ANDREW'S  LIFE  STORY

 

EINLEITUNG (F.K.)

 

Ich lernte Andrew im April 1973 einige Tage nach meiner (ersten) Ankunft in Sandema kennen, und zwar stattete er mir in meiner derzeitigen Unterkunft, dem Sandema Resthouse, einen Besuch ab. Andrew war arbeitslos. Er wusste zwar, dass er für die neu eingetroffene presbyterianische Krankenschwester (Sister Dorothy) wieder arbeiten konnte, es fehlte jedoch noch die offizielle Arbeitserlaubnis und der Landrover für die Mobile Clinic. So bot mir Andrew, der schon 1967-68 für Herrn Prof. R. Schott in Sandema als Informant und Helfer gelegentlich gearbeitet hat, seine Dienste an. Da ich selbst noch malariakrank war und auch schon einen anderen Assistenten hatte, konnte ich von seinem Angebot zunächst kein Gebrauch machen. Andrew machte eine resignierende Bemerkung: er komme im Leben immer zu spät.

 

Ich traf Andrew wieder bei einer großen Totengedenkfeier in Sandema-Kalijiisa-Choabiisa. Er befand sich in der Schar der Musiker und schlug eine große Zylindertrommel. Als am Spätnachmittag sich der Großteil der Festgesellschaft, voran die Musiker, in einer Prozession auf den Weg zu einem heiligen Hain (tanggbain) machte, um dort rituelle Handlungen vorzunehmen, gab es plötzlich eine Stockung. Einige ältere Männer berieten sich und baten dann Godfrey Achaw und mich, zum Gehöft zurückzukehren. Aber auch Andrew durfte den heiligen Hain nicht betreten, obwohl er eine öffentliche Funktion als Trommler ausübte. Später erklärte man mir, dass es keineswegs ein generelles Verbot für Christen gäbe, ein tanggbain zu betreten, denn in der Festgesellschaft befanden sich noch mehrere Christen, und auch ich selbst habe das tanggbain später mehrmals besucht, Man erwartete jedoch von den abgewiesenen Personen spöttische Bemerkungen oder fühlte sich zumindest durch ihre Anwesenheit gestört.

 

In den folgenden Monaten sah ich Andrew häufiger auf dem Markt von Sandema. Er war fast immer nach europäischer Art mit langer Hose und weißem Hemd bekleidet, mitunter trug er jedoch auch den traditionellen Männerrock (Buli: garuk, engl. smock). Ich stellte fest, dass er ein starker Raucher ist und sehr gerne und häufig Kola-Nüsse isst. Fast immer hatte Andrew auf dem Markt noch Nebenaufgaben zu erfüllen: er sammelte Gelder für die presbyterianische Pfarre ein und führte Botengänge für den Sandemnaab (Häuptling von Sandema und Oberhäuptling der Bulsa) aus. Hiervon abgesehen lag der Schwerpunkt seiner Arbeit in der Bebauung seiner Felder, die er von seinem Onkel (MuBr) in Kalijiisa erhalten hatte.

 

Seit Juni 1973 erhielt Andrew kleinere Aufträge von mir. Schriftliche Berichte über Übergangsriten zeigten, dass er keine besonders guten Kenntnisse über die traditionelle Religion und ihre Riten besaß. Übersetzungen aus der Kasem-Sprache führte er jedoch zur vollsten Zufriedenheit aus. Auch von den Angestellten der Presbyterianischen Mission Sandema wurde Andrews außergewöhnlich sorgfältige und gewissenhafte Arbeit immer gelobt.

 

Sein guter Kontakt zu den Kasena (besonders zu dem Dorf Chana) und seine Beherrschung der Kasem-Sprache kamen mir ein zweites Mal zustatten. Zusammen mit ihm besuchte und interviewte ich in Chana-Katiu eine Frau, die Mädchenbeschneidungen durchführt. Dieser Besuch hatte jedoch ein Nachspiel. Nachdem bei Beschneidungen in Wiaga zwei Mädchen in der Trockenzeit (1973/74) gestorben waren, glaubte die Frau, die Schuld liege am Besuch des Weißen Mannes. Sie suchte Andrew auf dem Markt auf und beschimpfte ihn vor allen Leuten, weil er ihr einen Europäer ins Haus gebracht hatte.

 

1974 bat ich Andrew, mir seine Lebensgeschichte aufzuzeichnen. Seine Reaktion war außergewöhnlich. Er sagte mir, dass er so etwas immer schon vorgehabt hätte, da sein Leben neben Erfolgen besonders viele harte Schicksalsschläge erfahren habe. Er erwähnte sofort, dass er ein Mädchen, das er sehr geliebt hatte, nicht heiraten konnte, dass sein Vater seine Schullaufbahn zerstört und man all seine Bücher und Kleider in Sandema gestohlen hatte.

Nachdem ich von mehreren Bulsa-Schülern sehr kurz gefasste Lebensgeschichten erhalten hatte, die nur die wichtigsten Fakten ihres Lebens enthielten, machte ich Andrew darauf aufmerksam, dass er in seiner Lebensgeschichte auch Gefühle, wichtige Gespräche, Meinungen usw. aufzeichnen könne. Schon nach einigen Tagen erhielt ich die ersten Seiten seines Manuskripts mit der Frage, ob er so weiterschreiben könne. Nachdem dies bejaht worden war, erhielt ich fast jede Woche einen Stoß meistens bis zu den vier Rändern in kleiner Schrift vollgeschriebener Seiten. Als Schlussteil seiner Lebensgeschichte überreichte er mir die Aufzeichnungen über die Folgen des Kleiderdiebstahls.

 

Kurze Zeit später erfuhr ich von anderer Seite, dass Andrew vor einigen Jahren große Schwierigkeiten gehabt hatte, da er unbedingt ein Haus mit Blechdach in Kalijiisa-Anurbisa bauen wollte. Ich bat ihn daraufhin, mir diese Begebenheit aufzuschreiben; dieser Bericht umfasst das Kapitel IX .

Die Ausführungen über die Erziehung seiner Kinder wurden auch als eigenständige Arbeit verfasst und von mir als 10. Kapitel angegliedert.

Nach der Fertigstellung der Life-Story und ihrer Ergänzungen erhielt Andrew von Pastor James Agalic seine Anstellung als Evangelist in Chana. Ich bat Andrew, sich tagebuchartige Notizen über seine Tätigkeit dort zu machen, um später einen weiteren Ergänzungsbericht zur Lebensgeschichte anfertigen zu können. Der fertige Bericht (Kapitel 11) mit einigen erlässlichen Wiederholungen spiegelt in seiner streng chronologischen Fassung noch stark den tagebuchartigen Grundplan wieder.

 

Während meines einjährigen Forschungsaufenthalts 1988/89 in Wiaga, hatte (zufälligerweise) auch Herr Prof. Schott mit seinen damaligen Assistenten Barbara Meier und Martin Striewisch einen einjährigen Aufenthalt in Sandema geplant, um sein Erzählforschungsprojekt fortzusetzen. Andrew kam häufiger in ihren “Compound”, hat wohl auch schon einmal kleinere Arbeiten für sie ausgeführt, gehörte aber wohl nicht zu den Hauptmitarbeitern oder -informanten. Eines Tages vermisste einer der deutschen Ethnologen ein teures Feuerzeug. Da es mit Sicherheit kurz vorher noch auf einem Tisch gelegen hatte und nur Andrew zu einem Diebstahl Gelegenheit gehabt hätte, warf man ihm diesen unverblümt vor. Nach kurzen Ausreden gestand er die Tat und gab das Feuerzeug zurück. Danach kam einer seiner etwas jämmerlichen Auftritte. Er weinte und sagte, dass Gott ihn für seine Tat bestrafen würde.

Später hörte ich, dass er einen Schlaganfall gehabt hatte, und als ich bei meinem Aufenthalt 2006 (?) in Sandema nach Andrew fragte, erfuhr ich, dass er gestorben war. Eein Sohn lebt noch in Sandema.

 

Während Andrews Aufzeichnungen in ihrer grammatischen Struktur und Idiomatik weitgehend eine Anwendung der englischen Sprache, wie sie in Ghana gesprochen wird, demonstriert, weisen seine Niederschrift in orthographischer Hinsicht starke Mängel auf, was ihm durchaus selbst bewusst ist. Einige Wortschreibungen sind fast nicht in ihrer Bedeutung zu erkennen (Gunne Firwles = Guinea fowls; thusueruers = trousers; defrinces = differences).

Stilistisch erreicht die Lebensgeschichte an mehreren Stellen eine romanhafte oder in ihren Dialogen dramenartige Darstellungsweise, wie sie sonst in keiner Lebensdarstellung von meinen anderen Bulsa-Schreibern anzutreffen ist. Gedankliche Abschweifungen werden durch Assoziationsreihen gerechtfertigt: Als er hungrig in Kumasi erscheint, muss er an seine Freundin denken, weil sie ihn früher mit Nahrung versorgt hat. Präzise Wiedergaben von Gedanken oder Gebeten, die viele Jahre zurückliegen, exakte Angaben von Daten, Wochentagen (sie können nicht immer stimmen), Uhrzeiten, genauen Preis- und Maßangaben (z.B. Rast am 6. Meilenstein; 24 ccs penicillin; die genauen Abfahrtszeiten des Busses usw.) gehören zu Andrews außergewöhnlichen Darstellungsmitteln. In der Angabe der Jahreszahlen sind ihm jedoch offensichtlich einige Fehler unterlaufen (Neuvorschläge in eckigen Klammern).

Typisch für die Erzählkunst der Afrikaner ist eine gewisse Breitschweifigkeit. Wenn eine Person auf ein vorher beschriebenes Ereignis hinweist, so wiederholt sie alle Einzelheiten des Ereignisses noch einmal (s. zum Beispiel Ende des Kapitels "Running away to Tamale and Kumasi"). Stilistisch besteht ein Unterschied zwischen dem ersten Teil (der in einem Stück angefertigten Lebensgeschichte) und den beiden später erstellten letzten Kapitel. Während er anfangs noch kurze Sätze benutzt und die Handlung relativ rasch voranschreitet, nehmen Wiederholungen und eine starke Weitschweifigketi in den beiden letzten Kapitel in starkem Maße zu.

 

Obwohl Andrew Interesse an einer Aufzeichnung seines Lebens hat, schreibt er doch in erster Linie für den Ethnologen (F.K.), den er an einer Stelle der Lebensgeschichte sogar mit Namen anredet (Dear Mr Kröger...).

Eine Veröffentlichung als Aufsatz- oder Buch (das Internet bestand damals noch nicht) begrüßt er ausdrücklich:

 

Direkt auf die Frage angesprochen, ob er anonym (bzw. mit einem veränderten Namen) in der Lebensgeschichte auftreten wolle, entschied er sich zuerst für die Anonymität. Später sagte er mir jedoch, ich könne seinen richtigen Vornamen ruhig verwenden, da es allein in Sandema mehrere Männer mit diesem Namen gebe. Ich (F.K.) habe mich hier trotzdem für eine Namensänderung entschieden. Die Ortsangaben und die Namen anderer Personen in der Publikation entsprechen allerdings genau den von "Andrew" genannten.

 

Um die Lesbarkeit zu gewährleisten habe ich Andrew's Orthographiefehler weitgehend verbessert. Die dem Schreiber eigentümliche Stilistik, die dem Werk seinen spezifischen Charakter verleiht, habe ich nur dann verbesser oder in eckigen Klammern eine korrigierte Version angefügt, wenn es für das Verständnis notwendig war.

 

LIFE STORY

 

CHILDHOOD IN SANDEMA

 

I was born at Balansa in the year 19441. I was the 5th birth of my mother. Her first born was a boy who was our elder brother. He died at the age [of] about seventeen. I was told [about it], I cannot remember well about that.

My mother took me to her father's house because of some quarrel between her and my father2. That was when I was about three years old. She did not go back to my father before one year staying with her father. [Then] my father paid a visit to his father-in-law asking to send back his wife and son to him. So I was told by my father when my mother went back together with me to him.

 

In 1949 there was a force [law?] by the Sandemnaab that every child about five years old or over should go to school3. He [the Sandemnaab] sent out the then Local Authority Police to go round all the Bulsa District [to look] into the compounds to find out children [of] about the age of five or over and bring them to school. If their parents refused to send their children to school, the L.A. Police should bring them before the Local Court4. My parents got to hear of this news and asked me to go to my uncle's [mother's brother's] house. By then I was five years old. So I went to my uncle's house5. I stayed there for three years. The police came there to look for other children in the house. They did not see me, because my father told my uncle not to let me go to school. And so, when the police were coming to the house, my uncle asked me to go to the bush6 so that the police could not see me around the house. So I went to the bush in the morning and came back in the evening. By then the police had gone away with some children from that area.

While I was there [at my uncle's] my father and mother paid a visit to me asking me whether I was all right there or not. My answer to these questions was always: "Yes I am o.k. here." They told me to get the tribal marks7 on my face, and I refused to do so.

 

At my uncle's house there was a very beautiful girl. She loved me and I loved her also. So always in the afternoon the two of us dah [used?] to go far away from the house to a tree to sit under it. It was about 100 yards away from the house. There we used to play. This girl came from Chana together with her father. The kind of play we were playing was all about love. She was teaching me how a boy could have a girl friend and how she had been watching her father the way he loved his wife8. She said to me that she would like to marry me. As I really loved her, I said: "Yes, I do love you. But only I am still a very small boy, and so my father may not agree that I should marry at this time."

 

And so one day in the afternoon we were sitting under the tree talking about the tribal marks, and there came a man from Chana. This man was the cutter of tribal marks9. Then the girl called him to come. When he came, she said to him: "Look, here is a boy without the marks. His parents have been asking him to do the marks, and he would not agree because of fear." Then the man asked me: "Is it true?" And I said: "No!" The man then said: "Would you like to get it [them] now?" I wasn't going to agree, but because of the girl's presence here I thought: If I don't do it, she may say that it is really true that I fear the painful cutting. So I answered: "Yes". So the man said to me: "Sit down and don't fear. I will make it small, so you will not feel the pains." So I sat down, and he began to cut me.

 

One week after the cutting on my face I said to the girl: "I will go to see my parents at Balansa and come back in two days' time." She agreed that I should go and come [back]. I went to my father. When he saw me with the marks, he was very happy. Also my mother was happy, because they were asking me to do the cutting of the marks and I did not agree10.

 

RUNNING AWAY TO TAMALE AND KUMASI

 

At my father's house there were two school boys. They were speaking English, which I didn't hear [understand] and when I asked them: "What are you saying?" they stared to insult me: " If you want to hear [understand] English, you must go to school11." At this saying to me I was worried and decided to go to school, but I thought: Maybe my parents will not agree. Or, if they will agree to let me go to school, I will not get the girl. There arose so many thoughts in my mind , and at last I thought I had to go to Kumasi12. And if the girl hears that I have gone to Kumasi, she may like to join me there. I went into my father's room and began to search for money there. I found the money: then 15 Gold Coast Pounds13. It was about 3 o'clock p.m. in the afternoon. I thought, if I take the money now and my clothes going away [having disappeared], they may know [that I have gone away]. So I have to wait until it is dark, when they can't see somebody walking along the road. Then I will go in to take the money and go away to Kumasi. This decision was not succeeded [successful]. At night I went into the room for the money, but I couldn't find it, where it had been, only nine shillings were there. By then I had prepared and was ready to go. But though I could not get the 15 [pounds], I thought that I must go today even with this small money [of] nine shillings.

So I took that money and went, but from Balansa to the town [Sandema]14 is about three miles. So I walked to the town. That time, when I left my father's house going away to Kumasi, it was about 4 a.m. There were no lorries in Sandema at that time15. So I had to walk on foot to Navrongo [28 km]. I was at Navrongo round about half past six. There I got a lorry [lorry of bus] going to Bolga. The driver charged me 2 shillings. We reached Bolga about 7 a.m. From Bolga I joined another lorry to Tamale. 5 s. was the charge from Bolga to Tamale. I met young Bulsa men at the lorry station. They were servants to the police16. They asked me where I did come from, [and] which part of Bulsa I did come from. I said that I did come from Balansa. They said that if I wanted a job, they would get me a job. I said: "Yes!". So they took me to the Police Station, and one of the policemen employed me to look after his horses: washing them and to get grass for them every day, with the salary of 10s. [per month], the then Gold Coast Money.

I worked with him for only one month, because all my mind was to go to Kumasi. At the end of the month he paid me and I went away. I did not even tell him that I would leave him and the job. When I left the Police Station going to the town to get a lorry to Kumasi, I thought if I mean to take a lorry from the town, my master may see me and take me back.

So I walked a few miles from the town to milestone 6, Tamale Kumasi Road [i.e. 6 miles from Tamale] to join a lorry to Kumasi. The lorry's fee to Kumasi from Tamale was 6s. So from my salary of 10 s. only 4 s. were left with me, and I spend 1 s. on the way. We arrived at Kumasi very late in the night, and as a newcomer I did not know where to go , when I came down from the lorry. So I had to sleep in the lorry alone. The other passengers had all gone away. The next morning I awoke and stepped [out] to ask some people about my relative in Kumasi. Nobody could tell me, whether they knew any of them, because of the language [Twi], [which] I couldn't speak well at that time. I could only speak Hausa17 just a little. So the people of Kumasi speak only Twi.

 

I was wandering about this. God [was] so good [that] he directed me to a Frafra18 man, who spoke Hausa and Buli. So I asked him whether he knew a man called Asibi staying at Kumasi-Aboabo19, two miles away from Kumasi [centre]. He said: " Yes!". He questioned me: "Are you a Bulsa boy?" - "Yes!" I answered. He said: " Then come with me, and I will take you to his work side, because he will not be in his house now." So I followed him. We walked for a few yards. He asked me a question: "Have you eaten something this morning?" - "No," I answered him. "Do you want a roasted plantain?" he asked me. "Yes", was my answer. At that time I did not know a plantain20. I had only heard of it. So he went and brought some for me to eat, before he would take me to my relative. I sat down to eat. He again went and asked for water for me to drink.

 

All this kindness to me [made me] recollect the love of my girl friend, whom I left at home. I began to think of her love towards me at home. She would not eat her food until she saw me. And under the tree where we used to sit and play she would ask me: "Do you want some water to drink?" Or if I said to her: " Let us go home!" she would ask me: "Why? Are you so hungry?" And if I answered: "Yes!", she had to run quickly home to bring me something to eat from her mother with some water.

 

After I had finished eating that plantain, I got up and followed him [the Frafra man]. We came to the work place of my relative. He saw me and said: "Ha! Where do you come from? You small boy like that! You did escape from your parents! ah!" And [he] put his hands on my head with laughing21. The Frafra man laughed too, and said to my relative: " I saw him at the Lorry Station this morning. He was wandering about speaking half Hausa to the passers [by], but nobody could hear [understand] him. So I asked him: 'Are you a Bulsa boy?' He said 'yes'. He asked whether I knew his relative, Asibi by name, staying at Kumasi-Aboabo. I answered him 'yes', but knew he was not at home just now [then]. 'He will be at his working place. So come with me and I will take you to him'. And he followed me. So here you are! I brought your son to you." He said to him this way. My relative thanked the Frafra man and I said to him: "Please, thank him again, for he saved me from [getting] lost, and he also bought a plantain for me to eat, and I ate it and was all right." Asibi laughed. He thanked the Frafra man again, and the Frafra man said: " No, don't mention it!" And he went away.

 

GOING TO SCHOOL AND WORKING AS A HOUSEBOY

 

At 12 o'clock my relative took me home. His wife fetched me water to bath. She prepared food for me too. At 4 p.m. the man, my relative came home from his work and started to ask me about home news. I told him all the news from home and about school; how my parents did not allow me to attend [school].So he said that there is a White Man here. They are Fathers of the Roman Catholic Mission having a school here. [They] take children, no matter whatever ages they would be. "If you want, you can attend their school. They don't charge anything. So you can attend that school. I will take you there tomorrow. It is at Asawasi, near here." I agreed. The next morning he took me to the place and introduced me to the White Man. He was a very tall man with a beard. He accepted me and asked my relative what kind [of] language I spoke. My relative said: "Only half Hausa!". The White Man said: " No matter! He will soon understand Twi and English." And my relative went away.

 

That was in May 1950 [1951? 1952?]22. I went into the class with other boys. The teaching was [in] Twi; and for the higher class [in] English. In one month's time I began to speak English and was able to answer some questions. My teacher was an Ashanti man. He liked me very much. After class he would take me to his house and give me some of his food. Always I had to wash his clothes and iron them for him23. He was teaching me at his house, too. He was very good to me and bought a school uniform for me. Only his wife was bad to me, and [every] time he gave her money to be given to me when he left the house going to some place, the wife would not give me the money.

 

On one Saturday he was going to Takoradi. He asked me not to go to my relative either for food for he had left some money to his wife to buy food for me. So I should wash all the clothes and iron them, and the clothes were many together with his wife's clothes. Cleaning of the house was my job to do. So at first in the morning I had to clean the house. That was only on Saturdays and Sundays. When my master left for Takoradi I started to clean the house. I did not take breakfast at all, before I went to the pipe to wash the clothes. I finished at about one o'clock p.m. and came home. When the wife saw me, she said she was going out, and so I should start ironing the clothes that have dried. She would come back very soon. She did not give me any food to eat or money to buy food by myself and I was very hungry. So I decided to go to my relative to get some food. I went there. I did not meet anybody at the house of my relative. I came back [and] started to do the ironing of the washing. I was very tired and too much hungry. At about six p.m. my master returned back from Takoradi. I saw him coming, so I ran to collect his suitcase from his hand. He looked at me and said: "Jack24, what is wrong with you? You are looking with an anger [in your] eyes." - "Nothing wrong with me, sir!" - "Are you sick?" - "No, I am not sick, sir !" I collected the suitcase from him and he was walking ahead of me to the house. The wife had also returned back.

My master asked me again: "Jack, are you sick?" - "No, sir! I am not sick," I answered. "Then, what is wrong with you? Is it because I detained you from going to your relative that made you so sad?" - "No, sir!" was my answer. "Are you hungry then?" - "Yes, sir!" - " Did you not eat some food?" At this question the wife was looking at me with [an] unhappy face thinking that I might tell my master that she did not give me something to eat, and he would be angry with her. The master asked her: "Did you not cook any food today?" - "I did cook, but Jack was at the pipe doing the washing. He did not come in time, and I had to give his food to somebody. I thought he might have gone to his relative." - "What nonsense! I gave you money extra to buy food for him. Why did you [not] give him the money to buy something at the pipe side. You know that the clothes were many and that [it] will take [a] long time to finish."

He called one of his sons, by name Kwabena. "Come here!" When the boy came, he got up and went out with the boy and asked him: "What is your mother thinking about Jack? Is she always kind to him during my absence from the house?" Then Kwabena said: " No, she never gave him the money which you always left with her." Then my master asked me, if he [should] find some job for me to be done in the evening after school. "Will you do it?" I said: "Yes". He said: "That is good! You are a good boy and my wife is always unkind to you. So if you get a job for yourself, it will help you to get some dress and food to eat."

 

So the next morning he took me to a White Man, a Syrian25, by name Mr. Bayackly. He employed me as a steward servant to the club known as Syrian National Club of Gold Coast. My salary was 4 pounds (8 Cedis) a month. I had to start at 5 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. Some times later than that in fact I was very poor in the school.

All the time I did not forget of my girl friend at home. I wrote to her26, but there was no reply to me to know whether she was still at home and keep on the love [she] had had for me.

 

After school I had to go to my work at the club, that was 1950 [1951? 1952?]. [From] my first month's salary I posted 2 [pounds] to my father and mother. I said to them in my letter that I was attending school here in Kumasi, and so I did not know when I should come home. My father replied me saying that he had found a girl for me27. So I should stop the school and come home for the girl. I told my master, the teacher, about what my father wrote me, and he said: "No, that was no good idea!" I should try to complete my Middle Form 428 and find a better job before I could get married. In the school all the other boys hated me, because the master loved me more than them. So when any examination came and I failed, he had to correct me. I failed the form one exam and he, the master, pushed me through the history of [the] Gold Coast and the first kind [kings?] of the Ashantis. I failed all that in form one. I went to form two.

It was at this time I was employed by the Syrian man in the club. And at that time life was better for me, because I was earning some salary.

 

 

MARRIED AT THE AGE OF TWELVE

 

In 1952 [1956?] my father wrote a letter to me again asking me to come home. In the same year I heard that my girl friend had married somebody at Navrongo. I was very sad to hear this.

In 1956, at the beginning of August, my [Ashanti] master left for the United Kingdom. Before he left he gave me 20 pounds and a watch and many dresses. And above all he advised me to try and complete the Middle form Four, so that when he came back, he would find a better job for me. I should try to be patient with my class mates about their behaviour on me. And as for my father's advice, that I should marry, I should not take that kind advice, because I was still very young and also I had no good income for that. He advised a lot on good [?] life. I cannot remember all the advice he advised me. His last advice and question to me was that: "Is your father very old and has he other sons beside you?" - "No, he is not very old," was my answer," and he has other sons and daughters, but I am the son that he loved more than the other sons, my brothers and sisters29."

Then he removed 5 [pounds] from his pocket and two blankets from his box and gave them to me with the money [20 pounds]. "Here are some presents for your father! You can send them to him. Tell him the truth that you will not marry at this time, until you have finished your school and found a job, before you can marry. After this he parted [?] with [from] me and said: "Bye-bye, my boy!" I began to weep with tears, as he was going away, and I thought: I can't see him again.

I went back to his house to take my box and go to my relative. On my way home [to my relative] I was thinking: I have to go home to my father and mother before I come back when school has reopened. I thought again: What about if I go home and my father forces me to marry? What shall I do then? "I can refuse", was the answered thought of my mind30.

I came home with my box and kept it there and went to my other master, the Syrian, at his store and told him that I would like to go home to visit my parents and come back. He agreed and gave me 10 [pounds] to go and come [back] with a full piece31 of cloth to be given to my mother.

 

I left Kumasi on 10th of August. I arrived at Sandema on 13th August [1956?]. As soon as I came, my father said he would take me to Wiaga to see the girl he had wanted to marry her for me (Parental marriage is traditional in Bulsa). I said: "No, I will not marry until I am about 20 years, before I can marry." But he did not agree. He said to me with angry words: "You must marry before I die. What childish words have you said to me! Do you not know that death always visits you unexpected? Are you sure of your next future? Or do you think if I don't do something for you now before I die, then what can I do for you, as a dead body can't do anything for himself, before [let alone] for anybody else. You must be prepared today so that tomorrow morning I will take you there to see the girl. I have finished with all the greetings32 with the girl's parents and herself. I even said that I would let somebody bring her to you at Kumasi. And now you have come here yourself! That is good!"

So the next day, that was my third day when [after] I [had] come from Kumasi, he asked me: "Let us go to Wiaga!" We went and saw the girl. She was very happy to see me. I gave her 10s. and also 1 to her parents. The parents agreed that we should take her home with us, but my father said: "No, we have to go and come [back] next time." So we came on the same day and my father went again alone and brought her to me33.

I said to my father that I had to go back, for the school will soon be opened. He said: "No, you don't have to go back and leave your wife." At this I was very sad. So I told my wife that I would go to Kumasi and so she should wait for me. I would write a letter to my father with money so that he could let her come to me later. She agreed at first, but when I said she should not let my father know that I was going back to Kumasi, then she was not happy. Then I said I would go to my uncle's house and come back. She agreed.

 

I took all my books, put them together with some of my dresses in my handbag and went to Kalijiisa [to] my uncle's house. From there I walked by foot again to Navrongo. At Navrongo I did not get a lorry an that day. So I stayed there and the next morning I got a lorry to Bolga. At Bolga I got a lorry straight to Kumasi. The very day I arrived [at] Kumasi I wrote a letter to my father that I was very sorry to leave him and my wife, but I must [had to] complete my school. That was why I had to leave like that. His reply to my letter was that my wife had married away [i.e. another man] and had gone to Kumasi. He said that I had refused her. So she had to marry someone who loved her. [Father’s reply:] "I have done my best to get a wife for you, as a father should do for his son. That is the natural love that I have done for you, but you did not deserve it. So nothing I can do for you in my lifetime before I die," He finished these unhappy words and at the end of his letter he said: "Now try to look for your wife at Kumasi there, If you have found her with her husband write to me at home and I will help you to get back, because her parents were not happy at all when she married that man. The man comes from Wiaga-Chiok. Try your best to look for her, for she loves you very much. So I hope she will come back to you if you see her. May the ancestors and God the Almighty be with you and help you to get your wife back." That was his prayer to end his words in the letter on 7th September 1956.

I heard from my relative [in Kumasi] that my wife had come to Kumasi alone staying with one of her brothers and was asking of [for] me. So I should try to go to Sarbo Zongo to look for her.

 

In the same week I had a letter from my master, the teacher, who [had] left for U.K. In his letter to me he was still giving me the advice that I should try to complete the school. He posted me a [pair of] shoes and money, 5 pounds.

I did not go to Sarbo Zongo to look for my wife, because time was very limited to me. After school I had to go to the club and on Saturdays I had to go to the club, also on Sundays.

 

On 25th September, which was Sunday afternoon, I was going to the club with [the] municipal bus and it stopped at Kajartia34 to take some more passengers. They were queuing and in the queue there stood a girl with a brown pancket [packet?] on her face [head?]. She lifted up her eyes to glance in the bus. There our eyes just met. She spoke: "Ah, is it you, the runaway boy?" She paid for the ticket and came into the bus and sat [down] on the same seat with me and said : " Noi mar kala, Achali-ne-kan-jamoa35? That is: May I sit with you, Mr. Running-away-and-never-coming back? "I laughed and said: "Yes, you can do so. Where are you going?" She asked [answered] me: "I'm going to Suame36" That was the name of the place where the club is. "How did you come here?" I asked her. "How do I come here? You think you are the only man who could come to Kumasi and nobody could come? The road is there for everybody and not for you alone." - "Yes, I know that the road is for everybody and not for me alone, but what I want to know is this: whether you came with somebody or [whether] you came alone." - "Well, you did not want me to come with you to Kumasi, but somebody would like me to come with him to Kumasi. So I did come with somebody to Kumasi," was her answer to me. "Where are you going now?" I asked her, " I am going to the slaughter house to collect some meat for my brother, who is working there," she answered me. "Did you come with your husband to Kumasi here?" I asked her. "No, I left him at Koforidua. He has no job to do and has no room of his own. So I found it difficult to stay with a husband as jobless like him37.

At saying this the bus arrived [at] our station and we alighted down. I gave her 10s. and I showed her where I was working and asked her if she would like to have a look at my working place so that any time she wanted to pay me a visit she could visit me there. She thanked me and said: " May I come with you now to have a look at your work place?" I said: "Yes, you can do so if you want." And then she came with me into the club, It was very nice with fine chairs, arm chairs. The floor was well polished and electric fans in all the rooms.

I took her round everywhere in the club, and she was very happy and said: "You have got a better job, but you don't want me to enjoy it with you. So let me go to collect my meat and go home." I said to her: " You go just now, and I will come to your brother to see him and talk to him. Did you tell him about me when you came to Kumasi here?" - "Yes, I did, but he said he never knew [saw] you at all and the [relative] of yours, by [name] Akanguaba. He never heard nobody's name like that in Kumasi here," she said. And I said: "Yes, I am not popular here, because I am always attending school at Asawasi and after school I have to go to work. I will not close in time, always close very late and go home to sleep. So not any Bulsa man knows me here apart from my relative."

 

And she went away. As she was going away, I began to think, what to do; whether to bring her back as my wife or to leave her and complete my school. And at last I thought of my father's words to me in his letter. And at last I thought I must bring her back to be my wife because of my father's words to me. The very attracted [?] word to me from my father was the word that nothing else he could do for me in life, as a father loved his son and could show his love towards the son. And I again thought of my master's words to me, that is the teacher before he left to U.K. All these problems were very topic to me, but the conclusion of it ended like this: I must bring that girl back again to be my wife.

 

So on Monday afternoon I went to see the girl's brother at his work place. I met him at the butcher's house. I introduced myself to him and told him that I was the husband of his sister, by name Asuwalie. My father married her for me at home. When I went on leave and my leave was getting over and my father did not agree that I should come back to Kumasi, so I had to leave without his knowledge. I did not tell my wife either before I left Sandema. So later on I had a letter from my father that my wife had married somebody from Wiaga-Chiok and came to Kumasi, so I should try to get her back. And now I have seen her at Kumasi here and she said that you are her brother. So I went to know whether it was the truth that she has told me."

"Yes," said the brother, "she was telling me about you and I said that I don't know you, neither did I ever see you anywhere in Kumasi here. Anyway she is at my house and many people have been coming there wanting to marry her. But she did not tell me whether she would like to marry or not. All she always spoke about was about you and your father: how kind [a] man your father was to her at home and also to her parents, that is my father and mother, because we are from the same mother and father38. But only you, she said, that you don't like her, but you cannot say that to your father. That was why you ran away and left her for your parents. And as she is still a young girl, she would not let any young man [of] the same age with her object [reject?] her like that. That was her reason to marry the Wiaga-Chiok man and come to Koforidua. This is what I have been hearing from her. You can come to my house and see her to hear what she has to say to you39."

That [was] what my brother-in-law spoke to me and I gave him 2 pounds to buy some drink40 and I left him and went back to school. I was late and was punished about [for] that. After school I went back to the club and it was raining. So many people did not come to the club and I closed early about 7.30 p.m.

 

I went to the house of my brother-in-law straight from the club. There I met the girl with other people, and my brother-in-law asked me to come and sit with him in his armchair. I did so, and he sent for some beer for us to drink. When the beer was brought I told him that I didn't drink at all. He said: "Why?" - "Because I am still a school boy. How much are these two bottles of beer?" I asked him. "They are 5s.," he said, and I gave him 10s. After he had received the money from me he got up and called his sister, that is my wife. When she came he asked her: "Do you know this boy?" - "Yes, I do know him," she answered him. [Brother:] "But why was it that he [Andrew] came here [a] long time [ago] and you didn't want to come out and welcome him?"

[Girl:] "I was sorry! It was because of some people [who] were talking to me41." - [Brother:] "Who were those people? Since you came to me here those people have been coming here. They never tried to greet42 me or ask me something about you, whether you are my wife or my sister. This boy came to me at my work place and greeted me asking me about you. He came to my house here to greet me. You , this small girl, you don't try to think twice at all. Well, now I have nothing to tell you about this boy, because you have married him at home and you left with another [husband] and came here. You have met one another [again], so it is up to the two of you to decide what you want and I shall support you."

During this long speaking of my brother-in-law the girl sat down and said: "In fact I loved him and I married him at home, and I thought we would stay together for some time. But he left me and went away. So I thought that he did not like me. That was why I just left like that and went away. So now I can't say anything whether to go back to him or not."

And my brother-in-law said to me: "What do you think now? You have heard all what [that] she said." I said that it was because of the schools [which] were reopened and my father did not agree that I should continue my schooling and I did not want to stop school. That was why I went away without telling anyone of them, that I was going away."

My brother-in-law then said: "You married each [other] at home as a parents' agreement. So I think it is better to get your wife back, for she still loves you and [I] hope you love her as well. So you can take her home with you." I agreed to his decision and thanked him: "Now I have no room of my own and as such [therefore] I beg you to let her stay here with you until I get a room of my own and I shall come to take her with me. But I have to give her chop-money43 and clothes here with you, if only you will agree with me on [in] this way." That was my suggesting to my brother-in-law, and he said: "I will agree with you on [in] that way, but as you know that many people have been coming here after her [courting her], so if you leave her with me here still people will think that she is still a daughter44 and will be loving her. So I think it is better you take her to your relative." I said: " All right, but I have to see my relative first, before I come for her."

Then we ended off these suggestions, and I asked my wife to see me off at the road side. It was about 10 p.m. I gave her 1 pound and begged her to wait for me. I would buy a cloth and bring it to her the next day. She agreed and laughed.

 

Then I went away by taxi to my relative. I told my relative about my wife, how her brother and herself have agreed that she should come back to me and what my brother-in-law had said. "So please, relative, if you will let me bring my wife to your house until I have got my own room that I shall [can] take her away." My relative agreed.

So the next day I went to school and at noon I went to my master's [the Syrian's] store and told him the story and asked him also for cloth that I wanted for my wife. And he said I should look for the cloth that I wanted and take half [a] piece45 of it. I chose one and took [it] to my wife, before I went back to school.

 

I was in the classroom, when my relative called me to come out to see him. When I came out of the class he said that some people had taken my wife away46, and she ran away and was asked of him, my relative's house [?]. So a woman, related to his [the relative's] wife brought her [back] to his house. That was [what] my relative said. I said: "Thank you, but I cannot come now to see her after school. I have to go to the club. So I will come in the evening time." And he went away.

At the weekend I got a room at Bantama [suburb of Kumasi]. That was 24th of October 1954 [1956?], and I took my wife there. Now life was very difficult for me, as I had married at the age of 12 years47, I could not continue my school any longer.

 

I wrote a letter to my father that I had got my wife back. "Thank you, father, for your prayer to [for] me." I said to him in my letter that I would stop [school?]. I did not receive a reply from him until the end of November [saying] that he had not been well, but now he was better. So if I got a leave I should come home with my wife.

 

In December I went on holidays and did not go back to school. So I stopped the school in 1956 at the end of the year. At the end of February [1957?] I asked my wife to go home to see my father's condition, how he was, and come back. She went home and my father wrote a letter to me saying that I should come home myself. I wanted to go but there was no money for me to do so. So I didn't go. On the 7th of August [1957] I had a telegram that my father died on the 5th of August 1957.

I took the telegram to my master at his store, gave it to him and he read it and said: "Sorry, Jack! Your father is dead, what a sad news. What do you want to do now, Mr. Jack? Do you want to go home or when would you like to go?" - "Now please, if you will let me," I said. "Yes, you can do so if you want. I will give you your pay if you want it. Yes, please, do you want it now?" he asked me again. "Yes," I answered.

He then pulled his table drawer and took the money from it, gave it to me and said: "Here you are. Your salary is 6 pounds." By then he had increased me [my salary], when I had married. "So I have added 6 to it for you to enable you to go home and come back with your wife. I give you two weeks to come back." I knelt down and got the money. "Thank you, sir," I said and then I went to my relative and told him about the death of my father, I also told him that I had obtained leave from my master, so I had to go today, [I told him] that [it] was two months' salary that I had got from my master.

I left on that same day and I arrived at Sandema on the 10th August [1957] about 2 p.m. I spent only three days at home and I went back together with my wife. We arrived at Kumasi on the 17th of August. I then started work again on the 18th. All this time was tedious to me.

 

ATTACKED AND INJURED BY ROBBERS

 

Ghana became independent on March 6th, 1957 and at that time there were different parties in Kumasi. So there was war around the Kumasi area. Many people were killed every day and every night and it had been announced that everybody should be curfewed, that is everybody should sleep at 6 p.m., and I had to close late at about 8.30 p.m. or later than that. So on Monday 20th March at 10 a.m. I was coming to the town from the club. I saw that many lorries were running from the Kajartia [Kejetia, centra market of Kumasi] to the north side and many people were crowding at the Kajartia and policeman. People had guns and bottles were thrown [at] each other and the guns were fired. So I stood about a hundred yards away from Kajartia. There I saw three men running towards me with sticks in their hands wanting to beat me. Then I started to run and they were running across [after?] me.

I came to the roundabout. There were many people and I couldn't run any longer, because there was no way to pass and they threw a broken piece of a broken bottle at me. O my face, on the top side of my left eye the bottle pierced and went very deep, about 2 inches and I fell down. I got up, blood was running down and my eyes were covered with blood. I couldn't see any longer. I removed my shirt to clean the blood from my eyes so that I would be able to see. The blood was too much that I couldn't clean it off.

 

I walked to my master's store, but the doors were closed. I could hear people talking inside. So I knocked [at] the door and he said: "Who are you?" - "I'm Jack!" I said, "open for me." He opened the door halfway to see who I was. He saw me with blood all over my body. He than quickly came out and took me with his car to the hospital. At the hospital there were many wounded people. I was admitted there for three weeks and discharged.

 

Again I was coming from the club. It was night, about 9.30 p.m. I met four people an the road and they stopped me, asking me: "Where do you come from?" I was quiet because of fear. They spoke Twi and Hausa. I did not answer them, but they started searching my pockets to get money. These people were murderers. They removed 4s from my pocket and one of them said: "Let us kill him!" The other one said: "No, let us beat him!" The third one said: "No, we have to kill him." The fourth one said: "No, we should beat him." Then they started beating me. I fell down and they ran away. After [that] I lay down for some time to gain back my energy. I woke up [and] started to run, but I couldn't do so, because I was very weak with this beating of four people.

So I was walking step by step, I came to the roundabout near the hospital. Then I saw a dead body lying there at the roadside and there came a police van. It stopped near me and the police came out of it [and] started asking me, where I came from and who had killed this man. One of the police[men] was a friend of my master. The Lord was with me and he came for [to?] me. He had saved me from these four people and he was going to save me from the police. So the policemen wanted to arrest me. But God loved me, so there was somebody to save me. The other policeman, the friend of my master, said: "No, don't! I know this boy. He is working at the Syrian National Club and he never closes in time." The other police[man] asked me: "Who killed this man and what makes your face swollen like that?" I said: "I was beaten by four murderers just now on this road. They have taken my money and beat me and started to run away going to Kajartia." The policeman, the friend of my master, said to me: "Go quickly to your house and tomorrow tell your master that he should let you close in time before 6 [o'clock] p.m. And then they went away.

I came home and asked my wife to get me hot water to clean my sore. She asked me: "Sores? How did you get sores?" - "I was beaten," I answered. "Oh, dear! What is all this? Oh!"

 

The next morning I went to my master and told him of what had happened to me yesterday, and he took me with his car to the hospital again and I was given an injection of penicillin, 24 ccs daily for eight days. I told my master of what his friend, the policeman had said to me and what he had done for me. "So please thank him, when you see him," and he laughed and said: "You have to thank God, for it was God who saved you from the innocent death." I said: "Yes, it is true."

 

At the end of the year 1957 my wife was under pregnancy and I asked her to go home48. So she went. When she came to Sandema she wrote to tell me that she would like to come back to me, because my mother and other women were troubling her too much. They did not allow her to eat any good food at all49. So because of this she had never been well at all. So I should post some money for her to come. I agreed with her and posted the money for her to come.

 

She came back to me in July 1958. She stayed with me in Kumasi for two months, and I asked her to go to one of my brothers, a policeman at Bibiani, to deliver there. That was her first pregnancy and she went there. She delivered on 20th October, 195850. On Monday afternoon my brother made (sent] a telegram to tell me of my wife's delivery safely [safe delivery]. She had brought forth a boy51.

She had stayed with my brother for two months, and I went and brought her to Kumasi with me there.

 

CARETAKER AT AKUSI

 

My master, the Syrian man, went home and somebody took over the club. That man was bad to me. He reduced my salary52 and said that the work is not hard enough, and as a new man [that] he is, he had been asked to pay all the labourers in the club and the storekeeper. So he found it too much for him. So he had to reduce our salaries. That would enable him to pay us regularly. I said: "If that is the case then I have to leave the work, because as a married man [that] I am, I can't live on a small salary like that. I can't keep up with that." So I told my wife that I would resign the work, because my salary would be reduced. And she said: "And what will you be doing then? Or will you be going home? It is difficult for us to stay at home. My mother-in-law is not good like my father-in-law. He was very good to me, but he has died. So it is better you carry on with your work until you have found a better job. Then you can resign." And I said to her: "I will go to Accra and find a job there, but first I will let you go to my brother at Bibiani and if I have found a job at Accra, I will let you know by writing and you can come there." And she agreed.

 

So I went to Accra at the end of December 1958. Before I resigned from the club I asked for a resthouse-money [money for the journey] from my new master and he gave me. From Accra I went to Legon to visit one of my friends, who was a steward there. He took me to the professor, a Scotsman, and he asked me, if I wanted a job. And I said : "Yes, if I get a job , I will be very pleased." He said that he would employ me, but I had [to go] to [a] village about fifty-two miles from here. "There is a resthouse and we need a caretaker. As you have been a club servant, I think you can be a caretaker." I said: "Yes!". And I asked him: "What will be my wages or salary?" He said: "It will be 12.10 a month. Do you like it or is it too small for you?" I said: "No, it is all right." You prepare yourself. I shall take you there at 4 p.m. That was the 8th of January 1959.

 

The name of the village is Akuso and the name of the project there is "The Extension of the University College of Ghana Agriculture Research Station". It had been there before Ghana became independent. So I can't tell whether it was name [known] as the University College of Gold Coast or the University College of Ghana before I went there as a caretaker. It was known as the University College of Ghana when I went there.

As I went [there] I was very well received by the staff there. So I wrote a letter to my brother at Bibiani that I had been employed and so if he thought that my wife was giving him a lot of troubles he should let her come to me. But if not, he should let her be with him there until the end of the month. These were the words of the letter, which I wrote to my brother and my wife, which I could still remember very well:

 

Dear Brother,

   First of all I would like to know something about your present condition of health. I have been employed as a caretaker to the University College of Ghana at Accra and have parted [?] to a village about 52 miles away from Accra. So I have to let you know and extend it to my wife. Please brother, if you think that my wife is giving you a lot of troubles, then you can let her come to me now, but if she has not been giving you any troubles since she had come to you, then you can be patient and let her stay with you until the end of this month, and I will post some money to you to use it by [for] letting her come to me. Please tell her that I have just been employed, and so she should not worry any more but keep on praying for good health for herself and the baby. She will soon come to me. Here I was given a quarters [a flat]: two rooms with a bathroom and [a] kitchen, also [a] latrine, with electic lights around the quarters. How is the baby? I hope he is all right. Thank you in advance. [I] hope all is well with you, brother. My best compliments to you and your friends. Yours sincerely,

                                                                          A.Jack

Akusi Accra, 12th January, 1959

 

As it was a guest house, so many officials have been coming then to rest. So I was receiving presents from some of them. So I was [a] happy man at that time. Some of the M.P.'s were coming there to rest with their girl friends. At that time I was not drinking at all, not even [smoking] a cigarette. As a school-leaver I was taught all this in school that cigarette and drink is [are] bad. So I was still keeping on of [with] that prohibited [abstinent] life.

 

So at the end of January I posted the amount of 9 pounds to my brother at Bibiani to let my wife come to me. I did not receive a reply from him when I wrote him, but I hoped that my wife was willing to come to me as she heard that I had got a job.

 

On the 7th of February my wife arrived with my friend from Legon who found me the job. He stayed with me that day and left on the next day. My wife told me that my brother had been a good man to her. Only his wife was bad to her. "I was all right all the time." And my wife was very happy.

 

It was there that Jehova's Witnesses have been visiting us and were preaching the good news about Jesus to us. I was very interested about [in] the good news and I was able to answer all their questions. So they asked me to come to some of their meetings. It was through these meetings and their conducting that they considered that I was perfect, and they wrote a letter to their headman at Accra that I should be appointed a Kingdom Ministry [Minister?]. I received a letter from the head office of the Jehova's Witnesses at Accra that I had been appointed a Kingdom Ministry [Minister?] of Jehova's Witnesses as from the first of July 1959.

 

Duties of that post [were]: I had to be there every morning afternoon, also in the evening and on Sundays. Every morning I should also go to preach from house to house every day and to go to assemblies every year where [wherever] the assemblies were to be held in Ghana, [I should do it] for one year. If my ministry had been well, I could be allowed to go [to] other assemblies outside Ghana.

I refused that post, because my job was a caretaker, and I could be wanted at any time of the day or night in the Guest House.

I was receiving letters from home that I should come home, because they wanted to perform the funeral of my father. And my replies to these letters were that I had found a new job and I was not yet due for leave. So I could not get the chance to come and so they should perform the funeral without me. And my mother wrote me a letter saying that she would go away from [my] father's house after the funeral had been performed and so any time I was coming home I should come to my uncle's house53.

 

At [in] the year 1960 my wife expected a baby after eight months expectant [in the eighth month of her pregnancy?]. She brought forth on the 11th of November 1960 at Sumanya, the Roman Catholic Clinic, a baby boy again. Her first child was a boy and the second also a boy. After she had delivered I got my leave, only fourteen days. So I said to her [asked her] if she could go home alone with the children and come back, because my leave was too small to go home and come [back]. But she refused. She would not go home alone, because my mother would be troubling her. So I said: "Then we will go home together next year."

So I posted money to my mother, 8 pounds, and told her that I would be coming home the next year, 1961. My mother replied: "Thank you, my son, for I have received the money, but please, come home! They have performed the funeral of your father," said my mother,"and I am now a widow to somebody outside your father's house. When you are coming on leave," she said,"come to your uncle's house. The money you posted to me, I have used it to buy a sheep for you." I replied her letter and told her that my wife had brought forth again and the child was too small to travel with me. So I would not come home now, until the child was about a year old.

 

I was very happy all this time. At the end of 1961 I had a leave again. I did not come home but spent my leave at Accra. Our first son was 4 years old and was speaking Ga54. He could speak Buli, but he never tried to speak it at all. So I decided that I had to go home, if not he would in future forget of his mother tongue.

 

When my leave was over, I went back to Akusi to start work. I left my wife behind at Accra. I told her to come at the end of the month. She came to me at the end of the month and told me that one of my brothers had come to Accra and was asking of [for] me. He said to her that he had come to me to find a job for him. But she had told a lie to him: "My husband's job has finished and we are preparing to go home. So my husband went to Akusi to bring all our things there, and he asked me to wait for him in Accra here." These were my wife's words to my brother. And my brother said: "If that is the case then I have to go back to Kumasi. At Kumasi I may get a job to do," he said.

 

Jehova's Witnesses were still insisting that I should accept the post, because I was a good preacher when we went from house to house to preach on Sundays after our Sunday Services. But still I refused.

 

BACK AT SANDEMA

 

At the end of November 1962 I had my leave again. That time I told my wife that we had to go home. So we came home 1962. At home life was tedious to me. I did not go to my father's house as I was told by my mother. I did not go to my uncle's house either. I left all my boxes and bed tables [?] and chairs in the house of my uncle in the town [the centre of Sandema]. My uncle had a house at the town at that time. So I put all our things there before I went to my father's house to greet the people there and thank them for [that] they performed the funeral of my father during my absence.

They told me: "You have to buy drinks for us, because we did everything for you, and you were not here to take part of [in] the funeral's performing. So now as you come you have to buy some drinks for us." I said: "Yes, I will do so, but that will be on market day."

 

After I had left them, I went to my mother, where she was staying. It was the same [clan-section] Balansa, but not the house of my father. I asked her: "Why was it that you wrote me that I should not come to my father's house?" - "Because your brothers were quarrelling about the cattle of your father55 and wanted to kill each other by witchcraft action. And the first son, your elder brother, said that he knew that you are a clever boy and so whenever you came home, you would take away all the cattle from them. So he was trying to get some juju56 and keep it awaiting you to come. When you came home he would then kill you," said my mother to me. "How did you get to know this," I asked her. "The man whom I am staying with as my husband, he has found out from the soothsayer57. And he met your brother one day with a Maalam58. He was asking the Maalam for something that would kill a person," she answered,"that was why I wrote the letter asking you to come home, because if your brother has got the medicine that can kill a person, he will send it to somebody who will go to Kumasi and may know where you are at Kumasi and come to you to kill you with the medicine. Now as you have come do not go back to the South. I bought a sheep for you and it did well, it bred. They [are] now four, and two goats I took to your uncle's house [at Kalijiisa]. So please let us go to your uncle's house and sojourn there59. Do not stay with your brothers. Take off your hands from your father's cattle. If the almighty God helps you, you will get cattle of your own, because now if you take five sheep you can exchange them for a cow."

That was the advice of my mother to me when I came back from the South. I asked her: "Are the cattle of my father many?" - "Yes," she answered, "they are about thirty and [there are] many sheep and goats," she said. "All right, as I have come, my brothers have not yet told me anything about the cattle. So I will wait and see if they will tell me something about the cattle," I said to my mother. "I will not stay with them, I also will not go to my uncle's house [at Kalijiisa], but I will be staying in the town, in the house of my uncle to see how things are going on," I said to my mother.

And I left her and came back to the town. I was then staying in the town at the house of my uncle60.

 

One day I went to see my brother at my father's house [at] Balansa. My elder brother called me in [into] his room and told me that:"We performed the funeral of our father during your absence. We have been writing you to come home so that we will perform the funeral and you didn't come. So we performed it. We caught five of the cattle and two sheep and used them to perform the funeral. Now the cattle that are left are about thirty and the sheep also about twenty, the goats about eight. So as you have come I have to let you know." that was what my brother told me in his room61. "Thank you," I said,"I will go back to the south, but not now. At the moment I am staying in the town, because my mother is no longer in this house. So it is difficult for me and [to] come and stay here with you. So I will be in the town, and if you want me for anything at the house, you can send for me to come." I said this to him and left. I came back to the town.

 

When I came to Sandema there were no Jehova's Witnesses here in Sandema, only Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. So I joined the Presbyterian Church. Their pastor was a Scotsman, [by] name Robert Duncan62. I went to his house to visit him and told him that I was a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses at Akusi, a village near Accra. "I have been baptized there, and as I have come home I didn't find any Jehovah's Witnesses here. So I would like to join your church." He said: "That is good of you . You are a Christian. I am very pleased to hear that you would like to join us. May I ask you a question?" he asked me. "Yes," I said. "Would you like to be my interpreter?" - "Yes, I will ." - "I need an interpreter who will interpret for me in the church and in the schools. I can't speak the Buli language, and I find it difficult to preach." He said this. "But no pay for it, so if you will do it voluntarily." - "Yes, I will do. Is it only on Sundays?" I asked him. "Yes, and also in the Primary Schools twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays. I will see if I can get some small money for you from my pocket," he said, and I said: "Yes, I will do it for you." - "I will be going to Fumbisi tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. So if you would like to come with me," he said. "Yes, I will come with you, but will I come to your house here or should [I] wait [for] you in the town?" I asked him. "You can wait [for] me at the town." he said and I left him and came back to the town.

 

The next morning at 8 o'clock a.m. he came and took me with him to Fumbisi. On the way to Fumbisi he asked me: "You are from Sandema by birth, are you?" - "Yes," I answered. "Would you like to become an evangelist?" he asked me. "I can't say yes or no, because I have just arrived home with my wife and two children, and I am not yet will settled," I said to him. "What do you mean by 'well settled'?" he asked me. "What I mean by well settled is this: My father died and my mother left my father's house and married a neighbour of my father at a different house. And when I came back from the South, my mother told me I should not go to my father's house. I should rather go to my uncle's house and I don't want to go there either. So at the moment I am staying in the town with my wife and the children. This is what I mean [by]: I am not well settled." He went on to ask me the reason why my mother had told me not to go to my father's house. I told him half the story that my mother had told me. And we reached Fumbisi. I was working with him voluntarily. He sometimes gave me some money from his pocket.

 

Sister Doris came [back] from leave. She was then running the [Presbyterian] clinic here, and she had nobody to help her in the clinic as a dispenser. She asked me if I could help her in the clinic as a dispenser with a salary of 5 or 10.00. I agreed to that appointment. That was January the 9th, 1963. Life was very hard for me. She said this to me that she would go to Accra and come back to start work.

 

A THEFT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

 

When I returned from the South I had many dresses, nice ones, 12 trousers and about 16 shirts, they were all expensive ones. As I was in the town, my mother came to join me in the town. On 12th January [1963] my wife went to my uncle's house in the morning. That was Sandema market day. She did not come back and it had got very late. So I said to my mother that I would go to Kalijiisa to see what had been wrong with my wife, because today was market day and she left here in the morning to Kalijiisa. She had kept so long to come back. And my mother said: "You have to find out to know what has been wrong with her there."

 

So I went. I reached there about 6.30 p.m. and my uncle was outside. He saw me and began to laugh and said:"You are coming after your wife?" - "Yes," I answered him. "I am sorry," he said,"[that] you are coming after your wife." "Yes I answered him. "I am sorry," he said, "when your wife came here, I asked her to wait, for I wanted to give her some rice, but my wife has gone to Chana with the keys63 of my room, but she said that she would come back from Chana in time. That was why I detained your wife so long. Now as you have come, you have to stay the night here with us and you can go back to the town tomorrow with your wife. I will give you food stuff to take with you." And I said: " All right!"

 

I stayed the night at Kalijiisa, and the next morning my uncle gave us a half bag of rice and also some groundnuts. And we left Kalijiisa going back to the town. When I reached the town I saw my mother outside of the house weeping. "What is wrong with you, mother?" I asked her. "My dear son, all your boxes have been stolen from the room. There is nothing left in the room, only your cover cloth is left. It was lying outside of the room and I took it. [A] thief has come to steal [from] you in the night while I was asleep," she said. I ran quickly into the room to see whether it was true or not. No, what I could find there was only the cover cloth. All my three boxes [which] contained my nice shirts and shoes together with my wife's clothes had been taken away by thieves.

I started weeping and my wife was weeping, too. My books and bibles, all that had been stolen. What was left to us was the cover cloth and the shirt and shorts that I had worn [when I] went to Kalijiisa, also the clothes that my wife wore and [when she] went to Kalijiisa. [These] were the only dresses we had and nothing at all with us.

 

I went and reported the incident to the police, and they said that they couldn't do anything unless I was able to get the thief. But how and where could I get the thief? I left the police station and came home with my worries.

 

In the evening the pastor came to me. He saw me still weeping and he asked me: "What is wrong with you?" - "All my boxes, three of them, containing our dresses and books have been stolen last night," I said to him. "Oh," he said, "did you report the case to the police?" he asked me. "Yes, I did." - "And what did the police say?" he asked me again. "They said that they couldn't do anything unless I myself was able to get the thief or if I knew him. Then they would go and arrest him, but I don't know the thief, neither do I know where he came from." And he [the pastor] said: "Come with me. I will take you to my house and bring you back. Call your wife to come, too," he said. And I called my wife.

He took us to his house. He told his wife the story and the wife said: "Sorry, very sorry, Andrew." She brought some tea for us with some cakes. The pastor said: "Mr. Andrew, we will pray for you and your wife . And I will tell my congregation to pray for you. Do not weep any more. But remember what Jesus said in the bible: "Do not worry about the clothes and food you will eat today and tomorrow, but first of all seek the kingdom of God and all that you need shall be added onto you.' So as a Christian [that] you are I will advice you not to worry, but keep on praying, and I am sure, God the almighty will answer your prayers and will give you something to wear. Then I said: "Thank you, pastor." And he said: "Let us pray!" He started to pray: "Oh Lord Jesus, hear us as we pray for this our brother and sister! Almighty God, and we give you thank for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, And we ask you to help this our brother and his wife. For they are in many worries and unsteady of mind, because all their things have been stolen and they have nothing to wear. We do remember your word to us that we should not worry about the clothes and the food we will eat and wear. Look at the birds. They do not work, but God cares for them, how much more we [for us] human beings. So God Father, help us to keep this your word and listen to whatever you tell us from the bible. Oh God, hear us! We ask you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen."

 

After his prayer we drank the tea, and he moved from the chair and went into his room. He called his wife to come and she also went into the room. They brought 10 pounds and some old dresses of his wife and gave the money and the clothes to us. I received the money and the clothes and thanked him. He again went back into his food store and brought some food stuff and a box of oil, the American supplies. The box contained 6 gallons of oil and [he] gave them to us. I thanked him again and said we would go home now and he took us and the things he had given us back to the town.

After I had come to town and I could not find the things in my room as I used to see them, I was weeping again and a friend of mine came to me because he had heard what had happened to me and he advised me to go on drinking and that would help me to forget the losing of my property. I took his advice and he even bought the drinks for me on that day. That went on for about two years (1963-65]. I always became mad whenever I was drunk.

And my wife was annoyed with me. She said: "If you want to live on a life like that, then we cannot keep up with such a life. That proves nothing better future at all for us [proves that our future will not be good]." After saying these words to me she went to her father's house. She did not come back for three days. so I went there after her to find out what was wrong with her there. When I went [there] I saw her and her mother. As soon as her mother saw me, she ran quickly to her daughter and said to her: " Do not go with your husband whatever he tells you. Do not believe him, for I will not let you stay with him again as a husband. It was because of your father-in-law's kindness that you have married him. Now that your father is not alive and your husband is poor, I will not agree and let you continue marrying him. You have to give him his children and marry somebody else, who will be able to look after you proper[ly]. All your nice clothes have been stolen. I am sure that journey [new?] husband will buy them for you. Please, take this advice that you will not go with your husband again, when he asks you. But do not say to him that I have advised you on this. Tell him that he should go home alone, and you will follow him later on in two days' time64."

 

After she had finished saying these words to her daughter she came out and said: "My son-in-law, your wife is in the room. You can [come] in to see her. I am going to Siniensi and I will not come back today. So after you have greeted your wife you can go home and leave her to take care of my room until I come back from Siniensi that I will let her come to you." She just spoke these words to me and left. I called her back: "Please, will you let me ask you some question about my wife?" She answered: "Yes, you can do so." - "Please, Mother, my wife left our house and came here without telling me that she was going to her father's house since [for] three days today. And I was wondering why she should do this. There had been no matter between her and me. So may I please know from you, whether she told you something against me, when she came to you?" I asked her this question.

"No, my son-in-law," she answered, "your wife did not tell me anything about you. All she said to me when she came was that you are getting mad, because of the losing of your nice dresses and books, for you will never get them again in your life. So whenever you think of your dresses you are not happy and even start to weep again. And a bad man always comes to you giving you wrong advice that you should go on drinking . That would help you to forget all your sadness, and you foolishly agree and have taken his advice [and] started drinking. That was what your wife told me. And to me [as for me], I am not in agreement with you at all. Anyway I cannot advise you on any good life, because I did not know you at first. For you did not come to me and tell me that you wanted to marry my daughter. It was your father who was a kind man. He asked me to let my daughter marry his son who was at the South. And now he is not alive. And you don't seem to like my daughter to be your wife." She went on: "Anyway my daughter did not tell me that you don't seem to like her. I can see it myself."

"How is it that I don't seem to like her as a wife? How did we manage to get children? Or do you think that the two children that your daughter has are not from the two of us by sexual intercourse? Or do you think that she had the children by prostitution65? From what that she had the [You have said] that you don't know me that I am you son-in-law, but it was my father, who was a very kind man,[who] came to you asking you to let your daughter marry his son. Did I not come to you with my father and said to you that I would like to marry your daughter? Please, tell me that I am now a poor man and as such you wouldn't like your daughter to marry a poor man who cannot give you money all the time. Because of that you would like to marry away your daughter from me to a rich man. If you had said that to me, then I would have nothing to say any more, because I am a poor man today to [for] you. But please, note that I did not invite poverty to myself, rather did poverty invite itself to me. I can't help it. It is not dodgeable [possible? makeable?] that I should escape from it. I have to keep on praying to God to see and to hear from him what God has to do for me in the future. If only God gives me [a] long life and I am living a healthy life [and] no sickness or bad troubles such as stealing [and] murder comes on me [I will be contented]. But only the poor [poverty], I have to thank God for that. For poverty is everywhere in the world, not only [with] me that I should [not] be worried very much. You can take away your daughter from me. You have made it clear to me that you don't want your daughter to be with a poor man as a wife to him. I thank you very much for that. I myself do not want to keep somebody's daughter to be suffering so much with me." After I had spoken all these words to her she went away without a word to me.

And I went into the room to see my wife and ask her: "Would you like to come with me or [will] you take the advice of your mother?" She replied: "I have only come to visit her and come back home. I did not say to you that I am no longer married to you. Why should you stand outside talking all these angry words to my mother? Are you drunk this morning?" I answered her: "I am not drunk. It was your mother who offended me. That made me speak these words to her. If you have not taken the advice of your mother, then prepare and let us go home." Then she said: "I have nothing to prepare. So let us go!" And we came home together on that day.

 

Her mother came to me later after I had brought [taken] my wife from her. She said: "I have come to visit you and to see whether you reached home safely66 with your wife or not and to find out to know whether there is a trouble with you and your wife, because you were very much annoyed with me on that day when you came to visit me and take away your wife." I answered her and thanked her: "Thank you for your visiting us and to find out whether there has been a trouble between us. There have been no trouble[s] between us at all." And she stayed the night with us. I entertained her with drinks and dinner with two Guinea fowls, and the next morning I again gave her another Guinea fowl to take home to prepare food for herself67. And she went away thanking me for the entertainment I had entertained her.

 

Sister Doris came back from Accra, and the pastor told her about the incident [the theft], and she was very sorry to hear it. She asked me to come to [the] clinic on Monday. So I went. After [my visit to] the clinic she came to my house in the town and gave me 5 pounds and some dresses. I was then working with her as a clinical assistant.

 

I went to Balansa to tell my brothers about what had happened to me in the town. I told my elder brother about the incident. And so I needed a help from him, and he said that he had no money with him and: "I can't get money anywhere to help you," he said. And I said: "What about the cattle of our father? Will you give me one to sell and buy some clothes for my wife?" I asked him. He spoke with angry eyes to me: "Look, my brother, if you want to play with me about the cattle of our father something will happen to us one day68," he said. After his words I started to walk away from him going back to the town without a word to him in return. Any time I remembered my nice dresses, I then became unhappy. That went on for a year.

 

OFFENDING A TABOO OF THE ANURBISA

 

I came to sojourn with my uncle at Kalijiisa in May, 1963 with my wife and our children Kojo the first and Kwesi the second. My wife was expecting [a] baby again which would be her third birth. My uncle was very pleased to see me, and on hearing that I had come to stay with him he was even more happy and gave me a room to live in that room, which had belonged to my grandmother. She died long ago when I was an infant. My wife and myself together with our children had to live in that room. I decided to break it down and rebuild a big one, because the present one was too small to accommodate five persons. I told my mother and my wife about my planning for a new project and they both agreed. I informed my uncle about my planning for a new project. He agreed.

 

So I moulded bricks and started to put up the room69. I told my uncle again that I would roof the room with iron sheets. He agreed at first and when the building had almost been completed, he said to me that it is not allowed to Anurbisa to put up a roofing. So I should not do it, but instead I should roof it in the local form. I agreed to do so, and it was done on [in] that way at the end of 1963.

 

My uncle himself decided to move away out of the original house or compound and build a house of his own, because that house, where we were all staying was for their grandfather [built by our grandfather?] and it is known as a family house. And he, my uncle, didn't want it in that way70. So he told his elder brother, Akansiadi by name, and he, Akansiadi, did not agree in that year 1964, but later on in 1965 he agreed that he would allow his younger brother to build his own house. By then it was in the raining season. So it was impossible to build the house in the raining season. So my uncle waited for the end of that year 1965, and in 1966 he started to find out from the soothsayer, whether the ancestors would allow him to have his own house or not.

 

This went on for many months to the end of 1966 and in November 1967 my uncle told me that he would like to have his own house. "So I want you to know about it," he said to me. "So may I come to join you in your new house?" I asked him. "Yes, because you are my nephew. So you must have to be with me whenever I [it] may be/" he replied. "Uncle, when are you going to build your new house?" I asked him. "After Christmas71," he answered me. "Then I will join you," I said.

 

At the end of 1967 he went out from [of] the original house to look for a place where his new house could be built. He found a good place. He came to tell his elder brother that he had got a better place, where he could build his new house, and the brother said: "All right, then when would you like to start the job?" _ "In a few days' time," uncle answered. Uncle left the original house on 7th January, 1968 to start his new house. It took him good four month to finish the building, and I went with him together with my family.

 

It was there in the new house [that] I asked my uncle, whether in this new house I could build a room and roof it wit iron sheets or [if] it would not be allowed. This was how I asked him: "Please uncle, may I please be allowed to put up a small room in this your new house and roof it with iron sheets? Or is it still not allowed?" - : :Well," he answered, "let me think it over and I will give you the answer." - "All right, but how long do I have to wait to get the answer?" I asked him again. "Maybe tomorrow," he answered. We both ended it here on [up?] to the word "tomorrow", and I went away to the town.

 

It was on a Sunday morning when I asked these questions, in the same year 1968. Three days later he [my uncle] called me in his room and said to me: "Do you really mean to put up a room and roof it with an iron sheet?" he asked me. "Yes, sir, Uncle," I answered him. "Actually it is not allowed for us all, the hirds [heirs?] of Anurbisa, to have a room built with an iron-sheet roofing on it72. But in your case, you are Anur's daughter's son. So I don't think that you can be prevented to do so. So you can do it without my permission," he said to me. "I thought it over and over for the passed [last] three days and three nights, but I couldn't find out what would [might] prevent you. So that is your [my] answer, but do not say it to anybody that I have allowed you to put up a roofed building," he said.

 

And so I started to mould the bricks oin 1969, January 14th and finished with the bricks on February 22nd, 1969, [and] completed it in [on] May 17th, 1969. 

When the room was completed, so many troubles started coming on me: a quarrel between me and my uncle's son. After the quarrel a sickness came to me. All my family and myself were all the time going to hospital [and were] admitted to hospital. The occurring of all these troubles on me was believed to have been the cause [because] of my room, and it was to my wife [it was up to my wife?] that it had been disallowed me not to put up such a room in that area and roof it with iron sheets or grass and [that] I did deafly do it. So the ancestors would either kill myself or my wife or all my family.

 

On August 10th, 1970 my wife fell down from the [flat roof of the] local round building and was hurt badly. I took her to Navrongo hospital and she was admitted there for three weeks and I visited her at the hospital. All she could tell me was that I should come [go] home and remove the roofing off the building or she would die. Then one day I asked her: "What do you mean by 'If I don't take off the roof you will die?'". "You were told that it is against the law of that area that the hirds [heirs?] of Anurbisa should not put a roof of any kind on their buildings, and you have done it," she said to me.

I spoke to her politely: "My dear wife! We are Christians, and you know, the temptation by Satan on every Christian is somehow similar like this, as it is happening on us now, and so the only advice I can give you now is this: You keep on praying to the Lord asking him to forgive you your sin. I myself have been praying many times a day asking the Lord Jesus to forgive us. For we don't know the will of the Lord and maybe we have done something against him, and [he will] change us from our old or present life into the life of his own manner. We cannot know, but the Lord himself knows what he is about. Therefore, my dear, do not worry too much and lose hope, for there is a time for every thing, a time to be happy and a time to be sad. And please, my dear, do not take [believe? take for granted?] whatever people tell you. Let us end this matter here with [a] prayer." I said this to her, and she was weeping, tears running down on the bed. I wept also just a few drops of tears from my eyes, and I closed my eyes, started to pray, and the nurse in charge came in asking me to go out, for the time was over.

 

And I went out [and] came home that evening. When I alighted at Sandema market I met a relative of my wife, and she was asking me about the condition of my wife. She said: "Are you just [coming] from Navrongo?" "Yes," I answered her. "How is the condition of your wife" - "She is better now," I answered her. "Please, come here, I want to speak with you," she said. I followed her into one of the market stores. She began to talk: "You see, you have to take off the iron sheets from your room. If not, your wife will never get better, or if the gets better, someone from your family will fall into the same condition, because I heard that the hirds [heirs?] of Anurbisa are forbidden not [-] to put up a building with any kind of roof. As you said you are a Christian. So you will never follow the customs of our ancestors. It is all the same, Our ancestors did not get the power of [from] their own, but God gave them the power. So if you try to obey their laws, you are not sinning against God. So I will advise you to take off the roof of your room and your wife will be better. Do not mind whatever your pastor tells you. You can obey him by out [outer?] word, but not with your heart. For he is not staying with you in your house. So please take this advice. It will help you". She said this to me. "Thank you, sister," I thanked her. And we departed. I came home.

 

The following day I sent one of my uncle's wives to go to the hospital at Navrongo to see my wife. She went. Before she reached the hospital, my wife had been discharged and was waiting on the veranda. So the nurse asked her to go home, for they are not charging her anything [any money]. My wife told my uncle's wife: "I have been discharged and I was asked to wait and pay the hospital fees. After all I am not to pay anything. So I was told by the nurse. "Would you have got money to pay, if you had been asked to pay?" asked my uncle's wife. "Yes," my wife answered her. "Then let us go to the lorry station now and see if we can get [a] lorry to go home," my uncle's wife said. They came home in the evening.

 

I also came back from the clinic. I was very happy to see her, when I came home. I stood up to pray silently, thanking God: "O God, thank you for the quick recovering of my wife's sickness, for you have heard my prayers and have forgiven us. Therefore thanks to be you, oh Lord. For you so love us that you don't want us to suffer. Now, heavenly Father, through my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I beseech your presence with us in this house. Help us to live peacefully. The power of Satan is very great over us, which we cannot overcome by our own power. But with your help we will be able to overcome it. And Father, if it is your will that I should stay with my uncle in this house, please Father, let it be your will. I really want to live in this house with my uncle. But all these troubles on me here are too much than I can bear them [for me to bear them]. And [as for] this small room [that] I have built, people are jealous about it. Because of that they are asking me to disroof it. Father, I do not know what is right: to leave it stand like that or to disroof it. So almighty Father, I leave all these problems in your hand to solve them for me, I beg you, through my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's name. Amen".

I finished with the prayer and sat down, glancing [at] my wife's face. She looked very lean and pale. I asked her: "How do you feel now?" - "I am much better, only I am very weak, but [there are] no more pains. I don't want any food," she said. "That is natural. Anybody that has been attacked by sickness and recovered will have no appetite for food. It will take some time, before you come to your normal diet again. So don't worry much about that". I said this to her.

 

My uncle came in to greet73 her. He said: "N doa, fi nyingka po ka se?" That is: "My daughter-in-law, how is your body?" the interpretation of it. My wife answered in the vernacular: "Ku ya basa kama" That is to say: "It is now better". After my uncle had finished greetings with my wife, he said to me: "I am going into my room now, and I would like to see you in my room. I want to discuss some few points with you. It will not take us long". When he had spoken this to me, I just read his mind of view. In my mind it told me that it was about my room that he wanted to discuss with me. Then my heart started beating and he went out. As soon as he had gone out, my wife asked me: "What is it that he wants to discuss with you?" I answered her: "I don't know until I go to hear from him, my dear". It seemed to her that she had also understood what my uncle wanted to discuss [with] me. So she said: "Maybe it is some matter about our room". and I said: "Well, I cannot know until I go to hear from him, as I have told you. Do not worry very much about all this. Let us go out to see him".

Then off I went out going to my uncle's room. There he was sitting in his "lazy-chair". I knocked [at] the door and he said: "Yes, come in!" and I entered. He gave me a chair to sit on. Then he rose up from his "lazy-chair74" and said: "What I want to discuss with you is this. You told me that you would like to put up a small room and roof it with iron sheets, and I said to you that really you are the daughter's [son] of Anurbisa, so I don't think it will be disallowed [to] you to do so. You can build your room and roof it, but it will not of [with] my permission so that the ancestors will [might] take action against me. And you have done it. The troubles on you are for [-] too much [many]; you have not been well yourself and all your family and people have been saying that it is because of your room that the ancestors are against it. I don't know whether you have heard it from the people of [-] yourself or not. To [as for] me I will not advise you to disroof your room, but I don't know if you are thinking of [it] yourself. Because you have spent much money on it to disroof [disroofing] it now is not good. But if it is better to disroof your room and live a healthy life than to have the roof on and live a miserable life, is up to you. This is all that I want to tell you. And what is your opinion?" - 

"Thank you for the advice given to me," I said, "and what you have said, all is true, I have been hearing from people that it is because of my room that I have been suffering like that together with my family. But to [as for] me, I am a Christian, and as a Christian you must face troubles like these. Or God may like to change your life, then all this kind of trouble may come to you. Maybe you have sinned against God, and he wants you to repent, then you have to meet all this kind of sickness. This is what I am thinking of now. As for the room, I don't think that it is because of the room that I have roofed that cause the sickness on me and all my family. So I don't think that I will disroof it at all. But if you say that I should take the roof off, then I will have no objection. You may think with fear that your ancestors will in future take action against you, because of my room. I will never let you be punished because of me. So let me know what you think."

And he said: "No, I don't think so, and I will never think of that. Let us leave it like that, but pray to God that you live a happy life." - "Thank you," I said.

[Hier endet der eigentliche Lebenslauf Andrews. Er hat den ganzen Text als Schreibmaschinen-Skript durchgelesen und mit einigen Anmerkungen versehen, die hier berücksichtigt wurden. Die folgenden zwei Beiträge über die Erziehung seiner Kinder und über seine Tätigkeit als Evangelist (Katechist) wurden von Andrew erst einige Jahre später verfasst]

 

THE EDUCATION OF MY CHILDREN

 

The education of my children and [that] of the local people are different altogether. I have the hope very much to educate all my children, six of them, and if possible [to send them] to the higher schools, such as [the] University. But the main lacking thing is that I have no money to educate them up to that standard as I'm hoping for. But however, I shall try my best, if the almighty God helps me. Why should I think of educating all my children and not three of them to be uneducated75? The answer is: I myself, I was not allowed to attend school at all by my parents. But I did force myself to attend the school in Kumasi. I did not complete the elementary education76. Now I regret very much that I haven't completed my education, because there are many jobs now in Ghana which need your testimonies and certificates. I have been seeking jobs like that, and always I had to ask of [they asked for?] my certificate, before I could be employed.

Not only jobs, even every kind of work today needs education. [For] farming you need to know how to read and write, so that you will be able to acquire the necessary things for the farming, such as fertilizers of all kinds and other drugs that can kill insects. Not only this. The future is something which no one can tell. And as an educated man [that] I am, I have to think of a better future for my children. If they fail or succeed in their lives, they shall not say later that I did not want to educate them or that I educated only some of them. My hope of [for] the future for [of] my children is this: I wish three of my children to be graded ones [to graduate]. And also the other three should possess the middle grades77, such as [a] doctor of drugs or medicals and mechanization or engineers or ministers of the Lord, not only to qualify as a pastor without grades.

