Features
MAAME AMA’S COFFEE SHOP
Many friends have preferences for different foods depending on the times they become free to feed themselves or when they feel hungry and wish to consume some amount of food to get more energy for their work.
In terms of food preference, kenkey, banku, ampesi, rice, yam and others may be made available to food consumers. However, in early times of the day some people prefer to take in coffee before consuming other kinds of food.
This is what made Maame Ama’s coffee shop popular and widespread. The coffee shop is located at a place close to a taxi rank at Abeka Lapaz. The location made it easy for many people to be attracted to the shop even for those whose preference may not be for coffee but for something else.
Customer service
The truth of the matter is that Maame Ama was well versed in customer service and will do anything she can to attract any visitor to her shop. In spite of the description of her place as a coffee shop, she was involved in selling all kinds of food namely red-red, kenkey and others.
Thus, the coffee shop was a place of a kind that dealt with all kinds of foodstuff. About three months ago, one man, attracted by Maame Ama’s pleasant behaviour, went to her shop to buy coffee and ended up taking in more than necessary to his discomfort. Since his stomach was empty except the coffee which he took, he began to feel very uncomfortable and so asked for kenkey which could make him heavy for the morning.
“Heavy food man”
In the course of eating the kenkey he began to throw up, soiling his clothes and, in a way, embarassed himself since there were some ladies around. The truth of the matter is that he was not a “coffee man” but rather a “heavy food man”, meaning that he was the type who was used to taking in heavy meals rather than light ones like coffee.
It means that we should not force ourselves at any time to take in things that do not match our taste simply because we want to please someone.
The young man concerned here is Abubakar whose behaviour in this direction is very common though not good for his personality. Instead of standing for what he prefers Abubakar would be easily influenced by people especially pretty young women just to satisfy them.
“Do you take okro?” a friend asked him one day at a food joint at Kasoa. “Yes, I do”, Abubakar replied even though he was not used to taking okro soup. On that occasion, too, Abubakar started vomiting the content of what he took after a few minutes to the disappointment of his friend who took him there.
The truth of the matter is that we need to be bold enough to insist on our preferences rather than taking in things we may not like just because we want to please other people.
Here the lesson in life is that we should always be prepared to do what is acceptable to us rather than “killing” ourselves as sacrificial lambs to please others.
Hard liquor
This behaviour put up by Abubakar appears to be a trend in his family. One of his siblings, Joseph Dabo, underwent a similar experience about a year ago when he also decided to consume about half a bottle of hard liquor known locally as “Akpeteshi”. Joseph Dabo pretended he had great capacity for the local liquor. After consuming about three glasses with others who were with him, he fell and collapsed. Here again, three of his friends who went with him had to carry him home after anxiously pouring water on him several times to revive him.
On waking up, Joseph Dabo realised that he had nearly destroyed himself with the local gin. He was advised to keep away from “Akpeteshi” from that day, an advice he obediently kept to himself until another time when he decided to take in three bottles of Beer mixed with Guinness together with some friends who had greater capacity for such things.
Loss of fiancée
But going back to Maame Ama’s coffee shop, Abubakar who had vomited at the shop was also carried away home and made to take his bath. This behaviour caused him to lose his fiancée known as Namoale. Namoale is a very pretty lady who lived and behaved in accordance with her name. Her name in Ga means “who knows tomorrow”.
She was influenced, many people believed, by the meaning of her name. Having tolerated Abubakar for two years for his ugly and unacceptable behaviour, she became fed up and decided to stop the relationship and move on with her life even though she did not find it easy to do so since she was in great love with Abubakar. After leaving Abubakar, Namoale concentrated on her petty trading for nearly a year when a young man about two years older than her, met her and expressed interest in her.
The young man took her to Maame Ama’s coffee shop from time to time. The two would usually go for beverages like coffee or porridge and top them up with some other food. They go there at weekends when each of them is free from work.
Made for each other
The two partners appeared to have been made for each other, fighting hard and jealously to protect the interest of the other. It, therefore, came as no surprise when two years after they had met, they decided to unite in marriage. They were not very religious, but their lifestyle was pleasant. This also raised another question on the lips of their neighbours that whether it is religion that influences people’s morality, or whether it is the moral nature of people that results in good behaviour.
Unpleasant behaviour
Various opinions can be expressed on this issue. However, one thing that is clear is that by nature a person should be morally upright in order to find him or herself attracted and acceptable to others. Being religious is good but if the religiousness of a person who is by nature immoral, makes him or her put up unpleasant behaviour then such persons will not be found to behave well in society even if they live with the Pope in Rome.
The point being made is that keeping to the tenets of religion such as Christianity, Islam or any other religion may be good, but the moral nature of the person concerned is equally important. In certain parts of the country, many religious people can be found all over yet it is difficult to understand why at the least provocation they engage in fighting even though they are generally inter-related as a people.
Everyone concerned should be morally upright and be involved in the fight against squalor and deprivation but not engage in things that may lead to the destruction of life and property.
Good example to everyone
Maame Ama’s coffee shop should serve as a good example to everyone. Being a polite and well-trained person, Maame Ama had shown the world that you can attract all kinds of people to your shop if you exhibit an open heart and also demonstrate that you are prepared to move with everyone irrespective of where they come from. Our society must learn from this to make the country peaceful and attractive to all.
The coffee shop owned by Maame Ama is comparable to an island of good behaviour in a world of
confusion but it is never too late for everyone to change and follow Maame Ama’s behaviour so that
together, Ghana can become a great country to the glory of God.
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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