Visiting professors to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, in the 1970s could spend a comfortable life on the campus amid modern surroundings and leave at the end of their contracts without ever being aware of the extreme poverty that existed a few hundred metres away across the Accra Road in the former slaves' village of Ayigya Zongo. A culture shock of substantial proportions awaited anyone compelled by duty or curiosity to roam beyond the lorry park at Ayigya Junction. Yet an even greater shock was felt by one expatriate professor whose effort to help the villagers was vigorously rejected.
From the lorry park ringed by petty traders' kiosks a narrow unpaved road led upwards through a no-man's land of houses with high-walled gardens suggesting an intermediate community intent on preserving maximum security. Only the dirt road with no pavements (sidewalks) and huge pot holes provided a clue to what lay ahead.
From the lorry park ringed by petty traders' kiosks a narrow unpaved road led upwards through a no-man's land of houses with high-walled gardens suggesting an intermediate community intent on preserving maximum security. Only the dirt road with no pavements (sidewalks) and huge pot holes provided a clue to what lay ahead.
At the top of this stumbling climb one reached a wider expanse of relatively smooth unpaved road which served as a lorry park for the zongo market, a large open space extending back down the slope but only sparsely occupied.
In the market a few traders stood at old weathered wooden stalls that provided no shelter from sun or rain, but the majority of women sat on the bare earth with their large round trays in front of them and their small children by their side. There was very little produce for sale, and the few green oranges or red peppers were spaced across the stall tables or around the trays with military precision in an exercise that was repeated with great care every time a sale disturbed the symmetry of the extant display. Regrettably, sales were few and infrequent and yielded little revenue.
Beyond the market more narrow unpaved roads wended their way irregularly into the zongo proper. Here most of the houses were constructed with mud walls and corrugated iron sheet roofs. They may once have provided reasonable accommodation but that time was decades past and there was no sign of any maintenance having been done since the original construction. Many of the roofing sheets were rusted through and some of the holes were patched over by less-rusted sheets held down by concrete blocks or scrap metal parts from vehicles. There were no glass windows, and wooden louvers, doors and door frames were unpainted, misshapen, warped and broken. Large holes in the mud walls, especially between walls and roof, provided easy access for lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes.
Living conditions in the zongo were very unhygienic, with a room occupancy rate of eleven, refuse thrown into the streets, communal toilets of unsafe construction and water fetched from distant wells and standpipes. In a well-meaning effort to help with the water supply problem, Professor Miklos Blaho of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of KNUST arranged for a bore hole to be drilled and a water pump installed. However, this was soon destroyed by the villagers who smashed the cast iron pump with a heavy hammer and put rubbish down the bore hole, 'to kill the crocodile at the bottom.' The more rational descendents of the slaves condemned the scheme as a ploy by the government to delay the provision of a piped water supply.
Article Source: John Powell
In the market a few traders stood at old weathered wooden stalls that provided no shelter from sun or rain, but the majority of women sat on the bare earth with their large round trays in front of them and their small children by their side. There was very little produce for sale, and the few green oranges or red peppers were spaced across the stall tables or around the trays with military precision in an exercise that was repeated with great care every time a sale disturbed the symmetry of the extant display. Regrettably, sales were few and infrequent and yielded little revenue.
Beyond the market more narrow unpaved roads wended their way irregularly into the zongo proper. Here most of the houses were constructed with mud walls and corrugated iron sheet roofs. They may once have provided reasonable accommodation but that time was decades past and there was no sign of any maintenance having been done since the original construction. Many of the roofing sheets were rusted through and some of the holes were patched over by less-rusted sheets held down by concrete blocks or scrap metal parts from vehicles. There were no glass windows, and wooden louvers, doors and door frames were unpainted, misshapen, warped and broken. Large holes in the mud walls, especially between walls and roof, provided easy access for lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes.
Living conditions in the zongo were very unhygienic, with a room occupancy rate of eleven, refuse thrown into the streets, communal toilets of unsafe construction and water fetched from distant wells and standpipes. In a well-meaning effort to help with the water supply problem, Professor Miklos Blaho of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of KNUST arranged for a bore hole to be drilled and a water pump installed. However, this was soon destroyed by the villagers who smashed the cast iron pump with a heavy hammer and put rubbish down the bore hole, 'to kill the crocodile at the bottom.' The more rational descendents of the slaves condemned the scheme as a ploy by the government to delay the provision of a piped water supply.
Article Source: John Powell
No comments:
Post a Comment