Such a useless article can only come from either of the two "dead goats", Lungu or Francis Kwarteng.
You cannot expect any other sane person two post such a weed.
Such a useless article can only come from either of the two "dead goats", Lungu or Francis Kwarteng.
You cannot expect any other sane person two post such a weed.
Mahmoud 8 years ago
Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor cunningly avoided mentioning the known fact that Ewes have been the ethnic group in Ghana that mostly votes according to the dictates of their tribal warlords regardless of any national issues. Their le ... read full comment
Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor cunningly avoided mentioning the known fact that Ewes have been the ethnic group in Ghana that mostly votes according to the dictates of their tribal warlords regardless of any national issues. Their leaders have misled them for long, but there are signs that they would vote against tribalism and NDC in the next general election because the common people have seen the light.
Ewes have always condemned the overthrow of Ghana's first communist dictator, and yet kick against removal of Kotoka's name from the airport in the nation's capital because he was an Ewe. On the other hand, if it were the name of Ankra or Afrifa, charlatans like Michael Bokor would have been writing tones of tribalistic articles to support removal of the name from that airport. Again, when Yeboah killed Kotota in the failed counter coup, Ewes immediately pointed an accusing finger at Afrifa, saying that he had masterminded the killing in order to take the top job from Kotoka because he was an Ewe.
As a result of these conspiracy theories cemented by tribal bigotry, the Progress Party won overwhelmingly in all the regions of Ghana in 1969 except the Volta region. They later tried to justify their action by saying that Victor Owusu had accused them of being inward looking. For them, that statement justified all their actions including removal of the newly elected government. Although the region benefited tremendously from the PP government in terms of development projects within that short period, they still went ahead and overthrew it unjustifiably and plunged the country into the abyss.
It will surprise you to know that the coup planning started immediately after the PP government was sworn into office and that had nothing to do with what it did or did not do in office. Ewes planned it and lured Acheampong into it by offering him the leadership position. Busia's government made Acheampong the Army Commander and he was now being asked to betray the trust, so the reward must be big enough. The coup plotters also realized that he was the only obstacle in their way and they willingly made him the leader in order to reach their goal. Unfortunately, this scenario was repeated in 1981 when Rawlings deceived Akatapore and others to betray Dr. Liman paving the way for his second coup.
Those who planned and executed the 1972 coup were all Ewes, and they were Major Agbo, Major Baah, Major Solomey, and the rest of the Ewe Majors that constituted the so-called National Redemption Council after the coup. Also, when Rawlings used the tribal card to occupy Ghana in the 80s and 90's, the country was virtually an Ewe Kingdom, and it will be naive and even dishonest for a so-called intellectual like Michael Bokor to believe that Rawlings ever won an election in Ghana freely, fairly and democratically. In fact, he used to steal the verdicts of Ghanaians to remain in power fraudulently.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Nice try!
We do not hold brief for anyone!
If we may answer your irrelevant and self-preservation diatribe this once, you conveniently neglected to discuss the coup by Ghana's First Losers, the NLC-NLM bunch of which B ... read full comment
Nice try!
We do not hold brief for anyone!
If we may answer your irrelevant and self-preservation diatribe this once, you conveniently neglected to discuss the coup by Ghana's First Losers, the NLC-NLM bunch of which Busia was co-leader.
The destabilization and economic/political subversion of Ghana started even before independence by your Danquah and PP idols, among other traitors.
Remember?
Danquah asking why payment by the US had been suspended when he was detained for subversive activities?
Then just 9 months after Ghana’s independence, on 4 December 1957, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, a member of the UP-NLM-NLC cohort, and one who would ultimately win the presidency are the end of the NLC military dictatorship, he, Dr, Busia, was actually sending secret telegrams to Washington, DC. from the US Embassy in Accra. Dr. Busia was demanding money from the US government as only traitors do. At one time, Dr. Busia demand $25,000, “(not 10)”, for his NLM party. In the same breath, he Dr. Busia was in fact complaining to Republicans in the US Congress in the telegrams that Nkrumah and the CPP were exploring relations with other countries, including the USSR.
So, to borrow you self-serving phrase, "Those who planned and executed the" 1966 coup were all foreign agents of foreign governments. They had their permanent interest to protect - to quash the independence of Ghana.
But they need a bunch of traitors and absent-minded military and rascal civilians to carry out their diabolical subversion against Ghana's national interest.
Tell Bawumia and the like this November.
It is foolish to assume that one military dictatorship is better than another, and to prefer one to the other. When you do, you show your absent-minded contraption on your head useless, like an Amoako-Baah thesis.
Again, nice try!
Mahmoud 8 years ago
The write-up was about tribalism in Ghana and how Ewe tribal workloads hid behind tribal bigotry to impede the development of Ghana since 1972.
On the contrary, the NLC's coup against your communist dictator had nothing t ... read full comment
The write-up was about tribalism in Ghana and how Ewe tribal workloads hid behind tribal bigotry to impede the development of Ghana since 1972.
On the contrary, the NLC's coup against your communist dictator had nothing to do with tribalism because the coup-makers consisted of all the major tribes in Ghana; Gas, Ewes, Asantes, and Northerners. So, NLC was truly a National Liberation Council that came liberate Ghanaians from Communist dictatorship and one party state only.
NLC came to liberate Ghanaians and return the country to a democratic rule within a specified period and did just that. On the contrary, all the coups that followed aimed at remaining in power indefinitely. We saw Achampong's attempted Union Government to remain in power, and Rawlings' P/NDC clinging to power through the gun and poll rigging.
Tetteh 8 years ago
My brother Mahmoud, don't occopy yourself so much on useless essays like this.
My brother Mahmoud, don't occopy yourself so much on useless essays like this.
