Ekumfi Narkwa And Hohoe – Any Lessons For Us?

kweku mensah with the decomposing severed head and Ama Koba

The last few weeks have been very challenging for this country. As a people, we are battling with dire economic difficulties which are impoverishing the well to do in our society while deepening the lots of the poor majority in our society. Times are indeed hard; parents are finding it difficult to meet their obligations towards their children. Families are disintegrating, marriages are breaking up and not once in the history of this country has this nation recorded such gruesome cases of spousal murders and the murder of children by their biological parents. 

These issues are beyond comprehension, but they are occurring; friends are killing one another at the least provocation over trivial issues, suicide, even among teenagers, has become part of our daily lives, but the whole society seems to shrug it off as if it is normal.

Unfortunately, we have all shifted our eyes from what is happening and have rather focused on what we fear can happen. Everybody is talking about peaceful elections and the society keeps on sending pleas upon pleas to politicians to ensure that the upcoming general elections are peaceful. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the pleas, but for the society to think that politicians will be the cause of the breakup of this country, when there are serious but hidden sources of deadly conflicts which set one group of Ghanaians against another group, is very unfortunate. 

The biggest ‘genocide’ which was inflicted upon Ghanaians as far as my knowledge is concerned happened in 1994 between the Konkombas and the Nanumbas. Official death record from these ethnic clashes was put at 3000. That was not politically motivated murders or war if you will. Earlier on in 1981, a similar ethnic war broke out in the Northern part of Ghana which also saw the loss of hundreds of lives. Flt. Lt J.J. Rawlings then said that act was politically induced; he used that as one of his reasons for subverting the civilian administration of the Late Dr. Hilla Limann. When it happened under the same Rawlings, it was not politically induced. 

These are not the only cases of ethnic conflicts which have recorded loss of lives; almost every part of this country has experienced some clashes, either between two ethnic groups or among ethnic groups. The root causes of these clashes have either been over who owns one piece of land, or who is to be, or is the chief of a particular community. Underlining the above are ethnic suspicions and stereotyping which go beyond the present day Ghana. Even though we have succeeded in living together as a people, even in the face of slight differences in our culture, the simmering suspicions still live with us. 

Some of the burnt houses

Sadly, when there is a war between two ethnic groupings which lead to loss of lives and property, the society does nothing by way of finding the root causes of those problems. It just becomes very easy for the society to blame politicians. I find it strange that politicians would organize their constituents to fight and kill other people in the same constituency. For what? Because the society has a mindset that all evils are committed by politicians, it becomes difficult to address problems which have nothing to do with politicians.

 The unfortunate incident in the last few weeks should open our eyes to the fact that there are other issues which when not properly addressed, can plunge the whole nation into a serious conflict.

Fantis are one group of people who are not known to be violent; for the people of Ekumfi Narkwa to have attacked Ewe settlers in the Narkwa area after the murder of an opinion leader in the community brings to the fore, the hidden ethnic suspicions of Ewes in that area. Even though they might have lived with them for a long time, it is their suspicions of Ewes which led to the attack on them and not that the Ewes had committed any crime against any Ekumfi man in the area. There was absolutely no evidence to support the actions of the people of Ekumfi Narkwa to justify the attack on the Ewe settlers. The only reason is suspicion and mistrust. 

Fortunately for us as a people and the Ewe settlers not only in Ekumfi Narkwa but all over the country, the police acted swiftly and professionally to arrest a suspect who eventually produced the severed head, allegedly.  Have we heard any apologies from the people of Ekumfi to the Ewe settlers for the physical damage to their property and the psychological trauma they have been subjected to? Once again, but for the swift arrest, other Ewe settlers elsewhere engaged in their legitimate economic and social activities would have become objects of suspicion and mistrust which are serious undercurrents for conflict. 

The problem in Hohoe is also a matter of clash of cultures and not political. Ewes are predominantly NDC, that is indisputable.  Settlers in our Zongos also vote NDC, and Hohoe is an NDC stronghold. So how would any politician influence communal conflict in such a place, leading to deaths and destruction of property?  As reported, a Zongo resident died in a public health facility; his relations thought the staff of the hospital were responsible for the death because they did not attend to him immediately. Some sections of the Zongo people were not happy and took the law into their own hands and vandalized the hospital. A criminal act which should have attracted swift response from the police. The paramount Chief of the area was naturally not enthused by this act of hooliganism. 

The perpetrators and the elders of the Zongo community were invited to the chief’s palace to explain their actions. They responded but were found guilty as it were and were asked to pay GH¢1000 for the damage to the hospital property. The Zongo people refused to pay. This was or is considered an affront to the dignity of our traditional authority. Sadly for the Zongo community, they lost one of their kind and as their custom and religion demands, swift burial is required, so the corpse was buried according to Islamic tradition. The chief or the people who felt slighted by the Zongos got the body exhumed and dumped by the side of the road. Very unacceptable. The result was the attack by the Zongo community on the chief’s palace and perhaps the indigenes. 

The two incidences above, coming as it were from people who are not known to be rivals in as far as communal conflicts in this country are concerned, should tell us that all is not well with us even though we live together. I must concede that some politicians who lack the self confidence in their own abilities to appeal to the general electorate of their constituencies, do play on the ethnic sentiments to achieve political advantage; the outcome of it is not the result of what the politician might have done or did not do. The politician might have only brought up something already in the sub-conscious of the people, which in itself is a sign that all is not well with all of us even though we live together, eat together and do most things together. 

Ethnic divisions and cultural clashes exist in this country. We need to address them as a people. Land and chieftaincy issues are taking a lot of lives in this country but we present them as political issues. We need to respect the cultures of people with whom we live. It is not for nothing that nature gave us different cultures, that is the beauty of humanity. I must also admit that cultures and traditions must also take cognizance of modernity and the fact that we are all governed by law and therefore if any traditional authority feels so strongly about a breach of a custom or a tradition, the courts are there to deal with that. 

In the same vein, if the youth of the Zongo communities also think that each time they are unhappy with an issue they will resort to violence irrespective of where they are resident, they should be told that they cannot have their way every time. That is even if the security agencies do not act, people will react in like manner. And that will be conflict, conflict, conflict.

The lesson for all of us in this country is that there are more underlining courses of conflicts than political conflicts. Those who quickly form NGOs to ostensibly engage in peace activities during election years should extend their peace work to the broader society. As for Aunty Ama Benyiwa Doe, the least said about her utterance, the better it is to avoid conflict.

Kwesibiney2009gh@yahoo.com