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The saga of being Ewe… (Part 1)
I am from the Royal Akornu family of Anyako, which qualifies me to ascend the Aposa Stool. I am exceedingly proud to be Ewe as much as I feel proud to be a citizen of New Juaben. Many of my siblings and I were born in Koforidua and my younger brother is the Ewe Fia of New Juaben.
When my great great grandmother was heavy with her second child, a diviner told her that descendants of the baby would become prominent people and so asked that the child be named SEGBEFIA. No other names were added.
Se (God), gbe (Domain/Kingdom), fia(King). Segbe( God’s Kingdom), thus Segbefia means “King in God’s Domain” or “God’s anointed.” And this is a name I carry with pride, conviction and a chip on my shoulder.
I am, therefore, able to look at the authority in the eye and tell them a piece of my mind, so long as I hurt no one in the process. Truth hurts but edifies. My friends in power, whichever way, know this about me.
Not too long ago, Hon. Dzifa Abla Gomashie, Member of Parliament for Ketu South, visited the Constituency with Parliament’s Select Committee on Education during which they paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the area, Torgbui Amenyah Fitih. Torgbui, as is normal for traditional rulers to take advantage of such occasions, asked that government complete an E-Block project in his area.
Then later in a radio interview, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was asked what he made of Torgbui’s demand. All the President said was that Torgbui should go complete the project himself. My initial reaction was, “Nonsense.” How could a Head of State of Ghana hold a traditional ruler in such disdain? What did Torgbui do wrong? As far as I know, the high office of President imposes a certain civility and decorum on its occupant.
Would Nana have given the same response if the request was from the Mamponghene, Okyehene, Okuapehene or the Asantehene? Would he? If he would, what would the reaction of the citizens of those traditional areas have been?
I recall a time when Otumfuor Opoku Ware was celebrating an anniversary at the then Kumasi Sports Stadium. A Queenmother asked the then Chairman Rawlings to reactivate the Ashanti Shoe Factory. In his usual rambunctious manner, Rawlings responded that if the people stopped eating cowhides (wélé) there would be raw materials for the factory. Of course, my reaction then was, “Nonsense. Jerry could use a mire diplomatic language.” Rawlings was lambasted for what they said was an insult to their royalty.
The truth, however, was that you cannot eat the shoes and still wear them. It has been scientifically proved that wélé has no nutritional value whatsoever.
But Nana’s response seems to be in character with the political tradition he represents. Open, yet subtle dislike for Ewe people, who, in their illogicality are aliens. How they came with such thoughts only they can explain. Remember, when there was an outcry for the people of the coast in the Volta Region after tidal waves swept across the area last year. Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh threatened to go on demonstration against any help to the Volta Region because his constituency in Ashanti was also flooded. During the last voter registration, security persons were posted to our eastern border to ward off “aliens” who might want to cross from Togo to register. But a motley group of them were sent to other regions to create a semblance of a nationwide exercise. No one was fooled.
Their target was Ketu South, a constituency that turns out a huge voter roll each time. It beats my mind that people who aspire to rule this country do not know the demography of each district, municipality or metropolis. Even in the face of the seeming security intimidation, Ketu South turned out huge numbers one more time. Hon. K. T. Hammond said at the time that the Ewe were foreigners. I don’t know what it is about Ketu South that gets their goat. Sad, if you asked me.
Then one Abronye was screaming to high heaven that the Ewe contribute nothing to the development of the country and that all the Ewes do is kill. I hope on his day of reckoning he will have evidence of his claim. I wonder how they view the very highly respected Ewe in their fold. Those who readily come to mind are Elizabeth Ohene, Sam Okudzeto, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, Dr. Archibald Letsa and Kofi Dzamesi. Dzamesi’s mother is Akyem so he can be considered a child of two worlds. Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo was also heard saying only people from more economically endowed region of Ghana must be elected to rule the country I am glad he is not the president of this nation and I pray he never gets the chance.
Before them, Victor Owusu of blessed memory was quoted as saying, “the Ewe were inward looking.” I thought lessons would be learned from these yet our utterances reflect the magnitude of our hatred for others. Is it not true that one who fails to learn from history has the high propensity to repeat same mistakes?
When Miss Amekoafia became the first Miss Ghana at Independence with “a number nine tag,” people of the Volta Region are pejoratively called “Number 9.” Then there is this Ayigbe nomenclature. There are many Ewe groupings like, Anlo, Ave, Some, Tongu, Ewedome, Akpini etc. but there is no Ayigbe. It comes as a big surprise when some Ewes refer to themselves as Ayigbe. Have we lost our identity as a people? How can you let others tell your story for you? I do not get it.
