Exposed!! Abusive Treatment Of Guests At Kokrobite Gardens Hotel

On January 1st, 2015, Muhammida El Muhajir, a black American living and working in Ghana traveled to Kokrobite to celebrate the New Year and what happened next was a traumatizing experience that reflected a dark side of Ghanaian hospitality and unspoken race relations in the country.

El Muhajir currently lives and works in Ghana and has traveled to the country several times since 2003 and even attended The University of Ghana for graduate school in International Relations. When family, including her mother and cousin, decided to come and visit from the US for the holidays, El Muhajir expected to share with them a taste of the Ghanaian hospitality she had grown to love.

On January 1st, El Muhajir, her mother Nisa, cousin Guina and Ghanaian friend Kwame, traveled to Kokrobite to enjoy the beach for a few days. At approximately 3:00pm, the group checked into Kokrobite Gardens , an establishment owned and operated by an Italian citizen by the name of Franco Savastano. After checking in and dropping off personal items in the room, they headed to the beach for swimming and later dinner.

When they returned to the establishment at 10:00pm hoping to turn in for the evening, they found the place dark and all doors and gates were locked. There was no security guard on the premises. They were shocked and concerned because not only were all of their personal belongings locked inside but also their car! Muhammida began calling Franco's number while the others knocked on the gate and doors trying to get the attention of anyone who was inside to no avail. After 30 minutes of waiting outside and 15 unanswered calls, finally Franco answered the phone but instead of apologizing to his guests for being locked out, he screamed at El Muhajir for making noise and asked if she was crazy.

When he came to the gate, he was furious and was yelling and screaming at the group like a mad man.

“When Franco finally came out he was yelling and screaming in my face like he was psychotic. He was berating me and was so close that I feared that he was even going to strike me. Not only was I scared of this man verbally assaulting me but I was also embarrassed that he was exhibiting such behavior in front of my family especially my mother,” said El Muhajir who is a globally recognized marketing expert and an award winning filmmaker who has presented at the US Mission to the United Nations, Harvard and Oxford Universities. Afraid for their safety, once the doors to the place were unlocked, the group quickly packed up their belongings and left to check into another nearby hotel.

“I have traveled to over 25 countries around the world and stayed in literally hundreds of hotels in every major city from Paris, New York, Tokyo, to Johannesburg and my experience at Kokrobite Gardens was by far the worst experience I have ever had. I was also quite shocked because being an American, experiencing racial injustice can unfortunately be a norm but it's the last thing I ever expected in Ghana. I am always bragging to my friends back in the US that race issues are the one thing I don't have to worry about in Ghana. I definitely feel that Franco's treatment to us was racially charged. Unfortunately I don't believe we would have been treated in that manner had we been white guests,” added El Muhajir.

Savastano's treatment of El Muhajir and her family seems to be business as usual for the Italian who has a longtime reputation of improper treatment to black guests, staff and local residents. “One day some of the local village children swam in the pool at the place when Franco was away. When he found out, he got very angry and demanded the pool be drained to avoid other people getting “dirty”,” said one local resident.

“It was my cousin's first trip to Ghana and having an experience like we did at Kokrobite may cause her to never come back or at the very least share stories like this to other potential visitors to Ghana which can cast a negative light on tourism in the country. Many of the locals feel that their complaints against Savastano might go unheard because of his connections or even worse, retribution. I hope my story will expose the improper and abusive treatment of black guests at Kokrobite Gardens and force Savastano and others like him to be respectful of guests of all racial backgrounds.”

A demand is being made for an investigation by authorities into Savastano's record of treatment of guests based on race, any impropriety being conducted at the establishment and an immediate apology.

WEBSITE: www.kokrobitegarden.com