It is true that the Akan tribe comes first when we look at our population but the ratio will be just 1 to 4 if you study the composition of tribes in every region.That is the reason why NPP is winning only 2 regions out of 10 ... read full comment
It is true that the Akan tribe comes first when we look at our population but the ratio will be just 1 to 4 if you study the composition of tribes in every region.That is the reason why NPP is winning only 2 regions out of 10.If you put the minority tribes together they will become majority and Akans will become minority.Therefore,the party that takes it's strength from the combined minority tribes will always beat the Akan based party like we saw in 2008 and 2012 general elections.In political Science,it does not work to use tribal strategy to win elections.We should ask ourselves,why Kwame Nkrumah from Nzema was able to beat the UP which was a well crafted tribal combination?Why Obama is able to win the presidency in the United States of America even though he is poor and from the minority race?The answer is that these 2 great leaders are poor and from the minority group but they worked very hard on effective campaign strategies and demonstrated quality organisational skills in addition to skillfull communication.They know what the country want and what they must do to become a leader.This is one of the reasons that I have always been saying the NPP does not have effective campaign strategy.Thank you.
Fifi Kwetey NDC 9 years ago
What did you idiots say about that?
What did you idiots say about that?
MARK. EU. 9 years ago
Well,this is the truth but they will not accept it as usual.They will soon subject this writer to insult as has been their norms.If there is anything that pains me so much is the fact that,they keep decieving the whole countr ... read full comment
Well,this is the truth but they will not accept it as usual.They will soon subject this writer to insult as has been their norms.If there is anything that pains me so much is the fact that,they keep decieving the whole country that,they are doing this in the name of the Akan tribes. It is not true and will never be true.The problems lie squarely first with the Akyems led by Akufo Addo and his drug traffickers and then the Ashantis.But to be fair, it is not all the Akyems and the Ashantis who are into such tribal bigotory but for fear of their lives, they pretend to be part of such primitive behaviour by Akufo Addo and his criminal gangs. Nobody can convience me that many Akyems did not vote for a northern president,as well as some Ashantis.After all many of such people are in government.What is so serious than what Osafo mafo has said and now trying to deny it?Listening to them on the airwaves make me sick. They go about issueing threats to people who would vote against them and calling them names. It is as if Ghana is for them and that they are the only human beings destined to rule over it.I can swear that the Fantis,Bonos,Ahantas and the other ethnic Akan tribes are not and will never be part of their luncy but they are always quick to include them.It shows how foolish and useless they are in their thinking.Here are people going round threatening other tribes that if they come to power, they will burn them alive,they will show them their countries of origin, they will jail them until they rot and die in jail and the rest.Are these people fit to rule ove this country? The presidency of this man Akufo Addo will definitely bring about a protracted civil war in this country.Ghanaians can try it and see.Have they not demonstrated enough for us to know what they are up to? We live to see.So stupid and foolish and usless to the core that they talk before they think. If not how could they be insulting northerners and defaming them all of the time whiles they have a northener as their vice presidential candidtate? As if what Osafo Mafo said is not enough, just look at the placards they displayed during their so called demonstrations. My goodness!Ghana will be doomed if these vultures are given political power in this country.
DESTROYERS PARTY N D C 9 years ago
History will surely recalled when britain came to destroy it was the ASANTES WHO STOOD FIRM TO DEFEND THE NATION.Kwame Nkrumah was brought from America to lead the country to independence and what did we see to DESTROY THE A ... read full comment
History will surely recalled when britain came to destroy it was the ASANTES WHO STOOD FIRM TO DEFEND THE NATION.Kwame Nkrumah was brought from America to lead the country to independence and what did we see to DESTROY THE ASANTES AND AKYEMS.JJ RAWSHIT was freed from DEATH ROW ONLY TO HIM DESTROYING THE ASANTES OPOKU TRANSPORT,APINO ,DARKO FARMS,just to mention a few .It was out DEMONIC STUPID ,ENVIOUS AND FOOLISH ATTITUDE TOWARDS AKANS ESPECIALLY THAT IS THE NPP WAS FORMED.EIGHT YEARS OF NPP RULE BROUHT GHANA A GREAT RELIEF .What do we see TODAY?From Kwame Nkrumah , rawshit atta mills to THAT EMPTY-HAEDED WOMANIZER IF ABUSING PEOPLE KILLS THEN ASANTES AND AKYEMS WOULD HAVE BEEN PERISHED.ABOUT ONE OF THE MOST MEN IN THE WORLD NANA AKUFFO ADDO IT IS ONLY JEALOUSY THAT IS YOU PHYCOPAT BEAST TALK EVILL ABOUT HIM.FROM Kwame Nkrumah to this VISIONLLESS IDIOT NONE CAN BE COMPARED TO HIM .MAY I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR TO YOU THAT YOU MUST CALL A SPADE BUT AS LONG AS YOU REMAIN STUPID ,USELEES,AND IGNORANT GHANIANS WILL ALWAYS SUFFER GOOD EXAMPLE IS OUR PRESENT SITUATION DUM SOR DUM SOR.MY FERVENT PRAYERS IS THAT MAY GOOD GOD WIPE THIS PARTY OF MURDERERS,ARMED ROBBERS, LIERS,WOMANIZERS, DRUG TRAFICKERS AND WICKED BASTARTS FROM THE FACE OF THIS EARTH
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
It is clear where their sense of superiority and bigotry comes from: their total ignorance and distorted knowledge of the pre-history of present Ghana. Unless that is corrected, they shall continue to harbour their native pre ... read full comment
It is clear where their sense of superiority and bigotry comes from: their total ignorance and distorted knowledge of the pre-history of present Ghana. Unless that is corrected, they shall continue to harbour their native prejudices and go about proudly looking down upon other people.