 

The local people do not understand this, neither do they know of the future what will happen to them or their children in the local way of life and believe education is nothing to them. They rather think that to educate a child by allowing him or her to go to school is of no use, because the child will be away for the whole day, and there is nobody to fetch water for the sheep and goats and to take care of them so that they might not lose [get lost]. [They think the child should] also learn some of the customs of the house. Or the child, after completing his or her education, may refuse to take part of [in] the custom [customary] performances, such as sacrificing by slaughtering animals to the ancestors. And all that [school] leads the children not to know the history of their families. This is one of the reasons why people from Bulsa are [do] not allow their children to go to school.

 

The second reason is that: A man and his wife may have only one child, and that child is the only one. In this case these parents may have the hope that this child will represent them by taking care of the ancestors, that is: sacrificing [to] them with some animals. And if they mean to let this only child of them go to school, then they will have no one to represent them when they die, because after the child has been educated it knows that [it] is no need or use to sacrifice. And [he or she] may perhaps go away to the South. Then that means it is then the end of their generation, because the only son will also in turn try to educate his children, and the whole generation of that man and his wife have come to an end according [to] their belief78.

 

It is just the same as in my case, but I am not the only son of my father and mother. But nobody knows of the future, whether my other brothers will die and I shall [be] left behind. Then I have to take the responsibilities by doing all the sacrifices to the ancestors of our fathers. And I am a Christian now and have fully repented with a full promise that I shall serve the Lord throughout my life. So my case is a complete different [one]. I have to educate all my children. Already I have taught them to serve the Lord, [the] almighty God, and believe in the Lord Jesus as their saviour.

 

So it is up to them now. I am sure that they have to serve the Lord God only, because I myself, I have not any artificial God, neither did I invent an artificial God for them so that in future, when I depart from this world, then they shall not be worshipping me by doing the sacrificing of animals to me. My wife has no artificial God either79. So I am so eager to educate all my children with heartily prayer. May the Lord help me to educate them all, and if possible, some of them should be the servants of the Lord so that they might serve him well. Only, no one can foretell his future, how long you may live in this world and [when you] depart from this world. But if it is the will of the Lord that I should live a longer life, then I shall be glad and try all my possible best to educate my children.

 

On my wife's side [as for my wife] she has no mind of the future and so the education of our children means nothing to her. All she wants is that the children should not attend school at all, but be helping her at home and be as the local [children]: to learn all the foolish customs about the ancestors. Throughout the life of our marriage she has never wanted to become a Christian. Why ? Because of taking the advice of her mother. And so it is very difficult for her to understand the meaning of education. There has been much trouble between us about the education of our children.

In the past few year's early mornings, when I got up from bed asking the children to get ready for school, she would not agree by saying that to me: "What to you mean by troubling the kids every morning like that? After [leaving school?], what shall they gain from school? The other children in the house have been attending school for many many years. Have they obtained anything better? No! Your children are what that you have been forcing them like that about schooling" [sense not clear].

Always my answer to this was this: "I myself was not allowed to go to school, but I forced myself into school. And now the job I have, it is through my education that I got to [be] employed. Had it been that I couldn't read or write, then would I have been employed by the White Man? Therefore stop saying these localities words to me [words that the local people say]. You suppose to know how education is and even try to educate your children yourself. But you are not making any effort at all. You don't even try to look ahead of the future and think of it to know what will become of you yourself and your children."

 

After having finished these words to her, at times she would become quiet, and sometimes she would start to talk only nonsense to me. So whenever it became like that I had to leave the room and go outside or go somewhere to the town.

This went on for many many years until I got to hear that all that she had been acting foolishly to me, came from her mother, that she had been advised by the mother that she would not agree with me when I said the children should go to school and also she herself should not be a Christian. And really this was [had] actually happened. She would refuse to go to church on Sundays. Not only that! I wanted her to go to Bayoro, the Women's Training College and be trained to be a good housewife and to know how to care for children, also how to cook a better food and tailor [on a] sewing machine. But she refused to go. All this advice came from her mother.

 

But I had taken it to be part of [the] temptation of Satan that was ruling over her. So what I always have to do is to pray every morning and evening for her. I really suffered a lot about her to become a Christian by changing her life completely and not to take any advice from the mother. It was [a] very difficult time for me, that time of the past three years. My mother-in-law paid me a visit every market day, that is every three days. All her visits to us are just [paid] to know how we are going on about the education of the children and her daughter going to Bagno.

This happened many times, and I did not know of which way [how] to win my wife back into the life of Christianity. All I could do was praying, and in many prayers it seemed to me, as if God was not hearing me. One time I referred myself back to the bible. In Matthew, Chapter twenty-eight, verse twenty-two Jesus said: "I shall be with you even unto the end of the world." And whenever I read from the bible [and] heard of these words, I then thought over of myself again to see if there had been some mistake or wrong or sin that I had sinned against God and he had to punish me on this way. Because it is very difficult to be a Christian when your wife is a pagan. I went on praying to God that the Lord might help me by changing the life of my wife into of [a] Christian.

But it took me a long time to get all these problems solved, and it was only last year, 1973, when my wife agreed to be baptized and fully agreed also that we should educate our children.

 

My dear Mr. Kröger80, I have suffered a lot. It is the fact that I could not go round the world to see the suffering of other people, else [otherwise] I would have said that I have suffered greatly more than anybody in the world. Some people suffered because of their living, how to get [a] job and to earn their living; others suffered because of wanting to get some posts or to be richer and to be normer [?] than everybody; also others suffered to get unduly marriage and so on. But in my case it is not like that at all. The worst of it is that I am staying with pagans. And as my wife did not want to be [a] Christian with me, therefore she had many supporters. So I was hated by everybody in our house; but all that [the time?] the Lord was with me, and he cared very much for me. I could sometimes remember that there was a test on Christians. Abraham was tested, also the Lord Jesus was tested by Satan. And [having] lost all [people] to help me to keep on my faith in the Lord [I thought of the sentence:] God is slow to act. And so in my memories whenever I recollected all these words then I became a bit alright about the education of my children. I most [like] to educate them anyhow, because I know the meaning of education and nobody can tell of the future ahead of us. It is better to be prepared for the future, that [means] to wait and to be prepared. I don't want my children to suffer in the same way I have suffered. But they should in the future be a bit happy and enjoy and also remember me. When I shall still be alive or not, they will then be saying: "Our father suffered very much to bring us up and to educate us. With these memorandums, they shall in turn try to educate their children as well, so that the generation of family will continue with educative ways.

It is my aim and wish that the Lord [the] almighty may help me to live longer that I will educate my children for the Lord from whom I have got them. Therefore I have to think of [a] better future for them. I am very sorry that myself am not a well-educated man. I wished I should have been.

 

AN EVANGELIST AT CHANA

 

I was all the time going to church doing the interpretation to the pastor. And in 1969 Sister Doris went on leave because of some sickness, and she was advised by her doctor not to come back to Ghana. Sister Norma came from Scotland and took over the clinic. I was still working with her and in [April] 1972 she also left Ghana, and there was nobody to take ever the clinic. So I had to stay at home as a jobless man. I had saved some money to put up a [the above-mentioned] room for my wife and children. After I had got that room built and I [had] withdrawn all my savings [and] spent it on the room, Sister Norma left the clinic and went home. I was told that a new Sister will come. That is why I am now staying at home so joblessly.

 

On 15th December 1973, I was asked by Reverend James Agalic81 to take up the appointment of an Evangelist at Chana. "For the evangelist there has been dismissed and at the moment there is nobody who is capable of doing the evangelist's work," he said. At first he asked me that: "Would you like to become an evangelist?" - "Yes," I answered him. By then I was with the nursing Sister of the Presbyterians Mobile Clinic82 as a dispenser. I answered his question and I said, I would like to become an evangelist, but at the moment I was working with the Sister, and she was not in. She was on a casual leave and had gone to Accra. She asked me to wait for her. She had paid me half a month's pay in order that the half month's money would enable me to spend the Christmas. It was on 13th December 1973 that Sister Dorothy left the clinic and went to Accra on a casual leave. I said to Pastor Agalic that I would like to be an evangelist, but as [the] sister is not in, I don't know what she will say when she returns from Accra. And Reverend Agalic said that:"The clinic work is not a permanent work. It could stop at any time, and you have to be jobless then for some time. And as a married man with children it is difficult for you to stay jobless like that. I found that you are the right man for the evangelistic work. The salary is too small, but it is better than [being] a jobless man."

So I agreed to take up the appointment. So he took me with his motor bicycle to Chana to introduce me to the congregation in Chana. We arrived at Chana at about 5.30 p.m. It was only the Elders of the Church at Gbenia, the subdivision of Chana, that we met. They were: Mr. John Luguyeri, Mr. Kabaa and Mr. Henry Kowdatan, three of them. They were at the market, and Rev. Agalic introduced me to them. In his introduction [the pastor] said: "You will be happy to meet Mr Akambe Andrew, who will be your new evangelist. I have brought him to introduce him to you. He will come back tomorrow to take up the appointment. Mr. Andrew is not a new man to you. You all know him. He has been working with the white lady [nurse] for the past nine years. And so I hope he will be [a] good evangelist to you."

When he had finished the introduction with these words, the elders thanked him and said: "We are happy to meet you, Mr Andrew, You are welcome. We were about to ask the pastor to bring you to come and be our evangelist. And we were thinking of your present job in the clinic. Maybe you are very happy with the post, but as it is now that you have agreed to take up this post and work with us, we are very happy and pray that the Lord may be with you and bless you in your new appointment." - "Thank you, [I?] wish you all the best and God’s guidance on you. Thanks!"

 

Then we left Gbenia and came to Chana. At Chana we met Mr Appiah, the Food Production Corporation Farm Manager, who was then the acting evangelist. Reverend Agalic introduced me to him with the same words that he had spoken at Gbenia with the Elders there. And it was about 7.30 p.m. [when] we came back to Sandema.

 

The next day which was 16th December 1973, I took some of my luggage and went to Chana at about 12.30. I went to Chana on foot83, because there was no lorry going towards that direction. When I arrived at Chana, I put my luggage in the quarters. It was the market day of Chana. So I went to the market to buy some cola-nuts. On my way back home, just at the entrance of my house, I heard a noise of a tractor from the Food Production Corporation offices coming towards my house. I ran quickly, entered the outer yard of the house and still the tractor was coming towards my house, very close to me. And I ran into the room and immediately I entered the room, I heard Gbem [a bang?] behind me. It knocked the walls of my house down. I came out to see the tractor was in the yard with the driver on it unhurt. And somebody went to the police station and reported the incident to the police, and one of the police, by name Constable Sackye, came and saw the incident and asked me, whether I was the man responsible of the house. I answered him: "Yes." He said that I should come [and] make a report about what I saw.

 

I was going to give a statement and the driver and some of his relatives called me back, begging me not to give bad statements against him, for he would rebuild my walls for me. And I said that: "I must go and give the statement, because I am [the] newly appointed evangelist, and it is today that I have just arrived here, and this incident happened like that. I don't know what will happen to me. It is the property of the Church, and I am responsible for it. So I have to give the statement of what I saw." And I left them and went to the police station and gave the statement and came home.

 

And on 20th December 1973 I was called by the Chief of Chana. I went and he asked me that: "I heard that your walls have been knocked down by the Food Production Corporation. Is it true?" - "Yes," I answered. "Well, the driver came here to me asking me to beg you for him to allow him to rebuild your walls for you. For he knows very well that if the matter is taken to court and he has to appear before the court he will heavily be charged, which he cannot pay and he is a married man with children. So, please, I beg you to try and withdraw the case from the police and the driver will rebuild your walls for you. For we are all brothers84. He , the driver, comes from Navrongo by birth and you are also from Sandema.

And I said: "Please, sir, I will do so according to your advice, if only the police will agree that the case should be withdrawn and settled at home." And he said: "Thanks! I hope that the police will allow you to withdraw the case. I shall be praying to God to help you in your work, for I know how difficult your work is. May God be with you!."

 

And I came home. I was very hungry and [had] no food to eat. I had some uncooked beans and I had no [other] stuff of any kind in the house there in the kitchen. But I had no firewood too. I went to the market to see if I could get some firewood to buy. there was no firewood. I looked round to see if I could get some food there to buy and eat. There was no food also85. So I came back home sat down to rest and go [then] to the police station. I rested for about 15 minutes and got off going to the police station. I met the police on the way. He was coming to me with a note. "Good afternoon, Mr Andrew!" - "Good afternoon, sir," I responded to his greetings. "I was coming to you. And luckily I met you here. So here is a note for you. You are asked to come to court on 24th January, 1974 about the case of your walls that have been knocked down by the tractor." - "No! I was coming to you also about the same case, to beg you, if you will allow me to withdraw the case and settle it at home. the driver has begged me to withdraw the case, for he will rebuild the walls for me., And as a Christian [that] I am I must forgive him. And moreover he had pleaded faithfully with me that he would rebuild the walls and paint them for me. So I beg you if you could please let me withdraw the case." - "Oh, I am sorry, Mr Andrew. It is too late for that and also this man is not a driver. He is only an Assistant Transport Officer. And before he moved the tractor, warned by his officer in charge not to take the tractor, and he didn't mind, and it happened that he had an accident. The tractor needs to be repaired. So even if I am to allow you to withdraw the matter, the department of the Food Production Corporation will not allow it. So please, I cannot do that. I am very sorry. I am also one of your members, a Presbyterian. So we are brothers. As brothers we are in the Lord, we need to understand one another and help one another in some cases like this. But in this case it is difficult for me to help you. Please understand me and do not worry very much about it." - "Thank you," I said, and he went back to his office.

 

I also went back to my house very hungry, and [there were] no means of getting something to eat for that day. I finally decided to go to Sandema, and I had no bicycle, and with the hunger I was so [too] weak to walk all the way from Chana to Sandema. I came into the room and started to pray:

"Oh, Lord, I need your presents [presence?] with me now through your Holy Spirit. For I do not know what to do now. You have sent me here to Chana to do the evangelistic work, and I have not yet started the work, and [there are] troubles around me. Therefore, Father, help me and teach me what to do. At the moment I am worried about food. But as your word tells me 'Do not worry about the food you will eat and the clothes you will wear' in Matthew, chapter 6. These words have comforted me. Jesus said to Satan that it is written 'Do not tempt the Lord your God' when he was tasted [tempted?] in the wilderness. Almighty Father, I do not know, whether I can do the work or not. [It is] not [so] that I don't want the work. I like it very much. I am very happy that I am asked to do this work, for I have been praying that I should be one of your servants that you should be using me for your own will. And now, God, you have answered my prayers and have sent me here for your work. Therefore, Father, if it is your will that you have sent me here to do the work and I haven't started it. And the temptation are me like this, please [sense not clear], Father, help me to overcome it, Father, through my Lord and saviour Jesus Christ."

 

At the end of my prayers my hunger was somehow reduced. I did not bring a bed or mattress with me to sleep on. Only my "lazy chair" I was using as a bed. So I sat [down] on the chair and fell asleep. I woke up from sleeping at about 5.30 a.m. and went to a policeman's wife and asked her, if she had some food to sell. She said that she had only Gari86 and no sugar. I said: "All right, give me [for] ten pesewas. I have no sugar of myself, but I have salt." So I bought the Gari and came home, took the Gari with water and added some small [a little] salt to it, left it for some time and started to eat it like that. After finishing eating I took a book to read but couldn't do so and study. I was worried. I put the book back and lay down on my "lazy chair". The night seemed to be years long to me, to see the next daybreak.

 

However, the next morning I decided to go to Sandema and make a report of the incident of the walls being knocked down by the tractor and to get some flour or some rice and beans from my wife. After having taken my bath I started off my journey to Sandema on foot. I arrived at Sandema at about half past ten. Unfortunately, my wife had left for Wiaga. So I was told. I continued my journey to the Mission House to report the incident to Rev. Agalic. I arrived at the Mission House. The pastor was not there. he had gone to town. I went on to the town. In the town I saw him and reported the matter to him. I also told him about the condition of food in Chana, and he said: "You have to stay here in Sandema till tomorrow, as it is market day of Sandema tomorrow. You can buy some foodstuff, such as rice and beans and some other ingredients and go back to Chana. For you can't take your wife with you now. And you can't make flour cream or T.Z. by yourself".

I said: "Yes, that is the best way, but I have not money with me now until I sell one of my goats. I have two goats. So I have to sell one for my living in Chana, as I cannot make a flour cream or T.Z. Or I could take millet with me there to Chana". And the pastor said: "No, don't sell your goat. I will borrow you some money and you will pay me back when you have got your salary, or don't you like it in that way?" - "How much do you want?" he asked me in turn. "NC [New Cedis] 5.00 will do as I am alone. I will not take any of my children with me just now, but I will let them come with me to Chana later when I am well settled there". He said:"That is right then. I am going to the house now. So when you are going back to Chana, you can pass my house and get the money". Then I went to his house later on and got the money.

 

In that month I did not get my salary full in my hands. It was always five Cedis at a time, until I received all my salary. I had no bicycle of my own, but one old one [that] belonged to the Church, and I was using it until the Church granted me a loan to buy one for myself.

 

I started as an evangelist here in Chana on 16th December, 1973. On 24th December I saw the Chanapio, that is the Chana Chief. Though I was going there to see him and to introduce myself to him as a newly appointed evangelist in his village, I never met him in his residence. It was on the 24th day of December that I met him in his house, greeted him and introduced myself to him. He was very happy and gave me a warm welcome. He started to tell me how much he loved our Church and how good we had been to him and the people of Chana. "It was [through] the help of the Presbyterian Mission that Chana had got a Health Centre. Not only that. The people themselves learnt to go to hospitals through our mission's education, and most of the young boys and girls had been employed by our Church. Some of them are in the higher schools through the help of the Presbyterians. The young women and old or middle-aged [ones] now know how to be [behave] when under pregnancy, what to eat and what not". "I am very happy with your Church. Only some of your workers are not content or don't go well according to some of your rules. The former evangelist was here. He was not doing his work at all. He was all the time walking with the Food Production Corporation labourers. And even wen he went away from Chana, he did not let me know anything about it at all. It was later on [that] he wrote to me from Paga that he was sorry that he did not inform me before he left Chana. And it was because of [this]: when he was about to come to my house and [say] good-bye [to] me, then a lorry came. So he thought, if he meant to come to me, he would miss the lorry. So he had to go. Now I have heard that someone has come to take over Mr. Jacob [Mr. Jacobs's occupation]. That fellow is from Sandema, but I never saw that person until today that [when] you have come to introduce yourself to me. How is [it] that I am the Chief of Chana. [Am I not the Chief of Chana?] As you have come, if anything happens on [to] you, to whom will you go and get a help? I am the right person to help you, and I did not hear of your arrival in Chana, only today".

"Apology," I said, "please, Chief, sir, I am sorry, but the very day I arrived here in Chana I came to your house to introduce myself to you, but I did not meet you in the house, and the following day, which was the 17th December I came again. I did not meet you. I then left a message to your elders that whenever you come they should let you know that I came to introduce myself to you but all the time I met you absent. I kept on coming until today, when I met you in the house, But anyway, I have to be sorry for that and please forgive me. As you know I come from Kalijiisa, from the house where your aunt, Akuyewuu by name, is married to. I am not really from that house by birth, but it is my uncle's house. My mother came from that house, and it is my uncle himself who married your aunt. My father died in 1957, and my mother brought me to my uncle's house. There I grew [up]. So I am your relative. And as you have said: I must introduce myself to you fully. Just in case of troubles on me in times to come then you will be able to save me. So please forgive me".

"Ah! I see. You are welcome at last, though it is only today that you have come to introduce yourself to me. Then it is not bad. Only, I am sorry that my people in Chana don't understand the meaning of Christianity. I have heard that many people don't come to Church at all, only few of them have been attending Church. Is that true ?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, chief," I said. "Since I have come and it was getting to Xmas [Christmas was approaching], I did not notice that the members of my Church were doing anything about Christmas. I could only hear from them that the former catechist had not visited them and [had not] told them, when it was Sunday, because most of them did not know when it was Sunday. And they also did not receive anything from him, such as clothes and food. For they knew that the white men at Sandema had been distributing clothes and food to the people in Sandema. They also gave some to the catechist in the various villages to distribute [them] to the people there. But they in Chana here did not receive anything from the catechist. So they think it is no use coming to church. That is what I heard from some of them". I said this to him.

