TALKING DRUM: KUMACA- When Superstition Met Science

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

                                        

TALKING DRUM: One Reason Amewu Will Fail Fighting Galamsey

Some miners busily searching for gold in muddied waters

It is one news item that has succeeded securing a spot on almost every aspect of Ghana’s news media. Ordinarily, topical issues in my country take at most a week to be talked about in the media then we find it a ‘resting’ place.

However, like the dreaded disease called Ebola, illegal mining popularly referred to as ‘Galamsey’ in the Ghanaian parlance has had the young and the old chatting around it with a great concern.

Pressure group, Occupy Ghana in its own way has waged war on the illicit activity that has seen many of our water bodies extremely polluted. According to the group, Ghanaians are urged to wear red apparels on every Friday in April, 2017. Hence, christening it the Red April Campaign.

It has subsequently charged government to “stop, prevent and then regulate all currently unlicensed and unregulated mining, and support mass education on the galamsey menace particularly through local civil society. And be mindful of the potential national security threat that galamsey poses,” reports Graphic Online.

Occupy Ghana is not alone in this fight. The 2016 flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom among many Ghanaians have pledged their support to campaign against galamsey. 

On April 1. 2017, the man nicknamed Adwuma Wura made good use of his media conglomerate across the country in speaking about the menace of galamsey. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s galamsey talk themed “Galamsey: Our land, our future,” had thousands of viewers and listeners interacting with him on his Facebook page.

One thing ran through the viewers and listeners’ comments. They want galamsey to be cracked down by government. 

Indeed, massive pressure is on government to ensure galamsey becomes a thing of the past so people do not rely on sachet water to survive in areas badly affected by the act. More so, while people in these galamsey zones strive for daily survival, business owners are not left out of the struggle-to-exist syndrome.

Telecommunication mogul, MTN says it has been hard hit by the activities of people digging everywhere in search of gold. The Galamseyers end up cutting MTN’s laid fibres.

According to a story on Citifmonline dated and titled April 2, 2017, “Galamsey impeding quality of our service delivery– MTN,” respectively, the telecommunication network says it recorded about 1, 200 times of fibre cut in 2016.

“The phenomenon which accounts for congestion and call drops and network outages is taking a new dimension besides road construction. Within the corridors of Damang, Huni Valley, Ateiku, Wassa Dadieso and Wassa Akropong where we have our infrastructure laid.

“You see that galamsey operators have encroached on the right of way that MTN has rightly secured from either Urban Roads Department or Ghana Highway Authority. What they do is that, once they come closer to the cable, they physically cut them off interrupting or totally shutting down the network,” said Western Regional Technical Manager of MTN, Teddy Hayford Acquah.

It’s sad. Isn’t it?

The good news, however, is that our government is not sleeping on this request to end galamsey. It is up on its feet making frantic efforts to curb the menace. My little worry, here, is the approach adopted by Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu.

Mr. John Peter Amewu, Minister for Lands & Natural Resources

If not for anything, I have heard and read two of Mr. Amewu’s approaches to tackling galamsey. The first being the use of drones to fish out the illegal miners and second, the ‘begging’ approach- where he is reported to have begged Chinese Ambassador to Ghana to advise his nationals desist from the act. 

Both of these approaches are commendable. The drones will certainly travel far and zoom in on the illegal miners for onward arrest. Similarly, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sun Baohong may succeed getting to stop some of her nationals from trading in the illegal mining activity here in Ghana.

Nonetheless, I strongly believe that even when we go for Aljazeera to mount its cameras on these illegal miners it will not intimidate them from mudding the waters for cash. Moreover, illegal mining will not stop even when we contract Japan to hang in the skies a sign telling the world leaders to inform their nationals not to engage in such a trade in Ghana.

   

Why? 

The answer is simple and straight forward but it appears to Mr. Peter Amewu so hard to find as one searching for snow in hell. Simply, tackle the source. If men are chasing one’s wife who do not do so putting the woman under duress, does he go about begging these men to stop?

Sadly, this is Peter Amewu’s approach. He leaves the ‘wife’ home and diplomatically engages in talks with his ‘rivals.’

I thought that when Ghanaians voted for change, it meant we seeing real change. Perhaps it may come but it seems, to me, the New Patriotic Party is somehow copying answers the National Democratic Congress wrote and failed.

After the country’s 2014 cholera outbreak, the then government instituted the National Sanitation Day (NSD). For them, it was a means to get Ghanaians do away with sanitation related diseases. When I heard about the NSD for the first time, I realised that it had no vision. Yes. We tell people to make all the filth and on the first Saturday of every month we gather and sweep the gutters and the streets. And the cycle continues. 

The National Sanitation Day was and is one of the greatest jokes of the NDC government as class one pupils could have suggested a more suitable way of doing away with filth.

