Stories from Ghana

The Lady from Mprim

Mavis, who we call ‘The Lady,’ came from the Wa Region of Northern Ghana, where she and her husband were subsistence farmers.

Like so many others, climate change meant that their harvests grew smaller each year and they eventually decided to join the trail south to Ashanti.

Soon after setting off, Mavis came across a child sitting by the roadside. She ascertained that no-one was caring for it, that either it had been abandoned or else its parents were no longer able to look after it, so she scooped it up and added it to her family.

From time to time during the rest of her 380 kilometre-walk south, she found other children in similar situations. She added them all to her family, fed them and helped them walk the long road south. By the time she reached Mprim village, where she settled, she had twenty children, four of her own and sixteen adopted. The youngest was four years old.
In Mprim, the family found a small, empty hut to live in.

After a while, Ashanti Development heard about them and presented Mavis with some sacks of gari – long-life cassava – and a household water filter, so at least the family could drink clean water. Later, we included her in our microcredit project, enabling her to earn an income of her own.

When we asked Mavis why she collected so many children, she told us that she and her husband had ‘a soft spot’ for orphans. By any account, she’s a hero.

Human beings

Most children in Ashanti have never seen a white person. Babies are often terrified of our white faces, and until they get used to us children are puzzled by the differences of skin and hair.

One day Martha and I and some friends were looking for a water source in the bush, surrounded by scores of children from a nearby village. Martha overheard the following conversation, carried out in Twi, the Ashanti language.

Child 1. What do you think they are? indicating us Europeans.
Child 2. I don’t know. Perhaps they’re Chinese. What do you think?
Child 1. No, they’re definitely not Chinese.
Child 2. Well what are they then.
Child 1. I don’t know what they are, but one thing I can definitely tell you: they’re definitely human beings.

The Gyetiase legend

Once upon a time in the village of Gyetiase there lived an old man. People estimated that he was at least 200 years old. He was too weak to do anything for himself, but just lay by the fireside all day and all night, and his family had to give him food and drink and wash and care for him.

Then a famine came on the village.

People began to mutter to each other about the old man. ‘Why should we give this old man food when our children are hungry?’ they said. And little by little, they agreed a plan of action.
One night when the moon was full and most people were fast asleep, six young men went to the old man’s house. They picked him up and put him on a wooden pallet.

At first, the old man smiled and laughed with them, but soon he realised there was no joke involved. Moving very quietly, the young men carried him outside and began to run with him into the bush. They ran for many miles, and then deposited him under a tree in the middle of nowhere.
They turned and started back to the village.

At that moment, the old man realised that they were leaving him in the bush to die, so he shouted a curse after them. ‘Since you don’t like old men,’ he yelled, ‘None of you will ever become old.’
And after that, when a healthy man reached the age of about thirty, he would start hiccupping or coughing and suddenly fall down dead. There seemed no reason for this, – the men were all in good health and seemed set for a good old age – but for a long time no women would marry men from Gyetiase, because they didn’t want to be left widows.

The curse continued for many years until a prophetess managed to lift it – but that’s another story.

Omah Mahmud of Nsuase

Omah Mahmud of Nsuase says the latrines are “very very good. Before, people would defecate in the bush,” he said. “They knew it was wrong and that when it rained everything would get swept down to the stream and pollute the drinking water – but there was no option.”

People from Nsuase village used to suffer badly from malaria, typhoid and diarrhoea. They used to be ill all the time and infect each other. Everyone got sick two or three times a year.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to drill successfully for water at Nsuase, so Ashanti Development gave the village water filters. Omah says that brought a big improvement to the health of whole families. Now they save the money they used to spend on hospital bills and spend it on school fees.

Bless this latrine

The village of Gyetiase was the first to receive the materials and tuition to enable each household to build its own latrine. But having built them, at first no-one used them. Martha explained to us that the latrines were now their most treasured possessions and in their eyes they were ‘too good to use.’

We puzzled about how to tackle this problem and then agreed that Martha, who is the head of a local church, should bless each latrine and declare it open. This was done, but still most of the latrines were unused. When the villagers why this was, they told us that they didn’t have ‘the appropriate chemicals’ and so the latrines couldn’t be used. (No chemical of any sort are necessary.)

Finally, Martha went round to each householder and said that if they didn’t start using their latrine she would personally arrange for it to be removed. We wondered how she would manage this, but it seemed to do the trick.

Evelyn Tabon

Evelyn Tabon is a member of the Dagati tribe and lives in Brengo Ketiwa. She told us that now they had a borehole and latrines the children no longer fell sick all the time. Previously children would fall sick about once a month. Sometimes, two of her three children would fall sick within the same week with diarrhoea, infections and fever.

As for the adults, they too would fall sick and couldn’t say what the causes were. Often they had to go to hospital. Now that type of sickness has gone.

Shabu Tinkani

In 2022, Shabu Tinkani completed Ashanti Development’s four year farm support project of training and loans, during which he won the prize for Best Yam Farmer in the District.

Shabu tells us that it is “an excellent project, very very good.” In the first year of training his corn crop went from 15 bags to 35, and it’s got much bigger since then. Now he grows yam, rice and corn.

The part of the training that most surprised him was that he was taught to grow rice in rows. Before he used to broadcast it. Planting in rows made it easier to work with, easier to water and it produced better results. He had recently spent anpit £1,000 buying a tricycle with a carrier on the back for transporting farm produce to market.

He has three wives and twenty children. He told us that there had been an improvement in the village’s general health and that he never thought when he came south (he’s an immigrant from the Sahara) that things would go so well.

Ama Serwaah

Ama Serwaah used to be chair of the all woman Amangoase Unit Committee. She was a strong woman but since then sadly she’s had a stroke and is unwell. She’s also got a skin disease and is covered in earth.

Ama told us she had been on farm support for two years and grew cassava, corn and green peppers. She had one acre of cassava, and her crop had grown from one to five bags. She had never grown green peppers before but now got about 25 bags, which was a very high yield. She said that one bag of green peppers sold at Ghc.500.

She had used the money to buy a tricycle for transporting produce.

“Everyone in this village has money now,” she said.

Nana Bonsu

We asked Nana Bonsu, 48 years old, Chief of Mpantuase, for an overview of the progress of his village.

He said: “When microcredit and farm support first came to Mpantuase, everyone was very interested and now there has been a big improvement in the villagers’ incomes. For example, when someone has a naming ceremony for a child, far more people come than would have if money was short*. And when they are doing fund-raising (eg for a communal project) everyone nowadays pays on time.

“In Mpantuase, nowadays everyone can feed themselves, and some make a surplus and sell it. And more than ten of the farmers have bought tricycles for Ghc.7,000 (£1000). Even if you look at the type of buildings people are building, they are much better than the old ones.”

He said he no longer worked as a full-time farmer though he keeps a small farm to grow food for his family. Apart from that, he recently bought a machine to process maize at the cost of Ghc.8,000 and earns a living by renting out the machine.

*Guests are expected to bring presents for the child

Adwoa Amofaa

Adwoa Amofaa, 49 years. She has seven children and is a widow. All her children have been to school and are doing well. Some are now doing apprenticeships.

Adwoa has had two years of microcredit loans. Before that, she used to make and sell kenke (fermented corn) and still does. She used part of her first loan to buy maize, and she also grows her own. Repaying the loan wasn’t difficult.

Before she received any training she didn’t keep records so she never knew how much she had earned. Now she knows exactly how much profit she’s made.

She told us she’d made 100 per cent profit in two years and uses it to plough more capital into the business.

Diana Owusu (50yrs)

Diana has seven children and used to be a farmer. Before getting a microcredit loan, she had to have training. She was taught bookkeeping and learned how to make a business plan.

She used the loan to grow corn, groundnuts, cassava, which she often sells to market women.

Now she manages to pay her children’s school fees. She has even paid for her son to go to nursing college.