Before I say anything,finding meaning
of NKONYA and ALAVANYO would not help,but if that would help then you should have made it known to the world what the meaning of Nkonya is.Then ask why Alavanyo was named Alavanyo.seek ... read full comment
Before I say anything,finding meaning
of NKONYA and ALAVANYO would not help,but if that would help then you should have made it known to the world what the meaning of Nkonya is.Then ask why Alavanyo was named Alavanyo.seek for peace and stop acting as if you are helping.
PSE 9 years ago
Joe Lartey, what's the proposition you're putting on the table, instead of picking on someone's solemn opinion? This is the way we are in Ghana, which is why all's failing us.
You're certainly from Nkonya for sure; are you ... read full comment
Joe Lartey, what's the proposition you're putting on the table, instead of picking on someone's solemn opinion? This is the way we are in Ghana, which is why all's failing us.
You're certainly from Nkonya for sure; are you acting as if you're helping your people?
Komla,london 9 years ago
I enjoyed reading this masterpiece as well.At a time when we are confronted with challenges we ought do all we can to bring piece to the region.
As a voltarian i daresay that the abject poverty and unemployment that has en ... read full comment
I enjoyed reading this masterpiece as well.At a time when we are confronted with challenges we ought do all we can to bring piece to the region.
As a voltarian i daresay that the abject poverty and unemployment that has enveloped the region can only be dealt with when we are united-so we can focus on the myriad of problems bedevilling the volta region.Conflict is the last thing we need.We can't afford it.
Komla,london 9 years ago
PEACE*to the region....
PEACE*to the region....
Vodoo Xebieso 9 years ago
Shut your mouth. Abject poverty and unemployment are problems world-wide and therefore not the preserve of the Volta Region. I think every town and village in the region have their sons and daughters in the diaspora. These so ... read full comment
Shut your mouth. Abject poverty and unemployment are problems world-wide and therefore not the preserve of the Volta Region. I think every town and village in the region have their sons and daughters in the diaspora. These sons and daughters must pool their resources together to develop their respective towns and villages. Period.
Komla,london 9 years ago
Vodoo,it appears you don't understand simple english or simply lacks the mental agility to analyse my submission dispassionately.
All i did was to conscientise voltarians to shun conflict and concentrate on the myriad of pro ... read full comment
Vodoo,it appears you don't understand simple english or simply lacks the mental agility to analyse my submission dispassionately.
All i did was to conscientise voltarians to shun conflict and concentrate on the myriad of problems bedevilling the region.Did i suggest in any way that unemployment and poverty are peculiar to voltarians?it's amazing how we insult people who speake and care about our region.
Vodoo Xebieso 9 years ago
Yoooooooooo!!!! I grant you also misunderstood my position.
Yoooooooooo!!!! I grant you also misunderstood my position.
Chiganama Abutu 9 years ago
Mr Ahofe, thanks for your write-ups but it appears you are just dancing around the solution because possibly you do not have certain antecedents to this dispute. It is this: the land border between Nkonya and Alavanyo was dem ... read full comment
Mr Ahofe, thanks for your write-ups but it appears you are just dancing around the solution because possibly you do not have certain antecedents to this dispute. It is this: the land border between Nkonya and Alavanyo was demarcated by the Germans who were the initial colonial masters of that area until they were driven out after the first world war. The demarcation was contained in the popular Gruner Map of 1913 which was accepted by all parties before the beginning of the first world war. Others who shared common boundaries includes, Gbi and Bowiri. Surfice it to say the Alavanyoys started to trespass into Nkonya land as far as the 1950s and since then duly constituted courts have ruled in about 7 cases in favour of the Nkonyas, the latest being the Appeal Court Ruling of 1975. The Alavanyos complied with this ruling; the Nkonyas lived on their land and cultivated their cocoa and food crops. The Alavanyos atoned tenancy to the Nkonyas as ruled by the courts until 1982 when after an unconnected dispute between some youth of the two areas, the Alavanyos invaded the Nkonyas on the land and killed many. Since then either party has resolved to defend its portion of the land. The Nkonyas stick to the Grunner Map and the physical pillars that were erected y Dr Gruner and his workers. The Alavanyos says their boundary is made up of trees not a map. Does this make sense? Yet Government has buried its eyes and ears in the sand as it were it does not know of these historical facts. This is what has brought the conflict to where it is now: ONE PARTY REFUSING TO ADHERE TO COURT RULING. ARE WE IN A JUNGLE? Did Akufo Addo not accept the Supreme Court decision in the election petition for peace to reign in Ghana? I pause for an answer.
Vodoo Xebieso 9 years ago
The NDC government must now come out to finally put to rest this matter and let peace reign, no matter whose ox is gored.
The NDC government must now come out to finally put to rest this matter and let peace reign, no matter whose ox is gored.
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
Read this article and find if you're not the one dancing around the case. It was written by one Paul Dzathor in rebuttal of a similar lie peddled by a citizen of Nkonya. The clarity of this article is overwhelming and a pure ... read full comment
Read this article and find if you're not the one dancing around the case. It was written by one Paul Dzathor in rebuttal of a similar lie peddled by a citizen of Nkonya. The clarity of this article is overwhelming and a pure demonstration of knowledge of the entanglements inherent in the land contention.
The question then IS, would you identify the veracity if you behold one?
READ:
THE FACTS OF THE CASE BETWEEN NKONYA AND ALAVANYO -- BY FELIX OHENE
R E J O I N D E R --- BY PAUL KWAMI DZATHOR
22ND MAY, 2013
Mr. Felix Ohene of Nkonya published a presentation on Ghana-web on 8th April 2013 under the above-noted heading. Much that the people of Alavanyo have no desire to fight their cause on the altar of public opinion and propaganda, it has become necessary to react to Felix Ohene’s publication, since frequent repetition lends credibility to even the most blatant lie.
The claim in paragraph 1 of Felix Ohene’s publication to the effect that the people of Alavanyo settled on land allocated to them by Nkonya is a false and recent concoction. From time immemorial, no Nkonya person or persons, nor any Nkonya Chief, had ever claimed that Alavanyo was founded on Nkonya land. It is true that the people of Nkonya were in settlement where they are today before the arrival of the people who have subsequently become known as Alavanyo. Amega Kondodze of Nkonya Akloba, to whom the travellers were directed in the first place, was a personal friend of Togbe Tatse Koku, the then Chief of Kpando Tsakpe. The latter knew that Kondodze was not a Chief in Nkonya, and therefore had no capacity to grant part of Nkonya land to others for settlement.
Togbe Tatse Koku did not direct his emissaries and guests to any Nkonya Chief, appealing for the grant of land for settlement. His request was directed to Kondodze, asking him to direct the travellers to some uninhabited territory beyond the territorial boundaries of Nkonya, since it was known that there were uninhabited lands beyond Nkonya.
In those ancient times, land was not a problem, as extensive unoccupied lands were available for migrating parties to settle on, just as it was when the people of Nkonya migrated from their home in the Larteh area to settle where they are today. No authority granted them land because the place was then unoccupied. Kondodze, on the contrary, proposed to the travellers to settle with him, with the view that eventually they might become integrated into the Nkonya community. His kind offer was not accepted by the Alavanyo people, who insisted on founding an independent settlement. Kondodze in the end directed the travellers to the Logloto area, quite a distance from Nkonya, near the Volta River, an area beyond the territorial borders of Nkonya. The Logloto and the whole area are now under water as a result of the creation of the Volta Lake. Amega To and his party did not settle in the Logloto area for two reasons:
Firstly, the vegetation in the area did not appeal to them; secondly, the mighty Volta River was a deterrent, posing danger to safety of children.
Once out of sight of the benevolent Kondodze, Amega To and his people, who were then in transit, turned their back to the Volta and, on their own, explored the uninhabited areas around until they found a place they considered suitable to settle on. It must be remembered that when the Ewe dispersed from Notsie, the various groups founded their respective settlements on portions of the vast uninhabited land stretching from the Gulf of Guinea northwards. Although there were some isolated pockets of small earlier settlers here and there, none laid claim to land beyond their immediate needs. After Alavanyo was founded in the thick uninhabited forest, Kondodze visited them in their settlement and again tried to entice them back to Nkonya lands. His reason this time was that they had settled in a place they in Nkonya considered to be a dangerous belt he gave reasons to support his claim. Once again the offer was not accepted by the settlers.
This fact is well known to the people of Nkonya all along. So it is a strange falsehood for anyone to claim now that Alavanyo was founded on land allocated to them by Nkonya.
It must be recalled that Alavanyo and Nkonya started court litigation with a civil suit instituted by Paul Kodzo Anane and others of Nkonya Tayi against six (6) individual farmers of Alavanyo Kpeme. It was an allege case of encroachment on Nkonya lands, with the contention based on Dr. Grunner’s Map 1913. The court accepted the said map as genuine and reached a verdict in favour of the plaintiffs.
Subsequently, a surveyor, Henry Hagan, was appointed by the Court to demarcate a boundary between Nkonya and Alavanyo according to the Grunner. The entailing consequence of the surveyor’s work was that some thirty-eight (38) families in Alavanyo, whose land holdings were not originally perceived by the plaintiffs to be on Nkonya side of the Grunner boundary, were now clearly shown on the ground by the surveyor as being on Nkonya side of the boundary.
Did the surveyor make a mistake in tracing the Grunner boundary on the ground? Or is the Grunner Map 1913 of such a character that it cannot be accurately traced on the ground?
Certainly the very many Alavanyo families, who were not originally deemed by the people of Nkonya to be on Nkonya land, but who had suddenly faced the woeful prospect of losing their land holdings to Nkonya as a result of a court litigation that did not originally concern them, but have become affected by a surveyor’s work on the ground, found the situation not only difficult but also extremely untenable and unacceptable.
It must also be borne in mind that the lawsuit is a boundary dispute, alleging that certain persons from Alavanyo crossed the boundary between Nkonya and Alavanyo lands to make their farms on Nkonya side of the boundary. Now, certain very disgruntled people in Nkonya are so desperate to grasp more land, and as a result have become so confused, that they now claim there is no Alavanyo land in the area. They have cajoled their Paramount Chief into writing a letter dated 3rd January, 2013, addressed to the Mediation Committee on the Alavanyo/Nkonya, claiming that there is no Alavanyo land in the area. Notwithstanding circumstances predating the conflicts, this assertion is quite at variance with some oral pronouncements by the much respected Nana Okotor Kofi III, Paramount Chief of Nkonya, is known to have made on the Nkonya and Alavanyo problem.
Let us consider a few facts, namely:
(1) A law suit was initiated by Paul Kodzo Anane of Nkonya Tayi claiming that some individuals from Alavanyo crossed the boundary separating Nkonya land from Alavanyo land and thus trespassed onto Nkonya land.
(2) Dr. Grunner made a drawing in 1913 demarcating a boundary between Alavanyo and Nkonya lands.
(3) The Togo Plateau Forest Reserve Settlement Commission sitting at Hohoe in 1931 mentioned Alavanyo as one of the communities that possess land in the Forest Reserve.
With the outgoing it lacks logic, reason and comprehension how the people of Nkonya now contrive to assert that the people of Alavanyo possess no land in an area they have inhabited for centuries.
The more intriguing fact is that, the people of Nkonya suddenly appear amnesic about the fact that the centuries-old traditional boundary in that area of the disputed land was not at all laid with the people of Nkonya Tayi. That ancient boundary was jointly fixed by the ancestors of the present-day Alavanyo and the ancestors of present-day Nkonya Ntumda and Wurupong. That is, long before the people of Tayi, who originally were a clan in Nkonya Kpakplawusi, were forced by circumstances to flee their original home in Kpakplawusi (now called Asakyere) to seek a new settlement; they came to settle in their present home quite close to Alavanyo Kpeme.
It a widely-known fact that boundaries between peoples are marked by boundary trees called Anyati (in Ewe) and Ntombe (in Twi), and that such demarcations are always made jointly by the two communities sharing the boundary. The centuries-old line of Anyati/Ntombe marking the boundary between Nkonya and Alavanyo lands is still on the ground and can be viewed by anyone interested.
When the people of Nkonya Tayi came to settle thus close to Alavanyo, which was already in settlement before the arriving community, the traditional boundary separating Nkonya lands from Alavanyo lands was respected until the advent of cocoa, the cultivation of which, unlike food-crops, required much larger portions of land and occupied the land for many, many years. Tayi needed land in order to cope with the times.
The genesis of the Alavanyo/Nkonya problem
The people of Nkonya have been engaged in propaganda for a considerable time, most probably for the purpose of gaining public sympathy.
In paragraph 3 of Felix Ohene’s publication of 8th April 2013 on Ghanaweb, it is alleged that “In May, 1923, nine elders from Nkonya-Tayi were brutally assaulted by the Alavanyos when they went to Alavanyo Kpeme on a mission to discuss an observed encroachment on Nkonya land by eight Alavanyo farmers.........” Mr. Ohene conveniently omitted to state that it was a crowd of many people, holding machetes, clubs mallets etc., under the leadership of one Kwasi Addae of Nkonya Tayi, that invaded the Alavanyo Paramount Chief’s palace without prior notice on 24th May, 1923.
He omitted to state that the mission of Kwasi Addae and his group was to compel the Alavanyo Paramount Chief “Fiaga” to accompany them to the bush to demarcate a boundary that morning.
He omitted to say that the Chief and his Elders were in the palace that morning preparing to go to the durbar ground for celebration of Empire Day festival.
Mr. Ohene omitted to say that the Fiaga told Kwasi Addae that if there was any boundary problem he could only discuss it with his counterpart, the Paramount Chief of Nkonya, and not with him, Kwasi Addae.
Mr Ohene conveniently omitted to state that it was the irate and riotous behaviour of Kwasi Addae and his mob in the palace that culminated in one of them smashing and bruising the head of the Linguist of the Chief with a club the Tayi man brought from home. The unfortunate spate of events sparked the scuffle in the Alavanyo Palace that 24th day of May, 1923.
Felix Ohene omitted to state that following the incident, Kwasi Addae and some members of his riotous group from Nkonya -Tayi were tried and convicted on 1st June, 1923, at the District Commissioner’s Court at Kpando, presided over by His Worship S.D. Le Lievre, Esq.
Alex Ohene omitted to state that when Kwasi Addae was questioned in the Court as to why he had not referred the matter to his Paramount Chief in Nkonya prior to proceeding to Alavanyo, Kwasi Addae disclosed that he took a similar case to his Paramount Chief who pronounced him Kwasi Addae guilty, and that was why he did not want to go to him.
