Food Memories

I was in Ghana in 1964-66! It was such a pleasure and honor to have met the incomparable Dr. Nkrumah. What a Spirit! Accra was the hub of international freedom-loving Black people from all over the world, and one had the chance to learn so very much.......brilliant, revolutionary minds were everywhere.

Now, I remember the delicious egg sandwiches with lots of onions cooked in a scrumptious tomato sauce and the triangular-shaped cartons of chocolate milk. This delicious snack was served at Ghana House where I would always go to visit my "Ghana Mama", Mrs Ofratekojo(I'm not sure this is spelled correctly!). To say nothing of the "oh-so-cheap-tasty" fried plaintains wrapped in newspaper and sold on the street nightly! To this day I fry them with lots of ginger and cayenne pepper in lots of peanut oil!

Also, I would love to get a message to Mr. Kwesi Zwennis who helped so many Afro-Americans during that time. He was a very prominent lawyer at the time. Thank you so very much for any news of him.

There are so many wonderful memories that a book is in order.

God Bless!
Lucretia Collins

  Hmmmmmmm....

I had a buddy who never wanted to disclose that he attended the Hwidiem New Drobo secondary school. This was because others were proud to refer to their Schools like wey gey hey, adisco, tesco, motown etc and he could not just Bring himself to say that he attended 'hwenedross' (twi for: look at her panties). No wonder that guy was also a peeping tom.

---Oslo

  Sad & True Story

First I am a Christian, my name is Dexter Emmons and I'm from the U.S.A. I came to Ghana Africa for an investment deal that was financed by people,good Christian people investing their hard earned money, I was to be here a week I have been here 1 year and 1 month!! I paid all the necessary fees for drug free certificate taxes , deities, thew's fee that I ran out of money!! I was ripped off big time . I did what any American would do, I went to the Vice Pres. Mills, his aides listened and saw my paper work and believed me. They took me to the to the police and interpol they arrested 8 men.They were suppose to release my funds and I could leave to pay all my investors, that was 8 months ago . still no money , why ,I have no idea !! The investors send as much as they can to keep me going but I now owe almost $20,000 for rent and food . I am a Diabetic and have had malaria twice. I need money for rent ,food, and medicine . I won't leave until I get our money!!! If you can help me or want to invest in other thing or just talk to me I am at 233-21775164 ask for Mr..Dexter Emmons. If they don't through me out I'll be there . God help me, I really fell I need to finish this so the investors, won't loose every thing. Some of them put up their homes and land I lost my house in California because of this what kind of a Government holds a persons money and keeps making excuses?

Thank you for your time Dexter

  My True Story

Do you remember those days in Ghana when the venders use to sell milk powder with gari? I believe most of that milk powder was expired milk powder. One day my cousin and I spent our entire 200 cedis savings(1980's) on those bags of milk powder. When we got home we hid it under our beds and waited for everyone to go to bed. When the coast was finally clear we secretly had a feast with those bags of milk powder. The next day while on break in school we visited a nearby mango tree and had another feast this time with mangoes. Everyone knows that mangoes and milk do not mix very well. You either get mild diarrhea or serious diarrhea from this experience. Our little stomach showed signs of discomforts after about an hour. We both had to run from class to do our stuff behind an abandoned building. After that experience we prayed fervently for school to be over. Luckily for us nothing showed up till we got home. The driver was on time to pick us up that day. On the way back from school he cracked some jokes with us that kept us laughing till we got home. Well all that laughter made some stuff slip out without our knowledge. When we finally got home we jumped out of the car only to see doodoo or shit slipping through our clothes. We were so embarrassed that we decided to abstain from eating mangoes.

--anonymous

  JFK
We those who send for our nana's we better make sure they have a chaperone. It is not easy for them at all. I was on my way back from Ghana on KLM heading To New York some years ago. Next to me was this old lady. By the looks of her I knew this was her first trip. Every few minutes she would be asking me in ewe what to do. At one point she was offered salad but in anger she told the flight attendant in ewe that she wasn't a goat. Well I did her the favor of telling the flight attendant that she wasn't interested. I listened to her talk about her son all through the trip.

When we finally got to JFK we parted our ways. By the time I got to customs I saw this old lady yelling on top on her voice. The garden eggs and fish she was bringing in was being confiscated. In ewe she said Ko nyo nu nam(give me my stuff). The poor officers did not know what to do. When they snatch the stuff out of her hands she walks back to the garbage bag and takes it back.In ewe she says (go and buy your own. I got it from makola you too go and get your own). This went on for a while then they asked her who she was visiting. All she knew to say was "my son Dr. Gasinu". The sad part was I couldn't help her. I also had some fish and stuff in my bag that they didn't catch because of my citizenship.

Sene Amevor

  Red-Red
I am not really sure of who told me this story. But I know I believed and still (maybe) believe him.