Look, Asantes [and let us add their allies] did not defend the totality of present Ghanaians against the British. Post-slave trade British interests simply clashed with the continuing predatory nature of their former major slave supplying and trading partner, Asante kingdom and the British made common cause with the natives of the Gold Coast who were bearing the brunt of those predatory actions of the Asantes and their allies.
My own great, great grandfather sat in prime position at Dzelukope to negotiate peace with the British after the Sagrenti War, the Anlos having fought troops led by Glover in support of the Asantes. I have the newspaper sketch to prove that besides the historical records. Not I am proud of of course. In fact, ashamed of for a long, long time. But I simply can't sit down and allow these revisionist history to be pander about any longer. That's why I had written down exactly what happened to bring the British into our local conflicts: the continuing slave raids on weak and peaceful people, the kidnapping of missionaries and traders for ransom specifically from Ho [the Ramseyyers, Bonat and co.), attacks on the Fantes, etc., etc.
Andy-K
profferlio 9 years ago
Man stop lying. Do u know what brought the war between the ashantes and the british? go back and read well.
Man stop lying. Do u know what brought the war between the ashantes and the british? go back and read well.
NTRA SAKYI 9 years ago
What is the truth? That John Mahamah said on campaign that he is from the north and so all northerners should vote for him.
What is the truth? That John Mahamah said on campaign that he is from the north and so all northerners should vote for him.
Kojo 9 years ago
Why don't we split up. Everybody goes their own way. We don't like each other so why stay together in this Entity Ghana? We can have Ewe Nation , Akan Nation etc.
No need to fight. We can coexist as separate Nations peaceful ... read full comment
Why don't we split up. Everybody goes their own way. We don't like each other so why stay together in this Entity Ghana? We can have Ewe Nation , Akan Nation etc.
No need to fight. We can coexist as separate Nations peacefully. Like ghana , Nigeria , Benin etc.
Nii 9 years ago
Great you should all leave the Ga State (GaDangme Region) and move back to Kumasi.
I as a Ga will be forever great full. You are choking us in Accra.
Great you should all leave the Ga State (GaDangme Region) and move back to Kumasi.
I as a Ga will be forever great full. You are choking us in Accra.
Koo 9 years ago
Foolish talk!
Foolish talk!
Squinty Eye 9 years ago
I am not too sure of what is happening with tribal politics on the political landscape.
Perhaps, the acrimony that led to the Ivorian and Nigerian Civil Wars are emerging here in Ghana.
Should we try a Federal Ghana? Pr ... read full comment
I am not too sure of what is happening with tribal politics on the political landscape.
Perhaps, the acrimony that led to the Ivorian and Nigerian Civil Wars are emerging here in Ghana.
Should we try a Federal Ghana? President F.W. De Klerk recently suggested that to us when he was here. I know the move was resisted in the past. We could re-visit it again, if would help us.
I don't want us to head for a complete and utter breakdown. We have enough problems as it is.
The margin of electoral victory suggests that the country is split equally; why not take the plunge and have a referendum on the subject?
Denis Francis 9 years ago
Tribalism is the fest that sustains most Ewes in Ghana. Ewes are known from the length and breath of this country as the most notoriously tribalistic tribe in Ghana. we saw its apogee when Rawlings was in power. They feel so ... read full comment
Tribalism is the fest that sustains most Ewes in Ghana. Ewes are known from the length and breath of this country as the most notoriously tribalistic tribe in Ghana. we saw its apogee when Rawlings was in power. They feel so uncomfortable when they meet you and you tell them you are Akan.They are soo inward-looking to the detriment of this country. We in Ghana didn't experience this Sharp ethnic divisions til Rawlings came to power and introduced this Cancer into the nation's body politic, and public institutions. Yet Ewes are always the first to call others tribalistic.You meet a few of them WHO are level headed, but most Ewes are incuriable in-Ward looking and tribalistc beyond repair. Anywhere you meet them, tribalism stinks on them. If Ewes do not take some introspection to cure their tribalism and inferiority complex, one day we will make Ghana a Federal Ghana.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to br ... read full comment
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to brush this issue under the carpet by some linked to the NPP as just a one off aberration. These people pretend or do not seem to know that Agyapong’s threats were not the first admonishing the killing of Ewes, something the readily available facts testify to. Facts I have been referring to from 1994 in cyberspace, recounting my own personal experiences with some of those advocates of Ewe killers in Nigeria during the early years of the PNDC. Of course, I have not as yet told the full story. But as Fela said, “I no kpata de finish!”
Hmm! As I found out when I was insulted “basabasa” by a man who turned out to be one of my many uncles, when I apparently misspoke on the hike in petrol prices in the 1993 budget, (on a bus from Anloga to Dzelukope in 1993), for being mistaken for a Quashiga hireling who had joined the “Eblutorwo” (Akans) preparing to come and kill them, my people back home were fully prepared and waiting for us quislings to start the attacks; I was assured. That was long before anyone heard of Justice Kpega as a political pundit! Phew! Me, a die-hard Nkrumaist in league with NPP assassins, to go and kill my fellow Anlos over whom my own forebears had ruled for centuries? Well, after all, it was in Lome, an Ewe centrepiece city even if many are of Ga-Anyi extraction, that they first congregated and started those lose talks against Ewes, thus forcing most Ewes in exile opposed to the PNDC to abandon the opposition to the PNDC and the anti-Ewe bent it had taken. So, many of us Ewes knew about their evil intents a long time ago, as they were eating our akple and fetridetsi and planning it in our kinsmen homes! Hardly any of them knew that much of the land of Lome is owned by people from Aflao and environs. Ignorant morons come in all shapes, you know. They were lucky no one poisoned them in Lome.:-)
Equally, I have read opponents to Agyapong’s utterances, including some Ewes, made some false and misleading statements, which shows that they are ignorant of the facts of the origins of the ethnic imbroglio in Ghana, despite my persistent efforts and write-ups sketching that sordid history, from the pre-colonial to the post-independence era. I read someone situated in the 1979 elections period Victor Owusu’s scathing attacks on Ewes as “inward-looking” during the exchanges with Dr Agama in Parliament after the Apollo 586 sacking of mostly Ewes by the Busia regime which was overthrown in Jan. 1972!
Ignorance and superstition are recognised as key cogs in the vicious cycle of backwardness that is our lot as developing people but the extent most so-called educated Ghanaians wallow in these two inhibiting traits is just stupendous and disheartening!
Many try to claim that Rawlings introduced tribalism into Ghana by employing predominantly Ewes into sensitive public posts, especially the security sector; whereas the same claims of Ewe domination of posts had already been used effectively against Gbedema’s NAL by Busia’s Progress Party during the 1969 General Elections, as I had quoted from Dennis Austin’s book “Ghana Observed,” but something all grown-ups at the time knew about. It was therefore unfortunate that the late Prof Adu Boahen, as a historian who knew or ought to know better, fed into these fabrications of Ewe dominance, creating his own when he reportedly claimed in a British Council lecture in the 1980s that Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, a Ga who was given the VC post which he thought he deserved at the time, was an Ewe, and promised in his interview granted to Mahoney and his Africa Watch magazine to redress the presumed ethnic disparity when the NPP was elected into office. To me and many discerning Ewes, especially the Ewe elite, it was all déjà vu. But I was still surprised to find out that some decade long Ewe opponents of the PNDC voted for the NDC in 1992! It would not even surprise me if someone who knew Justice Kpegah’s political views very well in the 1980s came out to say that he was an arch-enemy of the PNDC in the Bar Association. I was visiting Ho in 1990 when the people of the VR angrily rejected the no party idea that the PNDC was then lobbying for, effectively halting the campaign for it. Those in B/A had already voted yes.
Yes! The NPP had itself to blame for their dismal reception in the VR, as they lost the plot with their tribal agenda reminiscent of the 1969 campaign. In Accra, they lost a lot of Ga support when the same Prof Adu Boahen at a rally, in trying to whip the anti-Ewe venom made that gaffe about Gas being pushed by the PNDC to be sleeping 10 persons to a room, after many of the main speakers had spoken in Twi which pissed them off! In 2000, they (NPP) won simply because of JJ’s unwholesome Swedru Declaration and the disrespectful Obed Asamoah led attempts to impose sitting candidates on their constituents, which nearly got him beaten at Dzelukope/Keta. Even my own Anlo Constituency voted for an independent linked to the NDC but not the NDC official candidate who was the re-imposed incumbent!