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
What bloody load of crap and historical falsehood?
had Harlley, Kotoka and Deku consulted Anlo elders while plotting to overthrow the CPP, I am sure they'd be told that they were about to release an evil dzinn from the bot ... read full comment
What bloody load of crap and historical falsehood?
had Harlley, Kotoka and Deku consulted Anlo elders while plotting to overthrow the CPP, I am sure they'd be told that they were about to release an evil dzinn from the bottle Nkrumah had sealed it! They'd have been told that the forces they were aligning themselves with were scions of people who would even trick and enslave you yourself when you went to raid for slaves with them instead of give you your fair share of the booty; in fact, if lucky, you can bet you'd be cheated of a fair share.
Now, how can Ewes use what Victor Owusu said in Parliament in response to Dr Agama in the debate about the sacking of mainly Ewes in the Apollo 586 debacle for not voting for the PP in the Gen. Elections that elected that Parliament much earlier in 1969?
I won't spend time unraveling all the half truths and skewed events to suit the your evil agenda. I shall rather re-post one of my articles on the origins of the ethnic imbroglio in Ghana.
Andy-K
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to br ... read full comment
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to brush this issue under the carpet by some linked to the NPP as just a one off aberration. These people pretend or do not seem to know that Agyapong’s threats were not the first admonishing the killing of Ewes, something the readily available facts betray. Facts I have been referring to from 1994 in cyberspace, recounting my own personal experiences with some of those advocates of Ewe killers in Nigeria during the early years of the PNDC. Of course, I have not as yet told the full story. But as Fela said, “I no kpata de finish!”
Hmm! As I found out when I was insulted “basabasa” by a man who turned out to be one of my many uncles, (when I apparently misspoke on the hike in petrol prices in the 1993 budget, on a bus from Anloga to Dzelukope in 1993), - being mistaken for a Quashiga hireling who had joined the “Eblutorwo” (Akans) preparing to come and kill them - my people back home were fully prepared and waiting for the quislings to start the attacks; I was assured. That was long before anyone heard of Justice Kpega as a political pundit! Phew! Me, a die-hard Nkrumaist in league with NPP assassins, to go and kill my fellow Anlos? Well, after all, it was in Lome, an Ewe centrepiece city even if many are of Ga-Elmina(Anyi) extraction, that they first congregated and started those lose talks against Ewes, thus forcing most Ewes in exile opposed to the PNDC to abandon the opposition to the PNDC and the anti-Ewe bent it had taken. So, many of us Ewes knew about their evil intents a long time ago, as they were eating our akple and fetri detsi and planning it in our kinsmen homes! Hardly any of them knew that much of the land of Lome is owned by people from Aflao and environs. Ignorant morons come in all shapes, you know. They were lucky no one poisoned them in Lome.:-)
Equally, I have read opponents to Agyapong’s utterances, including some Ewes, made some false and misleading statements, which shows that they are ignorant of the facts of the origins of the ethnic imbroglio in Ghana, despite my persistent efforts and write-ups sketching that sordid history, from the pre-colonial to the post-independence era. I read someone situated in the 1979 elections period Victor Owusu’s scathing attacks on Ewes as “inward-looking” during the exchanges with Dr Agama in Parliament after the Apollo 586 sacking of mostly Ewes by the Busia regime! How come?!
Ignorance and superstition are recognised as key cogs in the vicious cycle of backwardness that is our lot as developing people but the extent most so-called educated Ghanaians wallow in these two inhibiting traits is just stupendous and disheartening!
Many try to claim that Rawlings introduced tribalism into Ghana by employing predominantly Ewes into sensitive public posts, especially the security sector; whereas the same claims of Ewe domination of posts had already been used effectively against Gbedema’s NAL by Busia’s Progress Party during the 1969 General Elections, as I had quoted from Dennis Austen to show but something all grown-ups at the time knew about. It was therefore unfortunate that the late Prof Adu Boahen, as a historian who knew or ought to know better, fed into these fabrications of Ewe dominance, creating his own when he reportedly claimed in a British Council lecture in 1988 that Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, a Ga who was given the VC post which he thought he deserved at the time, was an Ewe; and promised in his interview granted to Mahoney and his Africa Watch magazine to redress the presumed ethnic disparity when the NPP was elected into office. To me and many discerning Ewes, especially the Ewe elite, it was all déjà vu. But I was still surprised to find out that some decade long opponents of the PNDC voted for the NDC in 1992! It would not even surprise me if someone who knew Justice Kpegah’s political views very well in the 1980s came out to say that he was an arch-enemy of the PNDC in the Bar Association. I was visiting Ho in 1990 when the people of the VR angrily rejected the no party idea that the PNDC was then lobbying for, effectively halting the campaign for it. Those in BA had already voted yes.
Yes! The NPP had itself to blame for their dismal reception in the VR, as they lost the plot with their tribal agenda reminiscent of the 1969 campaign. In Accra, they lost a lot of Ga support when the same Prof Adu Boahen at a rally, in trying to whip the anti-Ewe venom made that gaffe about Gas being pushed by the PNDC to be sleeping 10 persons to a room, after many of the main speakers had spoken in Twi! In 2000, they (NPP) won simply because of JJ’s unwholesome Swedru Declaration and the disrespectful Obed Asamoah led attempts to impose sitting candidates on their constituents, which nearly got him beaten at Dzelukope/Keta. My own Anlo Constituency elected an independent though linked to the NDC too.
Fact is, I have been aware, just as many other people, since the early 1980s of various threats by some Akans opposed to the PNDC to have Ewes killed and had written about that many, many times on Okyeame and SIL. Perhaps, adding Gas to those to be killed is just the new dimension added by Agyapong, since it appeared, this time, the Gas, in Agyapong's warped mind, had acted in prosecuting the "Ewe agenda" by beating up Ursula on behalf of the Ewes! Well, warped minds think in strange, circular terms!
After all, the threats were so opened and so rampant that one Ewe, the late Dr Kodzi who died here in London in exile, pointed out the "Anlo-Ewes” in his own virulently anti-Rawlings/ PNDC book, "Ghana: Worse than Apartheid S. Africa," as the Ewes to be killed, for being the culprits of the complaints and angst of the Akans! That was long before anyone heard of Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe and his renewed “war” on “Anlo-Ewes,” a war his ancestor joined the Akyem Gen. Dompey to fight in "Krepi" against the Asantes and lost way back in the 1860s and got stranded there, lucky enough not to have been killed like others. That’s another story I had re-told elsewhere and needs a re-visit soon in order to let the populace know what makes bozos like Ahoofe tick. For a man, (I mean Dr Kodzi, not the jerk Ahoofe) who, due to his sterling stewardship when in charge of the Keta Govt Hospital, was much beloved by the so-called Anlo-Ewes, regarded as an hononary Anlo and entrusted with pouring the libation at the Hogbeza celebration of the Noviha group here in London, that was something to write! How could he be sure that the would-be killers would not mistake him for an Anlo man, in spite of the pain he took to identify the other Ewe groups in his book? Well, the failure of the so-called Ewe elite - academic and traditional and the political - to deal rationally with this animus against Ewes is itself an intra-Ewe shambolic intellectual failure I shall deal with by and by. I have right here on my table the rantings of some other Ewes from northern Eweland based in the UK, (Ewedome as we Anlos refer to the area referred to by Europeans as Krepi), against the PNDC and Anlos in particular which I have not even as yet dealt with in my writings.
I must, however, make exception here, as Prof. Kofi Awoonor’s much distorted and maligned prison book (in league with Soyinka’s The Man Died) is probably the first book by a Ghanaian which tried to explain the tribal imbroglio and to point the way forward. His only mistake was that he fell prey to the standard Western simplistic, linear and reductionist methodology of reducing what is without doubt a complex articulation of interests and forces which cut across the ethnic divide with people from all ethnic groups found in both or all contesting camps for political ascendancy, or “hegemony”, as he put it, in Ghana. So, for instance, those who imprisoned him for helping Brig. Kattah to escape to Togo were not only “Akans/Asantes” but included Ewes, Gas, Gonjas, etc., as Kutu’s NRC comprised a cross-section of Ghanaian ethnic groups.
You have to be wilfully blind or totally ignorant of what has been happening in the opposition to the P/NDC camp in order to claim today that you are not aware of talk of and even attempts to foment what would have become an ethnic war in Ghana prior to 1992. I personally had to intervene and quelled a serious fracas on Okyeame between two well known non-Ewes when the “brave Asantes” were queried again by a non-Asante why they could not deal with the apparently Ewe P/NDC which allegedly committed atrocities on they Akans only, I suppose. I bet many can remember J.H Mensah's arrest in America for allegedly attempting to buy weapons to prosecute their “liberation war” to get their country back. It is no wonder the NPP gurus, many of whom shared in those nefarious ideas, talked about it, plotted to carry it, etc., are finding it very hard to distance themselves from this public utterance of it again. How can they desert their fellow journey man, without being double hypocrites? At least, there must be some honour among thieves (and tribal bigots, if we may add).
There are many questions to ask and many issues to take up. Had my PC not kaput and eventually leading to the loss of a huge part of what I had painstakingly written with references while in Norway with additions in London, my intended book taking up those issues would have been out years ago.
Incidentally, my next intended article after writing "How Some "Ewes" Became a Part of Ghana" is titled "Who Are the Ewes". It is just a revisit to my first ever post to a cyber forum in early 1994, Okyeame precisely, which Azar should remember so well, as in spite of my providing a reference, he still challenged me to give that! It was sent as my contribution, incidentally, to another NPP instigated scare against poor but hard working Ewe and Ada fishing cum farming pioneers (won't call them settlers) displaced by the effects of the Akosombo Dam on the neglected downstream people who opened up the mosquito infested and disease-ridden Afram Plains. The claim was that the NDC wanted to carve a district for them there and thereby claim the land for them! Wives and children were hastily sent home in order to keep them out of harm’s way in the event of attacks on the communities. That was when I decided not to sit any longer on the fence, just like the majority of my fellow educated Ewes, who think responding to such attacks on Ewes is beneath them, since madmen, "dzimakplawo" and "gbemelawo" were responsible! That was the common “wisdom” repeated by Rawlings at Tsiame, when he was queried by the worried chiefs and people about the ongoing Ewe demonization in the opposition media and political platforms in the ‘90s.
Gratuitous counter abuse, especially directed at Asantes ad nauseam, is not the way to tackle the issues, as some are presently doing on Ghanaweb. In the ‘90s, the Ghanaian stage was left to a novice like Komla Dumor to deal with on JoyFM with his “Ayigbe Jokes” series., which horrified and mortified me when I first listened to it online in 1997 or so. A programme like that would have found him and JoyFM foul of the Anti-Vilification Laws of any of the Western Europe countries and sanctioned appropriately. I doubt though whether half of our “honourable” MPs have heard of such a law, but that is the way we must go and huge revision of the school curricula. But that calls for another article.
Well, simply, many do not know how to deal with the madmen who repeatedly take their loins cloth while in the bath house! I know how! After all, I know the story of how the Anloga man dealt with the mad man of Tegbi and remained sane; the mad man who used to way lay the “asisiawo” - the market women - from the Keta market with a club and the question: axor a ava lo, alo axor a ekpo?, i.e., do you want penis or do you want club? And one day he raped and killed the heavily pregnant wife of the Anloga man. Of course, it is a taboo to deal with mad men in our society.
Ahoofe and his ilk’s tribalistic insults directed at Anlo-Ewes in particular and Agyapong's call to mayhem can be placed in perspective if you are informed about their origins. They used the tribal card so well in 1969 and think they can continue using it forever. No! Some of us decided long ago that ourselves and children shall not remain objects of demonization and vilification for the political objectives of some people who are still suffering from the mental warpedness that the slave trade had foisted on our ancestors. We shall therefore make sure that these appeal to ethnic differences backfire big time on their stupid faces!
I am therefore re-sending and shall continue re-posting this short piece I had put together especially for the readership of Ghanaweb and shall continue with my series on the Ethnic imbroglio in Ghana. Agyapong's outburst is simply the tip of the canker that permeates our body politic that must be dealt with at its roots. They are not the only Akans who suffer from what I have dubbed “Ewe angst and fears”, which afflict the generality of Akans due to how they are weaned and socialised. What do you expect from people who, as kids, are frightened to drink their Mist Alba, behave themselves or go to bed early with the Ewe bogeyman imagery?
