Dr. Asebu Amenfi “Bay Watch”

The road suffering from lack of Zu-Za dancers

At my age and disposition, travelling has never been an attractive option. Lying cool in the sofa, with the sea breeze cooling off the tropical heat has been the most memorable means of waiting for God.  In such a relaxed mood, taking the old and tired legs on the journey to the Atiwa Range was a great job in motivation.
When a friend has kicked the bucket ahead of the old man with one foot in the grave, the conventional wisdom is to take out the worn out body to give it a fair idea of how it would be put to rest sooner or later.
In the national capital previously for the wedding of one of the grandsons meant that the old man had to go through the Accra-Kumasi road with its dreaded Suhum stretch.
The bread capital of Ghana has its own tourist attraction. There is no known research job on how the town holding the largest prison population in the country came to be associated with bread baking. But the innovative means of women, old and young, and boys, some so horribly young,  who thrust bread in all forms and shapes at you with soothing words to part with cedis, while the budget for the day had not taken on board, the art of buying bread, is a rich source of research material for sociologists.
Naturally, the bread market and the art of waiting patiently for articulated vehicles with heavy loads to make their way up and down the many slopes in town, makes driving through the long stretch of street in the Southern most Akwapim town at the weekend challenging.
When the four wheel drive wheeled past the bread capital of Ghana with very little hitches, the conventional wisdom was that the journey would not take too long to hit the range which serves various purposes for the people and foreign treasure hunters. We were wrong on that count, and any other we had imagined of the Suhum stretch of the road.
On both sides of the road, after putting Teacher Mante in the shade, boulders rounded by long exposure to the weather advertise the intention of the state never to complete that stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway. That is not the only reason why using the road has become a high risk venture.
The four wheel vehicle was virtually protesting its exposure to one of the most treacherous road network anywhere on earth. It tilted virtually hitting the roof on the ground, to the left and right.
It was as if the state has condemned the people of Suhum and its environs to suffer the torture of the road, for their inability to dance to the Zu-Za rendition perfected by various borborbo groups from behind the big river and SADA territory to the north.
The other day, when Egya Ata shielded the two eyes from the sight of a stretch of the same road in the national capital and confessed to being shamed by the sight of it, measures have been put in place to correct the wrong.
The construction of the Suhum-Apedwa stretch though, suffers from inaction. It is beginning to look like Better Ghana has passed by the communities along that stretch of the road. That poster of an imposter has not come out with compilation of old figures that are explained as opinion polls for that area yet, as the vote gets nearer. But, evidence of the identity of representatives from the House, all sheltering under the elephant, is beginning to give clues as to how that particular stretch of the road has fared in three and a quarter years of hoisting of the umbrella. Zu-Za music has a way of touching development, I dare state!

On both sides of the road, after putting Teacher Mante in the shade, boulders rounded by long exposure to the weather advertise the intention of the state never to complete that stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway. That is not the only reason why using the road has become a high risk venture.

Short URL: http://thechronicle.com.gh/?p=44173