Felix Ohene stated in paragraph 2 of his publication and in reference to above that the Grunner Map showed “boundaries of the six nation-states that surrounded the Togo Plateau --- Nkonya, Alavanyo, Gbi, Santrokofi, Akpafu, and Bowiri respectively”. What then is the basis of the Nkonya Paramount Chief’s present allegation that Alavanyo has no land in the area?
Mr Felix Ohene’s claim in paragraph 4 of his publication to the effect that “In 1931, Norton Jones, Esq. met representatives of the six nation-states on the issue of the Togo Plateau Forest Reserve Settlement Enquiry where they all agreed that their boundaries were as shown on the Grunner map drawn in 1913”, is another hoax.
Before the Togo Plateau Forest Reserve Commission at Hohoe in 1931, the Paramount Chief of Alavanyo testified as the 7th Witness, and was cross-examined by the Gyasehene of Nkonya representing the Paramount Chief of Nkonya, and the Regent of Santrokofi. It was only the Regent of Santrokofi who suggested in cross-examination that Dr. Grunner had laid their boundary at SASATU Stream; but that suggestion was denied by the Paramount Chief of Alavanyo. Though one E.K. Amsa representing the Chief of Nkonya Wurupong testified as the 12th Witness, he did not allege that Dr. Grunner had demarcated any boundary between Nkonya and Alavanyo. There was no suggestion under cross-examination by other Nkonya representatives then that Dr. Grunner had demarcated any boundary between Alavanyo and Nkonya. There was no suggestion from Akpafu either that Dr. Grunner had demarcated our boundary. It cannot therefore be said, as Felix Ohene alleges, that “all agreed that their boundaries were as shown on the Grunner Map drawn in 1913”
It is indeed history that in 1959, Granville Sharp, J.A., in the Appeal Court upheld the decision of a lower Court in the civil boundary claim in favour of the claimants, Nkonya. Other Ghanaian Courts, and also the West African Court of Appeal, have later discredited the Grunner Map, saying:
“THEIR LORDSHIIPS NOTED THAT THE MAP IS ON A VERY SMALL SCALE; THAT IT IS, AND MUST IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES BE, DOUBTFUL WHETHER IT WAS INTENDED TO BE USED FOR THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE RESPONDENT SEEKS TO USE IT, VIZ., TO SET OUT ACCURATELY TRIBAL BOUNDARIES; AND THAT MOREOVER, IT HAS BEEN SHOWN TO CONTAIN INACCURACIES...
IN SHORT, THE MAP IS OF SUCH A CHARACTER THAT IT WOULD NOT BE SAFE TO DRAW AN INFERENCE FROM IT REGARDING TRIBAL BOUNDARIES NOW IN DISPUTE ... THEIR LORDSHIPS THINK THAT THE COURT OF APPEAL ATTACHED UNDUE IMPORTANCE TO THE MAP AND THAT THEIR LEGAL EFFECT HAS BEEN MUCH EXAGGERATED.” (Ref. W.A.C.A. 24 in A. Kponuglo and others versus A. Kodadja)
In civil Appeal No.10/83 dated 25th April, 1985, the Court, after reviewing the criticisms against the Grunner Map, said:
“IT SEEMS FROM THE REVIEW ABOVE THAT THE GRUNNER PLAN IS VULNERABLE TO THE SERIOUS CRITICISM OF UNRELIABILITY. IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE BASIS OF A DECISION”
All these point to the fact that the Grunner Map 1913 should not be used for the purpose of demarcating tribal boundaries on the ground. That means, where the map has been used, the Court decision is based on false premises. In such a case, should a Court verdict, which is discovered to have been based on the false assumption that the Grunner Map 1913 is accurate, be allowed to stand?
Alavanyo has often been blamed as aggressors against Nkonya because some blacksmiths in Alavanyo were capable of manufacturing guns. The people of Nkonya are not publicly known to manufacture guns. But do they not use guns in their fight against Alavanyo?
The alleged aggression of Alavanyo against Nkonya has been touted so loud and for so long that many well-meaning people have come to accept it as a fact. Those who would wish to independently examine the facts will agree that the first skirmish ever between Alavanyo and Nkonya took place in the house of the Alavanyo Paramount Chief at Kpeme on 24th May, 1923. Thereafter, there was a lull of fifty years, and the 1983 fighting started in Alavanyo Kpeme town, at dawn on May 4th, after Nkonya armies marched through the then curfew hours to attack the people of Kpeme, who were still in their rooms because of the dusk to dawn curfew.
In that incident the Nkonyas torched a few thatch houses and shot dead three persons in Alavanyo Kpeme town --- a Cocoa Marketing Board night watchman, an Escort Police Sergeant on night duty, both of these were non-natives of Alavanyo. The third person shot dead that morning was a citizen of Alavanyo who, upon hearing gun-shots near his house, ventured out of his room to investigate.
That was the start of the l983 war in which the people of Alavanyo Kpeme, aroused from their rooms, faced the Nkonya warriors who were subsequently chased into the nearby bush.
The Ghanaian Times newspaper the next day or so carried a comprehensive report on the incident and showed photographs of the burnt-down houses. Weeks later, a three-prong attack was launched by armies from Nkonya on Alavanyo Dzogbedze, Deme and Kpeme simultaneously, with the resultant loss of lives.
All subsequent skirmishes started in Alavanyo towns or close-by. Not once did a fighting between these two communities ever start in or near an Nkonya town. Wherein then lies Alavanyo’s aggression in these circumstances?
I must say that these hostilities, because of their frequent occurrence, and because they occur in or close to Alavanyo towns, have had, and continue to have, serious and adverse psychological effect on our children in Alavanyo. Our children seem to take them as normal and ordinary events, and whenever the alarm is raised now that Nkonya assailants are upon a town, even very young children, aged about seven years upwards, boys and girls, rush towards the place of action to witness the war, perhaps to cheer the home team, as happens in football matches. To these innocent children, fighting with arms is becoming a matter of fun. What will their future be?
I must emphasize that the peoples of Alavanyo are anxious for peaceful resolution of their border dispute with Nkonya. We have absolute faith in the Mediation Committee and its allies. Members of the Committee were jointly nominated by representatives of Nkonya and Alavanyo. However, we shall welcome assistance from any other individuals or institutions for peaceful resolution of this burden. But, individuals who know that they have already made up their minds on the issues of this conflict on account of the propaganda so often churned out, should acknowledge that their contribution would not be helpful.
PAUL KWAMI DZATHOR,
ALAVANYO
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
Kwame, the above article could add to your collection of history, too.
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In around 1975, the population of Ghana revolved around 8.5 million heads. When I was a kid in the primary scho ... read full comment
Kwame, the above article could add to your collection of history, too.
--------------------------------------
In around 1975, the population of Ghana revolved around 8.5 million heads. When I was a kid in the primary school, in late 60s land wasn't an issue in the Volta, from Kpandu to Kadjebi areas. You could go into the bush and eat fruits to your fill; those fruits trees didn't belong to anyone. Similarly, you could go to anywhere and pick a plot of land and just have a farm! This is how my mum and others had their farms till date.