That the Ewe spread across four countries in our sub-region does not make them stateless. There are people in the north of Ghana who share language and ethnicity with Burkina Faso. There are Akans astride the western border with Côte d’Ivoire, not so? How come the Ewe haters do not notice these? Or the Ewe light is so bright it blinds them from seeing things in their true perspectives?
Personally, I may be detribalised but it does not take away my identity, my language, my culture and my personality. Let none do. We know what happens at enlistment centres, recruitment centres, job placement centres. National unity and cohesion cannot be attained when some people hold claim to more entitlements than others, just because of where they come from or what language they speak. This toxic fantasy of superiority over others must give way to equity and oneness.
Those who want to turn history on its head must first tell me if the European slave dealers, upon arrival on our shores, already knew Dzogbeawo, Bluawo, Eweawo, Gēawo and Fanteawo.
That the Ewe does not react violently to insults and name-calling is no act of cowardice or fear. It is because of the discipline and fortitude handed down to us by our forebears as our historical narratives have portrayed.
Writer’s email address:
akofa45@yahoo.com
By Dr. Kofi K. Segbefia
All over the world, it has been recognised that nations who have developed, paid attention to education and continue to do so. If we pay lip service to the development of our educational system, we might as well forget about our development in the foreseeable future.
In order for effective teaching and learning to happen, the teacher who is the centre of it all, must be well motivated. Every person working in an office, every parliamentarian, every minister or deputy minister, all the way up to the first gentleman of the land, owes his or her status to a teacher.
Unfortunately, for some strange reason, our leaders who are the decision makers, do not seem to care very much about the welfare of teachers. The leadership of the various teacher unions, also appear not to be doing their job as is expected of them, leaving the teacher who had worked for over a year without being paid, frustrated.
The lack of seriousness that is attached to teachers’ issues is very worrying. My parents were teachers so I am very passionate about teachers’ issues. Gone are the days that we used to say that teachers will get their reward in Heaven.
Now those in the teaching profession are mostly youthful and they have a different mindset from that of our parents. They do not want their reward in Heaven, they want it here on this very earth.
A teacher sees his colleague who he was academically better than in school, from the same background socially, becomes a Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), an Member of Parliament (MP) or a Government Appointee and overnight, this guy becomes wealthy and you say he the teacher, should wait for his reward in Heaven?
His going there is not guaranteed anyway, so if he or she does not make it to Heaven, then what? Promises of government after government to teachers, remain unfulfilled and so they become disillusioned and demotivated to ensure effective teaching and learning.
I read a story of a lady, who as a child was suffering from Dyslexia but her teacher gave her the needed attention to help her and this even led her teacher to run into problems with the school authorities, resulting in the loss of her job. This lady grew up and became a famous actress and won an Oscar.
She then gave the prize money attached to the award, which was three million dollars, to her teacher who put her career on the line to help her out of her dyslexia challenge as a child.
There are many such teachers in our educational system because teaching is a calling, like medicine, like nursing etc. and therefore teachers who are the first point of call before we can climb the ladder to become the engineers, the lawyers, accountants and the rest, deserve special attention.
What is even important is the crucial role they play in shaping the moral character of future leaders which is invaluable.
Let us all, especially our leaders, place a high premium on the teacher who is at the centre of our educational system and who can make or unmake our future as a nation. How do you ask a teacher to go to a place, far removed from his or her parents and for a year and above not pay any salary to him or her?
How is the teacher to survive? If the same thing was done to any of our leaders, especially the leaders of the various teacher unions, will they be happy? How do they expect the teachers to survive and also be motivated to deliver quality teaching? Funds must be found to immediately resolve their unpaid salaries do they can be in the right frame of mind to do their very precious job. The teaching profession, in my view, is number one, when ranking professions because as an advert displays “If you can read this, thank a teacher”. Let us give our teachers their due. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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GREETINGS from Korkorti and from Kofi Owuo, alias Death-By-Poverty. When this column took a short break, the two friends summoned me. They wanted to know whether the column had gone on pension or was just on strike. I explained that the column was not on retirement and neither was it on a hunger strike. Rather, the column was of the habit of falling into coma for four weeks or thereabout every year.
Kwame Korkorti and Kofi Owuo (who is addicted to poverty and has sworn not to prosper) are two of my former classmates I cherish so much. And it was great fun to be a Nino in those days. In fact, on the first day on campus, Korkorti was bold enough to bully his own mates who tragically mistook him for a senior.