"It is not so, catechist! Only that former catechist was a very lazy chap. He was not doing his work at all, as an evangelist should do. He was all the time going about women, and also all the Food Productions's workers were his friends. Anyway, as you have come and most of the people know you very well, I think your work will be improved with the help of God. Try your best, for you are our own son, and so things will go on better than before".

"Thank you, sir, chief! I need your help, sir, by [your] advising your people to come to church". - "I shall do so!" - "Thanks! I beg to leave now". So I said. "Wait!" Then he sent somebody to his room, and that man brought a fowl and gave it to him. He said: "Give it to the catechist!" With these words [he addressed me]: "As you have come and it is Xmas time, here is a fowl for your to spend the Xmas with. We shall see you later on". I took the fowl from him and thanked him. Then I left. It was about 5.30 p.m.

 

That night I went to the chapel and conducted the Christmas Eve with a few members attending. On the next day, which was Friday, I went to Gbenia to conduct the Christmas service there. Also there were a few people attending. [At] Katiu only three people attended and in Chana about eight people attended church.

 

On 29th December 1973, I went to Katiu for home visitation and to know why the members did not come to church. And my hearing was this: "When the white men first came to Katiu, we, the people of Katiu, were the first people to receive the white men, and they were also very good to us, because they gave us clothes and wheat, milk, oil and corn. In fact the church here in Katiu was really a very big one, even more [even bigger] that [at] Chana. And later on we had a leader, John Abdella by name. The white men used to bring some food stuff for him to share with us. What he had to do was to take a bottle and measure the oil for every house or compound, and the wheat: a calabash each, also the milk: one packet each. [But he did not share the things] So all this made the people of Katiu withdraw themselves back from Christianity. But the remaining (group] of us, we did our best to continue. But only the former evangelist did not visit us and we did not know Sundays87. He also had been telling us that the pastor would come to see us, but all in vain. He even collected our communion cards from us; [he said] that he would renew them for us. Since then he never returned them back to us. Before he left he told us that he was going for further studies, and that was all. He did not tell us when he would be go. It was later on that we heard from people that he had gone to Accra. We did not receive our communion cards from him, before he left".

I asked them a question: "Did you receive a thought [instruction] by the first white men of [about] the meaning of Christian [Christianity] before you were baptized?" - "Oh, yes! The white men came here every day to teach us the catechism for months and months before we were baptized". That was their answer. "Now do you still remember what you were taught by the white men?" I asked them again. "Oh yes! We know all the commandments, the Lord's Prayer and also how we should help one another in any case. As for the meaning of Christianity, we know it well". That was [what] they answered. "I see, but why is it that some of you have stopped coming to church, because your leader mislead you on matters of food and clothes?" - "Well, it was cheating that he took everything for himself, as if he were the only person to know the white men or to become a Christian. That is the idea of the other members. But to the four of us, we don't mind at all, because before the white men came we were eating, wearing [clothes], and drinking. So we cannot say that the white men's food and clothes made us live". - "So," I said, "did you try to teach your other members about what you have just told me?" - "Oh, my friend, whenever we try to tell them about this thing, then they want to slap us or warn us not or never again to repeat these words to them". - "Did the former evangelist sometimes tell them about the meaning of Christianity?" I asked them. "Anyway, he never came any other days apart from Sundays, and not even [on] all Sundays did he come. And also any Sunday he came he had to preach to those of us that were present, and [he] told us that he had to go back to Chana to conduct a service there and [to] Gbenia. So we cannot know, whether he came to meet the other members and tell them about the meaning of Christianity or not". That was [what] they answered. "All right, I will go now, and I will come again some time during the week. I cannot tell you when, because as a new man I have not yet set my time table as to know when to visit you at Katiu, Chana and Gbenia". Then I left.

 

[I was] back to Chana at about 2.30 p.m. [I] wanted some food to eat. [There was] no food anywhere to buy and eat, only rice and beans, uncooked ones. And I had only ten Pesewas with me. And the rice was 20 Pesewas in a calabash, also the beans. I thought I would go back to Sandema, because my wife was not with me there [at Chana]. I started my way to Sandema. I had a puncture just half the way to [between] Sandema and Chana. I started pushing [my bicycle] and came to Sandema round about 4.30 p.m. By then my wife and children had finished their lunch. I had to chew groundnuts for my lunch, and could not come back to Chana on that day, because I had to park [repair] the bicycle at Sandema town. So I slept in my house and the next morning I started to push the bicycle to the town to get it parked [repaired]. I got money from my wife: one Cedi88. After parking [repairing] the bicycle it was 12.30 p.m. and I started off from Sandema to Chana. I arrived [at] Chana [at] about two o'clock.

 

The next morning I went to Gbenia for home visitation. First I went to one of the presbyters's house to direct me to the other members. He took me to a nearby compound. It was a woman we met, one of our members. She also started giving the same complain about clothes and food. But the presbyter warned her not to give such statements. "You did not become a Christian because of food, did you?" - "No!" she answered, "but why is it that you are talking of food and clothes?" - "Well, ask the catechist, if what I was saying about the clothes and food did not begin in Sandema. I did not mean that I became a Christian because of food and clothes. But what is happening now in our church is too bad". The woman who was speaking was not happy with the warning to her by the presbyter. So I interrupted.

"Please, Ami," that was her name, "what you said was right that the clothes and food distribution started at Sandema. You were quite right, but is was not started to make people become Christians because of that. The main reason of the clothes and food was that: we, the people of Chana and some parts of West Africa are poor. So the people of the United States of America decided to help us by giving us the food and the clothes, not only [to us] Ghanaians, but also [to] other Africans as well. And this food was to be distributed by the Heads of Departments, such as Local Councils, from there to schools and the missionaries or our church, also [to] other missions in the country. But as we are Christians, we have to consider our members, especially those that are poor [and] that we know ourselves [so] that we have to go round and distribute the food to them. This does not mean that if anyone of you did not get enough as the other poor people got, then you may withdraw your Christianity from the Church. You have to think of your faith and also the questions you answered your pastor and the congregation and abide on [by] that. So please, do not make any mention of the food and clothes.

I think you have ever heard from the Bible that Jesus said: 'Do not worry about the food you will eat today and the clothes you need. Look at the birds. They do not work and yet God cares for them. How much more are you? Are you not valuable more than the birds?' Now you have become a Christian to [for] yourself and to save others, to win souls for Jesus, but not to get food and clothes. 'Seek yet the Kingdom of God first, and all that you need shall be added onto you' - Matthew 6 and from the following verses.- Therefore please, do not think about food you shall continue getting from the Church that you will continue to be a Christian. Try your best and attend church services on Sundays, and through that you will confirm your faith and know the Lord as your Saviour."

After I had finished saying these words she was quiet for some time and said: "I will come to church on Sundays. But when is Sunday?" she asked. "Mr John will tell you when is Sunday, or you will hear the bell ringing on Sunday." Then we said good-bye to her and went away to another compound.

That compound there was one of the Elders' of the Church. We greeted him, and he said to Mr John: "I wanted to come to your house, when I saw the catechist coming there, but later I saw you going to that woman. So I stopped coming." He began to ask Mr John about me: "Is this our new catechist?" - "Yes," John answered. "Oh, I know him. He is a good man, and even most of the women know him. So I think our church will be rebuilt again, for there was a collapse. Now that he is our own brother and he has come to work with us, we are happy. We will do our best to work with him in co-operation. But what did that woman say when you went to her?" he asked. Then Mr John started to give the story of the woman. He laughed and said to me: "You see, this is how our people here are blaming us. They thought that we the Elders are receiving food and clothes from you and we are not sharing it with them. All your answering to her was very good. It was even a sermon to her. I hope she understood you very well. Anyway, as you have to take over the work, we would like you to come to us from time to time so that we can go round the houses and visit them and to interview them. I think that is the best way that will help us to get back the old members that have stopped coming to church because of food and clothes, and I hope that the Lord will help us." 

"Yes, so do I," I said to him. "But what was the former catechist doing?" I asked. "Anyway, he was also doing well. Only the understanding of the people is very difficult," he said. I said: "Well, that will only be done by God himself. We cannot do anything to get these people really understand the full meaning of a Christian. So let us pray for them always, and if it is the will of the Lord, he himself will give them the understanding and will bring them to himself. Now, what was your time for Sundays' services?" I asked. "Our time is five o'clock in the afternoon, but sometimes they come later than that," he answered. :So shall we change it a bit earlier than that, so that if at all they will come late, that it will not be too late?" I asked the two of them. "Yes," they answered. "That will be good. What time do you think will be good for them?" - "Twelve o'clock," They said. "Well, then we have to announce it in the church on Sunday," I said. "Yes, that will be good." Then I asked them to leave for them to eat and they said: "You have to wait, so that we find something for you to eat, as we were not aware of your coming to us today." I said: "I will come on another day, but not today." Then I left.

It was about 4.30 p.m. and I came back to Chana. I went to the chief to see him about the New Year. I saw him sitting under a tree at the entrance of his house. I greeted him: "Good evening, sir." - "Good evening, you are welcome, catechist!" he replied. "Please chief, I would like to see you to know about the New Year, for I want to come and pray for you and your elders and your family as we have done it in Sandema for the Sandemnaab. Every year we have to go to his house and he comes to church. After church services he invites us to his palace. All the congregation and the pastor will have to go to the chief's house and pray for him and his households. I don't know whether that is done here or not. That is why I have come to inquire, sir." - "Thank you for coming," he said, "That is very good of you. I myself used to come to your church on Christmas day, and after that the congregation would pay me a house visit either an New Year's day or on Christmas day. This year I have to go to the Roman Catholic Church89. That will be in the morning about 8 a.m. But when do you like to come?" he asked me. "After the church services. That is about 11.30 a.m., sir." - "Then you can come about 12.00 o'clock. By that [time] I might have returned back from church," he said. "Thanks! Then I beg to leave, sir." "All right. Thank you for visiting me. I will see you again. Good-bye!"

 

I came home about 6 p.m. [and] tried to get some water from the pump, but no water! A certain woman gave me some of her water. I did not bath but used it for cooking my beans. I sat down to read after cooking. The title of the book was: Eighteen Pence by R.E. Obeng90. After reading for some minutes I stopped and went to bed. I couldn't sleep at all. I woke up to pray. After praying I lay down again to sleep and I dreamt. In my dreaming I saw that I was struggling with people whom I didn't know at all.

 

The next day was the [New] Year’s Day and I went to the church. I had called all the congregation [of] both Katiu and Gbenia to come to Chana and attend the New Years service . After that we would go to visit the chief and pray for him and his household. So after the service we all went to him at his residence. I prayed for him and his house hold. After we had finished praying he addressed us and spoke a lot about the collapsing of the church, for his people stopped coming to church. He said: "Do you not know that it is through the Presbyterian Mission that our country has improved like this. At first there was no clinic at this place. The Presbyterians brought the clinic and it was established. Later on a Health centre was built with the help of the Mission, and it was running well. Now that you don't have to take the trouble of going to Navrongo with your babies or yourselves, isn't that good for you? How is it that you don't want to go to church? I have heard that some of you are complaining of food and clothes that you don't get these things from the church. Because of that you have stopped going to church. I will advice you not to think of food and clothes and [not] stop being a Christian. For being a Christian is to save you souls and save others as well. Not only that, nobody knows the future of his or her life. If we , the people of Chana, continue to co-operate with the missionaries, I am sure we may get some help from them in due course. Now you are blessed that the church has sent your own son to you to be your catechist. So you must be happy with him and try to help him in his catechismal teachings. Although you knew him well before, now you have to know him again in another way and that is of his new duties. I thank you and the congregation for paying me a visit and [for] having prayed for me and my people in Chana. May the Lord be with you and help you in your work. Let us know, if there is something you need our hand [for], we will help you."

"Thanks!" After he had finished speaking we asked him to let us go, and he said: "Wait!" He went into his room bringing with him four bottles of beer for us. And we thanked him again and departed.

 

From that day I started home visitation, and all I could hear from the members was about the clothes and food. Some of them were complaining against their teachers: "When the food and clothes were brought for all of them, then the teacher had the choice: Those that he loved he gave the lion's share, and those that he did not love he gave a little and sometimes nothing at all. So this made some of us know that there are differences between [in] Christianity. It is no use being a member for the work and not a member for the eating. When it comes that we should eat, then some of us have to eat and some of us will not eat. These are the complaints of all the members of the Presbyterian [Church] at both Chana and Gbenia and Katiu.

 

On 4th January, 1974 I went to Gbenia to start the chapel building. Then I had to stop the home visitation to get the chapel built before the scarcity of water91. From February on the dam92 there at Gbenia will be dried up and there will be no water near by for the building of the chapel. I was all the time going to Gbenia every morning [and] came back late in the evening. The chapel took us good three months to finish the building. From that time onwards I had no other work to do beside the chapel building. [Getting] food to eat was very difficult for me: no money to buy the food; and if I had had money: no food to buy apart from beans and rice. And I could not go to Sandema and come back just for my food. I also did not want to bring my wife with me here until I was settled and knew the condition of the area.

 

After the chapel had been finished, [i.e.] the building itself, but not yet plastered and roofed, I started the evangelistic work. On the first of March I went to Katiu for evangelizing there. When I first arrived there, I saw the chief of Katiu and greeted him. He said: "I was one of your members before I became a chief93. That was in 1956. In fact your religion was very good to us, because the white men were good to us. They cared very well for us, gave us food, clothes and medicine. It was later on that the members started quarrelling among themselves, and the church became poorer and poorer. I asked him: "What was the matter between them that they were quarrelling among themselves? Do you know?" He laughed. "Well, you know that these world people do not agree with one another because of the food that made them quarrel among themselves, that this man was given food by the white man to share with the other members and he made use of it alone. Again he was given clothes to be shared with the other members. He did not give to all of them but rather gave the clothes to his own relatives. Because of that the other member said: 'Now we will not come to church again. We will let you and your relatives alone go to church. And whenever the white man comes here, you have to meet him alone.' That was their problem, and your church began to collapse." That was his answer.

I then asked him: "Please, what do you think I could do to bring these people back to Christianity again?" - "To let them know that to become a Christian does not mean that you have to get food from the pastor or clothes, and everything that you need from the church should be free. But they should know that they are to be Christians to save themselves and save others as well," he answered. "Well, it is not difficult for you to bring them back, because you are their own son and you have been helping them in the clinic. Somebody came to your clinic, at Chana, from Katiu. [He] always said: 'That boy from Kalijiisa is very good. As soon as he saw me sitting down with my child he called me and took me to the white lady. And she also treated my child quickly. She asked me to take the child home quickly, before the sun was hot. The boy from Kalijiisa would give me milk and wheat teaching me how to cook the wheat and the milk with a warning that all the food that he gave me was for the child and not for me and my husband.' Every woman came to your clinic at that time. And I have heard [this] from them, not only from the women, from the men, too. So I think, as they know you well, and you have come to work with them as their catechist, they will understand you and will come back to be Christians. What you have to do is to try your best and visit them telling them that they should try to come to church. And the white men will bring some clothes and food for them again. I think in this way you will win them."

"Thanks, chief," I said," but I think it is not good to tell lies to them about the food, when I know very well that we can't get the food again. And it is not even good to be a Christian because of food and not a Christian of faith and belief in the Lord Jesus to save your life. Anyway I shall try to see what I can do with a prayer that the Lord himself will show me what to do. Thank you for your instruction. Good-bye!"

Then I went away to another compound. That was about 10.30 a.m. I met a man at his top room94, and he came down to welcome me. "Welcome!" he said. "Thanks!" I answered, "How are you and your household?" - "We are well, and how are you too, Mr Catechist?" - " I am quite all right." [When] we had finished with the greeting, I started to tell him about my mission: "I have come to you just to say hallo to you and to see the other members of our church; also to introduce myself to them and to invite them to church on Sunday, as I have learnt that some of them do not know Sundays." -"Good," he said, "not that they don't know Sundays, well, it could be so, but the other reason is this: the former catechist went away for a long time, and there has been no service on Sundays. So they don't know that a new man has come to take over the work. So as you have come to visit us and to introduce yourself to us, that is good for you. I have known you since long. Were you not the one who was working with the white lady, who rounds the clinics at Chana and [the] other villages?" - "Yes," I answered. "Oh, we know you well. So now you have come together with the white lady?" - "No," I answered, "I have come alone. Or do you mean to say the white lady is stationed at Chana to do the clinic?" - "Yes," he answered, " Oh no, I have come alone as a catechist and not [as a] Clinic Assistant as you knew me before. Well, as [what] you have said about the food and clothes: I don't know what to say about these matters of food and clothed, that have stopped you from being a Christian. If it is really so, then I think you did not understand the full meaning of Christianity. If you understood it well, then you need not say a word like that as you are saying. In the bible Jesus said: 'Seek yee the kingdom of God first and all that you need shall be added onto you' - Matthew 6, the following verses -. Now how did you understand 'Seek ye the kingdom first'? For everybody in this world is fighting for food and clothes. What about [what will happen] when someone has all this and loses his or her life? What shall be the use of the things he had? Those things are no more [of] use for him, for he cannot take them with him into the grave, neither can he come back for them. No! All that we have to do is to pray life long. First we have to offer ourselves to the Lord. Let him use us. Then we will be saved and will not worry about these things that we are worrying about now. God created us, and he made those things also. We are to use those things, God said. He knows that we need them and he has made them for our use. He will give us all those things, if only we believe in him and accept the Lord as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now it is better to stop thinking about clothes and food. When we really want to be good Christians, let us take the cross of Jesus , that is by attending church services on Sundays. Through this we will get to know the Lord better and need nor worry about our daily needs, for he will show us the way and how to get these things."

I had ended my visiting speech and he said: "All right! Let us visit the other members and tell them also what you have just told me now. Only it is too late to see some of them now. So I think we would fix another time so that you can see all of them and speak to them before Sunday." That was Thursday 3rd [January] 1974. Then he lead me out to the road, and I came back to Chana about half past four in the evening.

 

On 4th January, 1974, which was [a] Friday, in the morning [at] eight o'clock I went to Gbenia. First I met a woman going to fetch water. I greeted her and asked her whether she saw Mr John Luguyeri.  

"Are you the new evangelist?" she asked me. "Yes," I answered. "I see, I did not see him this morning, but he was in our house last night. He was telling me about you that you had come to take over Mr Jacob [Mr Jacob's work]. I am also a full member of your church, but in fact I stopped coming to church for a long time, but still I am a member. I have my membership card still with me, only there have been certain matters in our church which I did not like, not only me but some other members [too] and we had to stop coming to church on Sundays. We did not withdraw from the church anyway." She finished with the word "anyway", and I stood still quiet to hear from her more, but she did not say any word again. Then I asked her: "What were the matters that some of you stopped coming to church? May I please know of it? Or, as you are going to fetch water now, is there not enough time? And also it is on the roadside and so is it not good to discourse these matters here?" - "Anyway it is not good to discourse these matters in the public like this. But I am sure, Mr John will tell you everything when you see him at the house," she said," or if possible, you come together to our house, and we shall all discuss it together. I think that will be better." That was her final word, and she went on her way.

Then I continued my way to Mr John's house. I did not meet him in the house. I decided to come back to that very woman. There I met a teacher. [He] also was going to Mr John's house. We exchanged greetings to one another. He then asked me about Mr John. I told him that I was just [coming] from his house, but he was not there. I was also searching for him.

While we were still talking, that woman, whom I met going to fetch water, was coming towards us, and the teacher departed. The woman arrived with haste asking me whether I saw Mr John in the house or not. I answered her: "No, he was not there, and I was coming to you so that we should discuss that matter, if possible without him, if you want it in that way." - "Yes, why not? " I said. "Then let us go home", she said. And I came down from the bicycle, and we went to the house.

In the house she started telling me everything about how they had stopped attending church services. They not only had not got clothes. They also had not got their money. "What money was that? You did not get back your money?" I asked her. "Well, there was some time in October 1968. We were a group of women. We formed a women's fellowship, and the former evangelist, Mr Larty, told us that we should form our fellowship in a way that people outside should be attracted by [it], that is we should get uniform clothes for Christmas. So all of us, we were 24 in number, contributed money, NC 7.00 each, for the cloth, and later on we had cloth free from the Church: a white one with a head tie. The evangelist told us that the cloth that was given to us was not out of [paid from] our money but was a gift from the women's fellowship in Accra. But if we still wanted to have our own cloth, then we had to use our own money, which we had contributed. Then we said that we had to decide and let him know of what we would do with the money. And later on, that was December, before Christmas, we told him that we would like to use the money for spending [on] Christmas instead of buying cloth. And he said that some of our members had come to borrow the money and had not yet paid back. And that evangelist was transferred from Chana to Paga. He told us before he went that our money would be paid back to us by our leaders. And since then up to now we have not yet received that money. So that is the main reason why we lost interest in the Church. But to me in particular, I don't mind. [It is not] because of the money that I should stop going to Church. It is only there are some obstacles that are obstacling [hindering] me in the house. But as you have come to take over the work, and moreover you are our own son, we will try to reorganize the church as it was." she ended.

"Thank you," I said," so now can you remember or know some of those women that you said [told me about]. You were altogether 24. Are [they] still here? Or have some of them gone away?" I asked her. "Some of them have gone away to Kumasi with their husbands, and some of them have died, and some of them are still here." - "I see. Now I can't do anything about your money, because as I came, nobody told me anything about your fellowship and how you saved some money for a women's fellowship's cloth. But what I would like to suggest is: you should try and come together once again, and we will see what to do. I am happy to hear all the story for it will help me to evangelize well. Try your best to see your other friends so that you should [might] all come to church on Sunday. and if you see Mr John, tell him that I have been here to visit him but did not meet him. So he should try to see the other members and ask them to come to church on Sunday. Thank you and good-bye, madame!" - "Thank you, brother for your visit and may God bless you. Good-bye! Greetings to your wife at home from me."

 

And I went away and came back to Chana. That was about 2.30 p.m. I rested for a few minutes and went out to visit the members in Chana. At first I thought I had to visit the presbyter, and ask him to try his best and see the other members and tell them to come to church on Sunday. So I went to him. I was there when the chief sent for me. By then I did not discuss anything yet with the elder. I left hastily to come to the calling of the chief. When I arrived, he was in [his] residence. He then asked me to come in. I went in and greeted him.

"Good evening, sir." - "Good evening, Mr catechist. How are you?" he responded to my greetings. "I am quite all right," I answered. "I have sent [for you] to call you to me. It is because of the walls of your quarters that have been knocked down by the driver of the Food Production Corporation. How are you going [on] about it?" - "Please, chief, I have nothing to do about this case," I said. "How and what [is it] that you have nothing to do about this case?" he asked me. "Well, the reason is this: the driver came to beg me that I should not send the case to court, for he would rebuilt the wall for me. And I agreed and asked him to build it as soon as possible before my pastor came to see the walls falling down like that. He [the pastor] would query me and even ask me to take the matter to court. And he [the driver] pleaded to me that the next day he would come and start to rebuilt it. Since then he has never come and I have not seen him. Now what do you think I should do, please, chief?" - "I see," he said,"so you have been so kind to him considering him as a relative, and yet he is reacting as if you were trying to put [him] in trouble. He came here asking me to beg you for him to allow him to rebuild your walls for you. He said that you were taking him to court, and he knew that by all means. He will be charged heavily. So I should beg you for him. That is why I called you. He came and asked me to beg you to allow him to build your walls for you. I didn't know that you were so kind and tried your best to withdraw the case from the police. And it was the police that I have refused. Anyway, try your best and go to the police again and beg them if they could allow you to settle the matter with the driver at home instead of taking the case to court.: That was the chief [the chief's speech].

"Please, chief, I can't see the police again, for I did my best to beg them to withdraw the case, for the driver said that he would rebuild my walls for me. And as a Christian, when someone wrongs you and asks you for forgiveness, you have to forgive him. So if it is because of my house that has been damaged by the driver and you are charging him by taking him to court, then please, I beg you not to send the case to court, for he did not do it intentionally". I said this. And the police officer in charge told me that the driver was a bad man. Before he took the tractor, he was warned by the manager not to take the tractor and he did not take the advice of his boss. Moreover he has no respect at all to anybody simply because he is the son of the late chief of Navrongo. So we will take him to court, and he will be charged there double charges. He is not a driver but a transport officer. He has no licence. He has spoiled the tractor and has damaged your house. The first charge will be this: he did not obey his boss and has moved the tractor unlawfully. So I am sorry, Mr. catechist, in this case I cannot favour you. I know that a man of God prays to God for people to be forgiven. But this man is stubborn. So let this case be a warning to him. I think by this he will repent". That was the police officer's in charge last word to me. Now chief, how could I go to beg him again?".

"Thank you, catechist! You have done well. I will send for him and tell him all that you have said. And if he likes to go and seek help from his brother at Navrong, the Navropio95, will help him. Thank you for coming and good-bye". That was the chief's last word to me, and I went away to my house.

I tried to cook something to eat. After eating it was about 7 o'clock. Then I went to bed. About midnight there was a knock at the door. I got up to open. After I had opened the door there stood a woman asking me if I could allow her to stay the night with me. "For I come from Idania and passed on the Gbenia, and I am now returning back home. It is too late to walk alone [in] a night like this," she said. "What were you doing at Gbenia and [what] kept you so long to return back home?" I asked her. "And why didn't you stay the night there and go home tomorrow morning?" - "In fact, I went to a boy friend of mine. But I met him with another girl friend of his, and he said to me that he was not aware of my visiting him today. So he was sorry that he could not attend the two of us. So he begged me to go and come [back] some [other] time. By then it was too late. So that is why I kept so long returning back", she answered me.

Then I said: "I am also sorry that I cannot allow you to stay the night with me because of your statement. I am very sorry, for this house is a holy house, that is the house of God. And I have been appointed here to take proper care of the house. And so I am afraid that by allowing you to spend the night with me will cause me a great sin against the Lord. "Are you from Chana by birth?" I asked her. "Yes." - "Well, then you can try somewhere else. I am sure you will get a room to stay the night [in] and go home tomorrow". - "So being a man of God you don't stay with women?" she asked me. I did not answer her and went in [and] locked the door.

On my bed I was thinking: "Is this a temptation of Satan to me that I may sin?" Then I started to pray asking God to forgive me if I had gone on the wrong way by unattending this woman and having driven her away at the middle of the night like that. And Lord, if you were the one that I have refused to let in, then I am sorry, for I did not know. But as Satan has so many ways to tempt that was why I acted in that way. At the end of these prayers I was happy and slept.

The work [of an evangelist] is [a] very difficult work. I have to round the three stations: Chana, Gbenia [or Gwenia] and Katiu. [It is] seven miles from Chana to Katiu and three miles from Chana to Gbenia. I have to conduct the services at all the three stations every Sunday. [I] start at Chana at 8.30 a.m., [at] Katiu 9.30 a.m., and [at] Gbenia 1.30 p.m. However ever [always] I am very happy of [about] the work, because I am serving the Lord, and the Lord cared very much for me. For the past fourteen years I have been suffering very much with my children, but the Lord was all the time with me.

 

IN DEN ENDNOTEN ZITIERTE LITERATUR

 

Kröger, Franz

1978      Übergangsriten im Wandel. Kindheit, Reife und Heirat bei den Bulsa in Nord-Ghana, Kulturanthropologische Studien, eds. R. Schott and G. Wiegelmann, vol. 1, Hohenschäftlarn.

1982      Ancestor Worship among the Bulsa of Northern Ghana. Religious, Social and Economic Aspects, Kulturanthropologische Studien, eds. R. Schott and G. Wiegelmann, vol. 9, Hohenschäftlarn.

1992       Buli-English Dictionary. With an Introduction into Buli Grammar and an Index English-Buli. Lit Verlag Münster und Hamburg.

2001       Materielle Kultur und traditionelles Handwerk bei den Bulsa (Nordghana). Forschungen zu Sprachen und Kulturen Afrikas (Hg. R. Schott),   2 Bände, Lit-Verlag, Münster und Hamburg.

2003       Elders - Ancestors - Sacrifices: Concepts and Meanings among the Bulsa. In: F. Kröger and B. Meier (ed.): Ghana’s North. Research on Culture, Religion, and Politics of Societies in Transition. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, pp. 243-262.

Fortes, Meyer

1969       The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi. Oxford University Press, London.

Schott, Rüdiger

1970       Aus Leben und Dichtung eines westafrikanischen Bauernvolkes. Ergebnisse völkerkundlicher Forschungen bei den Bulsa in Nord-Ghana 1966/67, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, Heft 163, Köln und Opladen. 

 

 

Endnoten

1. Nachträglich kommen einige Zweifel auf, ob das Geburtsjahr nicht doch einige Jahre früher liegt, denn hiernach hätte Andrew mit 12 Jahren geheiratet (wie er selbst später schreibt) und wäre mit 14 Jahren zum ersten Mal Vater geworden.

 

2. Dies scheint die normale Reaktion von Frauen in einem Ehestreit zu sein. Die Frau hat jedoch bei einer endgültigen Trennung keinen Anspruch auf die Kinder, die immer zur Lineage des Vaters gehören und auch nur in dieser erben können. Sind die Kinder jedoch noch sehr klein, so gesteht man der Mutter gewöhnlich das Pflegerecht zu. Im Falle Andrews war möglicherweise nicht einmal die Stillzeit, die früher bis zu 3 Jahre dauerte, beendet.

 

3. Die allgemeine Schulpflicht besteht in Ghana seit 1961, auch wenn sie, besonders in ländlichen Gegenden zuerst nur unvollkommen beachtet wurde. Die erste Schule im Bulsaland wurde 1927 von den Weißen Vätern in Wiaga gegründet. Die erste öffentliche Schule entstand 1936 in Sandema-Suarinsa. Sie wird heute allgemein als Old Primary bezeichnet. Durch den verstärkten Druck bei der Rekrutierung von Schulanfängen soll wahrscheinlich die Old Primary gefüllt werden. Da das Alter der Kinder meistens nicht gewusst wird, gilt als schulfähig, wer mit seiner rechten Hand über dem Kopf sein linkes Ohr anfassen kann.

 

4. Der Local Court, die unterste Gerichtsinstanz, tagt in unregelmäßigen Abständen in Sandema unter dem Vorsitz des Sandemnaab (chief of Sandema), der den Titel eine Paramount Chief (der Bulsa) besitzt.

 

5. Das Wort "uncle" wird von englischsprechenden Bulsa fast nur für den Bruder der Mutter gebraucht und von dem auch eine Verbform geschaffen wurde: "He is uncling me" (Ich bin mit ihm matrilinear verwandt). Der Bruder des Vaters wird auch in der englischen Sprache oft als "father" (Buli ko) bezeichnet. Wie gerade Andrews Lebensgeschichte zeigt, spielt der Muttersbruder in der patrilinearen Gesellschaft der Bulsa eine große Rolle. Bei jeder Krise kann Andrew bei ihm Aufnahme und Beköstigung finden. Es handelt sich hier um den kambonnab (subchief) Agalic in Sandema-Kalijiisa-Anuryeri.

 

6. Der Busch (Buli sagi or goai) ist Bulsa-Kindern durch ihre Hirtentätigkeit bestens bekannt. Das Haus von Andrews "Onkel" liegt fast am Rande von ausgedehntem Buschland.

 

7. Zur Form der Bulsa tribal marks siehe F. Kröger 1978, S. 118ff. In Kalijiisa und Balansa wird den Kindern im Alter von 4-8 Jahren auf der linken und rechten Wange gewöhnlich eine lange Narbe von der Nasenwurzel in Richtung auf die Ohrläppchen geschnitten.

Der Busch (Buli sagi or goai) ist Bulsa-Kindern durch ihre Hirtentätigkeit bestens bekannt. Das Haus von Andrews "Onkel" liegt fast am Rande von ausgedehntem Buschland.

 

8. Es handelt sich hier wohl um versuchten Sexualverkehr. Andrew ist höchstens 8 Jahre alt. Sexualspiele von Kindern sind bei den Bulsa keine Seltenheit, werden aber von den Eltern nicht gerne gesehen und eventuell auch bestraft. Gewöhnlich erfahren jedoch ide Eltern nichts von diesen Spielen.

 

9. Beschneider von Stammesnarben üben diese Tätigkeit gewöhnlich neben ihrer landwirtschaftlichen Arbeit aus. Nur selten führen sie auch Sexualbeschneidungen (Exzisionen) aus.

 

10. Während weibliche Exzisionen in oder nach der Pubertätszeit immer nur mit Zustimmung der betroffenen Mädchen durchgeführt werden, können "tribal marks" und die Nabel-Skarifikationen auch gegen den Willen der Kinder geschnitten werden.

 

11. Viele Eltern wünschten zu jener Zeit den Schulbesuch ihrer Kinder nicht, weil sie dadurch leicht ihren analphabetischen Eltern entfremdet werden, als Hirtenjungen ausfallen und nicht für Feldarbeiten zur Verfügung stehen. Später verlassen sie oft das Elternhaus für immer oder für lange Zeit, um im Süden Ghanas zu arbeiten und zu leben.

 

12. Kumasi steht im Sprachgebrauch der Bulsa häufig für den ganzen Süden Ghanas.

 

13. Nach der Unabhängigkeit 1957 rechnete man in Ghana weiter mit dem Pfund, das jetzt Ghanaian pound genannt wurden. 1965 stellte Ghana seine Währung auf das Dezimalsystem um: 1 Cedi = 100 Pesewa. Ein Cedi entsprach 8 shilling und 4 pence. 1967 wurde eine weitere Währungsreform durchgeführt. Ein neuer Cedi (mit 100 Pesewas) wurde auf 10 Schilling festgelegt, d.h. ein britisches Pfund entsprach zur beschriebenen Zeit 2 Cedis.

 

14. Die einzelnen Clansektionen (z.B. Kalijiisa, Balansa, Buli diina, sing. dok) der Ortschaft (teng) Sandema werden im English der Bulsa oft als "villages", die ganze Ortschaft oder auch nur das Zentrum wird als "town" bezeichnet.

 

15. Eine regelmäßige Busverbindung zwischen Sandema und Navrongo (ca. 28 km) wurde erst in den späten 1960er Jahren geschaffen.

 

16. Ein recht großer Teil der in den Süden ausgewanderten Bulsa treten in den Polizeidienst ein. Sie verschaffen dort auch Neuankömmlingen Gelegenheitsarbeiten.

 

17. Die Hausa-Sprache spielt in Nord- und Südghana als Verkehrssprache der Händler eine gewisse Rolle. In Kumasi ist Twi (die Sprache der Aschanti) neben Englisch die Umgangssprache.

 

18. Das Ethnonym Frafra wird in Ghana häufig gebraucht, sein Inhalt und seine Bedeutung sind aber keineswegs eindeutig klar. Gemeinhin versteht man hierunter Angehörige der folgenden ethnischen Gruppen: Nankanni (Nankanse, Gurensi), Nabdam (Nabnam) und Tallensi. Manche gebrauchen diesen Begriff aber nur für die Nankanni, andere für den ganzen Norden Ghanas.

Wenn Andrew seine Begegnung mir dem Frafra als eine göttliche Fügung darstellt, so wird er diesen leicht durch seine Kleidung, Stammesnarben usw. als Mann aus dem Norden erkannt haben.

 

19. Stadtteil von Kumasi. Die meisten Northerners leben in den südlichen Großstädten vorwiegend in eigenen Stadtteilen zusammen. Die ärmlichen Stadtteile für Zugewanderte werden oft Zongo genannt.

 

20. Plantains (Kochbananen) werden im Norden Ghanas nur ganz selten im Gartenbau mit Bewässerungstechnik angebaut.

 

21. Die Reaktion von Bulsa im Süden ist von Fall zu Fall verschieden, wenn ihnen ein weitläufig Verwandter zuläuft oder zugeschickt wird. Einmal wird dadurch die eigene Familie und ihr Ansehen vergrößert. Falls der Neuankömmling eine gute Arbeitsstelle findet, kann auch ihre finanzielle Lage verbessert werden. Andererseits treten in der Form von Arbeitssuche, Beköstigung und Unterbringung neue Probleme auf sie zu. Manche reagieren so, dass sie ihrerseits eins ihrer eigenen Kinder zu der Familie des Neuankömmlings in den Norden schickten.

 

22. Die Jahreszahl 1950 ist wenig wahrscheinlich, denn sie steht im Widerspruch zu früheren Angaben. Die Angabe 1952 scheint passender zu sein.

 

23. Ein solches Arbeitsverhältnis ist nicht Ungewöhnliches. Auch im Bulsaland nehmen sich Lehrer ältere Schüler oder Schülerinnen (oft allerdings Verwandte) gegen Beköstigung als Hausangestellte. Northerners sind im Süden Ghanas als Hausangestellte sehr beliebt, wenn keine eigenen Verwandten zur Verfügung stehen.

 

24. Andrew hatte zu dieser Zeit noch keinen englischen Namen. Da die Namen von Northerners für die Ashanti oft schwer auszusprechen sind, geben sie ihnen oft ganz einfache englische Namen.

 

25. Schon zu jener Zeit gab es in der Kolonie recht viele Vorderasiaten, vor allem aus Syrien und dem Libanon, die zum großen Teil als Tuchhändler tätig waren.

 

26. Briefwechsel zwischen Analphabeten ist in Ghana keine Seltenheit. Sie bitten einen schreibkundigen Freund oder Verwandten, den gewünschten Text in englischer Sprache zu schreiben oder erhaltene Brief vorzulesen und in die Sprache des Empfängers zu übersetzen. In den größeren Städten Südghanas stehen für diese Aufgaben auch bezahlte Übersetzer und Schreiber zur Verfügung, die meistens in der Nähe des Postamtes einen kleinen Stand haben.

 

27. In früheren Zeiten spielten Abmachungen zwischen den Eltern heiratsfähiger Jugendlicher noch eine große Rolle bei der Eheschließung (parental marriage). Heute geht die Werbung, besonders bei modern eingestellten Jugendlichen, fast nur noch von den jungen Leuten selbst aus. Vgl. Kröger 1978, S. 241ff

 

28. Ein Schulabsolvent der Middle School hatte gewöhnlich 6 Jahre primary school und 4 Jahre middle school (später auch continuation school genannt) durchlaufen. Andrew ist wohl zu dieser Zeit in M1 und musste also bis zum Abschluss noch 3 Jahre in die Schule gehen.

 

29. Andrew ist der jüngste überlebende Sohn seines Vaters. Bei den Bulsa wird allgemein angenommen, dass ein Vater seinen jüngsten Sohm am meisten liebt und verwöhnt. Siehe hierzu auch: M. Fortes 1967, S. 230ff

 

30. In der traditionellen Gesellschaft der Bulsa hat der Sohn nicht das Recht, sich den Anordnungen seines Vaters zu widersetzen, in der Frage der Heirat haben Söhne, wenigstens heute, eine größere Freiheit.