Now, going back far to some hundred and fifty years, it should tell us that land was so abundant no one asked for anyone's permission to grab a piece of land, so it seems weird Nkonya's want everyone to believe where the Alavanyo's are was their land. The current conflict would have seen its first occurrence immediately Alavanyos settled in that place and they would have moved. We would not have been where we are trying hard to solve this case.
In retrospect, can someone correctly surmise the population of Ghana at the time? In fact, Ghana didn't even exist? No one needed land!
Mark (UK) 9 years ago
Thanks for your time and effort in shedding light on the issue at stake. I was thinking you will bring concrete and firm proof to help readers. How readers can rely on Kwami Dzathor's work is anyone's guess. The write-up lack ... read full comment
Thanks for your time and effort in shedding light on the issue at stake. I was thinking you will bring concrete and firm proof to help readers. How readers can rely on Kwami Dzathor's work is anyone's guess. The write-up lacked references. A citizen of Nkonya can also write long tales defending their rght to those lands. Refeered articles will help indeed.
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
Hey Mark, how are you? Thanks for your concern, too.
Is there logic in the said article written by Dzathor? Is there logic in the opinion I presented?
The first thing to do is to read Felix Ohene’s publication, which ... read full comment
Hey Mark, how are you? Thanks for your concern, too.
Is there logic in the said article written by Dzathor? Is there logic in the opinion I presented?
The first thing to do is to read Felix Ohene’s publication, which I indeed read and found disgraceful, polemical and utterly dishonest. It contained a plethora of untruth, and I think Felix thought no one would rebut his one-sided and misleading perspective. I believe he had everything to gain from the lies he endeavored to put across – as a person hailing from Nkonya Tayi - , as Dzathor had maintained, to inspire the sympathy of the Ghanaian public.
Note Dzathor was ONLY rebutting what he perceived tangent to the facts on the ground, NOT an objective article per se to address the situation and unearth its veracity. He also did refer to/cited certain court documents verifiable where they are. In fact, I didn’t need to write an article since in his exhibition, Mr Dzathor’s insightful article quite addressed the very essentials of the said pathetic case, leaving little to doubt. I know much about what he wrote, and for curiosity, I also managed to see a copy of the said Grunner map very long ago and thought it was a farce to have used it in judgment, so that, arriving at the verdict at the time was only a matter of sequence.
I am not a citizen of Alavanyo or Nkonya. I have friends in both areas especially in Nkonya Tayi and Alavanyo Kpeme and Abehenease before and do know so many people liked to the case. I know the very pragmatic Nana Okotor and I do know about his aversion to the case.
Try to compare Ohene’s article to Dzathor’s and you’d be somewhere near to understanding why this problem lingers till today.
Mark (UK) 9 years ago
Point taken LJ. May be if I had had a look at the original write-up by Felix Ohene it would have helped. I don't think this was contained in the Kwami's rebuttal.
You wereindeed right that Kwame cited some cases in support ... read full comment
Point taken LJ. May be if I had had a look at the original write-up by Felix Ohene it would have helped. I don't think this was contained in the Kwami's rebuttal.
You wereindeed right that Kwame cited some cases in support of his position. But what would have is if he supported his points with work by historians. I do not know much about this issue at all. But what I do know is that when you recount such an important history then the source must be known. If for instance you tell me that a King asked the Alavanyos to go and inhabit a piece of land near the Vlta Lake,then I expect that you will tell me the source. Unless, you add a caveat that according to oral history,this is what transpired. Due to this ommission, Dzathor's write-up is fraught with problems.
The problem may be does not lie in Dzathor's work alone. Due to our inability to record events and over reliance on oral tradition and history, conflicts inevitably rear up and we end up resorting to aggression.
This piece has enlightened me at least. I didn't even know there are some people known as the Nkonyas snd Alavanyos.
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
I think you didn’t understand my point. I think Dzathor could come up with much more historical facts were he directly addressing the public on the disputes. He WAS ONLY addressing what he perceived as untruth in a comprehe ... read full comment
I think you didn’t understand my point. I think Dzathor could come up with much more historical facts were he directly addressing the public on the disputes. He WAS ONLY addressing what he perceived as untruth in a comprehensive rebuttal, so there was no reason to quote too many sources in evidence. This is what I would have done as very distinct from writing a historical fact quoting sources to buttress my points.
When he wrote the article I quoted, I remember writing to tell him so many elements were missing in his address and just advised him to take note so he could include those elements next time he decided writing again. Taken for granted his knowledge as demonstrated in his construction, it was evident he knew more that he let on.
I don’t want to write an article on this as I maintained in my post; I am not from the area, so it may raise question as to why I become so interested. But I am a pacifist, and anything bordering on wars in Ghana shakes my quietude.
Thanks for your contribution, and read from you soon.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
Lord Joaks,
Thanks for bringing out this piece. I didn't see it before. I had for a long time been asking for the Alavanyo's version of the conflict, having read a lot which was more like the Nkonya's version. Besides, I h ... read full comment
Lord Joaks,
Thanks for bringing out this piece. I didn't see it before. I had for a long time been asking for the Alavanyo's version of the conflict, having read a lot which was more like the Nkonya's version. Besides, I had heard from a grandson of the late Paramount Chief of Nkonya, here in London, the version that was reproduced above by Abutu and a bit more.
Of course, I have my own historical sources about how and why the Nkonyas and Alavanyos were forced to settle in their present locations, histories which are presently suppressed. Fact is, both were fugitives from the marauding Akwamus and their allies.
You are right about one thing - land was freely available in those turbulent days when people were migrating from place to place without making claims to land. If that were not the case, the Central Togo tribes who were there first, and the Ewes who later joined them, would have made claims to all the land to the east of the Volta long before the Akans and the Nkonyas arrived. Fact is, the Ewes had already arrived and started crossing the Volta to settle, from Ada to Kpando, before the rise of Akwamu which sent the Ga-Adangmes and the Nkonyas fleeing to seek refuge among Ewes, or on empty land east of the Volta. The Nkonyas from Larteh first settled at the Volta gorge at present Akwamufie but when the Akwamus themselves were defeated by the combined forces of the Gas and Akyems in 1730 and fled towards the Volta gorge, the Nkonyas took flight again and eventually settled where they are now. The Alavanyos were not long in following suit, as the Akwamus consolidated themselves and started their debilitating hegemony in present northern Eweland up to Hohoe, thanks to the INITIAL support of Asante and divisions among the Ewes and the Central Togo tribes which made some of them to take side with the new overlords.
There are therefore deep fissures which underpin these conflicts.
Andy-K
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
Hi Andy,
You see, this thorny problem is very unnecessary. It is one provoked by demography and lack of business for the youth, meaning more lands are needed to help them occupy themselves and feel responsible.
But as ... read full comment
Hi Andy,
You see, this thorny problem is very unnecessary. It is one provoked by demography and lack of business for the youth, meaning more lands are needed to help them occupy themselves and feel responsible.
But as you have seen, the land in question didn’t belong to the Nkonyas at all though it IS true they were the first settlers in the area. If other first settlers in Ghana should claim lands on which later settlers (historical embodiments) dwell, we would have too many conflicts to deal with.
In the course of reading articles on this Alavanyo/Nkonya land dispute, a guy hailing from Nkonya Tayi said he knew, and could demonstrate how some of his people were fomenting trouble, allowing the case to thrive. Is he a legitimate Nkonya? That I don’t know. But finding out more about this case is easy; Hohoe and Kpandu courts have copies of documents linked to it. Besides, I have decided to I would have to try to verify certain contentions in the declarations contained in articles on the skirmishes.
If you know these people, you’d understand they have been one of the most peaceful neighbors ever, so it is saddening they should turned guns on each other because of land no one is going to take away.
Thanks for your input. One day we will know the truth.
Felix Ohene 9 years ago
Hi Guys, Hold your fire.
I reproduce below, my response to Togbe Tsedze Atakora's comment during the meeting of the Vice President K.Amissah-Arthur with the Chiefs and Elders of Nkonya and Alavanyo at Kpando on January 9, 20 ... read full comment
Hi Guys, Hold your fire.
I reproduce below, my response to Togbe Tsedze Atakora's comment during the meeting of the Vice President K.Amissah-Arthur with the Chiefs and Elders of Nkonya and Alavanyo at Kpando on January 9, 2015 for your information.
The Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur’s meeting with the Chiefs and elders of Nkonya and Alavanyo at Kpando on Friday January 9, 2015 turned into a ‘history class’ taught by Togbe Tsedze Atakora VII.
Teacher Afeti Kwaku, as he was popularly known during the days he was teaching at the E.P. Schools at Nkonya Ntsumuru, sought to give free history classes on the etymology and toponymy of “Bowiri” as a corrupted version of Moree near Cape Coast where the Bowiris were said to have migrated from. He said that, in terms of historical or chronological settlement, between Nkonya and Alavanyo, there was nothing like Senior Headmaster status. In fact, there is truth in the adage that “the tone of one’s voice when asking for a loan is surely different from that used when the time for repayment falls due and the money lender is at one’s door-step”. He threw a challenge also, that “if anyone has evidence that the Alavanyo Stool and for that matter, any Atakora has ever been to court over land with the Nkonya Stool, that person should show it”.
I swallowed that statement and challenge with equanimity since the forum was not intended to be a turf for confrontation.
But for the sake of the Vice President, his eminent entourage and peace-loving people, I would have ignored these statements and challenge thrown at Nkonya to provide evidence on the matters Togbe Tsedze Atakora raised and considered them as “a desperate attempt by a drowning man to clutch on a straw for survival”.
Togbe Atakora craftily avoided any migration history about his own people, the Alavanyo, one of the main players for which the meeting was called by the Vice-President. I have, therefore, offered to provide the history and legal records involving the Alavanyo Stool and Nkonya Stool in the dispute over their boundary for the information of your cherished discerning readers.
These accounts had been well-documented by German Missionaries especially, G. Haertter, Dr. Hans Gruner as well as historian Paul Kwame Dzathor, an Alavanyo citizen. Historians in Gbi, Kpando, Sovie and Aveme know and can testify to the veracity of these facts about Alavanyo. The Court records are there to prove the veracity of all the judgments in the cases cited below.
Origin of The Alavanyo People
The Alavanyos as known today were a family from Sovie who were being sought to face justice for murder of a citizen of Aveme who had gone to Sovie to demand payment of a debt owed him. The members of the family who took part in the crime fled to the Bubulu-Bu forest for fear of reprisal attacks from the Aveme people.
The Bubulu-Bu party escaped from the forest and sought refuge with Togbe Tsatse Kwaku, their brother-in-law, from Kpando Tsakpe who took them to his friend, Akondo from Nkonya so as to keep them far and safe from prosecution.
Akondo, (the Alavanyos referred to him as Kondodze because he was fair-skinned) led the Sovie settlement seekers to Nanai Obranie, Chief of Nkonya Ntsumuru who took them to Nanai Okotor Kofi I, Paramount Chief of Nkonya. This was in about the early 1840s.
After series of thorough and exhaustive consultations with his elders of Nkonya, Nanai Okotor Kofi who reigned from 1793 to 1849, allocated to the Bubulu-bu party, initial settlement on a piece of land at the banks of the Volta River which they (Alavanyo) named “LOGLOTO” reference “THE EWE NATION AND SASADU- Brief History”, Pages 51-55 authored by Mr. Paul Kwame Dzathor - a citizen of Alavanyo; and pages 65 and 66, paragraph 3 of ‘Ewegbalehlela we Suku we IV’ by German Missionaries, G. Haertter; J. Spieth and G. Daeuble, 1906 published by Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft, Bremen, Germany. These records bear testimony to the fact that the Alavanyos were granted settlement on Nkonya land when they fled from Sovie.
History has is that, after a brief stay at Logloto, the Bubulu-bu party sent for their wives and children to join them at their hide-out. Thereafter, they requested to be re-settled at a place far from the river for fear that their children might drown in the Volta River.
Their new-found friend, Kondodze led them back to Nanai Okortor Kofi to plead for their re-settlement.
The Paramount Chief of Nkonya, Nanai Okortor Kofi consulted his elders and resettled them on Nkonya farmlands of some families from Tayi, Ntsumuru, Akloba and Asakyiri. Commenting on the first place allocated the Bubulu-bu party, their leader, Togbe To, lamented in Ewe language thus “Kpeme wonami. Mian? fi kp? dewohii Adabanyo.” This translated literally means, “We have been allocated stony land. All the same, we will stay here and hope that it will be good someday.” Kpeme has since, been their capital town until today and they took the name Adabanyo which has, over the years, been corrupted to Alavanyo. Togbe To’s lamentation drew sympathies from some Nkonya farmers who subsequently, gave out their farmlands to the Adabanyos to settle on and eke out a living. These settlements were named Dzogbedze (Red Grassland) Deme (Settlement under Palm Trees) Agorme(Settlement under Fan-palm trees whose fruits produce some edible juicy substance like thick palm soup), Agorhoe (Huts made from palm fronds) and Wudidi (Ripe fruits from the Wu tree)
This kind gesture was vehemently opposed by the paramount Chief of Gbi, Togbe Gabusu, when Nanai Okortor Kofi sent emissaries to inform him of the settlement of the fugitives; because Nkonya originally shared boundaries with Gbi along the River Fantibi. He warned Nkonya not to harbour the Bubulu-bu party because his enquiries about them revealed that they were a bunch of criminals who were fleeing from justice after murdering an Aveme citizen and that, he Gabusu would not want to share boundaries with them, should Nkonya go ahead to host them. Nanai Okortor Kofi ignored this admonition and went ahead to allocate a portion of Nkonya farmland to them but left a strip of land including Abehenease, an Nkonya farming cottage in between the Adabanyo and the Gbis along the Fantibi River to respect the wishes of Togbe Gabusu not to share boundary with the fugitives. (I believe Togbe Gabusu will be saying to Nanai Okortor Kofi in the grave; “I told you so”).
Encroachment on Nkonya Land
In about 1905, the Alavanyos started encroaching on Nkonya lands not allocated to them. There was some confrontation and Nkonya lodged a complaint with the German Colonial Administrator at Kpalime. This eventually caused Dr. Hans Gruner and Chief Cartographer, Paul Sprigade to commence cartographic work on what they called Kunja Gebirge Gennant (Nkonya Mountains). They documented, in detail, every farmer’s hut, farm location and ethnicity, every river, pond, fetish grove, mountain, valley, footpath and marked clearly, the boundaries between the six communities surrounding the Togo Plateau namely, Bowiri, Nkonya, Alavanyo, Gbi, Santrokofi and Akpafu.