In fact, when the first-years arrived, Korkorti was one of them but quickly pretended he was in Form 2. So he began pulling the noses of his mates and brushing their faces when the real seniors were not quite in sight. It was when classes began that his victims realised the so-called nose-pulling senior was in fact their own classmate.
So Korkorti got famous for that gimmick. But his English was poor.
The English master was a tall, bombastic young man who claimed he was a former soccer star. In fact, he swore he had a magical left foot that was comparable to that of the legendary Pele. And his grandiloquence par excellence clearly distinguished him from other members of staff.
He did not quite like Korkorti because although the boy was stubborn and his head did not have a nice shape, the girls adored him. Moreover he never did his English Language assignments.
Stand up, you tall fool, the English master often ordered. Korkorti wouldn’t stand up but would just smile broadly.
“I say stand up” the teacher would bark now like a dog suffering from rabies “Get up and let me measure your stupidity.”
Korkorti would stand up this time round and yawn.
Certainly, lunchtime has been long in coming and a good yawn often relieved the young student’s stomach of gastronomic stress.
Invariably, the English guru did not like it when Korkorti yawned. For one thing, the boy opened his mouth too widely. For another, he yawned a bit too audibly and that caused laughter among his mates.
Certainly, the master must have figured out that the boy’s height was proportional to his stupidity. But there were no school rules against yawning
Merari Alomele’s
• A female student walking away from some male students
or wide mouth. In fact, there was freedom of yawning and snoring and Korkorti exercised both freedoms judiciously and democratically.
“Do you know when you yawn you look like a hungry crocodile,” the master once asked him.
“Yes sir, I am aware sir,” Korkorti confirmed and yawned again. This time he nearly swallowed the whole class. There was an uproar and the whole class reverberated in good laughter.
The English master shook his head and then nodded it like an agama lizard. This Korkorti boy was a real character, a phenomenon, a one-man thousand. Meanwhile lessons had to continue.
It was in those days when school was exciting and we often gathered and talked about girls. I had often dreamt of having a girl from Holy Child School because I had heard very saintly and curious things about them, I had learnt from a guy from Saint Augustine’s College that Holy Child girls were of a special breed, in fact a hybrid between the cultured home-bred variety and those of inner holiness. They were born of the Holy Spirit. The only thing was that they didn’t suffer under Pontius Pilate.
In short, they were angels in human form, spoke in a special way, walked with a unique and danced with heavenly steps. They were taught by Holy Nuns and so were quite different from us who had no hope of making any spirito-culturo-scholastic progress.
I confessed to Korkorti that I wanted a girl from Holy Child, not for immoral purposes but to partake of their saintly ways so that when it was time for going to heaven, Kwame Alomele could also be considered.
During vacations we met girls from Mawuli, Ola, Accra Girls, St. Roses, Wesley Girls but none from Holy Child. Then one day, Kwame Korkorti whispered into my ear that a Holy Child babe was in town and that he was sure my dreams had come true.
Korkorti organised it and we positioned at a spot, knowing the girl would traverse en route to the library or the market. After a boring period of waiting, Korkorti suddenly espied the child coming. I looked at her face and saw of an angel. What! This was the kind I always wanted. God bless my soul! This was really my chance and Korkorti had prophesied it.
“Hello Sister,” Korkorti called her when about to leave us.
The girl slowed down and looked at us. My heartbeat increased in tempo. What really was I going to tell this angel? Wouldn’t she think Korkorti was Satan and me a common red-eyed demon? I gathered courage.
“What do you want?” she asked in a sweet voice. My heart melted instantly. Spotless beauty with voice that did something to me. Good gracious!
“Eh-h, my friend says he likes you,” Korkorti to her bluntly.
At that very moment I felt as if a sledge-hammer had hit my chest with the force of a dynamite. What a blunder! What a shock! I felt dizzy instantly. My bosom friend had balked the whole agenda. Before I could recover from the shock, the girl had walked away. From that day. I never met another holy child.
In January, this year, I miraculously received a letter from an 18-year old Holy Child student who said she was my fan.
It was a nicely written letter and I enjoyed reading it. I then relived the Korkorti incident and laughed aloud to myself.
So when Korkorti and Kofi Owuo summoned me, I reminded them of the day my heart melted at the sight of the angel; that angel which disappeared before my eyes and made me go back home not crying and yet not laughing.
Proofread
Searching for the Holy Child
GREETINGS from Korkorti and from Kofi Owuo, alias Death-By-Poverty. When this column took a short break, the two friends summoned me. They wanted to know whether the column had gone on pension or was just on strike.
I explained that the column was not on retirement and neither was it on a hunger strike. Rather, the column was of the habit of falling into coma for four weeks or thereabout every year.