Andy C. Y. Kwawukume
cyandyk@ymail.com
London
THE ETHNIC IMBROGLIO IN GHANA: THE ORIGINS, PART 1
The tribal imbroglio, rather than starting in recent times, has been brewing for a long, long while now. In fact, the roots of the prejudices and the insults we see some raining on others date back to pre-colonial times. So, any attempt to understand the worrying phenomenon must address the canker from that era. That is what I intend to do, with special focus on the apparent cleavage between Ewes and Akans (and any others). But now, I’d begin with the colonial times. When you hear the cry of lamentation:
Dza le le leeeeeee!
Me zu kluvi
The road to Kontsiabu
Strewn with gold dusts.
Only those without
in their eyes gold dusts
felt the pangs of hunger and thirst…
then you’d know that the time to narrate the doleful tales of the pre-colonial era, where it all began, has arrived; but you’d get a glimpse now.
Not to waste time apportioning blame, the Akans (and Gas, if I may add them), started these tribal abuse and attacks on Ewes many decades ago; nay, centuries back, as I said earlier. But as mentioned above, I won't delve as yet into the pre-colonial times when it was free for all, with even some Ewe states joining in marauding and plundering other Ewe states for the slave markets of the Gold Coast. I had indeed provided a write up on that sordid era on Ghanaweb’s SIL in the 1990s, which is available. One German businessman with biz connections to Ghana who used to read the nonsense on SIL wrote a private mail to me saying that he was always wondering why Africans sold each other into slavery to Europeans and Arabs; reading my detailed historical account enlightened him on how and why it happened for the first time. That story must be re-told all over Africa in other to understand the roots of the conflicts that bedevilled the continent after independence.
In Ghana, the colonial times modern version started after the WW1 when Anlo, Tongu and Peki migrants from within the Gold Coast and those from the newly acquired TVT from the Germans started moving to the Akan and Ga areas to either fish, farm or seek paid employment. Ewes from Togo and Benin Republic (Dahomey) escaping from French repressive rule came later. Some Ewes, esp. the educated ones, also got jobs with the commercial houses and the colonial administration. Some, such as Gbedema and Nkulenu, started their own private businesses. Soon, they were becoming prosperous in their chosen fields and/or rising up in the ranks wherever they were employed due to the usual hard working nature of most migrants. After all, the far superior German missionary vocational educational set up, compared to the British, had equipped them much better with skills in the crafts and building, such as carpentry and masonry, which were in much demand by the colonial authority and the other natives of the Gold Coast and Asante. That was when trouble began and the attacks started, as far back as the 1930s.
Below is a brief quote from S. Greene about how the Fantes started perceiving Anlo-Ewe fisher folk; a perception or prejudice which is not much different from what permeates the Akan ethnic group as a whole up to today (not only a few bigots on Ghanaweb). Ewes find out to our chagrin or amusement, often as a kid, that that was how our fellow country men and women perceive us. The encounter is therefore a personal story too.
Not much has changed in the prejudiced minds of too many Akans, as we daily witness on Ghanaweb, even though many too have developed over the years an obsession or desire to marry Ewe girls, failure which often brought in its wake stories of tribalism heaped against Ewes. As I told some Akan teacher colleagues in Nigeria, it was the scary and “irrational” Akan “wofa” (uncle) inheritance system, stupid! Horrible stories of how Ewe widows were in particular dispossessed and treated shabbily were enough to dissuade any idea of marriage to even a most love besotted Akan man! It is no wonder that, with the interstate law of inheritance in place, marriage to Akan men has been on the increase.
I know an Ewe from the Peki area who swore that it’d never be possible to change the jaundiced perception of Akans of Ewes from his own experiences attending Mpraeso Teacher Training College, and then teaching at Mpraeso and in Kumasi. He said one particular woman - a cook in the school - they used to go to church with wouldn’t believe that he did not have any “akpeledzi” under their bed! I said it was possible and gave an example of my own experiences in Nigeria. I managed to convince my fellow Akan teachers that I don’t indulge nor believe in those things - juju or voodoo or even any god (white or black), and wouldn’t drink “ogogoro” with them – when there is original Gordon’s gin and lime cordial to have – and they somehow lost some “respect”, (or was it fear?) for me. They’d say I wasn’t a proper Anloman and fool around with me!
Between 1982-4, when their Anti-Ewe diatribes had reached fever point and they were advocating massacring Ewes as done to the Ibos in Nigeria who they claimed were also allegedly dominating Nigeria in the 1960s, I thought of putting some fear into them by creating some “kporsi” (“see-and-run”) to scare them. Fact is, practically every smart Ewe knows how to scare Akans and Gas even though they don’t have “foko” (anything), as we say in Anlo but I will keep that out of this write up. Good I didn’t do so, otherwise they’d be giving testimonies up to today about what an Anlo teacher did to them in Nigeria – they’d have packed out and run from their rooms on the ground floor of the storey building we were hiring. I “protected” myself practically by chocking the door handle with a chair, as I had seen in movies, before I went to bed, in order to prevent them from making me the first casualty of their let-us-kill-Ewes mania! Funny some of them even became staunch PNDC supporters, only to change their minds again years later when I met some on a visit to Ghana.
Anyway, enough with the digression into the personal narrative and to Sandra Greene.
