THE MATCH PASS

The month march is of every year is marked as Independence month. The 6th of March is the independence day of Ghana and is celebrated as such.

Before the 6th March, students from various schools,officers,market women, government workers, all prepared themselves well to march.



I quite remember when this time due, this where you see pupils and students put up their white sock , well iron their school uniform, finger nails well trimmed, because neatness is the criteria for selection of those who will be matching.

During this time much history is learn or people do get the chance to review their history of their beloved country Ghana.



People recite the National Anthem and the National Pledge.The meaning of the Coat of Arms and the colors of the National Flag are reviewed and re-learned

THE BEAST

Once upon a time in land of Kotoko, lives a King, his queen, subordinates and the people of the land, they live peacefully and happy.

They go about their normally duties such as going to the farm to weed,grow new crops and fetch firewood for cooking, and the women went about their normal chores such as fetching water from the river known as subin.



The people sat under the moon light every evening for story telling, drumming and dancing of their favorite ballad songs, dances and games such as Ampe, Aso and KwaaKwaa ( hide and sake).

They lived so happy until one day, when one woman from the town was going to fetch firewood for her normal duties then came in contact and eye to eye with a big, strong and gigantic Lion on the way.

The beast (etwie)gave her a hot chase  and at the end eat the woman up. This continue for a long time and the people who were happy all the time couldn't go out to do their normal daily chores of farming and fetching of water.

So this brought hunger and starvation on the people.All the men, women and children were very afraid and they could not do anything.

So the King releasing this this said to himself " I will not sit down there like and coward for my beloved natives to suffer like this if then I will go and face this lion my self."



He took no weapon but his bear hand and roam the whole town and search every possible hiding place for the lion but was nowhere to be found.The King came back.

One afternoon as the King was  having a nap, the King's messenger run hurriedly to the Palace and told the King that the beast is in the town again, very Hungary and was on his people.

So the King slowly went outside and after walking about just ten meters inside and around the center of the town, the King bump into the beast.

The beast jumped onto the King. He also jumped and meet it int he sky, they all fell heavily on the ground and roll over and over,

then the King grape the neck of the tiger inside his armpit strongly without leaving for almost an hour,He suddenly turn the tiger releasing it is weak,

He then hold the top and down mouth positions and opened it widely apart, this broken the jaws of the wicked animal and send it dead straight up.

There was jubilation in town and the people went about doing their normal duties and their happiness was restored till now.


This is a historic story which happened and the place is now known as Adum Pampaso where we have the statue of our great King Osei Kyeretwie where visitor do come and see this place.

This teaches us the youth of today to be brave, articulate and bold.

GREAT START

The year started on a victorious note.It has becoming a ritual that at the end of every year there is Football/Soccer tournament among Suburbs in Kumasi.

These tournament attracts many people including tourists to witness matches being played between these suburbs. With singing, chanting and singing of local songs by the supporters of these different groups.

The just ended one was grace by young ladies who also cheered their side. There was the morning section and evening sections too.

Some watched with their favorite drinks in hand and made merry. 

The finals which was played on the 2nd  Jan. this year saw Manhyia and Allabar going to the finals, It was a great match since neither side didn't want to lose but start the year with a victory.

The first half score was 1 1 all. Then came the 2nd half was Manhyia was able to add another goal to make 2 1 against Allabar.

Then the Jamma and Kolomashy started, there singing here and there, they played till the referee whitsle for the end of the March.

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

 Bronya Dua
The upcoming Christmas festivities reminds me of when I was a young little boy. When is time for Christmas then is all joy.

Now I use to hear about Christmas trees and what comes to my mind is Bronya Dua. This simply means erecting of Christmas hat.

This was normally done on the day time of the 24th night. What happens was, All friends living close will come together and we set for the bush, that is palm plantation.

Then we cut branches of the palm as many as we can and brings them back, so on the backyard, then we build a house out of the palm branches and we lay carpet out of polythene.

After the house is completely built then we start working on the drums. We use any available materials to make musical instruments.Everyone then disperses to our various home.

So the game starts on the boxing Day of Christmas, where we drum and sing while we eat biscuit and sweets drinks from our parents.

I have observer that those activities are no more done by the kids.

GHANA'S OIL

ADDED WEALTH

Ghana is bless with so many natural resource ranging from gold, timber, diamond, bauxite,manganese just to mention a few.

The latest discovery of natural resource is oil, the first production will becoming out at the end of this year and expectations are high for Ghanaians, because of the benefits that comes with oil.


Such as good infrastructure, high income for the country, employment and jobs for the people, social responsibilities to society etc.

But what we should bear in mind is that the benefits will come overnight

FUNERAL



King's Guard

Funeral is among one of the most important traditions among the people of Ghana, it is believed that when someone dies,the last respect is counts, since it will be the last time the deceased is seen in public.

People spend a lot of monies to make the big funeral for person whereas whiles they were living what to eat was a problem.If we compared sometime ago to now, I must say the cost of expensive funerals have come down.At first, they will do what is called wake - keeping where sympathizers will come from all over to keep vigil on the laid in state body.They incur all lots of cost such sympathizers up keep on food, drinks accommodation from normally Friday to Sunday where they go for thanks giving. But now, wake keeping is no more.

They also had a habit of keeping a deceased family member at the mortuary for a long period of time say three months before the final funeral rites are performed and all these while they will be paying.

Again, they come out with a uniformed cloth which every one is supposed to own one, so the women force their husbands to buy these for them which is costly and the unmarried ones turn to all sort of bad habit like sleeping with men for money to get themselves the cloth.I think all these are changing now.

When funeral rites are being performed especially for Kings, we see all sorts of traditions Traditional guards are not left out, All traditional music group such as the Adowa and Kete will be present exhibit traditions through drumming and dancing.

KUMASI FORT

Kumasi Fort

The only fort which resides in the center of  Adum in the garden city of Ghana, is the Kumasi Fort.

This place has a great historical background from the time of Sir Gordon Guggisberg. It was here that, he stayed when he was in Ghana, Kumasi to be precise in the colonial days.

It was here that the phrase "Wo kum apem a, apem b3ba" came about.This is now the motto of the great football club Kumasi Asante Kotoko,

It literally means when thousands get killed, thousands will be coming. This exibits the brave nature of the Ashantis. They do not give up until mission is accomplish.

This was later conquered by the Ashantis and has being in Kumasi till now and serve as a tourist attraction center and people from all over the world comes here to see the fort