In a certain boarding school near Accra during the late '80s, the students complained bitterly about how the their Red-Red is cooked and served. Representatives of the students met the Headmaster and his assistant to discuss the issue. As a demonstration, the students brought to the meeting freshly cooked and served beans from the dining hall. The headmaster took a laddle and ran it through the pot of beans, just to check the consistence. Lo and behold, 2 house-flies, with wings somewhere near to the size of those a cockroach, "propelled" out of the hot beans. Since then Red-Red was suspended in that school.

  Taxi Ride

I recently went to ghana and this is what happened to me .I took a cab (taxi) from point A to point B.This was a (dropping),so it was only myself and the driver.The driver was speeding,and after running through two amber (yellow) lights, this guy sped through a solid RED light.This what ensued between me and the driver,

Me: Driver, you can't be disobeying these light , red means stop and you have stop.

Driver: Bra, don't worry i am a good driver, but when you guys come from overseas, you take everything serious,but this light they just put it here. Even the day that they did it i was here, it was one oldman and a young from 'tech" (ust) who climbed on top of the light pole .The young guy will ask the oldman ,is it on?and he will say yes or no (testing it) until everything funtioned well so Bra this light is not a big deal so be quiet and i will get you to your destination.

This is how i have end the story and this ain't funny so don't you dare laugh.

--gaema (C.P.C ) KSI

Fredey & Me and the Kite

Although the story I am about to tell you happened a long time ago.,I can remember every detail of what happened to me and my best friend Fredeh on that eventful and bright tropical sunny day at Kukuhill when we went kite flying.Fredeh was my best friend and we grew up together in the Gold Coast.now Ghana.We were the same age and height and were often mistaken to be brothers.We both came from loving families and we always knew how far we could go from our houses.to play.That is as long as there was no one around.we roamed all over the place since apart from another house our two houses were the only houses for miles around.But we were not alowed to wonder very farWe had an invisible boundry that we were not allowed to cross.I was the oldest boy in my family and Fredeh was the youngest boy in his family.We played together everyday and everyday was an exciting adventure. For two innocent young boys we tried to do what was expected of us. Once a while we did get into real trouble.We lived in a neighborhood with very few homes but a lot of wooded area around to play in.Naturaly we were prohibited from going into the woods.as we pleased.We did on occasions ventured far from home and got into a lot of trouble with our parents which scared the pants of both of us .In the woods aroundwe inmagined all sorts of scary things we saw all kinds of monsters in those woods and scary ghosts and other creepy creatures.Yet we still went into those woods every chance we got. We had the best of times.in those days.

Now our parents had warned us to play only on the dirt road that passed by Fredeh’s house and ended in the woods away from my house about two hundred yards away.But children will always be children and that which they are forbidden to do is exactly what they will try to do.And we were not going to prove the experts wrong.in this case or any other .We were young and free and could run home as fast as we could when we sensed any danger. Fredeh and I found this particular deserted road to be the best place to fly our kite, and we did every chance we got.One day our kite got caught in one of the power poles that lined the road and we could not get it down.We were both sad because as bad as we were, we were not going to touch the pole since that was one of the biggest no no from our two families.Moreover we have heard of cases where the power line had killed those who had dared to defy the odds and have climbed them and mistakimgly had touched the the live wires. This was also drummed into us at school.and so we sat there with our sad faces wishing for a miracle to bring our kite down.A kite which we were very proud of.After all it has taken us so long to make it.

Suddenly another boy about our age walked up to us We had not realized him coming Perhaps it was because we were so involved with the situation with our kite. He was a nomal looking boy.without asking we pointed to the top of the electric pole and told him about our kite caught up there on the line.With a broad smile on his face he approached the pole and without a word he started to climb the pole. We were amazed and shouted at him not to climb due to the danger of being electocuted But he kept on climbing until he reached the kite and gracefully brought it down to us He just smiled and we thanked him and while we were looking at our kite he left us just as sudden as he had appeared.We went home that day and never mentioned the incident to anybody.After all we were not supposed to fly the kite where we were A few weeks passed and then we had a visit from Fredeh and his mother.to my houseand while the grownups were catching on the gossips Fredeh and I played outside near by.

It was while our parents were talking that Fredeh and I ould realized what had happened that day with our kind benefactor at the part of the road we were not supposed to be. The story scared both of us to death It seems years ago a young boy about our age had been electrdcuted while he was retrieving a kite on that stretch of the road and that had stoppep the utility poles from being extended to the other side of Kukuhill Now it seems plans are being made to cotinue the project.Ever since that accident several sightings of a young boy sometimes alone, sometimes climbing one of the poles sometimes just walking. had been reported from reliable people. Fredeh and I were paralized with fear and for a very long time we both avoided that stretch of road at Kukuhill and nobody knew whyWere we in the presense of a real ghost?.Who was that boy who came to our help?.Could it had been the same boy who was electrocuted on that road? As for Fredeh and me we kept all these to ourselves.Well sort of until now.
-- Rev P E Adotey