From p.148 of Sandra Greene I quote:
"Increased Anlo identification with their northern Ewe-speaking neighbours may have also been enhanced by the experience many had while participating in migrant fishing. After World War I, numerous groups of Anlo men and women traveled to other coastal areas, including the Fante area of the Gold Coast, in order to pursue their commercial fishing activities. For many, this was probably the first time they had traveled outside their home area, and/or to a district where they were a distinct linguistic minority. In these locations, they conducted themselves as they had in their own home villages, but those among whom they come to live - often temporarily, just for the fishing season - came to view the Anlos' prosperity with jealousy and suspicion. Stories circulated that associated the Anlo with "blood-curdling" crimes. R.W. Wyllie indicates, for example, that from at least the 1930s "Fanti [children] learned to view the Anlos as thieves, kidnappers, sorcerers, and ritual murderers." The social tensions that accompany these beliefs - and the very fact that these beliefs were held by a non-Ewe speaking people - must have heightened the Anlo's awareness of their linguistic and cultural background and generated some sense of identification with their Ewe-speaking peoples whom they would have encountered in the Gold Coast."
The encounter with the Gold Coasters was enough to turn any Ewe into a paranoid schizophrenic, developed a siege mentality (become “inward-looking”?) and very resentful towards any idea of union with the Gold Coast, not to mention marry an Akan.
As some of you know, the Anlo area through Tongu to the Peki area had been part of the Gold Coast colony proper, effectively from 1874 though the British “bought” and claimed the area from the Danes in 1850; hence the freedom to move to other parts of the Gold Coast and Asante later. Besides, many southern Ewes are descendants Ga-Adangbe, Elmina and Denkyira fugitives dating back respectively to 1687 when the Akwamus first thrashed the Gas for cutting the “bolobolo” (foreskin) of their prince sent to the Ga Mantse Okai Koi’s court to understudy courtship, and 1700, when the Asantes defeated the Denkyiras and took over Elmina from the Denkyiras. Going back to Ge (Accra) and Sima (Shama) with their new kinsmen was just like returning to the ancestors' land. In fact, it was the descendants of those fugitives who were the first migrants, having maintained links with their ancestral lands during their long period in exile. Reindorf had written about that back and forth movement among the Ga fugitives long ago. That’s how Osu-Anecho came to be founded and how all Ewes got the derogatory epithet “Ayigbe” (Ayi refuse), whether they were descendants of fugitives or not. The “dzulor” bit the Gas added originally referred to the Okai Koi stool regalia which the Ga-Ewes in Togo refused to return to Accra and still claim to be its protectors. Remember the trips with pre-colonial undertones their chiefs made to Ghana when the NPP took over power in 2000?
I can make long comments on the above quote but suffice it to say that it was the beginning and end of the love affair which started as unification with the Gold Coast movement ending up as the drive to secede from the Gold Coast. So we read from the December 6, 1919 edition of the West Africa magazine a letter sent to the colonial government of the Gold Coast:
“We PEOPLE of Togoland, descended from two principal countries, Elmina
(Ane) and Accra (Ge), both of the Gold Coast Colony, ask to have British government because it is the government of our fathers, whose customs are our customs, and a British Colony is half-an-hour distant from us.
We ask to have British government because it is the government of our kith and kin, our race and our tribe.
We ask for British government because of our relationship with our people on the west, which must assert itself..” (culled from West Africa 12-16 Dec. 1994)
And so on it went. One may wonder why the petitioners did not even acknowledge the Ewes, Dagombas, Konkombas, Akans and the host of other ethnic and tribal groups in Togo who also have their “kith and kin” within the Gold Coast and the Northern Territories. I guess this piece of history may come as a surprise to the ingrates who make a living of always reminding us that Ewes come from Togo, some of whom carried a video to Lome to trace the roots of Fiifii Kwetey there, instead of doing so in Accra! Well, he said he was from Nogokpo, which rubbed a sore spot for me, but that’s another story.
THE EWE BACKLASH
By the 1940s, Ewes, Anlos in particular, in the Gold Coast had had enough of the vilification and undeserved demonisation their successes were arousing. The returnee Anes (Anyis) and Ges (Gas), now fused as the Genyis through intermarriages, as Anlos refer to them, also soon discovered that they were not welcome, or often welcomed with shouts of “Ayigbe dzulor”! Disenchantment set in and secession from Ghana became a far better option. The result was the 1956 plebiscite and the rest is history.
Then comes the post Feb 24 1966 coup era, when Busia and his PP turned this traditional vilification of Ewes into a political tool to win the 1969 general elections. It was preceded by an internal struggle within the NLC to share the spoils of office after the coup. An extended quote from Dennis Austin, that great chronicler of Ghana history, captures the gist of it, so here we go:
“A surprising and disagreeable novelty of the election was the extraordinary anti-Ewe sentiment that was expressed in conversation with many of those who were against Gbedemah and his party. One can explain this strong animus not simply by a dislike of Gbedema’s reappearance in political life but in relations to events after the 1966 coup. Suddenly there were the soldiers and the police, and everyone burst out singing, but when the music died down away it was noticed that the NLC (it seemed) was commanded by minorities: Ewe and Ga. When Ankrah (a Ga), was moved out, and charges were brought over-hastily by Harlley against the Chief of Defence Staff, Michael Otu, the evidence to many was overwhelming. It was all an Ewe plot. Soon Ghana would be run for the benefit of an energetic minority, operating first within the armed forces, and now behind Gbedemah. ‘Appoint an Ewe to a public corporation or to a government department and within a year the entire hierarchy down to the messenger will be an Ewe.’ So the argument ran. And there was always some evidence for it, since the Ewe, deprived of any natural wealth in their own barren region, have been energetic in seizing the opportunities of public employment, including positions in the army and the police, which wealthier communities (like the Akan) did not wish to occupy. In practice, looking through the list of senior officers in government department and the public corporations, the evidence is certainly not clear of any Ewe domination: it could hardly be in view of their number. But a belief does not, of course, have to be true before people hold it fervently.
Now there is an Akan-dominated government of an Akan dominated society. Were I to become, by some improbable chance of fate, leader of the governing party I would be much less apprehensive of my Ewe opponents in front than of the large and expectant following behind. I would be fearful too of the ambitions of those now excluded from power, remembering the Songs of Innocence that:
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caeser’s laurel crown” (D. Austin 1976:125)
Austin was writing with hindsight about what befell Busia’s regime, overthrown in a coup led by an Asante.
