Ordinary Northerners must speak against Haruna Attah’s ethnocentrism

Read Article

Comments (37)

This article is closed for comments.

Read Comments Comments (37)

TOM MBOYA 9 years ago

HARUNA ATTAH HAS ALWAYS BEEN A HYPOCRITE AND A PARASITE. HE HAS ALWAYS LIVED ON HANDOUTS. THIS IDIOT ABD USELESS DRUNKARD THINKS HE CAN LIE AND INSULT HIS WAY TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.
ASK FOOLISH HARUNA WHAT HE HAS DONE ...
read full comment

HARUNA ATTAH HAS ALWAYS BEEN A HYPOCRITE AND A PARASITE. HE HAS ALWAYS LIVED ON HANDOUTS. THIS IDIOT ABD USELESS DRUNKARD THINKS HE CAN LIE AND INSULT HIS WAY TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.
ASK FOOLISH HARUNA WHAT HE HAS DONE SUCCESSFULLY IN HIS LIFE. FOR A MAN OVER 60 YEARS TO TALK LIKE A 12 YEAR OLD BOY IN THE PLAYGROUND IS SICKENING.
HONESTLY I BLAME THE FRIENDS HE HANGS AROUND WITH WHO HAVE KEPT QUIET INSTEAD OF ADVISING HIM. THE GOLDEN RULE IS THAT YOU MUST ADVISE A FRIEND WHO IS FOOLISH AND DIVISIVE OR STOP PLAYING AND TALKING TO HIM. IF YOU FAIL TO CHECK AND CORRECT SUCH AN IDIOT YOU ARE EQUALLY GUILTY.
THIS NONSENSE AND TRIBAL BIGOTRY MUDT STOP IMMEDIATELY AND NOW. HOW WILL HE FEEL IF THE BOOT WAS ON OTHER FOOT? HE SHOULD ASK HIS AKAN FRIENDS HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT THIS IGNORANT, BACKWARD AND STONE AGE POSTURE.
HARUNA KWASHIA GYEBO. BARAO. ABOA.
TOM MBOYA 9 years ago

HARUNA WAS GIVEN A JOB BY RAWLINGS AND HIS WIFE ON A SILVER PLATTER BUT HE LATER TURNED ROUND AND INSULTED THEM. WHAT AN UNGRATEFUL NEVER-DO-WELL.
HIS STUPIDITY AND DRUNKENNESS WILL BRING HIM DOWN. FOOLS ARE THE AUTHORS OF ...
read full comment

HARUNA WAS GIVEN A JOB BY RAWLINGS AND HIS WIFE ON A SILVER PLATTER BUT HE LATER TURNED ROUND AND INSULTED THEM. WHAT AN UNGRATEFUL NEVER-DO-WELL.
HIS STUPIDITY AND DRUNKENNESS WILL BRING HIM DOWN. FOOLS ARE THE AUTHORS OF THEIR OWN DOWNFALL.
THIS GUY WILL GAVE A VERY SAD END. HE SHOULD PRAY FOR FORGIVENESS.
KWASIABI BI BA. GYIMIFO
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

It's only Mahama that will appoint a mad GOAT like Haruna Attah as an Ambassador.

It's only Mahama that will appoint a mad GOAT like Haruna Attah as an Ambassador.
PIGMYALITIC DWARF 9 years ago

WHEN YOU AKUFO-ADDO WAS ASKED ON RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE TRIBAL PHILOSOPHY AND COMMENTS OF YOUR SO-CALLED FELLOW AKYEM, CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND AND PROSPECTIVE CHIEF OF STAFF - YAW OSAFO MARFO - WHICH WAS RECORDED ON TAPE - THA ...
read full comment

WHEN YOU AKUFO-ADDO WAS ASKED ON RADIO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE TRIBAL PHILOSOPHY AND COMMENTS OF YOUR SO-CALLED FELLOW AKYEM, CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND AND PROSPECTIVE CHIEF OF STAFF - YAW OSAFO MARFO - WHICH WAS RECORDED ON TAPE - THAT IT IS ONLY AKANS FROM THE 5 AKAN REGIONS OF GHANA THAT DESERVE TO GOVERN GHANA, YOU THIS DWARF SAID ON THE RADIO INTERVIEW THAT OSAFO MARFO ACCURATELY CAPTURED AND WAS TALKING ABOUT THE REALITY ON THE GROUND.

YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE SENSIBILITIES OF MILLIONS OF GHANA'S ETHNIC MINORITY WHO ONLY KNOW GHANA AS THEIR COUNTRY, YOU CARED ONLY ABOUT THE APPROVAL OF YOUR FELLOW AKYEM MAN AND FAMILY FRIEND AND YOUR ETHNOCENTRIC NPP PEOPLE.

A WHOLE FORMER FINANCE MINISTER WHO DOESN'T KNOW THAT THE SERVICES COMPONENT OF GDP (MOSTLY FROM THE COSMOPOLITAN GREATER-ACCRA REGION) CONTRIBUTES MORE THAN 50% OF ANNUAL NATIONAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT. A WHOLE FINANCE MINISTER WHO DOESN'T KNOW THAT GOLD AND COCOA CONTRIBUTE LESS THAN 10%.

IN ANY CASE IS COCOA NOT GROWN IN PARTS OF THE OTHER REGIONS. DO WE KNOW WHAT IS BENEATH THE GROUND IN OTHER REGIONS THAT HAVE NOT BEING EXPLOITED YET???

IF YOU HAVE SUCH A CLOWN CLOSE TO YOU WHO IS GOING TO BE IN YOUR KITCHEN CABINET, AND REFUSE TO DISASSOCIATE YOURSELF FROM HIS SECRET COMMENTS CAUGHT ON TAPE, ARE YOU NOT A TRIBALIST????

IN OSAFO MARFO'S HOMETOWN, SHOULD ANY ILLITERATE PERSON (OR FUCKING UGLY-LOOKING DWARFISH PERSON WITH KAAKAMOTOBI FACE, BIG MOUTH THAT CANT CLOSE AND EYES LIKE FROG) WHOSE FAMILY HOUSE IS CLOSER TO THE GOLD MINE (IF ANY AT ALL EXISTS) THAN OSAFO MARFO'S HOUSE ARGUE THAT HE DESERVES TO BE FINANCE MINISTER OR CHIEF OF STAFF AT THE FLAGSTAFF HOUSE BEFORE HIM OSAFO MARFO????????

IN TERMS OF TRIBALISM, THE AKYEM FACTION OF THE NPP LED BY YOU NANA ADDO MAKES THE NPP ASHANTI FACTION LED BY KUFUOR LOOK LIKE ANGELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sam 9 years ago

stupid npp

stupid npp
THE REAL C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

You NPP scum, I told you to stop using my initialS and name to write your puerile nonsense!

Andy-K

You NPP scum, I told you to stop using my initialS and name to write your puerile nonsense!

Andy-K
Champion Atta 9 years ago

TOM MBOYA, NPP DECECPTION AND LIES ARE AMAZING! NPP IS A PARTY FOR AKANS! FROM ITS HISTORICAL RECORDS! HURUNA ATTAH TELLS OF A FACTS HE ENCOUNTERED YEARS BACK AND IS TELLING US NOW, AND NPP IS RATHER DESCRIBING HIM ETHNOCENTR ...
read full comment

TOM MBOYA, NPP DECECPTION AND LIES ARE AMAZING! NPP IS A PARTY FOR AKANS! FROM ITS HISTORICAL RECORDS! HURUNA ATTAH TELLS OF A FACTS HE ENCOUNTERED YEARS BACK AND IS TELLING US NOW, AND NPP IS RATHER DESCRIBING HIM ETHNOCENTRIC! HARUNA IS MARRIED TO KONADU AGYEMAN RAWLINGS JUNIOR SISTER! THEY HAD THEIR DIFFERENCES IN THE PAST, NOW SORTED, I REMEMBER THE RAWLINGS DID VISIT HIM IN NAMIBIA ONCE, WHAT OF IT?
Attah the Villager 9 years ago

Champion Attah, the best thing can do to be recognised in out modern society is to revisit the class room to satrt afresh learning across all subjects. The other alternative is to take care of sheeps and goats.

Champion Attah, the best thing can do to be recognised in out modern society is to revisit the class room to satrt afresh learning across all subjects. The other alternative is to take care of sheeps and goats.
Idiot Contemnor Mugabe 9 years ago

Do you have any thinking brains at all Champion Atta? What a miseducated buffoon! If you were that educated you would not join the tribal bandwagon. For your information, it was the supposedly Akans who voted the northerner H ...
read full comment

Do you have any thinking brains at all Champion Atta? What a miseducated buffoon! If you were that educated you would not join the tribal bandwagon. For your information, it was the supposedly Akans who voted the northerner Hilla Liman to power in 1979.

