notice the prices of these vibrators. For one vibrator you can expect to pay a phenomenal Ghc150. For lube, you’ll be paying Ghc30 and it’s the same for simple edible panties. Nana and I were delighted to see a shop that did not seem seedy, was not hidden from view and displayed a wide variety of sex aids. But we aren’t going to spend ridiculous amounts of money on these products. So, alas, until the management of Pleasures review their prices, we’ll have to rely on imagination and lots of willing men to get us to climax.