Features
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
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
Join our WhatsApp Channel now!
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
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’
Join our WhatsApp Channel now!
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
