Alavanyo and Nkonya in joint communal labour

Alavanyo-Kpeme), (V/R), Nov. 28, GNA - The newly found peace between Nkonya and Alavanyo received a big boost on last week when inhabitants of the two communities joined in communal labour to open up roads linking them. Members of the communities had been at each other's throat until two years ago.

By 0600 hours on Thursday men from both sides set to work clearing overgrown bushes that virtually closed the two kilometre road between Nkonya -Ahenkro and Alavanyo-Kpeme and the two kilometre Nkonya Asakyir - Alavanyo Kpeme road.

Women from both sides were also on hand to provide water and encouragement to their men folks as they gossiped and cracked jokes among themselves.

There was an atmosphere of conviviality and comradeship as the men carried on with the work till well past mid-day when they converged at Alavanyo-Kpeme and helped themselves to food and palm wine provided by both sides amidst drumming and dancing.

In a remark, the Right Reverend Dr Livingstone Buama, Chairman of the Mediation Committee overseeing the peace process between the two former arch enemies, said the latest event was an unequivocal demonstration that true peace had arrived between the two neighbours. "This is your Christmas present to me. I am overjoyed", he said. He said it was heart-warming that they were not using their cutlasses against each other as before but to create a path of peace between them. "How pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in peace", he said.

Togbe Tsedze Atakora VII, Paramount Chief of Alavanyo, said symbolically the two communities by their new found peace had put on an immaculately white cloth which the whole world has acknowledged and that any stain on the cloth would forever consign them to the dustbin of disrespect.

"If we go back on our peace we shall not be able to bear the shame," he said.

He urged the Government to fulfil its promise to provide an all weather road from Gbi-Wegbe through Alavanyo to Nkonya. Nana Kofi Anani Agyei II, Gyasehene of Nkonya-Ntumba, on behalf of Nana Okotor Kofi III, Paramount Chief of Nkonya Traditional Area, said there was so much that bound the two traditional areas together than divided them and that all of them were duty bound to ensure that the peace between them held forever.

Mr William Kpende, Chairman of the Consultative Committee that oversees the day to day strengthening of the peace process, reminded the two communities that they had come a long way on the road to permanent peace and that sacrifices were needed to persist on that path. The two communities had been locked in a protracted often bloody land dispute for more than 80 years until a peace initiative was taken by the Volta Regional Co-coordinating Council about two years ago in which the leadership of Ho Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church have been playing lead roles. 28 Nov. 07