Fact is, I have been aware, just as many other people, since the early 1980s of various threats by some Akans opposed to the PNDC to have Ewes killed and had written about that many, many times on Okyeame and SIL. Perhaps, adding Gas to those to be killed is just the new dimension added by Agyapong, since it appeared, this time, the Gas, in Agyapong's warped mind, had acted in prosecuting the "Ewe agenda" by beating up Ursula on behalf of the Ewes! Well, warped minds think in strange, circular terms!
After all, the threats were so opened and so rampant that one Ewe, the late Dr Kodzi who died in exile here in London, pointed out the "Anlo-Ewes” in his own virulently anti-Rawlings PNDC book, "Ghana: Worse than Apartheid S. Africa," as the Ewes to be killed, for being the culprits of the complaints and angst of the Akans! That was long before anyone heard of Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe and his renewed “war” on “Anlo-Ewes,” a war his ancestor joined the Akyem Gen. Dompey to fight in "Krepi" against the Asantes and their allies and lost way back in the 1860s and got stranded there, lucky enough not to have been killed like others. That’s another story I had re-told elsewhere and needs a re-visit soon in order to let the populace know what makes bozos like Ahoofe tick. For a man, (I mean Dr Kodzi, not the jerk Ahoofe) who, due to his sterling stewardship when in charge of the Keta Govt Hospital, was much beloved by Anlos, regarded as an hononary Anlo and entrusted with pouring the libation at the Hogbeza celebration of the Noviha group here in London, that was something to write! How could he be sure that the would-be killers would not mistake him for an Anlo man, in spite of the pain he took to identify the other Ewe groups in his book? Well, the failure of the so-called Ewe elite - academic and traditional and the political - to deal rationally with this animus against Ewes is itself an intra-Ewe shambolic intellectual failure I shall deal with by and by. I have right here on my table the rantings of some other Ewes from northern Eweland, or Ewedome, as we Anlos refer to the area referred to by Europeans as Krepi, against the PNDC and Anlos in particular which I have not even as yet dealt with in my writings.
I must, however, make exception here, as Prof. Kofi Awoonor’s much distorted and maligned prison book (in league with Soyinka’s The Man Died) is probably the first book by a Ghanaian which tried to explain the tribal imbroglio and to point the way forward. His only mistake was that he fell prey to the standard Western simplistic, linear and reductionist methodology of reducing what is without doubt a complex articulation of interests and forces which cut across the ethnic divide with people from all ethnic groups found in both or all contesting camps for political ascendancy, or “hegemony”, as he put it, in Ghana. So, for instance, those who imprisoned him for helping Brig. Kattah to escape to Togo were not only “Akans/Asantes” but included Ewes, Gas, Gonjas, etc., as Kutu’s NRC comprised a cross-section of Ghanaian ethnic groups. And some members of other ethnic groups supported Busia and the demonization of the Ewes, not only Asantes or Akans alone.
You have to be wilfully blind or totally ignorant of what has been happening in the opposition to the P/NDC camp in order to claim today that you are not aware of talk of and even attempts to foment what would have become an ethnic war in Ghana prior to 1992. I personally had to intervene and quelled a serious fracas on Okyeame between two well known non-Ewes when the “brave Asantes” were queried again by a non-Asante why they could not deal with the apparently Ewe P/NDC which allegedly committed atrocities on they Akans only, I suppose. I bet many can remember J.H Mensah's arrest in America for allegedly attempting to buy weapons to prosecute their “liberation war” to get their country back. It is no wonder the NPP gurus, many of whom shared in those nefarious ideas, talked about it, plotted to carry it out, etc., are finding it very hard to distance themselves from this public utterance of it again. How can they desert their fellow journey man, without being double hypocrites? At least, there must be some honour among thieves!
There are many questions to ask and many issues to take up. Had my PC not kaput and eventually leading to the loss of a huge part of what I had painstakingly written with references while in Norway with additions in London, my intended book taking up those issues would have been out years ago.
Incidentally, my next intended article after writing "How Some "Ewes" Became a Part of Ghana" is titled "Who Are the Ewes?". It is just a revisit to my first ever post to a cyber forum in early 1994, Okyeame precisely, which Azar should remember so well as, in spite of my providing a reference, he still challenged me to give that! It was sent as my contribution, incidentally, to another NPP instigated scare against poor but hard working Ewe and Ada fishing cum farming pioneers (won't call them settlers) displaced by the effects of the Akosombo Dam on the neglected downstream people who opened up the mosquito infested and disease-ridden Afram Plains. The claim was that the NDC wanted to carve a district for them there and thereby claim the land for them! Wives and children were hastily sent home in order to keep them out of harm’s way in the event of attacks on the communities. That was when I decided not to sit any longer on the fence, just like the majority of my fellow educated Ewes, who think responding to such attacks on Ewes is beneath them, since madmen, "dzimakplawo" and "gbemelawo" were responsible! That was the common “wisdom” repeated by Rawlings at Tsiame, when he was queried by the worried chiefs and people about the ongoing Ewe demonization in the opposition media and on political platforms in the ‘90s.