Kwame Korkorti and Kofi Owuo (who is addicted to poverty and has sworn not to prosper) are two of my former classmates I cherish so much. And it was great fun to be a Nino in those days. In fact, on the first day on campus, Korkorti was bold enough to bully his own mates who tragically mistook him for a senior.
In fact, when the first-years arrived, Korkorti was one of them but quickly pretended he was in Form 2. So he began pulling the noses of his mates and brushing their faces when the real seniors were not quite in sight. It was when classes began that his victims realised the so-called nose-pulling senior was in fact their own classmate
So Korkorti got famous for that gimmick. But his English was poor.
The English master was a tall, bombastic young man who claimed he was a former soccer star. In fact, he swore he had a magical left foot that was comparable to that of the legendary Pele. And his grandiloquence par excellence clearly distinguished him from other members of staff.
He did not quite like Korkorti because although the boy was stubborn and his head did not have a nice shape, the girls adored him. Moreover he never did his English Language assignments.
Stand up, you tall fool, the English master often ordered. Korkorti wouldn’t stand up but would just smile broadly.
“I say stand up” the teacher would bark now like a dog suffering from rabies “Get up and let me measure your stupidity.”
Korkorti would stand up this time round and yawn.
Certainly, lunchtime has been long in coming and a good yawn often relieved the young student’s stomach of gastronomic stress.
Invariably, the English guru did not like it when Korkorti yawned. For one thing, the boy opened his mouth too widely. For another, he yawned a bit too audibly and that caused laughter among his mates.
Certainly, the master must have figured out that the boy’s height was proportional to his stupidity. But there were no school rules against yawning or wide mouth. In fact, there was freedom of yawning and snoring and Korkorti exercised both freedoms judiciously and democratically.
“Do you know when you yawn you look like a hungry crocodile,” the master once asked him.
“Yes sir, I am aware sir,” Korkorti confirmed and yawned again. This time he nearly swallowed the whole class. There was an uproar and the whole class reverberated in good laughter.
The English master shook his head and then nodded it like an agama lizard. This Korkorti boy was a real character, a phenomenon, a one-man-thousand. Meanwhile lessons had to continue.
It was in those days when school was exciting and we often gathered and talked about girls. I had often dreamt of having a girl from Holy Child School because I had heard very saintly and curious things about them,
I had learnt from a guy from Saint Augustine’s College that Holy Child girls were of a special breed, in fact a hybrid between the cultured home-bred variety and those of inner holiness. They were born of the Holy Spirit. The only thing was that they didn’t suffer under Pontius Pilate.
In short, they were angels in human form, spoke in a special way, walked with a unique and danced with heavenly steps. They were taught by Holy Nuns and so were quite different from us who had no hope of making any spirito-culturo-scholastic progress.
I confessed to Korkorti that I wanted a girl from Holy Child, not for immoral purposes but to partake of their saintly ways so that when it was time for going to heaven, Kwame Alomele could also be considered.
During vacations we met girls from Mawuli, Ola, Accra Girls, St. Roses, Wesley Girls but none from Holy Child. Then one day, Kwame Korkorti whispered into my ear that a Holy Child babe was in town and that he was sure my dreams had come true.
Korkorti organised it and we positioned at a spot, knowing the girl would traverse en route to the library or the market. After a boring period of waiting, Korkorti suddenly espied the child coming. I looked at her face and saw of an angel. What! This was the kind I always wanted. God bless my soul! This was really my chance and Korkorti had prophesied it.
“Hello Sister,” Korkorti called her when about to leave us.
The girl slowed down and looked at us. My heartbeat increased in tempo. What really was I going to tell this angel? Wouldn’t she think Korkorti was Satan and me a common red-eyed demon? I gathered courage.
“What do you want?” she asked in a sweet voice. My heart melted instantly. Spotless beauty with voice that did something to me. Good gracious!
“Eh-h, my friend says he likes you,” Korkorti to her bluntly.
At that very moment I felt as if a sledge-hammer had hit my chest with the force of a dynamite. What a blunder! What a shock! I felt dizzy instantly. My bosom friend had balked the whole agenda. Before I could recover from the shock, the girl had walked away. From that day. I never met another holy child.
In January, this year, I miraculously received a letter from an 18-year old Holy Child student who said she was my fan. It was a nicely written letter and I enjoyed reading it. I then relived the Korkorti incident and laughed aloud to myself.
So when Korkorti and Kofi Owuo summoned me, I reminded them of the day my heart melted at the sight of the angel; that angel which disappeared before my eyes and made me go back home not crying and yet not laughing.
This article was first published on Saturday, March 18, 1996
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