This is part two on the tribes of Ghana, given to me by a friend. You can find the first part here.
He was christened Nii Ayi Aryee Aryeetey - no name can be more ultra Ga than that.
Your Ga man, from the standpoint of history falls into one of three categories - those who belong to the sea (James Town, Bukom, Teshie and Chorkor), those who belong to the sand (Nungua, Labadi, Accra City itself), and those who are lost and about (Adangbes, Hausas, Yorubas, Sierra Sierra Leonean etc., born and bred in Accra).
Strangely enough, I got this from a good fanti friend of mine. I don’t know who wrote it though, but it’s funny as hell.
By no fault of his own, the regular Fanti Man has been born with a pre-independence White Man’s name hanging over his head. Some of them love to pretend it’s a burden, (though they love it!) and redeem their nativeness with indigenous first names. Paapa, Fiifi, Yoofi and Kojo are all time favourites. Kweku, Kwesi and other weekday names are also favored.
Kwamena Smith, or Yoofi Van Dyck are examples of such a curious combination. Your potential Fanti Man is pompous and self-opinionated and believes that the biggest offense committed against him is ‘accusing’ him of belonging to another tribe. His answer to a question like “Are you from X town?” invariably is “Of course not! I am Fanti, a Fanti from Dutch Komenda!”
My beloved country, Ghana is over 50 years, and for those past years, we have been undergoing reforms of all kinds. We never get tired of reforms. We create, destroy, form, reform and then we create and start the whole process again. It’s almost like some sort of obsession or disease. Maybe it’s those donors- everyone of them has conditions attached to their money. But if it means starting something new so that a chief executive of a government institution somewhere can have something “small” in his pocket, why not? As long as the donors are happy that we are doing something useful and the money keeps coming, he is sure to finish that five bedroom apartment at East Legon in time before Christmas.
Last week, we were told that the Basic Education results were in and once again a good proportion of the candidates did not make it, and another chunk had their results cancelled for various examination offences (570 we are told).