In fact, I would have liked you to comment on this fine article but you've chosen to beat about the bush. We definitely need levelheaded northerners like this author to educate the impoverished northerners who have been brainwashed by selfish and villainous northern elites. More grease to your elbow, Tanko.
THE REAL C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

The records of the NPP and its tradition's ethnocentric credentials have been piling long before the majority of Ghanaians alive were born. In this piece I shall continue to re-post, I quoted some few authors and mentioned na ...
read full comment

The records of the NPP and its tradition's ethnocentric credentials have been piling long before the majority of Ghanaians alive were born. In this piece I shall continue to re-post, I quoted some few authors and mentioned names of some people who had commented on the canker and recounted my own experiences. I challenge anyone to come and debunk what I wrote and call it lies.
--------------------------------------

Twum Boafo has said it as it is without mincing words. And now Manasseh is finally saying the obvious too. I have been saying it as it is for over two decades now. The other day, an Akan client came to do business with me and raised the elections brouhaha. I asked him if he'd vote for any of the anti-immigrant parties in the UK. He said no. I asked him if he were from Northern Ghana, he'd vote for a party whose members go about calling them pepeni and ntafuour. He said no. SO WHAT THE HECK WHEN THE SHITE HITS THE CEILING? Mahama was simply trying to profit from the gross and blatant ethnocentric credentials of the NPP and that's a valid strategy in politics even in the advanced democracies.

Having read a more accurate version of what Mrs Attivor reportedly said, I agree 100% that it is simply hypocritical for anyone to come out to denounce her and ask her to apologise WITHOUT at first or ever condemning the ethnocentric utterances and actions of the NPP leaders and elements that gave grounds for her own utterance, which simply sought to benefit from the ethnocentric politics and actions of the NPP tradition when in power. She might have goofed badly by misspeaking factually but what she said was simply a reaction, albeit a skewed one, thereby giving a golden opportunity to hypocrites to bare their rotten teeth. And now they are barking at Mahama!

I myself had pointed out those things that instigated her (Ativor) [and now Mahama] many times in articles. An anti-PNDC refugee, an Ewe himself, Dr Kodzi, even wrote a book in the early 1990s in which he pointed out the Anlos as the Ewes to be killed, in response to the rampant loose talk by some Akans that Ewes would be killed by them. That was long before Agyapong's loose talk a few years ago.

I had narrated and posted many times my own personal experiences in Nigeria with some of those would-be assassins. All of you pretending and insulting Attivor [and now Mahama] should therefore fcuk off!

Hypocrites! Attivor’s faus pas is just the tip of the discontent in the VR she tried to mine. For an increasing number of people from there, particularly Ewes, secession from Ghana is the only option and they say worse things.

I welcome Manasseh's plead that we don't sweep the matter under the carpet but discuss it, as he has now done in this article. I have been doing that since the early '90s. I have a 10-series continuation of my Ethnic Imbroglio waiting on ice for years now. I shall post the Part 1 here to refresh the memories of all and inform those who didn't read it before. First, another refresher.

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 loose 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 Ewe 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 Ghana and in 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, besides many of the main speakers speaking in Twi which pissed off the Gas! 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 MP though linked to the NDC too, having rejected the NDC official candidate, the late Rtd. Captain Sowu.

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 "Anlos” in his own virulently anti-Rawlings/PNDC book, "Ghana: Worse than Apartheid S. Africa," as the Ewes to be killed, for being allegedly 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 their allies 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 honorary Anlo and entrusted with pouring the libation at the Hogbeza celebration of the Noviha association 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, 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 to a dichotomy delineated on one side by Ewes and the other Akans/Asantes. 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 journeyman, 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 (Prof. Steven Kwaku Asare) 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 on 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, but he did and nothing untoward ever happened to him afterwards.

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 their ancestors. We shall therefore make sure that these appeal to ethnic differences backfire big time on their stupid, ugly 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?

C. Y. Andy-K

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 “ekpelekpedzi” 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 cordiale 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 of 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 movements 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.

Idiot Contemnor Mugabe 9 years ago

Copy and paste buffoon. I bet, you were dismissed from your university for your love for plagiarism.

By the way, who gives a damn about the rapist Twum Boafo, semi-intelligent Manasseh and miseducated buffoon like you? Aft ...
read full comment

Copy and paste buffoon. I bet, you were dismissed from your university for your love for plagiarism.

