Togbe Samuel Kojo Acquency

Regarding the start of the widespread bush fires that exacerbated the suffering of the Famine of 1983, Acquency tells, "A cocoa farmer in the Eastern Region in a village near Byth was creating a fire belt around his cocoa farm. It got out of hand. He couldn’t control it. It escalated and burned his father’s cocoa field and all the way into the Volta Region and other parts."

 

The fire had a serious adverse effect on wild animals like elephants. It was tragic. The fire caught animals and burned them. It chased others, antelopes and grasscutters, into the villages where villagers caught and killed them.           

 

Looking for alternative means of survival, our parents fed up what they could. But it was unpalatable. They made “yaka yake,” cassava flour patties they wrapped in cassava leaves and steamed. We ate tevi as a substitute for garden eggs (small eggplant). “Adversity is the mother of invention.” We ate the peels of our vegetables instead of giving them to our goats. We made gari balls fried in oil and called them “gong gong.”

 

Ghanaians don’t talk about the famine. They don’t want anyone to remember the day. It’s an embarrassment to us. When everything was back to normal, restored in a few years, it was a relief. To commemorate the famine and to teach young people about it, I write a radio story for National Farmers’ Day every year. It’s a public holiday the first Friday in December."

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Samuel Kojo Acquency’s MASTERPIECE Radio Spot, 2017

We want to appreciate our farmers. In fact it is not very easy to be a farmer. They go through a lot of things. But with endurance they are able to put food on our table.

 

If we can recollect and send our memories back to1982, there was a serious bushfire that affected the whole nation.

 

In 1983, we experienced little or no rainfall in about two quarters, which hardily affected the cultivational forces of our farmer. We were eating gong gong, yaka yake, and Graphic and Times. When the town crier beats the gong gong, the local slang for fried cassava balls [like hush puppies], the people run to hear the good news.

 

We hear yaka yake, the Senator or Chief Executive, means you’ll be satisfied with the protocol. It’s hard to get. Or you can get the Graphic and Times, a mixture of roasted corn and groundnuts named for two Ghanaian newspapers.

 

But today we are thankful to God that the rain has set in. We have a lot of food to eat. We have a lot to do as far as food is concerned. Otherwise, we must be tightening our belts every day. We would be growing lean without the good effort of our farmers. We have a lot to eat. We are so thankful to farmers.

 

We say SOMETHING to them. All that are able should continue to work harder and harder so that they could be awarded. Kudos to our farmers!"