On completion of this cartographic work, Dr. Gruner invited the head-chiefs of the six communities for final confirmation of their boundaries. The Nkonyas complained of the inappropriate allocation of their strip of land between Alavanyo and Gbi that had been retained to respect the wish of Togbe Gabusu; but Dr Gruner ignored their plea and hence Nkonya involuntarily, ceded their land to Alavanyo for the cartographic simplicity and administrative convenience of the German colonial governor. Thus, Nkonya lost Abehenease, their farming village, to Alavanyo who, subsequently, moved in to make it their seventh settlement, in 1915 after the Germans left following their defeat in the 1st World War.
Co-incidentally, all the six head-chiefs who attended Dr. Gruner’s meeting on the mountain, held long walking sticks. This excited Dr Gruner and his team, led by Paul Sprigade hence they re-named the “Kunja Gebirge Gennant” (Nkonya Mountains) Gruner Map, “Karte des Sechsherrenstockes” (Map of Six Men’s Sticks) to signify the boundaries of the six communities. The map was printed in Berlin and each head-chief was handed a copy of the map. Copies of the map were handed to the British and French authorities when German colonies were taken over after the latter’s defeat in the First World War (1914-1918).
Copies of the map are available at the following archives and libraries world-wide:
• The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK;
• The British Library, St Pancras, London, UK;
• The British Library, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, UK ;
• Bibliotheque nationale de France, BnF Paris;France;
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munchen, Germany.
• The American Geographical Society; New York, USA
In 1923, the people of Nkonya-Tayi noticed that some Alavanyo farmers had encroached on Nkonya land. On May 24, 1923 a nine-member delegation from Nkonya-Tayi went to Alavanyo-Kpeme with the view to inviting the Alavanyos to inspect the encroached portion. The Alavanyo Chief declined to let his people go for the inspection. Nanai Kwasi Addae, leader of the Tayi delegation was assaulted by an Alavanyo for showing disrespect to his chief by talking without removing his cap. Nanai Addae retaliated and this resulted in a scuffle and escalated to the first full-scale war between the two communities.
The Alavanyos reported the matter to the District commissioner at Kpando who caused the arrest and imprisonment of the members of the delegation for breach of public order.
On June 1, 1923, before passing sentence, His Worship, P. D. Le Lievre advised them to take their case to court, for determination of ownership of the land allegedly encroached on, after serving their sentences.
CREATION OF TOGO PLATEAU FOREST RESERVE
In 1931, Norton Jones the Chief Conservator of Forest, met representatives of the six nation-states on the issue of the Togo Plateau Forest Reserve Settlement Enquiry where they all agreed that their boundaries were as shown on the Gruner map drawn in 1913. In his May, 1931 Report to the Colonial Secretary, Victoriaborg, Accra, he wrote this about the Gruner Map:
“There are in this Reserve, parts of six Divisions. Their boundaries in the past formed the subject of an exhaustive enquiry at the hands of a German Commissioner, whose name is still a household word with the people, Dr. Gruner. By infinite patience and laborious care, he had investigated, laid down on the ground and set forth on a detailed plan, the boundaries between these Divisions (Gbi, Santrokofi, Akpafu, Bowiri, Nkonya and Alavanyo)”
The Nkonyas are in possession of this Grunner Map as well as the map of Togo (Kunja) Plateau Reserve Plan of 1931.
THE COURT CASES
a) In 1951, Nkonya filed a suit at Akpini Court “B”. The case was to determine and declare the true boundaries of Nkonya and Alavanyo. The case, No. Tr. L 19/53 was later transferred, on the orders of the Chief Justice, to the Land Division of the High Court in Accra under Justice Van Lare.
On 24th May, 1957 in the High Court, Accra, Justice W. B. van Lare ruled in favour of the Stools of Nkonya and Santrokofi and gave judgment with costs against the stools of Alavanyo and Akpafu duly represented by Togbe Atakora VI and Nana Daniel Kabe Adjisam respectively. In delivering his ruling, he wrote:
“I am satisfied that the boundary between Santrokofi and Akpafu and Alavanyo was finally demarcated in 1913 by Dr. H. Gruner and is as shown on either Exhibit “C” or “C1” or “G” or “D” and either of this map also shows the true boundary between Nkonya land and Alavanyo land.”
b) On 8th June, 1959 His Lordship, GRANVILLE SHARP J. A.(presiding) Court of Appeal, Suit No. 12/59 with C. S. Acolatse and H. O. Smith, up-held the accuracy and authenticity of the 1913 Gruner Map as indicating the true boundaries and that defendants (Alavanyo and Akpafu) are “estopped per rem judicatam” (a matter that has been finally determined), from ever raising the question about their boundaries; " interest reipublicae ut sitifinis litium" The rationale of the rule or doctrine is that it is in the public interest that a litigation must come to an end.
c) In 1961, the Nkonyas instituted another legal action in the Ho High Court, this time against the individual citizens of Alavanyo who happened to have trespassed onto the Nkonya side of the undisputed 1913 Gruner boundary namely. Joseph Foli, Alavanyo Stool Regent Togbe Mensah Aniabor, Korkor Sampende, Trigautt Kosihu, W.A. Dornya, Kwasi Asigbetse, Eugene Prikutse and Aaron T. Kuma.
On February 29, 1963 Togbe Andrews Kwasi Nyemiku Atakora VII swore an affidavit at Ho High Court that he was the substantive Paramount Chief of Alavanyo and, led by his counsel, Isaac Emil Osei-Bonsu Esq; on March 29, 1963 moved a motion for an order of substitution of his name for that of Togbe Mensah Aniabor, Regent of Alavanyo Stool who had then abdicated following the installation of he, Togbe A.K.N. Atakora VII, as the substantive occupant of the Alavanyo Stool. Togbe Mensah Aniabor joined as co-defendant on Deceember 18, 1961 on the ground that the land in dispute belonged to Alavanyo Stool which he was occupant as Regent following the death of Togbe Atakora VI who was an appellant in Civil Appeal No. 12/59.
During the court proceedings, two events occurred :-
a). The court gave an interim injunction in 1966 restraining both parties from entering the disputed land “till the final determination of the suit”
b). The court, by Consent Order dated June 19, 1962 made by His Lordship Mr. Justice Prempeh at the High Court, Ho ordered a surveyor, Mr. Henry Hagan of Cape-Coast, to demarcate the Nkonya /Alavanyo boundaries based on the Dr. Grunner 1913 Plan Map. This was done and pillars were accordingly re-erected at points where the Alavanyos had willfully obliterated the 1913 pillars.
In December, 1970, High Court, Ho - Suit No. 28-35/61, 1970, Justice G. R. Mc Vane Francois ordered the Alavanyos to atorn tenancy within one month of the ruling to the Nkonyas if they did not want to be dispossessed of their farms. He stated that,
(a) “The impression one is left with is a strenuous bid by the defendants, the Alavanyos to discredit once more the Grunner Plan of 1913. “I regret, this third throw of the dice cannot yield the desired bonanza” page 5 paragraph 4 lines 1-4; and,
(b) “I must emphasize that this is the third judgment the defendants, the Alavanyos have lost; they have accordingly the last opportunity of showing their willingness to abide by the decisions of the courts of this land and acknowledge the boundary between them and the plaintiff”.
