Here am I Kofi Begyina, son of international palm wine tapper Agya Amo getting married to Benewaa Efua Wellington, daughter of Prof. Wellington. A beautiful couple indeed, from very diverse backgrounds.
Well, being fortunate to have made it to the University of Ghana, Legon, from Bodwesano High School, I had fallen in love with this refined lady in my final year.
To make a long story short, we got married few years after graduation as I managed to secure a good job at the immigration office.
Now, coming from Bodwesano, I witnessed my mother Eno Yaa Ntonso make my sisters sit on a pail filled with hot water before they dashed to bath in our makeshift bathroom behind our thatched house.
Now living in a plush home in East Legon, Accra with my pretty wife Benewaa, I experienced an extremely foreign yet equally sensual woman, but I still felt cut off from my traditional background in a lot of ways.
I approached Benewaa one time, “my dear, I used to see women from my immediate family use lime, hot water, and herbs but with you, it is Imperial Leather, Dove eh eh …” Benewaa cuts in, “my dear, save your breath, I have heard a lot regarding these things myself and I’m willing to find out about those experiences too.”
Before I could say Jack, Benewa had invited my mother to the city with a luggage of traditional, ‘asanka’ (local grinding pot), earthen ware pot to boil my ever important ‘kooko eduro’ (medicine for piles), ‘twapea’ (Piece of special kind of wood for brushing the teeth), shea butter, lime, local unrefined salt etc.
That very evening she winked at me with a pail of hot water in hand as she headed for the bathroom blinding my thoughts with the invisible music from the gracious swing in her waist.
From then onwards, Benewaa had shelved her most expensive products and embraced the pure natural things readily available on our markets.
What excites me is the honey she ‘blesses’ me with when the moon closes it lids to snore off its fatigue after the long long day.
All I’m saying by this piece is, that advancement in science is a necessity but what is pure, fresh, natural and available should be patronized locally as it has its place in our lives as true Africans.
Stay natural and stay beautiful my dear Ghanaian women.