By the way, who gives a damn about the rapist Twum Boafo, semi-intelligent Manasseh and miseducated buffoon like you? After all, Adolf Hitler had superior powers of the mind than you lots, meanwhile, he was a racist cunt! So who cares about you three buffoons endorsing tribal, corrupt and incompetent Mahama's hate motivated comments? Nonsense!
Kkd 9 years ago

Only a stupid man like this stupid writer will write such a silly article against haruna atta. Have you not heard all the stupid things the npp members and executivea have said about other tribes? Don't behave like u are du ...
read full comment

Only a stupid man like this stupid writer will write such a silly article against haruna atta. Have you not heard all the stupid things the npp members and executivea have said about other tribes? Don't behave like u are dumb. Only a fool will try to defend the stupid npp executives. We will punish the npp for their foolishness. Jm toasu
THE REAL C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

I wonder which worm-wood this fool is emerging from to write this puerile nonsense without any basis? Does he think calling what Haruna Atta wrote lies made his position correct? After all, Haruna Atta made mention of friends ...
read full comment

I wonder which worm-wood this fool is emerging from to write this puerile nonsense without any basis? Does he think calling what Haruna Atta wrote lies made his position correct? After all, Haruna Atta made mention of friends and relatives he narrated the events to when they happened. They can therefore corroborate him in any court of law, even though they were not material witnesses. In any case, it appears there were witnesses to some of what he said, with even Akufo Addo's daughter mentioned as one! So this write up is most pathetic and based on the writer's own wishful thinking and imaginations!

Does he want to tell us that we are not witnesses to the daily calling of Akans as pepeni and ntafuor and liberal insults hauled at them by Akan NPP supporters on even this Ghanaweb?

Does he want to tell us that same bigots haven't been insulting Ewes for decades now and have carried this to stupendous level?

To attempt to defend the NPP's unimpeachable ethnocentric credentials is an unsurmountable uphill task!

I am sorely disappointed with the Mahama administration for their errors of commission and omission, carrying my contention that idiots and morons have been governing us since the overthrow Nkrumah regime to new levels but, as for this mater of NPP's ethnocentrism, Mahama was 99.9% right.

I have been writing on this topic for decades and no single person can convince me otherwise.

Andy-K
Adam 9 years ago

Can you please clarify what you mean by 'ordinary Northerners'

Can you please clarify what you mean by 'ordinary Northerners'
kk 9 years ago

It is only a hypocrite and an apostle of evil dwarf who will deman an apology fron Haruna Attah

It is only a hypocrite and an apostle of evil dwarf who will deman an apology fron Haruna Attah
kan 9 years ago

Harunata Attah has done nothing wrong for you to demand an apology from him because evil dwarf, okum akra, nana addo made made those remarks.You are nothing but a crook and an anpostle of evil dwarf who is parading himself as ...
read full comment

Harunata Attah has done nothing wrong for you to demand an apology from him because evil dwarf, okum akra, nana addo made made those remarks.You are nothing but a crook and an anpostle of evil dwarf who is parading himself as an objective writer.
Gado 9 years ago

Tell them not to insult us and then ask for our votes. The insults is too much. Tan fore gymi
Tan foe are fools etc

Tell them not to insult us and then ask for our votes. The insults is too much. Tan fore gymi
Tan foe are fools etc
SON OF GOD 9 years ago

Haruna Atta has challenged Nana Akuffo Addo to swear by the Bible that he didn't tell him that non akans will not be allowed to lead npp. Nana Akuffo Addo come out and proof your innocence please. Till then no apology from H ...
read full comment

Haruna Atta has challenged Nana Akuffo Addo to swear by the Bible that he didn't tell him that non akans will not be allowed to lead npp. Nana Akuffo Addo come out and proof your innocence please. Till then no apology from Haruna Attah
Samson 9 years ago

Honestly what is really making the NDC government so panicking? because they know they have poorly performed or some of the opposition parties are wide awake against their electoral malpractices. Honestly something horrible w ...
read full comment

Honestly what is really making the NDC government so panicking? because they know they have poorly performed or some of the opposition parties are wide awake against their electoral malpractices. Honestly something horrible will happen in Ghana on the election day there's no question about that and apparently this government can never be relied upon,for they must win at all cost
nana addo 9 years ago

Hahahaha. The shoe is now on the other foot and you are struggling to deny what nana addo is made of.
We all knew Aliu was a sacrificial lamb, and was subjected to the same dg disrespect like happened to Dombo.
The NDC are ...
read full comment

Hahahaha. The shoe is now on the other foot and you are struggling to deny what nana addo is made of.
We all knew Aliu was a sacrificial lamb, and was subjected to the same dg disrespect like happened to Dombo.
The NDC are no saints but they are better devils than Nana and Hackman who have been caught flat footed this time. It adds up to the all die be die statements.
Adieu Nana, the plane to London is waiting. Please go before your heart fails you.