“ The courts are established to resolve conflicting interest in any society.
They are legally constituted and are above self or individual interest. If people fail to accept, recognize and respect the judgments of the courts based upon concrete and truthful evidence, bloody clashes as this nature of Alavanyo and Nkonya are bound to be a constant feature of our lives” (page 10 paragraph 3 line 8). “Civilization presupposes respect for the law”.
d) After the final determination of the suit in December 1970, the Nkonyas naturally entered their land and begun to re-farm on it. The Alavanyos again appealed against the Justice Francois‘s judgment of December, 1970 at the Court of Appeal. In addition, the Alavanyos brought another action to the Ho High Court against the Nkonyas that they had allegedly flouted the order of interim injunction imposed in 1966.
The Ho High Court dismissed the action on the grounds that there was NO subsisting injunction and in the circumstance, the Nkonyas could not be held to be in breach of a non-existent Order. On 4th December, 1975, Court of Appeal, Accra Suit No. 112/74, Justice J. A. Amissah (Presiding), Kingsley Nyinah and J. A. Annan dismissed the appeal filed by Alavanyo and up-held the 1970 ruling by Justice Francois.
This was reported in the 1976 Ghana Law Report pages 194-203.
e) After the December 4, 1975 judgment, Mr. Joseph Foli and others of Alavanyo who appealed against the judgment of 1970, and also instituted an action against the Nkonyas for flouting the interim injunction of 1966, approached the Nkonyas, apparently to atorn tenancy. The Nkonyas requested them to submit, in writing, the names of all Alavanyos farming on Nkonya land. The Alavanyos complied with this request by submitting names of seven farmers who had trespassed into Nkonya land, in a letter signed by Joseph Foli and Eugene Prikutse, dated 14th January, 1976.
This letter was addressed to Nana Agyattah IV Chief of Nkonya Tayi and his secretary Peter Akuffu.
Names of the farmers were as follows;
1. Joseph Foli
2. Kwasi Asigbetse
3. Winfred Donya
4. Eugene Prikutse
5. Aaron T. Kuma
6. Korkor Sampede.
Consequently, each of these Alavanyos, whose names were submitted, atorned tenancy in the traditional manner by presenting a ram and a pot of palm wine and was, therefore, left free to farm on Nkonya land.
In 1980, the Alavanyos decided once again to re-litigate the matter, which they took to the Stool Lands Boundaries Commission chaired by Mr. Justice Amorin in Accra. The Commission gave judgment against the Alavanyos but ordered that the boundaries be re-demarcated- (25th January, 1980; Enquiry No. 7/1979.) The question any discerning person should ask is “Which Stool sent the complaint to the Stool Lands Boundary Settlement Commission in Enquiry No. 7/1979?” The records are there for all to see.
The Nkonyas felt dissatisfied with the Commission’s Re-demarcation Order and therefore instituted action at the High Court, Accra to have that order quashed. Justice (Mrs.) Cecilia Koranteng Addo quashed the Stool Lands Boundary Settlement Commission’s order for re-demarcation on 2nd December, 1980.
She stated that, two previous rulings at the High Court and the Court of Appeal had up-held the accuracy of the Dr. Grunner Map of 1913 and thus settled the issue of the boundaries. Ref. Miscellaneous matter No. 91/1980
It is worth-noting that in all the above-cited cases affecting the boundary, the judgement had been against the Alavanyo Stool and not the six encroachers.
This last judgment - Miscellaneous matter No. 91/1980, effectively ended the protracted legal tussle over the boundary between the two states of Nkonya and Alavanyo. As far as the Nkonyas are concerned, and in view of the above legal developments, there is NO land nor Boundary dispute between the Nkonyas and the Alavanyos. There are civil ways of land acquisition that any well-meaning and peace-loving citizen, community or entity may resort to and NOT by force of arms, mischief or arrogance. The latter options are anachronistic and lawless. Is anybody listening?
If Togbe cares to know, I have forwarded all the evidence he asked for as proof of litigation over land boundary involving the paramount chief of Alavanyo in the persons of Togbe Atakora V, succeeded by Regent Togbe Mensah Aniabor and finally, Togbe Andrews Kwesi Nyemiku Atakora VI and that of Nkonya or an Atakora and an Okotor to the Vice President.
It is interesting to note that the very spot where the Alavanyos first encountered Kondodze, the Nkonya man, is the present location of Alavanyo Dzogbedze. Filled with sympathy for the settlement seekers after the famous “Kpeme wo na mi……mianor fi kpor, ….adabanyo” lamentation of Togbe To, their leader, Kondodze gave his yam farm as well as his farm cottage to them to settle on and eke out a living. Other Nkonya farmers followed his example of magnanimity leading to the creation of Deme and Agorme. This was in response to Togbe Tatse Kwaku’s appeal to Kondodze to do whatever he could to make his ‘brothers-in-law’ safe and comfortable. This gesture caused most of the members to drift from Kpeme to relocate at Dzogbedze because there was food readily available to them from Kondodze’s yam barn. Even though Kpeme was their first settlement, the population of Dzogbedze quickly outstripped that of Kpeme as more family members migrated from Sovie to settle there; hence Dzogbedze became the largest Alavanyo settlement in 1840. This fact notwithstanding, it is ridiculous that Paul Kwami Dzathor still wants the world to believe his story that Alavanyo settled in virgin forest, yet they chose to name their towns (DZOGBEDZE) Red Grassland, (DEME) Settlement among Palm Trees, (AGORME) Fan-palm trees, etc. In fact, students in Etymology and Toponymy have a lot to learn from this riddle. Also, if it is true that, they wandered through uninhabited forest and found a suitable place for themselves without any help from anyone, why then the “Adabanyo” lamentation? Paul Dzathor craftily avoided chronological references regarding their migration and claimed they had settled there centuries ago. If he admits that, it was through the instrumentality of Togbe Tatse Kwaku, Chief of Kpando-Tsakpe that they encountered Kondodze the Nkonya man, the logical question to ask is,” When did Togbe Tatse Kwaku rule Tsakpe, if the 1840 quoted by Nkonya as the year they settled Alavanyo on Nkonya land is not true?” Check the records at Akpini Traditional Council and you will know who is not telling the truth. The Akans have a saying “Kwae a agye wo no, y?n fr? no kwaewa” and also “S? woaanya biribi anmma wo ase a, y?nmm? no kur?no”. (Ingratitude is a bad virtue) and (If you visited your in-law with empty hands, please don’t steal the little that he has, when you are leaving)
Paul Dzathor threw caution to the winds and decided to wade into the lake of legality regarding the admissibility of Grunner map by the Courts. He cited certain decided cases on a Grunner map and cunningly generalized the name as if the word ‘Grunner map’ refers to one omnibus map. It is pertinent to note that Dr. Hans Grunner supervised the construction of hundreds of maps by Paul Sprigade, Max Moisel and Ketzer for different purposes and uses right from Cameroun through Togo to Sansane Mangu in Burkina Faso. The fact that a court has rejected one or two of such maps in making a determination of a specific case does not mean that it is a declaration that all Grunner maps are inadmissible. In any case, the first incident of a Grunner map being thrown away by the courts as inadmissible was the Grunner Map of 1905 presented by the Alavanyos in their boundary dispute with Nkonya in Suit No. Tr. L.19/53 and Civil Appeal No. 12/59. These Courts accepted the ”Karte des Sechsherrenstockes” Grunner Map of 1913 presented by Nkonya and rejected that of the 1905 map presented by Alavanyo. Grunner-supervised maps have been found to be very useful and helpful by the international communities in resolving boundary issues including the case of the Bakassi Peninsula involving Nigeria and Cameroun. I wish to quote again, the statement by Justice Francois in his judgment delivered in December, 1970 against Alavanyo “The impression one is left with is a strenuous bid by the defendants, the Alavanyos to discredit once more the Grunner Plan of 1913. “I regret, this third throw of the dice cannot yield the desired bonanza”
It is interesting to note that during the pendency of the case in court, the Alavanyo Stool engaged the legal services of very prominent legal brains like Messrs Akuffo Addo, B. J. da Rocha, Opoku Acheampong, Isaac Emil Osei Bonsu and lastly, Professor Parku Kludze to handle their cases yet the truth always prevailed and Nkonya won all the cases. I can’t understand why Paul Dzathor may want to make statements in contempt of these court judgments with his argument over the inadmissibility of a specific Grunner Map in some other unrelated case and make a conclusion that once a Grunner map has been criticized by a court it affects all the other hundreds of Grunner-supervised maps world-wide. It is ludicrous, isn’t it? During the hearing of the Civil Appeal No. 12/59, Akuffo Addo, counsel for Alavanyo Stool argued that, when the Alavanyos admitted during the 1931 Togo Plateau Forest Reserve Inquiry that it was Dr. Grunner who established their boundaries with the plaintiffs, they had in mind the 1905 Grunner Map. This, the Court found to be false since the said 1905 map did not show the boundaries of the six nation states of Nkonya, Alavanyo, Gbi, Santrokofi, Akpafu and Bowiri. With the rejection of that ill-fated 1905 Grunner map, is it not funny that Alavanyo is now shifting the focus to “anyaati’ in Ewe or ‘Ntornmme’ in Nkonya” as trees that should be used to determine their boundary with Nkonya in this 21st century? Which tree would have survived the 175 years (1840 – 2015) since Alavanyos set foot on Nkonya land?
Had the 1905 Grunner map presented by Alavanyo been accepted by the Courts in those cases, what would have been their say? A crying baby that will not allow the mother to sleep will himself equally not sleep. The truth shall always prevail no matter how long it takes. I rest my case and God be with us all
Lord Joaks 9 years ago
Nice piece once again, Kwame! Keep it up.
On the sidelines, we learn certain personalities in the NDC are fueling the Alavanyo-Nkonya issue, and by now the president would have known about it. Are they addressing that?
... read full comment
Nice piece once again, Kwame! Keep it up.
On the sidelines, we learn certain personalities in the NDC are fueling the Alavanyo-Nkonya issue, and by now the president would have known about it. Are they addressing that?
Numerous accounts spoke in length about Military rifles used by the Nkonyas and the government could look into that; this is easy. A little trip to Alavanyo could unravel part of it because the claimed to have recuperated some during the crisis. So why is the government not addressing this?
Vodoo Xebieso 9 years ago
I don't think the people of Alavanyo and Nkonya need any advice of whatever hue from a dog and bastard of Akyemland who canvassed vehemently for extermination of Ewes and hides not his morbid Ewe-hatred. The dragnet of Ewe ha ... read full comment
I don't think the people of Alavanyo and Nkonya need any advice of whatever hue from a dog and bastard of Akyemland who canvassed vehemently for extermination of Ewes and hides not his morbid Ewe-hatred. The dragnet of Ewe hawks living in the Bronx is closing in on him and he will be dealt with like a cat. Akyem dog and bastard.
Before I say anything,finding meaning
of NKONYA and ALAVANYO would not help,but if that would help then you should have made it known to the world what the meaning of Nkonya is.Then ask why Alavanyo was named Alavanyo.seek ...
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Joe Lartey, what's the proposition you're putting on the table, instead of picking on someone's solemn opinion? This is the way we are in Ghana, which is why all's failing us.
You're certainly from Nkonya for sure; are you ...
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I enjoyed reading this masterpiece as well.At a time when we are confronted with challenges we ought do all we can to bring piece to the region.
As a voltarian i daresay that the abject poverty and unemployment that has en ...
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PEACE*to the region....
Shut your mouth. Abject poverty and unemployment are problems world-wide and therefore not the preserve of the Volta Region. I think every town and village in the region have their sons and daughters in the diaspora. These so ...
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Vodoo,it appears you don't understand simple english or simply lacks the mental agility to analyse my submission dispassionately.
All i did was to conscientise voltarians to shun conflict and concentrate on the myriad of pro ...
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Yoooooooooo!!!! I grant you also misunderstood my position.
Mr Ahofe, thanks for your write-ups but it appears you are just dancing around the solution because possibly you do not have certain antecedents to this dispute. It is this: the land border between Nkonya and Alavanyo was dem ...
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The NDC government must now come out to finally put to rest this matter and let peace reign, no matter whose ox is gored.
Read this article and find if you're not the one dancing around the case. It was written by one Paul Dzathor in rebuttal of a similar lie peddled by a citizen of Nkonya. The clarity of this article is overwhelming and a pure ...
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Kwame, the above article could add to your collection of history, too.
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In around 1975, the population of Ghana revolved around 8.5 million heads. When I was a kid in the primary scho ...
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Thanks for your time and effort in shedding light on the issue at stake. I was thinking you will bring concrete and firm proof to help readers. How readers can rely on Kwami Dzathor's work is anyone's guess. The write-up lack ...
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Hey Mark, how are you? Thanks for your concern, too.
Is there logic in the said article written by Dzathor? Is there logic in the opinion I presented?
The first thing to do is to read Felix Ohene’s publication, which ...
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Point taken LJ. May be if I had had a look at the original write-up by Felix Ohene it would have helped. I don't think this was contained in the Kwami's rebuttal.
You wereindeed right that Kwame cited some cases in support ...
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I think you didn’t understand my point. I think Dzathor could come up with much more historical facts were he directly addressing the public on the disputes. He WAS ONLY addressing what he perceived as untruth in a comprehe ...
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Lord Joaks,
Thanks for bringing out this piece. I didn't see it before. I had for a long time been asking for the Alavanyo's version of the conflict, having read a lot which was more like the Nkonya's version. Besides, I h ...
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Hi Andy,
You see, this thorny problem is very unnecessary. It is one provoked by demography and lack of business for the youth, meaning more lands are needed to help them occupy themselves and feel responsible.
But as ...
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Hi Guys, Hold your fire.
I reproduce below, my response to Togbe Tsedze Atakora's comment during the meeting of the Vice President K.Amissah-Arthur with the Chiefs and Elders of Nkonya and Alavanyo at Kpando on January 9, 20 ...
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Nice piece once again, Kwame! Keep it up.
On the sidelines, we learn certain personalities in the NDC are fueling the Alavanyo-Nkonya issue, and by now the president would have known about it. Are they addressing that?
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I don't think the people of Alavanyo and Nkonya need any advice of whatever hue from a dog and bastard of Akyemland who canvassed vehemently for extermination of Ewes and hides not his morbid Ewe-hatred. The dragnet of Ewe ha ...
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