Gratuitous counter abuse, especially directed at Asantes ad nauseam, is not the way to tackle the issues, as some are presently doing on Ghanaweb. In the ‘90s, the Ghanaian stage was left to a novice like Komla Dumor to deal with on Myjoyonline with his “Ayigbe Jokes” series., which horrified and mortified me when I first listened to it online in 1997 or so. A programme like that would have found him and Myjoyonline foul of the Anti-Vilification Laws of any of the Western European countries and sanctioned appropriately. I doubt though whether half of our “honourable” MPs have heard of such a law, but that is the way we must go, and huge revision of the school curricula. But that calls for another article.
Well, simply, many do not know how to deal with the madmen who repeatedly take their loins cloth while in the bath house! I know how! After all, I know the story of how the Anloga man dealt with the mad man of Tegbi and remained sane; the mad man who used to way lay the “asisiawo” - the market women - from the Keta market with a club and the question: axor a ava lo, alo axor ekpo?, i.e., do you want penis or do you want the club? And one day he raped and killed the heavily pregnant wife of the Anloga man. Of course, it is a taboo to deal with mad men in our society but the Anloga man dealt with the mad man and nothing happened to him.
Ahoofe and his ilk’s tribalistic insults directed at Anlo-Ewes in particular and Agyapong's call to mayhem can be placed in perspective if you are informed about their origins. They used the tribal card so well in 1969 and think they can continue using it forever. No! Some of us decided long ago that ourselves and children shall not remain objects of demonization and vilification for the political objectives of some people who are still suffering from the mental warpedness that the slave trade had foisted on our ancestors. We shall therefore make sure that these appeal to ethnic differences backfire big time on their stupid faces!
I am therefore re-sending and shall continue re-posting this short piece I had put together especially for the readership of Ghanaweb and shall continue with my series on the Ethnic imbroglio in Ghana. Agyapong's outburst is simply the tip of the canker that permeates our body politic that must be dealt with at its roots. They are not the only Akans who suffer from what I have dubbed “Ewe angst and fears”, which afflict the generality of Akans due to how they are weaned and socialised. What do you expect from people who, as kids, are frightened to drink their Mist Alba, behave themselves or go to bed early with the Ewe bogeyman imagery?
Andy C. Y. Kwawukume
--------------------------------------
THE ETHNIC IMBROGLIO IN GHANA: THE ORIGINS, PART 1
The tribal imbroglio, rather than starting in recent times, has been brewing for a long, long while now. In fact, the roots of the prejudices and the insults we see some raining on others date back to pre-colonial times. So, any attempt to understand the worrying phenomenon must address the canker from that era. That is what I intend to do, with special focus on the apparent cleavage between Ewes and Akans (and any others). But now, I’d begin with the colonial times. When you hear the cry of lamentation:
Dza le le leeeeeee!
Me zu kluvi
The road to Kontsiabu
Strewn with gold dusts.
Only those without
in their eyes gold dusts
felt the pangs of hunger and thirst…
then you’d know that the time to narrate the doleful tales of the pre-colonial era, where it all began, has arrived; but you’d get a glimpse now.
Not to waste time apportioning blame, the Akans (and Gas, if I may add them), started these tribal abuse and attacks on Ewes many decades ago; nay, centuries back, as I said earlier. But as mentioned above, I won't delve as yet into the pre-colonial times when it was free for all, with even some Ewe states joining in marauding and plundering other Ewe states for the slave markets of the Gold Coast. I had indeed provided a write up on that sordid era on Ghanaweb’s SIL in the 1990s, which is available. One German businessman with biz connections to Ghana who used to read the nonsense on SIL wrote a private mail to me saying that he was always wondering why Africans sold each other into slavery to Europeans and Arabs; reading my detailed historical account enlightened him on how and why it happened for the first time. That story must be re-told all over Africa in other to understand the roots of the conflicts that bedevilled the continent after independence.
In Ghana, the colonial times modern version started after the WW1 when Anlo, Tongu and Peki migrants from within the Gold Coast and those from the newly acquired TVT from the Germans started moving to the Akan and Ga areas to either fish, farm or seek paid employment. Ewes from Togo and Benin Republic (Dahomey) escaping from French repressive rule came later. Some Ewes, esp. the educated ones, also got jobs with the commercial houses and the colonial administration. Some, such as Gbedema and Nkulenu, started their own private businesses. Soon, they were becoming prosperous in their chosen fields and/or rising up in the ranks wherever they were employed due to the usual hard working nature of most migrants. After all, the far superior German missionary vocational educational set up, compared to the British, had equipped them much better with skills in the crafts and building, such as carpentry and masonry, which were in much demand by the colonial authority and the other natives of the Gold Coast and Asante. That was when trouble began and the attacks started, as far back as the 1930s.