Abel 9 years ago

I wish your bullets were rather targeted at the tribal bigots in the NPP who say non Akans should not be leaders and with their flag bearer coming out to justify that.
It is sad that anyone who tries exposing tribalism or f ...
read full comment

I wish your bullets were rather targeted at the tribal bigots in the NPP who say non Akans should not be leaders and with their flag bearer coming out to justify that.
It is sad that anyone who tries exposing tribalism or fighting it is rather accused of being tribalistic. This is the tactic of the bully who loves to play the victim when his victim tries fighting back his aggression.
BERNARD 9 years ago

ARE (0540527508) YOU A STUDENT,GOVERNMENT
WORKER,
OR UNEMPLOYED LOOKING FOR A BUSINESS TO DO ON PART TIME / FULL TIME.
CALL NOW
CALL NOW

ARE (0540527508) YOU A STUDENT,GOVERNMENT
WORKER,
OR UNEMPLOYED LOOKING FOR A BUSINESS TO DO ON PART TIME / FULL TIME.
CALL NOW
CALL NOW
thruth_on November 27:2016:0759 9 years ago

There's no ordinary humanbieng ok? What do you mean ordinary norderners? are you bribe to ndermined people or what? and you e even talking about Cur'an.that vers is not teaching to segregate it Say's the Nations the tribe doe ...
read full comment

There's no ordinary humanbieng ok? What do you mean ordinary norderners? are you bribe to ndermined people or what? and you e even talking about Cur'an.that vers is not teaching to segregate it Say's the Nations the tribe doesn't make you difrent the best of you all are those with Faith. now you call others ordinary people. so name the others and let's see
Chief Obonfi 9 years ago

Let's stop this tribal posting else it will be come a canker. It is normal to say,"looking at the way this man dress, he long to this tribal" however it is hurting for the Romans to say Jesus Christ, the son of God shouldn't ...
read full comment

Let's stop this tribal posting else it will be come a canker. It is normal to say,"looking at the way this man dress, he long to this tribal" however it is hurting for the Romans to say Jesus Christ, the son of God shouldn't have come from Nazareth
Frank 9 years ago

Thank you the writer for this comments. When I heard this tribal comments from the President himself ,I decided not to vote for him.This childish comments must not come from a leader of nation.Some of our brothers Northerners ...
read full comment

Thank you the writer for this comments. When I heard this tribal comments from the President himself ,I decided not to vote for him.This childish comments must not come from a leader of nation.Some of our brothers Northerners the divisive once wants to here that.My question is where is the organizations like the Peace Council who must to condemn this comments.
BB 9 years ago

And what if he is telling the truth???

And what if he is telling the truth???
kweku trouble 9 years ago

The only person suffering from any kind of complex here is the writer.

The only person suffering from any kind of complex here is the writer.
Charles 9 years ago

Tanko, you are the most stupid foolish idiot I have ever known. Who should speak against who? You are an idiot without equals. I think you have a deformed brain in your skull. The people you are dying for, are the very ones w ...
read full comment

Tanko, you are the most stupid foolish idiot I have ever known. Who should speak against who? You are an idiot without equals. I think you have a deformed brain in your skull. The people you are dying for, are the very ones who are telling you that, you are only good at following cows. This is what they are telling you mother fuck Tanko. You see, it's sub humans like some of you northerners who are the problems for the majority. It's as if we did not see what they did to the late Aliu. Yes, Haruna has dared your tin god, Akufo Addo and those two criminals, Osafo Marfo and Dr. Addo Kufour to take him on, if he is lying against them. In fact, some of you are just stupid foolish and useless idiots , who have no.place among human beings. Your Akufo Addo will lose the elections, and we will see what next for you mother fuckers who are betraying your own people for these Akyem criminals. You are insane.
Kofi Boat. Kaduna, Nigeria. 9 years ago

Haruna Attah is a confused man. He doesn't want to be left out with the filthy politics the NDC is doing with the president himself at the helm of affairs.

Haruna Attah is a confused man. He doesn't want to be left out with the filthy politics the NDC is doing with the president himself at the helm of affairs.
Abingah. London 9 years ago

Hear, hear. Well put Tanko.

