Ajoa Yeboah-Afari: When ‘go home’ becomes an insult
I was not surprised to hear that some of those evicted from Sodom and Gomorrah who were being transported back to their home towns got off the vehicle at the first opportunity after taking the financial support, said to be GH¢200 each.
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What did surprise me earlier had been the news that many of the evictees had agreed to return to their home towns after the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) demolished their houses at Old Fadama, better known as the Sodom and Gomorrah slum.
It sounded too good to be true that some of the people who had gone on the rampage, and even marched on Parliament to express their anger about the AMA’s action to the people’s representatives, had agreed to go back home so meekly.
I wondered if they would not be asking themselves the question: return home to what?
For, these were evidently people who had come to Accra, said to be mostly from the North, in search of a better life. They had obviously come seeking greener pastures not only to benefit themselves, but also in the hope of making some money to send home – or even have something to put aside whenever possible, to achieve a future self-improvement dream.
Thus probably for the vast majority, returning home empty-handed after the Saturday, June 20 dawn surprise by the AMA’s demolition squads would be considered out of the question.
Although it is said that ‘go home is not an insult’, in their case I imagine that it would be taken as an insult, especially as some alleged that they were not given any notice to enable them take their possessions out before the structures were destroyed.
Clearly, many would be returning home with nothing to show for their months or years of toil in the city and, more shattering still, no means of survival on arrival home. Evidently, those in that category would not take it as helpful advice to be told to return to their home towns.
And if it is true that the lucky ones who were able to retrieve their belongings before the demolition are being asked to agree to be transported back home minus their belongings which would later be sent to them, this is not good enough, to say the least. Why can’t cargo trucks be arranged to take their luggage at the same time as they are being conveyed home in buses?
Of course the city authorities cannot be blamed for the drastic action. When persuasion fails, the option left is force. The Old Fadama ever-expanding slum has long been a headache for successive governments as the illegal residents had stalled the long planned Korle Lagoon Restoration Project.
The June 3 floods, with the illegal settlement blocking the path of floodwaters into the sea cited as a contributory factor, was clearly the last straw for the AMA.
However, the issue, as with all the unauthorised settlements in Accra and other urban areas is: why do the authorities not step in to halt illegal settlements in the initial stages? Why is it that the officials look on as the first settlers move to a location which is not supposed to be residential, followed by a second, then other batches? Encouraged by the seeming acquiescence the people then begin to put up permanent structures and in some cases live there for years before strong action is taken against them.
Why allow illegal settlers to occupy a place so long before action is taken? This was the question people asked when, similarly, in January last year, the Tema Development Corporation sent in demolition squads to evict illegal settlers at Adjei Kojo and other places.
Yet, it continues. As is common knowledge, even now, there are other places where illegal or unauthorised settlements are developing as the responsible authorities look on.
One example can be found on the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue end of the Graphic Road, in Accra. At the top of the Graphic Road, on the right, as one enters the Nkrumah Avenue, near the last traffic lights before Cocoa House, for some months now a furniture market has been taking shape.
As I recall, it started, with one or two seemingly experimental, minor items of furniture on display. Then it started to expand, apparently because nobody told the traders that they couldn’t trade there. Today, all types of furniture can be found there. Earlier this week, on Tuesday, items I saw on display there for sale included beds, tables, chairs and benches and I saw a man busy assembling others.
Furthermore, nearby, there are unsightly and growing rubbish heaps, a situation that may be linked to the trading activities there.
Has the AMA designated that narrow space that leads into the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, a major route, as a furniture, or any other, trading spot? Do those traders have permission to be there? Or are the authorities waiting, as usual, for container homes, shacks and furniture warehouses to spring up there before they send in their demolition squads one fine dawn?
Also, what I have always found extremely intriguing every time I pass there is the fact that directly opposite the furniture vendors there is now a conspicuous police presence, presumably part of the Police Visibility drive. For some months now, I have observed that there is always a police vehicle parked there, sometimes with some policemen in it, or nearby, apparently on duty.
I always wonder what the officers must be thinking as they look on at the furniture display just opposite and whether when, and if, the city authorities finally decide to take action against those traders, it will be these same police who will be assigned to drive them away.
And, no doubt, when eventually they are given their ‘quit order’, they would have been allowed to trade there so long that they will be thinking that they have a right to be there and therefore they will demand to be compensated – or be relocated, or both.
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