The NorthShore Story: A Conjunction of Death and Life

Let us go a little step further, or even backwards, beyond the cheap politics of project ownership and a grassroots scramble for bites of an ambitious and purposeful project, borne out of passion, and a deep sense of belonging and empathy.

I still remember, albeit rather faintly this time, what used to be the situation at the very site that now beholds the magnificent beauty of NorthShore Apparel.

I say faintly because it is difficult to reimagine and recollect those images that once represented uselessness, death, abandonment and destruction - more like the scars left on the abdomen of a mother from repeated C-sections, each one performed to bring new lives into this world.

Myself and a few other friends used to ride from Savelugu to Pong-Tamale Experimental JHS. As we rode past Gbannyeli, or School for the Death, a few things would catch our attention, including the tipper trucks driving out of the gravel pit with full loads of sand. Also right there beside the road stood a baobab tree, with a colony of bees hanging above, right where the branches stemmed from the trunk. The stories about this tree could be a topic for another day.

The sand-winning activity was intense, serving communities far beyond the then Savelugu-Nantong District. And if you do not yet appreciate the scale of the damage inflicted on the land, then consider this: we are talking about 160 communities and more.

During the rainy season, the site housed several pools of water, dotted across the landscape, resembling the potholes on the Tamale-Bolga trunk road. And for rural kids, what better purpose could these pools have served than as the perfect place to learn and perfect one’s swimming skills?

This site built houses, storerooms, farmhouses and schools, among many other projects. Any attempt to count the number of houses that were built from the sand extracted from this place would be an exercise in futility. And so, the paradox is this: a place that lost life in the process of giving life has now been rejuvenated, gaining a new life form and a new beginning- one with even greater potential as a source of life. This, to me, is the reimagining and remaking of history.

The history, a gravel pit that was a source of livelihood, but brutal and compromising. The present, Northshore Apparel Ltd., still a source of livelihood, but one that is sustainable, compassionate, structured and, even more importantly, environmentally conscious - a zero-waste, regenerative apparel manufacturing hub.

This is the uniqueness of the project, and why I think we ought to celebrate it - and, more importantly, the brains behind its success. Kudos, Alhaji Nurideen Mohammed and his team, for giving us the opportunity to perceive and experience this profound reality: that even from what appears dead and discarded, we can reimagine, remake and manifest new forms of life.

Perhaps that is the real story of NorthShore - from death, a new life, a new beginning, one that offers hope and prosperity.