Dr. Asebu Amenfi

Bay Watch
Umbrella fortune hunters on the Mountain
The Akwapim Mountain is tempting many men with fortune.  Apart from its picturesque view of Accra and Tema on the plains, it is one place in Ghana where the mosquito is put in the shade. The cool atmosphere and sheer height, makes it uncomfortable for the anopheles mosquito, the female species responsible for visiting all malaria and early visits to the grave of innocent children and the aged, to stay and breed its young.

According to those with inside knowledge of the workings in the Nkrumah regime, it is the scenic view and its mosquito-free stance that informed the citing of Peduase Lodge as a Presidential retreat and official residence of visiting heads of state.

When ex-President Hilla Limann was inaugurated as the third constitutional Head of State of this Republic on September 24, 1979, he chose Peduase as his official resident. The long wailing of the police siren on the street in the mid-mornings announced that the Number One Citizen of the land was on his way to work at the old Slave Castle. The siren assailed people's ears on the way to and from work at that fortress once captured by Asamani and his Akwamu warriors, until that misadventure put the whole nation to sleep from dusk to dawn for three and a half years.

For all those periods, Peduase had no rivals. The only person with a residence at the other side of the hill at the time was Mr. Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, a legal luminary who still lives quietly awaiting his appointment with his maker. It was much later that Rita Marley, widow of the reggae king, decided to relocate from that Caribbean island to be at the centre of earth and migrating point for many black men and women in the Diaspora.

When the first cadre found his way to the top of the mountain and decided to make his new-found love a permanent place of abode, it was an advertisement that revolution and wealth were, after all, not the sworn enemies that had been sold to the nation when the adventurers in military garb shot their way to power, and dispatched many well-to-do nationals to the next world.

At the last count, the man who graduated from the residency in Kumasi to take charge of the health of this nation, wearing his cadre badge with honour, still lives on the hill. It has been a long time since the our paths met, but the old man with one foot in the grave still remembers the receding forehead and its perspiring features. On such an auspicious occasion of recounting exploits on the hill, it is the appropriate forum to wish Mr. Samuel Nuama Donkor the best of health.

Some say the reference point for many people joining the Peduase Mountain camp was the reconstruction of the narrow path meandering through to that girls' institution glorifying the hill, into a dual carriage way, cutting through the rocks and making the new road a contemporary civil engineering feat.

Many observers though, have their own theories. They recount how the social democratic agenda is outdoing the property-owning democracy in piling up the cedi and the other green notes undermining the local currency.

Some even swear that when the young man who was previously marching to the beat provided by the beret wearing Committee for Joint Action (CJA), announced the creation of 1.6 million jobs as deputy to John, certainly not the Bole Deputy, at the time his Minister in charge of Employment was not aware, the import on the announcement was lost on the citizenry.

At that ministry, where the boss is usually anonymous, some analysts have come out with a comprehensive supplementary submission on the 1.6 million jobs. The contention is that the wealth creation powers of the deputy, who outdid his minister in newspeak in the rationalisation of Better Ghana in a land of decay and sent the other John back to represent his constituency, has the equivalent of servicing 1.6 million jobs.

It is becoming a mine field trying to put the new submission to analysis, given the introduction of a stone to rival the scales in contemporary Mahamaian theory. But, a new edifice on the mountain with its dual carriage way, adding to the mystery of millions of Ghana cedis exchanged to put the smooth face on the ballot box at the constituency near the river, completes the transformation.

Take it from the old man with one foot in the grave. As the ballot draws nearer, the story of several transformations explaining the vigour in the newspeak tongues would emerge. At Odorkor Official Town, in the national capital, there is a transformation of its own. An old dilapidated house has acquired a new owner, and with that stroke of fortune, a new phase is emerging in the fortunes of the house.

The entire edifice has come down giving way to a new residential complex befitting the 'Educated Fisherman'.  Money, no matter what they tell you, has every thing to do with the creation of a Better Ghana in the melting pot of a decaying nation.

Residents in the old township are coming to terms with the changes around.  What they still cannot put in context is how their neighbourhood would look like when the man who took on Ama Chavez in that altercation on air over contract destinations in the Central Province finally takes up residence.

One inquisitive mind has a question that would remain unanswered for some time to come. Is the 'Educated Fisherman' re-locating or is the edifice, for which millions of the local currency has changed hands, at official town only for the temporary shelter of that voice of confusion and lies on the days he descends on the national capital for those programmes? The jury is still out. One fact is distinct in the new experiment. Whether the umbrella pops up on the ballot box or ends up at Boom Junction, one fact is clear. Seeking protection under its shade has been more than beneficial to the chosen few! When the Czar's waves get no response

There is something about Mankessim that stands it out from many townships in contemporary Ghanaian history. As the final destination for migrating Fantes from Techiman, it begins the settlements for many traditional areas in Mfantseman. The settlement from the roundabout towards Accra is Ekumfi.  Any resident at Edumadze, a sprawling suburb of Mankessim, is well equipped with the traditional history to lecture effectively on the exploits of Akwaasi, the Ekumfi hunter who discovered the tricks and treachery of the fetish priests and priestesses conducting Nananom Pow, and led to its closure and eventual demise.

The history of Nananom Pow, though, is not the thrust of this narration. Mankessim played a pivotal role in the loss of eight seats by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, and ushered in the administration of the Ekumfi-born university don.

The story of the defeat of Stephen Asamoah Boateng, former NPP Member of Parliament for Mfansteman West, and seven other parliamentarians along the Central coastline, all seeking shelter under the elephant, was told with pride and promoted on the wings of the 'Adze Wo Fie A Oye' slogan.

Evidence is emerging of a change in tunes. Now, Lucky Mensah's 'Nkratow' and Daddy Lumba's 'Nana is the Winner' are receiving more attention at the funerals and public gatherings at Mankessim and nearby towns. With one leg already in the grave, funerals have become the conventional grounds for educating the tired old body on how it would be put to rest, which is why the old man is becoming familiar at happenings in the area.

The umbrella family members, typical of them, were rather speaking of gaining more sympathisers, even though they have been expressing misgivings about the new development. The muted response that greeted the last visit of the Czar, barely two weeks ago to Mankessim is really setting umbrella adherents trembling with the prospects in December.

Agya Atta's convoy deliberately slowed down with the Czar himself waving enthusiastically to the many hawkers and people passing by. Not even a bird stirred.