In Part 2, I intend to examine the hate campaign against the Ewes and the consequences or reactions from the 1970s which led to Kofi Awoonor’s infamous prison book, The Ghana Revolution, which he claimed he wrote in prison when gaoled for helping Brig. Kattah to escape from Ghana. It’d be necessary to focus on the Ghana Army, from its origins and recruitment trends since it is at the crux of the matter.
.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, better known as C.Y. Andy-K, is a freethinker, Pan-Africanist and an ardent Nkrumaist.
cyandyk@ymail.com
References:
Dennis Austin (1976): Ghana Observed: Essays on the Politics of a W. African Republic.
Manchester Univ. Press.
Sandra E. Greene (1995): Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave
Coast: A History of the Anlo-Ewe. Heinemann and James Currey
Robert W. Wyllie. “Migrant Anlo Fishing Companies and Socio-Political Change: A
Comparative Study.” Africa, XXXIX, 4 (1969), 396-410.
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
Keep copying and pasting the whole place with your tribal stupidity, you people will forever remain primitive, backward, inward looking, anti-social, selfish, stupid, corrupt and thieves!!!
Keep copying and pasting the whole place with your tribal stupidity, you people will forever remain primitive, backward, inward looking, anti-social, selfish, stupid, corrupt and thieves!!!
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
If you think you are pissing me off, you must be madder than I think. Is that the best shots you can give? You're swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker and providing all the ammunition I need to blow you and your mentally ... read full comment
If you think you are pissing me off, you must be madder than I think. Is that the best shots you can give? You're swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker and providing all the ammunition I need to blow you and your mentally warped "these Akan" bigots!
Do you honestly think your ethnocentric and bigited images of Ewes you inherited from your untutored and mentally warped forebears who socialised you into such prejudices are the images we Ewes have about ourselves? Tweah! What a moron! We have heard worse about us. Whites had even heard all and chronicled them into books and articles! Did you read my articles at all? Here is a cut which tells all.
"From p.148 of Sandra Greene I quote:
"Increased Anlo identification with their northern Ewe-speaking neighbours may have also been enhanced by the experience many had while participating in migrant fishing. After World War I, numerous groups of Anlo men and women traveled to other coastal areas, including the Fante area of the Gold Coast, in order to pursue their commercial fishing activities. For many, this was probably the first time they had traveled outside their home area, and/or to a district where they were a distinct linguistic minority. In these locations, they conducted themselves as they had in their own home villages, but those among whom they come to live - often temporarily, just for the fishing season - came to view the Anlos' prosperity with jealousy and suspicion. Stories circulated that associated the Anlo with "blood-curdling" crimes. R.W. Wyllie indicates, for example, that from at least the 1930s "Fanti [children] learned to view the Anlos as thieves, kidnappers, sorcerers, and ritual murderers." The social tensions that accompany these beliefs - and the very fact that these beliefs were held by a non-Ewe speaking people - must have heightened the Anlo's awareness of their linguistic and cultural background and generated some sense of identification with their Ewe-speaking peoples whom they would have encountered in the Gold Coast."
The encounter with the Gold Coasters was enough to turn any Ewe into a paranoid schizophrenic, developed a siege mentality (become “inward-looking”?) and very resentful towards any idea of union with the Gold Coast, not to mention marry an Akan."
You read that? Blood-curdling crimes! Just mention it, our great- and grandparents were accused of committing them and that's way back before WW1. And the White man said it was all cos of jealousy aroused by their prosperity in the midst of dire conditions as newly arriving migrants. Of course, Anlos knew how to grow crops in even the sea sand or the salty lagoon littoral. A Fante friend told me they thought they were made at first when they saw some Anlo fisherfolk trying to make a farm a lagoon.
Man! I don't write for an insignificant, cowardly idiot like you who can NEVER REVEAL YOUR TRUE SELF IN PUBLIC. I write for all others who come to Ghanaweb and read the disgusting crap some of you write here.
Btw, did you read that a Kwawukume was the first chief to be co-optd into the LegCo? Do you know how many troops our great- and granfathers and uncles rallied to help the British take over Togo from the Germans? Man! Respect! Yes! Respect! You nonentity of a sonofabitch!
Andy-K
N/B
My great-granduncle, Torgbui Sri II abolished the Insult War Festival in Anlo, and since people have been complaining that he abolished too much of our cultural practices because he was a missionary educated Christian, I might revive this war and take you on, if insults are all you dirty "these Akans" know. And it is teh only contribution you can make in cyberspace! Dzimakplaviwo and gbemelawo. Avuviwo! Your mothers didn't born you correct! And your fathers are uncouth bastards! At least, we Ewes would never be jealous of you Akans in general. Why not envy Norwegians and even the Chinese, rather than some class of humanoids we can outclass or march in any endeavour we put our minds to?
Wo nim ahari, wote? Ha! ha! ha!
KBK 8 years ago
The article is senseless and therefore useless. Do we have such a stupid Ghanaian Professor in the United States?
The article is senseless and therefore useless. Do we have such a stupid Ghanaian Professor in the United States?
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
Only your comments are stupid and senseless!
Simply unbelievable how stupid some of you are?
Andy-K
Only your comments are stupid and senseless!
Simply unbelievable how stupid some of you are?
Andy-K
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
C.Y. ANDY-K, let me remind you that no matter how hard you try, the history of your entire Kwawukume family is dented because your dad was not only corrupt he used his position to steal cars from the TEMA habour.
C.Y. ANDY-K, let me remind you that no matter how hard you try, the history of your entire Kwawukume family is dented because your dad was not only corrupt he used his position to steal cars from the TEMA habour.
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, you can preceed to write a whole book, a corrupt Ewe will always be a thief.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, you can preceed to write a whole book, a corrupt Ewe will always be a thief.
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
BECAUSE A KWAWUKUME HAS ALREADY DONE IT!
That's why I am no longer going to tolerate some worthless cretins from the Akan ethnic group to continue insulting us without repercussions on them.
Andy-K
GHANA GETS FIRST P ... read full comment
BECAUSE A KWAWUKUME HAS ALREADY DONE IT!
