Memoirs & Reality

If you are a Ghanaian and not a Ga, you might have heard this statement  ‘eat more Ga kenkey if you want to learn how to speak Ga”.   I was about 8 years old when I heard this statement. That was the time my family had just relocated to Accra from Offinso.  We happened to find ourselves in one of the Ga speaking communities, and as newcomers to the community, we always had to battle with the language whether in school, church, asking for direction or even buying something on the streets. As a little child, I needed to keep up with my new friends since I always got lost in a lovely conversation on our way to or from school.  Whenever there  was an open conversation, the only way of telling was by their responses, gesticulations of laughter or anger, nods, and shrugs. It was so distressing, and I needed a way out, but guess what?  I didn’t want to ask them to teach me. I sought to portray an attitude of a smart girl and secretly learn the ...

Do you recall those times when you spotted a food joint with so many people waiting in a queue and even cars parked along the streets to buy that food? So you join the queue only for you to realize the food was whack? What about that time when a friend recommended a seamstress and you packed your beautiful wax print material alongside an Instagram style only to realize that the African print jumpsuit you requested turned out to be a pyjamas? You lose big time. And that time when you saw a “killer” trailer of a movie which had you on edge for endless days and nights until you decided to download and watch (for those “chisel” gang members ) or went to the cinema (for the “give myself a treat” folks). It was a total flop; you were so disappointed for wasting either your internet bundle or your money. It's like after all the hype of a particular movie, say Black Panther, you finally watched only to realize it was “Black Patapaa”? You can't think far.  Well, I have had my fai...

 Washing of clothes is a chore I love and I enjoy performing. I usually wash tons of clothes on Saturdays for my family except my little sister's. Despite the huge number of clothes; I often have some music on or listen to the radio to make it more exciting. One Saturday as I was carrying on my duty, a friend of the family who was dropping off some clothes she had sewed for my mother, started off a conversation with me.   Midway, she blurted out "how I wish I worked in an office like you". I looked up, smiled yet rolling my eyes at her in my mind.  So here it goes, she is a mother of four and as a Seamstress she works from home in a shop just in front of her house. Her daily routine is to wake up at dawn, wash, prepare breakfast, see the children off to school and gets working. In the evening she prepares supper then gets back to work and closes at 10pm. This routine goes on even on the weekends.  Not understanding her point I asked why.  “Be...

Ghana is a great nation. Like many other African countries, we have been endowed with vast vegetation, beautiful rivers and natural resources; gold, coffee, cocoa, oil and diamonds. Yet we are still poor. After 61 years of Independence, we still 'beg' for funds and our systems are been controlled by the very people we sought freedom from. As W.H. Auden stated thousands have lived without love, not one without water yet some parts of the county still lack portable and clean water. Accra is still faced with rationing of water. Our children, the future leaders have their heads buried in books with no access to recreational facilities for relief and relaxation. Of which the malls have now turned into a playground for them on vacation for those in Accra and Kumasi. Forgetting those outside the cities. A breakdown of the family system due to poverty and unemployment had steered streetism, arm robbery, beggars on the streets and prostitution. Filthy Capital, Indiscipline,Cor...

If you live in Ghana you wouldn't be oblivion to the sight of beggars taking up our cities. They are seen in traffic basically every morning on principal streets in the Accra, sitting on pavements, loitering the markets, siting under and on foot bridges with their treasure bowls and cans asking for alms. They could be children, the aged but most often they are disabled in one part of their bodies and what even surprises me is that fact that, a blind or a cripple person in his/her wheelchair is been pushed/led by an able person. Whenever I see them carrying on vigorously with their day’s work I wonder what form of laziness is this. While most of them are Ghanaians we have had our fair share of Fulanis. (Whom you would be humbly graced by their children who pester you and ask for money with their load of cuteness)  Why would one subject such a vulnerable person to the scorching sun of our country especially children. I believe that you as the ‘assistant’ could work and support ...