When Guggisberg set up a committee of educationists to propose a way forward for education in the Gold Coast, the issue of education for girls generated a lot of controversy. And even among those who agreed that girls needed to be educated, there was disagreement over what form it should take. For instance, should we opt for the co-ed system? Omanhene Essandoh was totally against such a move. If the co-ed system was the only possibility, he strongly advocated for putting a distance of at least half-a-mile between the boys and the girls. The reason for wanting to throw such a huge gulf between males and females in co-ed schools should be apparent. Also apparent is the fact that what we call ‘nkwadaa b?ne s?m’ has a long genealogy.
One thing comes out clear. Society always tries to repress drives which are deemed so powerful that they can be destructive if not brought under control. And because these are so potent, any such suppression usually fails. And in extreme cases, we have freakish results, like the various abuses bedevilling the Catholic Church.
I strongly believe that half of the car owners in this country are sages (and the other half are reckless idiots behind wheels!) We have lots of wisdom in inscriptions on trotros and taxis, like this trotro at Tema Station which seems to explain why Omanhene Essandoh wanted a distance of a mile and a half.
8 comments On Guest Contributor Agyakoo on ‘Trotro chronicles Part I: Temptations, Traps and the Necessity of a at least Half a Mile’
Omg, Agyakoo I LOVE your write-ups about historical sexual behavior in the Gold Coast! So true about the co-ed thing & nkwadaa bone etc. Case in point: i went to the best (if i may say so :)) co-ed boarding school in GH. We used to have a term back then called ‘gating’ (if you went to that school whose name starts & ends with ‘A’ & are reading this you’ll probably know lol). Whenever we saw a girl & boy flirting, hanging out, holding hands-whatever, we said they were ‘gating’. We felt pretty cool & thought we’d invented this phrase & even the act of flirting (you know when you’re young you think you even invented sex hahaha) UNTIL an old student came to talk to us & told us that his year group had invented that name because there used to be a rule back then that the boys could only walk the girls up to a certain gate in the school at night & then they had to turn back so the boys found a way to circumvent the rule by hanging around the said gate like forever in the night to chat the girls up (& do whatever other stuff they could wink wink). We almost died of trauma that day since we’d never have expected that this old student (all suited up, gray-haired, dignified & bespectacled)had ‘chilled’ before etc. Keep these writeups coming!I’m applying to do further studies & I’ll be researching gay rights in Africa & the history of same-sex behavior in Africa- if I get accepted I hope it’s ok if I contact Nana D & ask her for your email ad so that I can find out from you how to research for things in GH & stuff? Well done.
Hi Ekuba, I’ll be very happy to share data and insights with you. Yes, you can get my contact from Nana D. Wishing you all the very best on the application 🙂
Half a mile will not reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS in Africa, nor stop teenage pregnancies from occuring. Oh the stupidity of the educated. If they want to do the ting, they will find a sycamore tree near their school and climb it like Zacheus and hump hump hump.
On a serious note, these ‘educationists’ are operating under very pretentious moral premises. They know good and well, some of them were not virgins before marriage. I know all this was not stated, but it was certainly implied.
AM: I like the point you made about virginity. Someone recently said that it’s funny how many men want to marry a virgin, but start complaining when these virgin brides turn out to be very boring at sex.
Eiii gating! I never went to a traditional boarding school, but I always used to hear about gating from a certain cousin who also attended a certain school that begins with an “A”.
I was so jealous. Being a day student was quite deft.
I on the other hand went to an Catholic all girls school so not gating but *ahem* we found our own way of exploring
Ekuba, i perfectly understand ur ‘gating’ term. I didnt kno u went to that ‘a……a’ school… We are everywhere some u kno.lol agyakoo, nice one n biggups to the troskis and taxis who inadvertently make us aware of some basic life facts. Malaka dnt hate on us k.lol
@ Nick: Nice to meet a fellow AK_____ fill in the blank! lol