Here, we have Peter Amewu likely to fail because of this obvious one reason; ignoring to tackle the source of our problems. Mr. Minister, it is empirical evidence that many of us cannot produce but you would admit the issue of galamsey has to do with some chiefs and politicians being behind it.

Who gives these lands to the Chinese to mine? Are we saying as the Chinese get down from the airplanes they navigate their ways to the Eastern, Western and Brong Ahafo regions among others to set up their machines and dig for gold? Certainly, no. We must deal with the very people behind the act.

Our elders were right when they said that when the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken it hides the fox as its bodyguard. Indeed, until we have something scary enough to cripple our source of fear, then we are not fighting enough.

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

      

TALKING DRUM: A Stupid Move in Banda Ahenkro!

Policemen enforcing law and order in  Banda Ahenkro

One could not have had a better understanding of the Nigerian proverb which says that ‘stupidity is the lover of ignorance’ than the crass foolhardiness exhibited by a group in Banda Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo region.
 

The group, Concerned Members of Banda Ahenkro, had pasted on the walls of schools and other buildings demanding that non-indigenes leave their district with immediate effect. Failure to leave would mean anything atrocious could happen to such stubborn non-indigenes.

The aggrieved, unknown, and coward Banda Ahenkro thugs claim the non-indigenes have taken over their jobs. Hence, their call for them to leave their area. Subsequently, the ‘strangers’ escaping for safety left the schools and the hospitals among others for the embittered residents to take over.

Indeed, this can only happen in Ghana. Here, we see all the good things out there but we end up copying only the wrong. “If you do not leave this district [Banda Ahenkro] then we cannot guarantee your safety here. What is happening to strangers in South Africa will happen to you,” reads a portion of the aggrieved members’ letter.

You live in Banda Ahenkro and by God’s grace, you have access to electricity and internet and you watch and read happenings in South Africa. That’s fine. So, you did not see the beauty of South Africa? You did not see why many people across Africa troop to make a living in South Africa but saw the stupidity of some few people terrorising innocent persons?

This is the plain truth we must tell those cowards threating lives in Banda Ahenkro. They had access to a computer to type their warning letter but they could not reason enough to similarly write letters to apply for jobs. 

When I completed the then Junior Secondary School in 2003, my Father told me I could go to his village and teach. That, he would speak to the headmaster of a government basic school there to give me the opportunity. The village by name Daadom in the Brong Ahafo region had its school lacking teachers.

In the morning, I would say goodbye to my parents as I headed to the classroom while they also prepared for the farm. As well, in 2006, after I completed Sunyani Secondary School, I wrote a basket full of application letters to basic schools in the Sunyani municipality seeking a humble position as a teacher.

God being so good, I had the chance to teach at the Wesley Preparatory and Junior High School. These two pupil-teaching aside, I have once sold chewing sticks and worked as a cobbler [shoemaker] together with my childhood friend, Lawrence Duah, who has now sought academic asylum in the United States. This is how we have struggled our path through where we find ourselves now. Not long ago, a lady friend asked whether I had been to the farm before. I laughed.

Solomon has extensively worked tilling the soil with his parents and sisters in planting cocoa and foodstuffs. In all these, no one hatched the idea of threatening the lives of non-indigenes of Sunyani for ‘taking over our jobs.’ Whether it was pupil-teaching, farming, selling of chewing sticks or roving up and down as a cobbler, it was a way of life. A way to survive the demands of life and push forward for a better tomorrow. 

Are the Concerned Members of Banda Ahenkro saying they cannot farm in their district because non-indigenes have taken over their lands? Is it the case that none of these people cannot be cobblers? They cannot be electricians, plumbers, tailors, hairdressers and barbers? They cannot be shopkeepers or sales persons? Indeed, what they have exhibited to the whole of Ghana affirms that common sense is the most expensive commodity to some Ghanaians. 

If the people of the Greater Accra Region are to launch a similar threats of attack on non-indigenes here because we have taken over their jobs, not even our president would be spared. Certainly, we would have to relocate the Flagstaff House to the Eastern Region.

The chiefs of Banda Ahenkro have distanced themselves from being part of the aggrieved members. They are, therefore, calling on the police and other security operatives to hunt these nefarious people from their hideouts and make them face the law. Impressive!

However, I am more thrilled with a section of the Banda Ahenkro youth who came out not to only distance themselves of the threats but gave ultimatum for the thugs to come out and confess. Failure of it, they say they will cause the wrath of their gods on these lawbreakers. 

If our securities services are unable to arrest anyone in connection with the Banda Ahenkro threats, then, I will support the call for the gods’ intervention. Ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas was not far from the truth when he opined that extreme diseases call for extreme remedies. 

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba