A file photo
THE Internet has opened so many doors for us.
But occasionally, as soon as it has opened a door and we are about to enter it, the internet shuts the door firmly in our faces!
That is what happened to me when I was doing research on the “ASAFO” movements in Southern Ghana.
These movements helped a lot to prevent those of our chiefs who were corrupt and selfish, from allowing the British colonialists to take ownership of our ancestral lands.
The British wanted to give the chiefs a lot of control over the land, so that they could “indirectly” own it by intimidating the chiefs!
Their weapon, you see, was a clever system actually called "indirect rule."
The Asafo groups caught on to what was happening and they gave the corrupt chiefs a tough time. In some cases the Asafos waged political "guerrilla war" against sycophantic chiefs to such an extent that British troops had to intercede forcibly to protect their "client chiefs" on several occasions.
Serious bloodshed occurred in some instances.
Now, during a search on the net, I came across the title of an article on the Asafo groups in Kwahu (Southern Ghana) that attracted me greatly. It was about what the author termed a “revolution” in land ownership caused in Kwahu by the Asafo groups of the area.
I know about the Asafo groups in Akyem Abuakwa but nothing at all about the similar Asafo activities that apparently took place in Kwahu.
So I tried to retrieve the piece on Kwahu from the internet. You must be joking! I came across it several times, but despite its being shown to exist on Google Scholar, I couldn’t get it, even to read, to say nothing of quoting from it.
That, alas, is what the internet has done to us, what our appetite for knowledge, and then, no doubt for commercial reasons, shuts our mouths so that we cannot eat what the net has caught for us!
But I am glad the internet did that. For during the frustrating times I was knocking vainly at the door of infernal paywalls, I noticed something extremely interesting about the author. He is called Mr. E A E Asiamah.
Now that is a name that reminds me of a very good friend of mine whose invaluable advice enabled me to enroll in a correspondence course, through which I was able to pass the General Certificate of Education (London University) at the Ordinary Level, and thereby qualify to be given an appointment at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. It was that appointment which led to my eventfully becoming editor of DRUM Magazine and later, of the Daily Graphic.
So, you see, Mr. Asiamah was the man who gave rise to my entire career, for although I worked hard on my way through all the steps I have mentioned, I needed first to put a foot on the ladder. And it was he who showed me how to do it.
Now, the strange thing is that I was so much in awe of Mr. Asiamah that I never dared to ask him too many questions about himself. I knew he came from Kwahu (Abetifi, I guess) and especially, about his strange initials – E. C. E. Why double E and why the separation? Alas, he is no longer with us, so I am unable to fill in the gaps.
Of course, when I was doing my internet research, the initials E A E struck me as very similar to my friend’s initials. Replace the A with a C and you have the same initials. How very strange?
Well, I am determined to find out more about Mr. E A E Asiamah. I hope he is related to my late friend, for I would like to sit him down and tell him first hand, how Mr. E. C. E. Asiamah became the moving force in my life, educationally speaking!
If someone knows him, please kindly ask him to get in touch with me through the Daily Guide or The Ghanaian Times.