Below is a brief quote from S. Greene about how the Fantes started perceiving Anlo-Ewe fisher folk; a perception or prejudice which is not much different from what permeates the Akan ethnic group as a whole up to today (not only a few bigots on Ghanaweb). Ewes find out to our chagrin or amusement, often as a kid, that that was how our fellow country men and women perceive us. The encounter is therefore a personal story too.
Not much has changed in the prejudiced minds of too many Akans, as we daily witness on Ghanaweb, even though many too have developed over the years an obsession or desire to marry Ewe girls, failure which often brought in its wake stories of tribalism heaped against Ewes. As I told some Akan teacher colleagues in Nigeria, it was the scary and “irrational” Akan “wofa” (uncle) inheritance system, stupid! Horrible stories of how Ewe widows were in particular dispossessed and treated shabbily were enough to dissuade any idea of marriage to even a most love besotted Akan man! It is no wonder that, with the interstate law of inheritance in place, marriage to Akan men has been on the increase.
I know an Ewe from the Peki area who swore that it’d never be possible to change the jaundiced perception of Akans of Ewes from his own experiences attending Mpraeso Teacher Training College, and then teaching at Mpraeso and in Kumasi. He said one particular woman - a cook in the school - they used to go to church with wouldn’t believe that he did not have any “akpeledzi” under their bed! I said it was possible and gave an example of my own experiences in Nigeria. I managed to convince my fellow Akan teachers that I don’t indulge nor believe in those things - juju or voodoo or even any god (white or black), and wouldn’t drink “ogogoro” with them – when there is original Gordon’s gin and lime cordial to have – and they somehow lost some “respect”, (or was it fear?) for me. They’d say I wasn’t a proper Anloman and fool around with me!
Between 1982-4, when their Anti-Ewe diatribes had reached fever point and they were advocating massacring Ewes as done to the Ibos in Nigeria who they claimed were also allegedly dominating Nigeria in the 1960s, I thought of putting some fear into them by creating some “kporsi” (“see-and-run”) to scare them. Fact is, practically every smart Ewe knows how to scare Akans and Gas even though they don’t have “foko” (anything), as we say in Anlo but I will keep that out of this write up. Good I didn’t do so, otherwise they’d be giving testimonies up to today about what an Anlo teacher did to them in Nigeria – they’d have packed out and run from their rooms on the ground floor of the storey building we were hiring. I “protected” myself practically by chocking the door handle with a chair, as I had seen in movies, before I went to bed, in order to prevent them from making me the first casualty of their let-us-kill-Ewes mania! Funny some of them even became staunch PNDC supporters, only to change their minds again years later when I met some on a visit to Ghana.
Anyway, enough with the digression into the personal narrative and to Sandra Greene.
From p.148 of Sandra Greene I quote:
"Increased Anlo identification with their northern Ewe-speaking neighbours may have also been enhanced by the experience many had while participating in migrant fishing. After World War I, numerous groups of Anlo men and women traveled to other coastal areas, including the Fante area of the Gold Coast, in order to pursue their commercial fishing activities. For many, this was probably the first time they had traveled outside their home area, and/or to a district where they were a distinct linguistic minority. In these locations, they conducted themselves as they had in their own home villages, but those among whom they come to live - often temporarily, just for the fishing season - came to view the Anlos' prosperity with jealousy and suspicion. Stories circulated that associated the Anlo with "blood-curdling" crimes. R.W. Wyllie indicates, for example, that from at least the 1930s "Fanti [children] learned to view the Anlos as thieves, kidnappers, sorcerers, and ritual murderers." The social tensions that accompany these beliefs - and the very fact that these beliefs were held by a non-Ewe speaking people - must have heightened the Anlo's awareness of their linguistic and cultural background and generated some sense of identification with their Ewe-speaking peoples whom they would have encountered in the Gold Coast."
The encounter with the Gold Coasters was enough to turn any Ewe into a paranoid schizophrenic, developed a siege mentality (become “inward-looking”?) and very resentful towards any idea of union with the Gold Coast, not to mention marry an Akan.
