Sandema Nab

Ever since I heard it, it has always been on my mind. I call it out to myself like whistling or singing a favourite song, or when talking to myself. No matter names of stool and skin occupiers encountered, it's always there.

It began maybe after the Nana Sir Tsibu Darko of Atandasu, Nene Anorkwei, the Prampram Mantse or Nene Azu Mate Korle, Konor of Manya Krobo. Before, I had read an Asebu Amenfi story in one of our Twi textbooks although I don't remember what exactly the story told.

Other Nkrumah era names I remember include Nana Akyin VI, paramount chief of Ekumfiman and a member of the presidential power filling commission Osagyefo left behind during his infamous journey of no return to Hanoi in 1966 (courtesy a March 31, 2010 Daily Guide editorial by veteran journalist/editor Ebo Quansah headlined 'Chieftaincy can't be abolished.' Then there was Nana Kobina Nketsia of Essikado, who once acted as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana. Another famous chief was Dɔmaahene Agyeman Badu, the Oxford schooled head of the Chieftaincy Secretariat during the First Republic.

In the 1970s, it was Nene Akrobotu of Yilo Krobo or Togbe Adja Terkpo, Osie of Avatime.

The Osie had addressed a speech day at Akosombo Secondary School (AIS of now) when I was a teacher there. Later, I was to meet a German researching into the Avatime language at the University of Ghana Guest Centre. I had thought the Afadjato people were Ewe speaking but he, the German scholar, drew my attention to the uniqueness of the Avatime language.

Spoken by a small group of people, Avatime has been resilient enough to have survived enculturation and acculturation; aided by its perching location higher up towards the sky and beyond encroachment threats by any other language.

Osie's speech was to shift my thoughts to 'educated chiefs,' something I hadn't paid much attention to up to that point in my life.

Not long ago, the chiefship attraction shifted to names.

I sometimes dabble in researching the communicative aspect of names. So I remember Anaafi Kɔkɔɔtɔ and Aduanaba Ɔdeneho Esumanyahene Oduro Numapau. I recall the latter from a Kwaku Sakyi-Addo 'One-on-One' interview on GTV.

For whatever unguardedness, Kwaku had asked for Nana's opinion on 'these days small chiefs going by big titles like Ɔdeneho.' 'I am no small chief!' was Nana Aduanaba's retort.

Maybe Sandema Nab came in somewhere within all these interest in chiefs and chiefly names. But, somehow, it seems to have persisted and lasted taking precedence over all others and leaving them all behind.

I was asking about Ndewura of Gonja recently, having forgotten about the Napoleonic conquering Jakpa we read about in a Twi book long, long ago.

It seems, though, that it was this last quest in knowing about chiefs and names that solved the Sandema Nab mystery. I have had hunches that come to pass as reality before. One time, I strangely dreamt I was visiting the US city of Detroit with a table tennis group. It was weird. I haven't been a player of the game neither have I ever been associated with its playing.

It turns out though that the first US city I set foot on its soil was Detroit.

In 1996, I had a hunch some election stealing was going on. During the 2000 vote count, therefore, I suggested some anti-cheating mechanism, including radio stations announcing polling station results like Senegal had previously done.

In 2008 and 2012, I could see similar tricks being played. It took the 2012 election petition hearing to expose what I had felt in a hunch all the years before it.

So then, Sandema Nab; what about him? One of the most honest office assistants, a very hard working guy, I have known comes from Sandema whose Nab has always been on my mind.

On the day I asked about the Gonja Ndewura, a professor had surfaced who happened to hail from Sandema. Then it clicked; Sandema Nab's all been a harbinger to the coming of the corruption demolition man.

Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu is a native of Sandema, specifically, Kaadema. I hear he is a husband of two London-based nurses.

For many years, anti-corruption has occupied my thoughts. That, perhaps, explains my obsession with the Sandema Nab; that one day, a corruption redeemer will emerge from his soil.

Thank you Sandema Nab if the job gets accomplished. I hope Amidu will do it for me to be content Sandema Nab didn't occupy so much of my mind for so long for little or nothing and that it was all worth it.

But tɔfeakwa, Nyame mpa ngu (God forbid), should our Martin not be successful, I would forever wonder how you, Nana Sandema, have managed to occupy my thoughts for so long.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh