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| Parents stormed KUMACA for their wards |
If
anything notable in history could be likened to how parents scrambled for their
wards from the campus of the Kumasi Academy [KUMACA], in the Ashanti region, then
it is probably how Europe scrabbled for Africa.
These
parents stormed the school requesting nothing but one thing. That, authorities
allow them take their children to their respective homes.
Indeed,
neither the parents nor their wards could stand the agonizing episode of a
series of deaths the school was witnessing. First, it was a student who died. Well,
man is born to die. So, they grieved and were almost picking themselves up from
the painful departure when the death toll went to two. Then to three and four! All
in a spate of roughly two weeks.
At
this time, as the media got hold of this news, I could imagine the number of
superstitious tales- associated with senior high schools- that the students of
the KUMACA would have to endure. During my days at the then Sunyani Secondary
School, there were a number of such tales including “Madam Shoe” and “Kabiwe”-
to wit, bite and chew.
Hearsay
had it that a female teacher fell ill and when she was being rushed to the
hospital, one of her shoes fell on campus. This ‘female teacher’ who could not
survive the illness would later surface at night, on campus, in search for the
left behind pair of shoe. For Kabiwe, it was said to be a creature with the
head made of ballfloat. When he meets you at night, on campus, it tells you to
have a bite of his head and chew (eat). Refusal of which meant the end of your
life.
These
were mere tales of which no single individual on campus testified of ever meeting
these spirits. I am sure, however, that even at the mention of Madam Shoe or
Kabiwe in my former senior secondary school now will get students shaking as
the hand that holds a glass of Akepteshie. So, you see, my imagination for the
KUMACA students fearing the supposed spirit causing deaths and, as well,
fearing the thought of their departed souls cannot be faulted.
On
television, radio, online and in the newspapers were but KUMACA! The pressure
on the school authorities this time surpassed that which the Israelites gave to
Moses. The media demanded the real cause of the reported deaths. Parents
deepened their demand for their wards, too, and the students felt like fish out
of water. Then, it was announced that autopsy reports of the dead students
would be made public to ascertain the cause of the deaths.
Finally,
the day came and the cat was let out of the bag. According to the autopsy
reports, the students died of Meningitis.
At a media briefing, Ashanti
Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah said that “There have been several
explanations to account for the sad event but I want to assure you that an
answer has been found to give meaning to the demise of the students.
“Through
the collaborative effort of experts from the Ghana Health Services at the
district, regional and national levels together with an experience colleague
from the Komfo Anokye teaching hospital and the school of Medical Sciences, we
can propose the cause of these deaths as meningitis,” reported 3news.com.
Indeed, the autopsy reports from the St Patrick’s Hospital at Offinso
Maase, St. Michael’s Hospital at Pramso, and the KNUST School of Medical
Sciences all arrived at the doorstep of meningitis.
Now, tensions seem to have subsided on the campus of the Kumasi
Academy. Parents who wished to have their wards home have been granted their
request.
At the end of it all, I think there are at least three lessons the nation
must learn from the KUMACA’s slideshow of anguish. Self-control, not drawing
hasty conclusions and cutting down on superstition.
Whereas every discerning mind would side with and tolerate to an extent
the anger expressed by the students and parents of KUMACA, such frustrations
were expressed leaving behind self-control. A peaceful demonstration by the
students could have been appreciated much more than they hurling stones and the
like at their headmasters’ bungalow. The school also had its fair share of the
students’ anger as a number of properties were damaged.
There were a couple of times students of my former senior secondary
school either matched to the dining hall’s pantry or to the school authorities to
register their displeasure over unpalatable foods or bad happenings in the
school. It is true the Sunyani Secondary School did not protest over any series
of deaths, we have seen and heard some students burning their schools’ properties
to ashes over such petty displeasures as unpalatable foods.
The then headmaster, Mr. Joseph Awuah, taught his students this
mastery of self-control. So, when students’ belongings were being stolen from
their respective dormitories incessantly he told us one thing. “When you catch
the thief bring him/her to me. Ensure you don’t injure him or beat him up [to
death]. Just hand them over to authority,” he would say.
As if by design, the students finally caught the thief, also a student,
and off he was paraded to the headmaster’s bungalow. Although some tried beating
him up, many were those who prevented the thief from being manhandled.
The other lesson we can learn from KUMACA is not to draw conclusions. Drawing hasty conclusions have ruined many institutions. Many a time, we tend to
form our own opinion of happenings around us without probing these happenings
with hard hitting questions to tease out answers.
Above all, we do tie these hasty conclusions with superstition that it
becomes difficult for us to comprehend issues when we are eventually told the
truth. While some said the KUMACA series of deaths were as a result of food
poisoning, others believed it was the work of the over blamed witches of
Africa.
The KUMACA story tells us, as a nation, that we have no justification to
bastardize our forefathers for indulging in superstition. Indeed, we all need
an extra classes in scientific studies to shape our thinking.
The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed
here solely remain his opinion and not that of his organisation.
Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com
Twitter: @Aniwaba
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