As some of you know, the Anlo area through Tongu to the Peki area had been part of the Gold Coast colony proper, effectively from 1874 though the British “bought” and claimed the area from the Danes in 1850; hence the freedom to move to other parts of the Gold Coast and Asante later. Besides, many southern Ewes are descendants Ga-Adangbe, Elmina and Denkyira fugitives dating back respectively to 1687 when the Akwamus first thrashed the Gas for cutting the “bolobolo” (foreskin) of their prince sent to the Ga Mantse Okai Koi’s court to understudy courtship, and 1700, when the Asantes defeated the Denkyiras and took over Elmina from the Denkyiras. Going back to Ge (Accra) and Sima (Shama) with their new kinsmen was just like returning to the ancestors' land. In fact, it was the descendants of those fugitives who were the first migrants, having maintained links with their ancestral lands during their long period in exile. Reindorf had written about that back and forth movement among the Ga fugitives long ago. That’s how Osu-Anecho came to be founded and how all Ewes got the derogatory epithet “Ayigbe” (Ayi refuse), whether they were descendants of fugitives or not. The “dzulor” bit the Gas added originally referred to the Okai Koi stool regalia which the Ga-Ewes in Togo refused to return to Accra and still claim to be its protectors. Remember the trips with pre-colonial undertones their chiefs made to Ghana when the NPP took over power in 2000?
I can make long comments on the above quote but suffice it to say that it was the beginning and end of the love affair which started as unification with the Gold Coast movement ending up as the drive to secede from the Gold Coast. So we read from the December 6, 1919 edition of the West Africa magazine a letter sent to the colonial government of the Gold Coast:
“We PEOPLE of Togoland, descended from two principal countries, Elmina
(Ane) and Accra (Ge), both of the Gold Coast Colony, ask to have British government because it is the government of our fathers, whose customs are our customs, and a British Colony is half-an-hour distant from us.
We ask to have British government because it is the government of our kith and kin, our race and our tribe.
We ask for British government because of our relationship with our people on the west, which must assert itself..” (culled from West Africa 12-16 Dec. 1994)
And so on it went. One may wonder why the petitioners did not even acknowledge the Ewes, Dagombas, Konkombas, Akans and the host of other ethnic and tribal groups in Togo who also have their “kith and kin” within the Gold Coast and the Northern Territories. I guess this piece of history may come as a surprise to the ingrates who make a living of always reminding us that Ewes come from Togo, some of whom carried a video to Lome to trace the roots of Fiifii Kwetey there, instead of doing so in Accra! Well, he said he was from Nogokpo, which rubbed a sore spot for me, but that’s another story.
THE EWE BACKLASH
By the 1940s, Ewes, Anlos in particular, in the Gold Coast had had enough of the vilification and undeserved demonisation their successes were arousing. The returnee Anes and Ges (Gas), now fused as the Genyi, as Anlos refer to them, through intermarriages, also soon discovered that they were not welcome, or often welcomed with shouts of “Ayigbe dzulor”! Disenchantment set in and secession from Ghana became a far better option. The result was the 1956 plebiscite and the rest is history.
Then come the post Feb 24 1966 coup era, when Busia and his PP turned this traditional vilification of Ewes into a political tool to win the 1969 general elections. It was preceded by an internal struggle within the NLC to share the spoils of office after the coup. An extended quote from Dennis Austin, that great chronicler of Ghana history, captures the gist of it, so here we go:
“A surprising and disagreeable novelty of the election was the extraordinary anti-Ewe sentiment that was express1ed in conversation with many of those who were against Gbedemah and his party. One can explain this strong animus not simply by a dislike of Gbedema’s reappearance in political life but in relations to events after the 1966 coup. Suddenly there were the soldiers and the police, and everyone burst out singing, but when the music died down away it was noticed that the NLC (it seemed) was commanded by minorities: Ewe and Ga. When Ankrah (a Ga), was moved out, and charges were brought over-hastily by Harlley against the Chief of Defence Staff, Michael Otu, the evidence to many was overwhelming. It was all an Ewe plot. Soon Ghana would be run for the benefit of an energetic minority, operating first within the armed forces, and now behind Gbedemah. ‘Appoint an Ewe to a public corporation or to a government department and within a year the entire hierarchy down to the messenger will be an Ewe.’ So the argument ran. And there was always some evidence for it, since the Ewe, deprived of any natural wealth in their own barren region, have been energetic in seizing the opportunities of public employment, including positions in the army and the police, which wealthier communities (like the Akan) did not wish to occupy. In practice, looking through the list of senior officers in government department and the public corporations, the evidence is certainly not clear of any Ewe domination: it could hardly be in view of their number. But a belief does not, of course, have to be true before people hold it fervently.
Now there is an Akan-dominated government of an Akan dominated society. Were I to become, by some improbable chance of fate, leader of the governing party I would be much less apprehensive of my Ewe opponents in front than of the large and expectant following behind. I would be fearful too of the ambitions of those now excluded from power, remembering the Songs of Innocence that:
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caeser’s laurel crown” (D. Austin 1976:125)
Austin was writing with hindsight about what befell Busia’s regime, overthrown in a coup led by an Asante.
In Part 2, I intend to examine the hate campaign against the Ewes and the consequences or reactions from the 1970s which led to Kofi Awoonor’s infamous prison book, The Ghana Revolution, which he claimed he wrote in prison when gaoled for helping Brig. Kattah to escape from Ghana. It’d be necessary to focus on the Ghana Army, from its origins and recruitment trends since it is at the crux of the matter.
.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, better known as C.Y. Andy-K, is a freethinker, Pan-Africanist and an ardent Nkrumaist.
cyandyk@ymail.com
References:
Dennis Austin (1976): Ghana Observed: Essays on the Politics of a W. African Republic.
Manchester Univ. Press.
Sandra E. Greene (1995): Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave
Coast: A History of the Anlo-Ewe. Heinemann and James Currey
Robert W. Wyllie. “Migrant Anlo Fishing Companies and Socio-Political Change: A
Comparative Study.” Africa, XXXIX, 4 (1969), 396-410.
NOKWARE ASA 9 years ago
NPP needs to take a hard look at themselves after their pink sheet fiasco, or they will never win elections in Ghana any more. Mark my words.
NPP needs to take a hard look at themselves after their pink sheet fiasco, or they will never win elections in Ghana any more. Mark my words.
Nii 9 years ago
Akans are losing their grip on political power in Ghana. They have had their chance and have blown it. Now the wind is blowing from the north .
Akans are losing their grip on political power in Ghana. They have had their chance and have blown it. Now the wind is blowing from the north .
bright tetteh 9 years ago
why are we doing these to ourselves, the writer did well but the problem is he only spoke against one party, without acknowledging what the other side too has done. Objectively, the Ewes are the most tribalistic which if the ... read full comment
why are we doing these to ourselves, the writer did well but the problem is he only spoke against one party, without acknowledging what the other side too has done. Objectively, the Ewes are the most tribalistic which if the Akans realised that, they will not follow ndc again. So many ewes will tell you dont ask me of my party because you know where am coming from so you must know the party i belong to. Dont forget the comments made by mahama, mills, rawlings, fifi kwetey and the rest. So if we will speak against all and not one i think we will move forward
Asass, Ksi 9 years ago
Whoever wrote this article is not a good statesman.After all if you write this to pollute the minds of Gas , Ewes and northerners what will you get?.You are too shameful.I am sorry for you.You are not matured.
Whoever wrote this article is not a good statesman.After all if you write this to pollute the minds of Gas , Ewes and northerners what will you get?.You are too shameful.I am sorry for you.You are not matured.
It is true that the Akan tribe comes first when we look at our population but the ratio will be just 1 to 4 if you study the composition of tribes in every region.That is the reason why NPP is winning only 2 regions out of 10 ...
read full comment
What did you idiots say about that?
Well,this is the truth but they will not accept it as usual.They will soon subject this writer to insult as has been their norms.If there is anything that pains me so much is the fact that,they keep decieving the whole countr ...
read full comment
History will surely recalled when britain came to destroy it was the ASANTES WHO STOOD FIRM TO DEFEND THE NATION.Kwame Nkrumah was brought from America to lead the country to independence and what did we see to DESTROY THE A ...
read full comment
It is clear where their sense of superiority and bigotry comes from: their total ignorance and distorted knowledge of the pre-history of present Ghana. Unless that is corrected, they shall continue to harbour their native pre ...
read full comment
Man stop lying. Do u know what brought the war between the ashantes and the british? go back and read well.
What is the truth? That John Mahamah said on campaign that he is from the north and so all northerners should vote for him.
Why don't we split up. Everybody goes their own way. We don't like each other so why stay together in this Entity Ghana? We can have Ewe Nation , Akan Nation etc.
No need to fight. We can coexist as separate Nations peaceful ...
read full comment
Great you should all leave the Ga State (GaDangme Region) and move back to Kumasi.
I as a Ga will be forever great full. You are choking us in Accra.
Foolish talk!
I am not too sure of what is happening with tribal politics on the political landscape.
Perhaps, the acrimony that led to the Ivorian and Nigerian Civil Wars are emerging here in Ghana.
Should we try a Federal Ghana? Pr ...
read full comment
Tribalism is the fest that sustains most Ewes in Ghana. Ewes are known from the length and breath of this country as the most notoriously tribalistic tribe in Ghana. we saw its apogee when Rawlings was in power. They feel so ...
read full comment
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to br ...
read full comment
NPP needs to take a hard look at themselves after their pink sheet fiasco, or they will never win elections in Ghana any more. Mark my words.
Akans are losing their grip on political power in Ghana. They have had their chance and have blown it. Now the wind is blowing from the north .
why are we doing these to ourselves, the writer did well but the problem is he only spoke against one party, without acknowledging what the other side too has done. Objectively, the Ewes are the most tribalistic which if the ...
read full comment
Whoever wrote this article is not a good statesman.After all if you write this to pollute the minds of Gas , Ewes and northerners what will you get?.You are too shameful.I am sorry for you.You are not matured.