 

31. "Piece" ist hier eine Maßeinheit für Tuche. Ein piece besteht aus 6 cloths. Ein cloth entspricht einer Breite von etwa 1,10m und einer Länge von 1,70m. Für die Anfertigung einer vollständigen Frauentracht mit Bluse, Rock und Wickeltuch benötigt man 3 cloths oder ein halbes piece. Vgl. F.Kröger 2001, S. 589.

 

32. Bevor eine Braut in das Haus ihres Gatten geführt werden kann, müssen mindestens drei Besuche (greetings) des Bewerbers (hier seines Vaters) im Hause der Braut stattgefunden haben. Bei diesen Besuchen müssen bestimmten Hausbewohnern bestimmte Geschenke (Kolanüsse, Münzen, Salz...) gemacht werden. Einen eigentlichen Brautpreis, der etwa wie bei Nachbarethnien in Rindern gezahlt werden muss, kennen die Bulsa nicht.

 

33. Es herrscht als Unstimmigkeit darüber, wie viele Besuche im Hause der Braut notwendig sind. Die Tatsache, dass der nächste Besuch am gleichen Tage stattfindet, spricht dafür, dass hier nur eine Formalie erfüllt wird und der Vater in großer Eile ist, seinen Sohn zu verheiraten. Meistens wird die Braut von "Brüdern" und Freunden des Bräutigams in das Haus abgeholt. Keineswegs darf der Bräutigam sie begleiten. Dass der Vater die Braut abholt, wie es den Gepflogenheit einer "parental marriage" entspricht, ist heute sehr selten.

 

34. Gemeint ist wahrscheinlich Kjetia, der zentrale Markt Kumasis.

 

35. Zur Bedeutung der hier gebrauchten Buli Wörter siehe Kröger 1992 (Wörterbuch Buli - English).

 

36. Suame ist ein stark industrialisierter Stadtteil Kumasis mit vielen Werkstätten, vor allem für Autoreparaturen und Metallarbeiten.

 

37. Mangelnde materielle Versorgung der Frau und eventuell auch ihrer Kinder, die hier sogar von einem Arbeitslosen erwartet wird, ist ein häufiger Scheidungsgrund. Ein stattliches Geschenk (10 s.) und ein Arbeitsplatz in einem vornehmen Haus (s. folgenden Absatz) sind daher wichtige Elemente in Andrews Versuch, seine Frau zurückzugewinnen.

 

38. Geschwister der gleichen Mutter stehen in einem besonders engen Verhältnis zueinander. Das Sorgerecht des Bruders für seine Vollgeschwister ist ausgepägte als das zu seinen Halbgeschwistern. Vgl. auch M. Fortes 1969, S. 241-280.

 

39. Obwohl Geschwister und Eltern versuchen können, ein Mädchen in der Wahl des Bräutigams zu beeinflussen, liegt wenigstens heute die letzte Entscheidung bei dem Mädchen selbst.

 

40. Andrew soll sich zwar freigebig gegen die Verwandten seiner Frau erweisen, die Geschenke werden jedoch auf einer mehr freiwilligen Basis gegeben. Keineswegs müssen die drei offiziellen Werbungsbesuche mit den vorgeschriebenen Geschenken in dieser Situation noch einmal wiederholt werden.

 

41. Das Mädchen erinnert ihren Bruder daran, dass sie von anderen Freiern umworben wird.

 

42. Das Wort "greet" beinhaltet hier immer auch die Überreichung von Geschenken. Der Bruder versucht hier ganz intensiv, seine Schwester zugunsten Andrews zu beeinflussen, indem er an ihren Verstand appelliert (nur Andrew ist reich und freigebig). Er überlässt aber wieder die letzte Entscheidung seiner Schwester selbst. Da diese noch unschlüssig ist, macht er einen Vorschlag.

 

43. Pidgin English; Haushaltsgeld (household money)

 

44. i.e. an unmarried girl

 

45. Männer schenken Frauen oft nur den Stoff für Kleidung, da viele Frauen sich Kleider selbst nach ihren Geschmack nähen können oder für billiges Geld nähen lassen können.

 

46. Es ist gewiss kein Zufall, dass das Mädchen genau einen Tag nach der "Versöhnung" von einer Bewerbergruppe entführt wurde. Aus dem Hause von Andrews Verwandten wäre eine Entführung weit schwieriger gewesen. Außerdem kam die noch schwankende Haltung des Mädchens den Entführern zugute. Es wird nicht ganz klar, wie weit das Mädchen seine Zustimmung zur Entführung gegeben hat ("she ran away").

 

47. Auch für afrikanische Verhältnisse ist dieses ein ungewöhnlich früher Zeitpunkt für einen Mann, während das gleiche Alter für eine Frau zu jener Zeit nicht ganz ungewöhnlich war.

 

48. Bulsa, die in Südghana leben, schicken ihre hochschwangeren Frauen oft ins Bulsaland, um dort zu gebären. Man glaubt, dass man ihnen dort eher helfen kann, da mehr kundige verwandte Frauen zur Verfügung stehen. Auch sind mit einer Geburt so viele Tabus, Riten und Verhaltensvorschriften verbunden, dass die Befolgung der Vorschriften nur in einem Bulsa-Gehöft ganz gewährleistet wird.

 

49. Die Frauen des Gehöfts achten auf eine strenge Abstinenz der tabuierten Speisen, unter die vor allem eiweißreiche Lebensmittel fallen (z.B. Eier und Fleisch). Diese Nahrung wird hier von Andrew und seiner Frau als "good food" bezeichnet.

 

50. Andrew ist zu dieser Zeit 14 Jahre alt. Der Erstgeborene heißt Anuekatoa (the end is bitter) James. The Buli name was given to him by an elder.

Die Frauen des Gehöfts achten auf eine strenge Abstinenz der tabuierten Speisen, unter die vor allem eiweißreiche Lebensmittel fallen (z.B. Eier und Fleisch). Diese Nahrung wird hier von Andrew und seiner Frau als "good food" bezeichnet.

 

51. Wie mir Andrew mündlich mitteilte, hat er keine für die Bulsa vorgeschriebenen Schwangerschafts- und Geburtsriten durchführen lassen. Vorgeschrieben ist für die Schwangere das poi-nyatika Ritual, der Verkündigung der ersten Schwangerschaft. In diesem Ritual wird die Schwangere nachts von einer Verwandten des Gatten unerwartet mit Wasser überschüttet. In den pobsika-Ritualen werden Sichtverbote der Wöchnerin durch die Ausführung des Ascheblasens (pobsika) aufgehoben. Für diese Auslassungen musste Andrew später seine Verwandten in Sandema durch Geld entschädigen. Zu den Ritualen siehe: F. Kröger 1978, S. 35ff und S. 258ff.

 

52. Die Heimfahrt des Syrers und die Sparmaßnahmen seines Nachfolgers sind wohl auch aus den staatlichen Maßnahmen zu erklären, die die Arbeit und den Aufenthalt von Ausländern erschwerten.

 

53. Nach der Abhaltung der Totengedenkfeier eines verstorbenen Ehemannes fordert man die hinterbliebenen Witwen auf, sich unter den erwachsenen männlichen Hausbewohnern einen neuen Gatten zu wählen. Oft ist es ein Bruder des Verstorbenen (s. Kröger 1978, S. 291ff.). Da Andrews Mutter nicht im Hause ihres verstorbenen Gatten bleiben will, plant sie vielleicht, gleich nach der Totengedenkfeier in ihr Elternhaus zurückzukehren. Wie sich jedoch später herausstellt, wählt sie als neuen Gatten einen Verwandten ihres verstorbenen Mannes, der jedoch nicht im Gehöft ihres Gatten wohnt.

 

54. Die Ga-Sprache wird in Accra und Umgebung gesprochen. Die wichtigste und am weitesten verbreitete einheimische Sprache Ghanas ist Twi.

 

55. Bei dem Vieh eines Gehöfts muss man unterscheiden zwischen den Rindern, die zum Gehöft gehören (d.h. von einem Ahnen vor langer Zeit erworben wurden) und denen, die zu Lebzeiten eines Gehöftherrn von diesem erworben wurden. In beiden Fällen ist nach dem Tode des Viehbesitzers eine Aufteilungunterdessen Söhnen nicht erlaubt. Die Übeltäter würden die Rache des Ahnen oder verstorbenen Gehöftherrn heraufbeschwören

 

56. Pidgin English: "Zaubermittel", die hier für den Schadenzauber bestimmt sind. Die Angst, durch einen Schadenzauber getötet zu werden, ist bei den Bulsa weit verbreitet. Andrews "Brüder", die ihn töten wollen, sind natürlich nicht Söhne von Andrews Mutter.

 

57. Ein Wahrsager (baano, pl. baanoba) wird von den nichtchristlichen Bulsa bei jeder Schwierigkeit und in jeder Krisensituation befragt. Er findet den Grund für diese Schwierigkeiten und gibt Anweisungen und Mittel für ihre Überwindung an.

 

58. Ein Maalam ist ein islamischer Weiser, der von den Bulsa vor allem mit der geomantischen Divination (Wahrsagerei nach der Sand-Methode) assoziiert wird. Er wird auch von nicht-islamischen Bulsa zusätzlich oder wechselweise zu traditionellen Bulsa Wahrsagern aufgesucht.

 

59. Als alleinstehende Witwe hätte Andrews Mutter bei ihrem Vater in der Wohnabteilung einer ihrer "Stiefmütter" oder "Schwägerinnen" (BrF) wohnen müssen. Wenn sie mit ihren Söhnen und deren Söhnen hier einzieht, hat sie Anspruch auf eine eigene Wohnabteilung (z.B. Rundhäuser um einen Innenhof). Solche Neuankömmlinge führen dort ihren eigenen Haushalt mit einer eigenen Herdstelle.

 

60. Es ist derselbe Onkel (MuBr) aus Kalijiisa. Er hatte zu jener Zeit zusätzlich ein Haus im Zentrum der Stadt.

 

62. Robert Duncan war Presbyterianischer Pastor in Sandema nach 1957. Ihm folgte Pastor Byers (1960-71).

 

63. Die Rundhäuser sind gewöhnlich nicht verschließbar. Hier handelt es sich um eine Neuerung.

 

64. Hauptgrund für die Ablehnung durch die Schwiegermutter ist nicht Andrews Trunksucht, sondern seine [vorübergehende] Armut. Sie bedenkt auch nicht, dass er  ja eine gute Stellung bei der Presbyterianischen Mission in Aussicht hat.

 

65. Das Wort "prostitution" wird im Pidgin English auch im Sinne von "vorehelicher oder außerehelicher Geschlechtsverkehr" gebraucht, nicht nur für bezahlte sexuelle Dienste.

 

66. Ein solcher Gegenbesuch, in dem man sich erkundigt, ob der Gast sicher nach Hause gekommen ist, ist bei den Bulsa allgemein üblich. Da man sich auch nach der Müdigkeit (jianta) des Gastes erkundigt, hat dieser Besuch auch den Namen Jianta bekommen.

 

67. Eine reichliche Bewirtung mit zusätzlichen Geschenken für seine Schwiegermutter wird vom jungen Ehemann erwartet, wenn diese ihn besucht. Die Art der Bewirtung ist nicht ganz der Willkür des Schwiegersohns freigestellt. Wenn die Tochter noch kein Kind geboren hat, darf zum Beispiel kein Schaft oder keine Ziege geschlachtet werden. Ist die Tochter der Besucherin schwanger, dürfen gar keine Geschenke gemacht werden. Vgl. Kröger 1978, S. 278ff.

 

68. Andrew ist dieses Verbot, Rinder des Hauses zu verkaufen, sicherlich bekannt. Als Christ will er sich jedoch darüber hinwegsetzen.

 

69. Der Ausdruck "moulded bricks" weist schon darauf hin, dass Andrew ein Viereckhaus bauen will. Lehm wird in einem Holzrahmen geformt und an der Sonne getrocknet. Rundbauten werden gewöhnlich in der Feuchtlehmtechnik erbaut. Zur Hausbautechnik siehe R. Schott 1970, S. 18f. und F. Kröger 2001, S. 62ff.

 

70. Auch mündlich hat mir Andrew versichert, dass dieser Auszug nur stattfand, weil das alte Haus zu alt und groß war. Gewöhnlich ist ein Streit oder der Wunsch eines jüngeren Bruders selbst Hausbesitzer (yeri-nyono) zu werden, das Hauptmotiv für einen Auszug.

 

71. Auch in vielen nichtchristlichen Haushalten wird das Weihnachtsfest in irgendeiner Weise gefeiert (Arbeitsruhe, festliches Essen, Musik, Besuche).

 

72. Die Vorschrift für die Anurbisa heißt genau, dass nur Häuser mit Flachdach gebaut werden dürfen. Sie richtet sich wohl ursprünglich nur gegen strohgedeckte Häuser und ist möglicherweise nach einer Feuersbruns erlassen worden, gleicht aber die Gehöftform auch der der benachbarten Kasena an. Wie die folgenden Abschnitte zeigen, hat das Verbot durchaus Tabucharakter (kisuk), seine Einhaltung wird von den Ahnen kontrolliert, seine Nichtbeachtung bestraft. Andrews Onkel ist nicht ganz sicher, ob sich das Tabu auf das Territorium oder die Lineage der Anurbisa bezieht. Andrew ist nicht Teil dieser Lineage.

 

73. Nach längerer Abwesenheit eines Hausbewohners tauscht der Heimkehrer mit dem Gehöftherrn die vollständigen Begrüßungsformeln aus, wie es auch stets bei einem fremden Besucher geschieht. Die hier zitierten Buli-Sätze sind Teil der Begrüßungsformeln.

 

74. Ein liegestuhlähnlicher, nicht traditioneller Holzstuhl, der aus 2 Teilen besteht, die zum Gebrauch ineinander gesteckt werden.

 

75. Viele Familien schicken nur einige Kinder zur Schule, um später lese- und schreibkundige Personen für den schriftlichen Umgang mit Behörden, zum Schreiben von Briefen an Angehörige usw. im Hause zu haben.

 

76. Die Elementarausbildung umfasste zu jener Zeit in Ghana 6 Jahre primary school und 4 Jahre middle school.

 

77. Es wird nicht ganz klar, wie Andrew die Begriffe "grades" anwendet. Jedenfalls möchte er, dass einige seiner Kinder den Abschluss einer secondary school oder sogar Universität schaffen, um vielleicht dann einen akademischen Beruf zu ergreifen, bei anderen reicht wohl der middle-school Abschluss.

 

78. Stirbt eine Familie, vor deren Gehöft ein Ahnenschrein steht, in der männlichen Linie aus, so bedeutet das gemeinhin noch nicht, dass dem frühen Ahnen der Lineage nicht mehr geopfert werden kann. In einem solchen Fall werden die Ahnenschreine (wen-bogluta) von einem anderen Nachkommen des Ahnen in einem anderen Gehöft übernommen, sodass die Versorgung des Ahnen mit Speise und Trank gesichtert ist. Eine Überführung eines frühen Ahnen (d.h. seines Schreins) kann aber nicht stattfinden, wenn ein Sohn oder Enkelsohn der Familie noch lebt. Auch dann nicht, wenn dieser als Christ dem Ahnen nicht opfern will. Vgl. Schott 1970, S. 25ff; F. Kröger 1982 und F. Kröger 2003, S. 243ff.

 

79. Andrew will hiermit sagen, dass weder er noch seine Frau und Kinder einen persönlichen wen-bogluk (Andrew: artificial god) besitzen. In einem wen-bogluk, der aus einem kleinen, etwa 20 cm hohen, halbkugelförmigen Schrein mit einem kleinen Stein im Scheitelpunkt besteht, wird das wen eines lebenden Menschen verehrt. Das wen ist eine schicksalsbestimmende Kraft, die sich stets außerhalb des Körpers in dem Stein des Schreins aufhält, aber einen starken Einfluss auf das Wohlergehen des Menschen ausüben kann. Vgl. Kröger 1978, S. 140ff. und Kröger 1982.

 

80. Diese Anrede zeigt, dass Andrew seine Lebensgeschichte nicht in erster Linie für einen großen Leserkreis oder eine Veröffentlichung verfasst, auch nicht nur zur Selbstanalyse, obwohl der letzte Grund auch eine Rolle spielt. Die Lebensgeschichte ist vorwiegend, wie sich auch an anderen Stellen nachweisen lässt, auf die Person des Feldforschers (F.K.) zugeschnitten. Auch der folgende Satz "... go round the world to see the suffering of the people..." ist mit der Arbeit des Ethnologen in Verbindung zu bringen.

 

81. Rev. James Agalic hat 1973 (?) in Sandema das Amt des presbyterianischen Pastors als Nachfolger von Pastor Byers angetreten. Er ist der erste einheimische presbyterianische Geistliche der Bulsa. Als Sohn von Andrews Onkel ist er ein naher matrilinearer Verwandter (MuBrSo) von Andrew.

 

82. Die Mobile Clinic besteht aus einem mit Medikamenten und Instrumenten ausgerüsteten Landrover. Da Sandema selbst ein öffentliches Health Centre hat, dürfen von der Mobile Clinic der presbyterianischen Pfarre nur Krankenbehandlungen außerhalb Sandemas durchgeführt werden.

 

83. Die Entfernung von Sandema-Kalijiisa-Anurbisa nach Chana beträgt 9 km.

 

84. Andrew wird besonders deswegen von den Kasena akzeptiert, weil er im Gegensatz zu früheren Evangelisten nicht Aschanti oder Europäer ist, sondern als Bulsa und Kasem-Sprecher nahe mit ihnen verwandt ist. Häufig werde er als "brother" oder als "our own son" bezeichnet.

 

85. Außerhalb der alle drei Tage stattfindenden Märkte war es damals meistens schwierig, im Dorfzentrum Nahrungsmittel und Feuerholz zu kaufen.

 

86. Gari: grobes Cassava Mehl, das mit Wasser und, falls vorhanden, mit Zucker angerührt und kalt gegessen wird. Die Schulspeisung bestand damals fast ausschließlich aus Gari.

 

87. Man richtete sich damals für Zeitmessungen fast ausschließlich nach der dreitägigen Marktwoche.

 

88. In der Bulsa-Ehe herrscht gewöhnlich strenge Gütertrennung. Der Mann ist zwar für die Versorgung der Frau(en) und Kinder verantwortlich. Die Frau bracht jedoch durch Markttätigkeit, Töpferei usw. selbstverdientes Geld nicht an ihren Mann abgeben. Andrew muss den Cedi wohl später seiner Frau zurückgeben.

 

89. Ähnlich wie der Sandemnaab beachtet der Chana-pio (Häuptling) eine Parität zwischen den beiden christlichen Konfessionen, ohne selbst einer der beiden Kirchen anzugehören.

 

90. Erster Roman (1943), der in der Kolonie Gold Coast geschrieben wurde. Er kritisiert die koloniale Verwaltung.

 

91. Wasser wird vor allem zum Anrühren der Erde benötigt. Aus dem Lehmbrei werden ungebrannte Trockenziegel hergestellt und zum Trocknen ausgelegt.

 

92. Gemeint ist der Stausee hinter dem Damm. Die meisten der zahlreichen Stauseen wurden in den 30er Jahren von den Briten angelegt.

 

93. Es wird allgemein anerkannt, dass ein Häuptling so viele (nichtchristliche) rituelle Handlungen (z.B. Opfer) vollziehen muss, dass es für einen Christen, der zum Häuptling gewählt worden ist, sehr schwer möglich ist, seinen christlichen Glauben beizubehalten.

 

94. Gemeint ist hier wohl das Flachdach eines Rundhauses. Als Modeerscheinung der 1970 und 1980er Jahre gab es allerdings in einigen Gehöften auch Häuser mit einer zweiten Etage.

 

95. Navropio = Häuptling von Navrongo; pio = Häuptling