That's why I am no longer going to tolerate some worthless cretins from the Akan ethnic group to continue insulting us without repercussions on them.
Media briefing
The President of the Family Health Medical School, Professor Yao Kwawukume, briefed the media during a tour of the school, and said the school had been accredited by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) and was affiliated to the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Ghana.
He said the school had collaborations with some medical schools in the United States of America and Europe, where students could interact with their mates.
He said the school would begin with 50 fresh students and would offer scholarships to less privileged, brilliant students who qualify to study medicine.
Support
Professor Kwawukume said some students from poor communities who performed creditably in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination were unable to pursue their dreams of becoming medical doctors because their families could not afford the cost of their education.
He said the school would take care of such students and train them to serve in their communities after they had completed their study.
Professor Kwawukume reiterated that the demand for medical officers in the country was very high and the government alone could not shoulder the responsibility of satisfying that demand.
–
- See more at: www://citifmonline.com/2015/10/22/ghana-gets-first-private-medical-school/#sthash.rOakLKNa.dpuf
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
ANDY-K, son of a thief yopu keep making the same reference about the Kwawukumes but that is not the issue, the point is your dad stole Cars from the TEMA habour using his position as you lazy people as well of doing.
ANDY-K, son of a thief yopu keep making the same reference about the Kwawukumes but that is not the issue, the point is your dad stole Cars from the TEMA habour using his position as you lazy people as well of doing.
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
At the end of all this, we'd see who has been shitting around the neighbourhood and thinking, like the goat with diarrhea, that it was soiling the neighbourhood, not knowing that it was spoiling its own backside! A vile idiot ... read full comment
At the end of all this, we'd see who has been shitting around the neighbourhood and thinking, like the goat with diarrhea, that it was soiling the neighbourhood, not knowing that it was spoiling its own backside! A vile idiot like you think others are fools who can believe your crap! Your envy of Ewes is poisoning you and making you mad!
Thousands knew my father and could testify that he NEVER worked as a Customs Officer and in the Tema Harbour proper. Yaw Adu Larbi of What Do You Know Fame was one person who worked under him when he supervised the accounting section of the Long Room in Tema. Dwemor was the Commisssioner of Customs then. Yaw and others can testify that my father even didn't have a car while working there. He used to hitch a ride to Tema from Accra. Besides, officials auctioning seized cars on the cheap to themselves wasn't the vogue then, as Ghanaian economic refugees hadn't started shipping cars to Ghana. He became sick and died in Dec. 1982, so when and where did the cars come from to be stolen, jerk?
Andy-K
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
I have heard this nasty story of yours 1000 times.
A vile idiotic stupid thief like you and your entire family will remain thieves in the rest of your bloody images.
I have heard this nasty story of yours 1000 times.
A vile idiotic stupid thief like you and your entire family will remain thieves in the rest of your bloody images.
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
Like your equally mentally warped political leaders have been urging you?
Some of us are sick and tired of this bilous envy and hatred some of you worthless Akans have for Ewes, simply cos they outperform you in the pecking ... read full comment
Like your equally mentally warped political leaders have been urging you?
Some of us are sick and tired of this bilous envy and hatred some of you worthless Akans have for Ewes, simply cos they outperform you in the pecking order that is Ghana?
AAlmost every news discussion or article posted on Ghanaweb becomes a means to express your atavistic hatred for Ewes in particular. It be a report of a motor accident in Navrongo! Some Akan scums like this one who has been adopting others monikers and names would come to insult Ewes and others. And this vile and dirty NPP supporter thinks he is doing some good for the NPP! Gosh! I don't blame him! His party leaders openly advocate the killing of Ewes and others. Meanwhile, they have been killing each btw, so we have to watch them closely and stop them in their tracks! They are evil people!
Andy-K
Kwaku Kumi 8 years ago
You must know better that Ewes are the most primitive evils among the Ghanaian tribes. Not only that, you people are useless anti-social nonentities.
You must know better that Ewes are the most primitive evils among the Ghanaian tribes. Not only that, you people are useless anti-social nonentities.
KBK 8 years ago
We are not going to make our hands dirty on Ewes, we shall watch you doing it yourself, one another.
We are not going to make our hands dirty on Ewes, we shall watch you doing it yourself, one another.
C.Y. ANDY-K 8 years ago
Go and throw some more acid on your own NPP members then! Coward! Afraid man! Try Ewes and hell will break loose on you!
Man! Your bigoted lot is sooo pathetic! Even KKK members are embarrassed by you! Tweaaah!!!
Andy-K
Go and throw some more acid on your own NPP members then! Coward! Afraid man! Try Ewes and hell will break loose on you!
Man! Your bigoted lot is sooo pathetic! Even KKK members are embarrassed by you! Tweaaah!!!
Andy-K
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
There is a nice ring to it, you see...
KNADIA - with the "K" silenced because the "K" is so common!
READ AGAIN: The Kwame Nkrumah African Development Incentive & Award by Mo Ibrahim (KNADIA)!
Let's work on that one, ... read full comment
There is a nice ring to it, you see...
KNADIA - with the "K" silenced because the "K" is so common!
READ AGAIN: The Kwame Nkrumah African Development Incentive & Award by Mo Ibrahim (KNADIA)!
Let's work on that one, please!!!!
Edem 8 years ago
With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?
Your Greedy NDC bastards have reversed everything.
With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?
Your Greedy NDC bastards have reversed everything.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Haba,
This is as idiotic as they come!
Your "With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?"
You must live in a time-warp, in March, 1966, Edem!
Take a breather.
We are only suggesting a ... read full comment
Haba,
This is as idiotic as they come!
Your "With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?"
You must live in a time-warp, in March, 1966, Edem!
Take a breather.
We are only suggesting a KNADIA!
Godd 8 years ago
Why do you spoil your work with all these Dr This, Dr That, Dr So so so? We Africans accord too much respect and reverence to anybody wielding Dr title. I bet that is one of our problems. We don't say these titles to poke fun ... read full comment
Why do you spoil your work with all these Dr This, Dr That, Dr So so so? We Africans accord too much respect and reverence to anybody wielding Dr title. I bet that is one of our problems. We don't say these titles to poke fun at these guys. We take them in all bloody seriousness as if a Dr actually makes the guy a better human being.
I must admit Nkrumah himself was guilty of this Dr Dr Dr thing and all the accolades and appellations he allowed himself to be doused in. And when it comes to boot-licking adulation of others, you can trust us Africans!
Right now, Nkrumah's name and what he stood for have become so generic that there's no need to say Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (or even Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, as blabbermouth would put it to degrade him). After all nobody says Dr. Karl Marx!
Thank goodness, your KNADIA dispenses of the title. Or was it because it would disturb the acronym that has such a nice ring to it? (..) (..) (..) lol
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Godd,
Thanks for the lighter moment on this one, at this point.
No, KNADIA, by its nature and according to the purpose, would not a need "Dr." It does not work mechanically, and would take away from, you guessed it, the " ... read full comment
Godd,
Thanks for the lighter moment on this one, at this point.
No, KNADIA, by its nature and according to the purpose, would not a need "Dr." It does not work mechanically, and would take away from, you guessed it, the "nice ring to it".
Seriously, we always attempt to provide a title to people we reference in our papers. Typically, we accord ladies the Ms. title, and men, the Mr. title.
However, if we know they have earned a doctorate, or are medical doctors of any sort, we accord them the Dr., nearly synonymous with the terminal degree.
Almost!
We do not succeed, always.
That is simply how we "roll"! As such, we do not for a minute equate that with "Honorable". That, we say, needs to be banished.
Such a useless article can only come from either of the two "dead goats", Lungu or Francis Kwarteng.
You cannot expect any other sane person two post such a weed.
Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor cunningly avoided mentioning the known fact that Ewes have been the ethnic group in Ghana that mostly votes according to the dictates of their tribal warlords regardless of any national issues. Their le ...
read full comment
Nice try!
We do not hold brief for anyone!
If we may answer your irrelevant and self-preservation diatribe this once, you conveniently neglected to discuss the coup by Ghana's First Losers, the NLC-NLM bunch of which B ...
read full comment
The write-up was about tribalism in Ghana and how Ewe tribal workloads hid behind tribal bigotry to impede the development of Ghana since 1972.
On the contrary, the NLC's coup against your communist dictator had nothing t ...
read full comment
My brother Mahmoud, don't occopy yourself so much on useless essays like this.
What bloody load of crap and historical falsehood?
had Harlley, Kotoka and Deku consulted Anlo elders while plotting to overthrow the CPP, I am sure they'd be told that they were about to release an evil dzinn from the bot ...
read full comment
WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?
I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to br ...
read full comment
Keep copying and pasting the whole place with your tribal stupidity, you people will forever remain primitive, backward, inward looking, anti-social, selfish, stupid, corrupt and thieves!!!
If you think you are pissing me off, you must be madder than I think. Is that the best shots you can give? You're swallowing the bait hook, line and sinker and providing all the ammunition I need to blow you and your mentally ...
read full comment
The article is senseless and therefore useless. Do we have such a stupid Ghanaian Professor in the United States?
Only your comments are stupid and senseless!
Simply unbelievable how stupid some of you are?
Andy-K
C.Y. ANDY-K, let me remind you that no matter how hard you try, the history of your entire Kwawukume family is dented because your dad was not only corrupt he used his position to steal cars from the TEMA habour.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, you can preceed to write a whole book, a corrupt Ewe will always be a thief.
BECAUSE A KWAWUKUME HAS ALREADY DONE IT!
That's why I am no longer going to tolerate some worthless cretins from the Akan ethnic group to continue insulting us without repercussions on them.
Andy-K
GHANA GETS FIRST P ...
read full comment
ANDY-K, son of a thief yopu keep making the same reference about the Kwawukumes but that is not the issue, the point is your dad stole Cars from the TEMA habour using his position as you lazy people as well of doing.
At the end of all this, we'd see who has been shitting around the neighbourhood and thinking, like the goat with diarrhea, that it was soiling the neighbourhood, not knowing that it was spoiling its own backside! A vile idiot ...
read full comment
I have heard this nasty story of yours 1000 times.
A vile idiotic stupid thief like you and your entire family will remain thieves in the rest of your bloody images.
Like your equally mentally warped political leaders have been urging you?
Some of us are sick and tired of this bilous envy and hatred some of you worthless Akans have for Ewes, simply cos they outperform you in the pecking ...
read full comment
You must know better that Ewes are the most primitive evils among the Ghanaian tribes. Not only that, you people are useless anti-social nonentities.
We are not going to make our hands dirty on Ewes, we shall watch you doing it yourself, one another.
Go and throw some more acid on your own NPP members then! Coward! Afraid man! Try Ewes and hell will break loose on you!
Man! Your bigoted lot is sooo pathetic! Even KKK members are embarrassed by you! Tweaaah!!!
Andy-K
There is a nice ring to it, you see...
KNADIA - with the "K" silenced because the "K" is so common!
READ AGAIN: The Kwame Nkrumah African Development Incentive & Award by Mo Ibrahim (KNADIA)!
Let's work on that one, ...
read full comment
With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?
Your Greedy NDC bastards have reversed everything.
Haba,
This is as idiotic as they come!
Your "With all your Nkrumah shit what are we currently seeing in the country?"
You must live in a time-warp, in March, 1966, Edem!
Take a breather.
We are only suggesting a ...
read full comment
Why do you spoil your work with all these Dr This, Dr That, Dr So so so? We Africans accord too much respect and reverence to anybody wielding Dr title. I bet that is one of our problems. We don't say these titles to poke fun ...
read full comment
Godd,
Thanks for the lighter moment on this one, at this point.
No, KNADIA, by its nature and according to the purpose, would not a need "Dr." It does not work mechanically, and would take away from, you guessed it, the " ...
read full comment
Nice Ring To It, You Must Agree...KNADIA!