Kesewah Afua ‘wa paase’ (she has passed)

 MY mother told me a very moving real life story that she expe­rienced as a child which caused her to know that indeed, God is real. She narrated to me how she began her primary school education.

First of all, she told me that it was providence that made her end up in school because the one who comes after her in the family died after a short ailment.

As a result of her death, her father decided to send her to school as a replacement because he could only afford to send only one child to school at a time due to financial challenges. She told me that due to the fact that she was suddenly rushed into school she could not write and when the exams was conducted it was a disaster.

Classes like 1A, 1B and 1C was taught by a teacher called Mr Ofosuhene. The A refers to those who could read, B refers to those who come after in terms of academic ability and the C was referring to people like Kesewah Afua, my mother, who were at the bottom of the academic ladder. Those were the days when surname was mentioned before one’s first name so instead of Afua Kesewah, my mother was called Kes­ewah Afua.

Teacher Ofosuhene writes on the board and the pupils in class 1C are asked to copy same on their slate. After the allotted time for the exams, the teacher calls each pupil to bring his or her slate to him. He goes through it and cleans the slate and writes the mark he awards on the slate.

He then asks the pupil to go back and sit down. Afterwards, he calls in some of the class 1A pu­pils to mention the mark written on the slate when the name of each Class 1C pupil is called out. The teacher then records the mark on his sheet of paper and then arrange the posi­tions in class based on the marks obtained by each pupil.

The results are then an­nounced at the assembly of the entire primary school, class by class. Those who did well were applauded and those who failed were teased with a resounding voice ‘Wa faili’ i.e. she or he has failed. That was the unfortunate case of my mom. The teacher announced that the follow­ing pupils have failed and started mentioning their names.

Whenever each name is mentioned, a resounding ‘wa faili’ accompanies it. What made it worst for my mom was that not only did she fail, but was the last in the group of failures and therefore the last in the class.

She told me that she started weeping uncontrol­lably from the school to their house when the an­nouncement of the results came to an end and the school vacated.

She further told me that she wept the whole day from the time the results were announced and she heard ‘wa faili’ to the extent that her father list appetite for her evening meal of fufu and soup, which was his favourite.

His father always con­soled her and in the days following this incident started to help her to learn how to write and read by using a cutlass as a rul­er and creating straight lines for her to practice writing. School reopened and she went to school. Another exams time finally came and another exams took place. The mark that Teacher Ofosuhene wrote on Kesewah Afua’s slate was nine.

Then comes the begin­ning of her trust in God. She told me that as she went to sit on her chair af­ter the teacher had written the mark she obtained on her slate, she heard a clear instruction that, “Kesewah add zero to the mark on your slate.”

When the mark was men­tioned to the teacher he was surprised so he asked the pupil who mentioned the mark to bring the slate for him to verify. To cut a long story short, when the results were announced, “Kesewah Afua w’adi first, w’a paase” i.e. Kesewah Afua is in first position, she has passed.

That was in 1948 and years later, she wondered why she did not put the zero before the nine since she had not mastered the numerals. Again how come she was able to write the zero exactly like the teacher writes such that he could not detect that it was not her who added the zero to the nine?

That is God for you.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah