“I Hate Ewes, I Don’t Like The Northerners, The Gas Fight ……. Don’t Marry Any Of Them”

Certain tales, believes, ethnic backgrounds, political and religious differences have made life difficult for most people in parts of our country and beyond. “I am an ‘Akan’, and I don’t expect you to bring any man or woman home other than an ‘Akan”, “Your grandfather was killed by ‘ayigbeni’ on land issues and I forbid you to have close relation with one”. “Even when you dream and you see a Ga man or woman, open your eyes”. These are many but few examples of certain remarks parents make to their wards as they grow to make choices.

We have been bonded together by a common emblem-ic liquid. Even if we raced from different ethnic groups, we all have same blood colour running through our God-given bodies. The Holy Quran and the Bible are also common instruments that bind us together. Our forefathers migrated from the Garden of Eden. When God created the world, He made not Ewes, Gas, Fantes, Akyems, Frafras and the rest. God created Adam and eventually included Eve. Therefore we are one.

Before I sat to combine these letters together, I had had lunch with a fellow friend from the Northern region. He is a ‘Basare-ian’ and a staunch Muslim. This friend does what my other colleagues who hail themselves as Christians and sometimes mount the pulpit to preach the Bible cannot and will never be able to do. I call them hypocrites in the guise of men. Complacency and self seeking is their hallmark. They think of how to manipulate figures and cheat the other to be successful. They think ‘good life’ is buying a car and stuffing their living rooms with furniture. They are my fellow Christian friends.

They pray instead for calamity to befall you so they alone will flourish and make the marks. My ‘Basare’ and Muslim friend is otherwise. He feels for the needy, the less privileged and the destitute. He doesn’t mind giving his last for the needy. Giving is his talent, I say. He is a good man. Although every human has his shortfalls, my ‘Basare’ friend doesn’t conceal his anytime something does not favour him. He has had many rejections from certain ethnic groups regarding his Religion and trace. Obviously, it is rare to see a Muslim man tying the marriage knot with a Christian woman. The practice has remained same. Those women from the Islamic community who stubbornly befriend Christian men and marry at the end are not spared what their ethics abhors.

So………….. “I don’t like Northerners” has been on the lips of many families. “Northerners are rowdy, they are vile, love to fight and dirty. Under no circumstance should you marry one”. What is that to our beautiful children we are grooming who will someday take our places? These children also grow up to detest other tribes and ethnic groups with no reason.

I asked a lady friend who vowed never to have anything to do with a ‘Frafra’ and her reason despite her University education was appalling. She said, “they delight in dog meat and my grandfather told me, when we were children, his dog got missing and he was told the ‘Frafras’ just killed a dog in their yard”. I yelled. So…………… despite all the civility and western education, we hold people on baseless sentiments and on an animal?

Many homes have denied their children the ability to associate themselves with certain tribes, “Don’t you see those people are wicked?” Some Ga people fancy fight but that does not allude to all the Ga tribe. Every community fights. Some sections of the Ewes will not let God the creator vindicates. Ewes are stern and do not corrupt on issues. Sometimes I don’t believe in instances where misfortune is attributed to a ‘vodu’ for wrongdoing. Perhaps it is God’s vindication and judgment that may have coincided with certain instances. I may be wrong I may be right. The Ewes deal with issues diplomatically. They are disciplined and would want others and their children to be so. Does that make them wicked?

I attended six different schools before writing my Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and I must confess, Ewes dominated the teachers. In each school I find myself, I count 30% of the staff as Ewes and they are the pillars of the schools. They are Knowledgeable, intelligent and discipline. I unconsciously grew to have traits of a disciplined young man whose heart bleeds when there is malfeasance. And young children I mentor in schools call me names. One student who finds it difficult to describe himself properly told me at a gathering “Sir, …… if you become a president, you will be wicked papa”. I smiled and told him, “It has always been difficult for people who hold good values and don’t condone on indiscipline and do not corrupt on issues to be president in this part of our world. You can’t even be a house master of a raging indiscipline school or an Assembly member of a community”. I may be wrong I may be right but the truth stands. Generally, people fear principled humans and they brand them ‘wicked’. And I understand, “Ewes are wicked”. They are just wicked for making sure the right thing is done.

Therefore I hate Ewes; I hate them for making me go through all the problems in school. I grew up in an Akan dominated area and have lived and survived through, so guess what an Ewe name will cause your teacher who has been warned to stay away from Ewes. Talk less your mates whose parents have warned them never to sit on same desk with Ewes. You are completely shattered and victimized. My Ewe teachers have never secluded me from that corporal punishment we are to enjoy. They make me and other ewes feel it better than any other person in the class. I never said they were wicked because my portion of the cane was severe. But my class did, each time my Ewe teachers deal with me and other Ewes in class hard. Perhaps, the notion has been in them – “Ewes are wicked”.

I sat in my father’s class in JHS 2 for the first time and I have never regretted it. The class will say, “…….your father hates you”. My portion of the punishment was doubled and I sadly enjoyed it. To sum it all, I count 30% -50% classmates as Ewes in each class I sat even in Akan dominated area. What is it about Ewes? I presume they are just WICKED.

That does not make us different from the other. We studied in schools, to practice inter tribal marriages. What happened to that? Sometimes if we allow ourselves to be married and marry from other tribes, ethnic groups or different religion, our peace will forever be celebrated across the world. When you think of going to bomb and kill those ‘nkwasiafuor’ or ‘Awudifuor’ and you remember your wife or husband hails there or worships there, you think again. That is what we need to practice as a country. We need not teach our children what certain tribes did to our great grandfathers who are accounting for their deeds in Heaven or hell. We are one and need to respect that. We need to understand and respect the views of others.

Wisdom Bonuedi
The writer writes issues on Education, Politics, Social life and Humanity

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