Hear, hear. Well put Tanko.

Anaafo 9 years ago

You are an idiot. Why not against the detractors? Has his statement been rightfully challenged in a competent court of law that has found him guilty of libel? You are such a brainless d**ahead. Clear off

You are an idiot. Why not against the detractors? Has his statement been rightfully challenged in a competent court of law that has found him guilty of libel? You are such a brainless d**ahead. Clear off
concerned ghanaian 9 years ago

I am an ordinary northerner. I have know Haruna Atta since our Navasco and Tech days in Unity Hall. In the many years I have known him, he has always been a very truthful and very dependable.
I will find it difficult to beli ...
read full comment

I am an ordinary northerner. I have know Haruna Atta since our Navasco and Tech days in Unity Hall. In the many years I have known him, he has always been a very truthful and very dependable.
I will find it difficult to believe that in his mature years he will turn in to the liar the NPP will want us to believe.
I knew the Late Alhaji Aliu Mahama too very well and also knew how close he and Atta were.

Only northerners who don't know him will speak against him as some one who is ethnocentric.

Some people can call northerners by all sorts of "cat names" and don't see anything ethnocentric about their behaviour but wen the truth is said about them they are the first to accuse people of being ethnocentric.

God Bless our home land Ghana and save us from ETHNOCENTRIC DICTATORS.
Brand Koffi 9 years ago

Haruna is right and everyone is aware that NPP is bias towards other tribes in this country. Nana Addo is just going to lose and lose well coming December. We the silent majority will vote massive for JM.

Haruna is right and everyone is aware that NPP is bias towards other tribes in this country. Nana Addo is just going to lose and lose well coming December. We the silent majority will vote massive for JM.
same to u 9 years ago

osafo marfo being the right hand man of that bigot akuffo addo to me tells it all. not to mention that other idiot kenedy adjepong- WHO IN GHANA DOES NOT KNOW NPP IS A BOGOTIC PARTY? you just have to read comments from their ...
read full comment

osafo marfo being the right hand man of that bigot akuffo addo to me tells it all. not to mention that other idiot kenedy adjepong- WHO IN GHANA DOES NOT KNOW NPP IS A BOGOTIC PARTY? you just have to read comments from their members on ghanaweb to get the picture.
Ghana 9 years ago

the high level of incompetence, corruption, mismanagement of the economy, high rate of unemployment, killer taxes, collapse of private sector business, high utility bills, nepotism , tribal politicking under the eight year ru ...
read full comment

the high level of incompetence, corruption, mismanagement of the economy, high rate of unemployment, killer taxes, collapse of private sector business, high utility bills, nepotism , tribal politicking under the eight year rule of the NDC.
"Enough is enough and th
THEY CALL US PEPEFUO, TANI, ETC 9 years ago

And who amongst you even have the slightest respect for an ordinary northerner? Even the big ones you still disrespect them. How much more the ordinary ones? You think we are fools. We will vote NDC.

And who amongst you even have the slightest respect for an ordinary northerner? Even the big ones you still disrespect them. How much more the ordinary ones? You think we are fools. We will vote NDC.
Wofa K 9 years ago

Nobody should take Haruna Atta serious. Tribal politics won't help us. Aliu Mahama contested and lost alongside others including Addo Kuffour the ex Presidents brother. Pres Kuffour can't impose his brother on MPP. That's de ...
read full comment

Nobody should take Haruna Atta serious. Tribal politics won't help us. Aliu Mahama contested and lost alongside others including Addo Kuffour the ex Presidents brother. Pres Kuffour can't impose his brother on MPP. That's democracy not Rawlings and Fidel Castro style by choosing Atta Mills and the later his brother Raul Castro in Cuba. Please let's stop tribal politics bcos there many inter tribal marriage of which he Haruna Atta, Rawlings,Mahama and many more in both NDC and Npp are even before independence.

37 Comments

Welcome,

SIGN IN

Welcome,

RESET PASSWORD

Hello,

Terms and conditions

REGISTER

Ordinary Northerners must speak against Haruna Attah’s ethnocentrism

Read Comments .st0{display:none;fill:#14BDD3;} .st1{display:none;} .st2{display:inline;fill:#FC0F0F;} .st3{display:inline;fill:#FFFFFF;} .st4{display:inline;fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:6;stroke-miterlimit:10;} Comments (37)

Read Comments Comments (37)