Allabar yesterday, today (3)
Education contributed a lot to the rapid development of Allabar into a modern suburb during the last half century. It may still be a Zongo Community but education has instilled some discipline into the people. Gone therefore is the violent behaviour which the people of Allabar were known for in the years gone by.
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Today parents in every household wake up early in the morning to prepare their children for school. The children are always smartly dressed and most of them attend preparatory schools far from Allabar. Sometimes you won’t believe they are Moslem children.
However their parents make sure they attend Koranic schools during the weekends, that is on Saturdays and Sundays, when they don’t go to school.
The only unfortunate thing is that since the Zongo Community came into being, government, whether through city authorities, municipal, or metropolitan assemblies, has never provided the community with a public school. As a result, most parents send their children to private preparatory schools outside the community.
If one can argue that in the past the residents were not interested in sending their children to public schools, what about today?
What one finds in the Zongo Community are mainly Koranic Schools at every corner. There are still some parents who prefer to send their children to these Koranic Schools, but the number is rapidly decreasing. Many parents who did not have the benefit of Western education now have good reasons for sending their children to public schools or even expensive private preparatory schools.
But it has been a long journey from the 1950s when some few enlightened Moslems decided to set up English – Arabic Schools. There were only two of such schools at that time – Nawarudeen, near Aboabo Station and Fallah, near Roxy Cinema. But they have since folded up.
In the case of Fallah it was set up to attract Koranic students from all over Zongo to have some English education. One of the 1948 pioneers is Alhaji Jebireen Eddi Ballah, who had night school education at St. Peters Catholic School at Roman Hill. After Fallah collapsed around 1952, young Ballah had to move to Asante Collegiate where he showed interest in sports, especially athletics and football.
It was at an athletics competition in Kumasi that Otumfuo Prempeh II, the Asantehene, spotted him and asked the education authorities to send him to State Middle School near Suame Roundabout.
Chairman Ballah, who today at 81, is the chief adviser to the Mossi Chief of Kumasi and Waziri of the Dagomba chief, encouraged many Moslem parents to send their children to school in the 50s ad 60s.
Today, we have a few such schools like the Wataniyya English – Arabic School and Samadaniyya Ghana Mission School. Some parents would still like their children to attend English-Arabic schools because of the fear that by attending public schools their children would be converted into Christianity.
Indeed it was this fear that made parents not to enroll their children in public schools until much later, after the 60s. It was also for this reason that the elders in the Zongo Community did not fight for the establishment of public schools in the community.
A few of us were lucky to have got the opportunity to attend public schools in the 50s. In my case, even though my father was an Arabic scholar who taught at Nawarudeen English and Arabic School he thought the future lay in getting Western education.
According to what he told me, he himself went to see the education officer at the then Kumasi Town Council, and was given a letter to send me to Salvation Army Primary School at Ash Town.
In fact it was the nearest public school to Allabar. Yet it was so faraway, about three kilometres from home.
Being a mission school, it was compulsory for all pupils to attend church service on Sundays.
Those who failed to do that were whipped the following Monday.
When my father got to know about this he bought me a white suit so that I could attend church services on Sundays to avoid being caned.
Later in life, I used to wonder if anybody saw me going to church on Sundays. I am sure they would have condemned my father. As I have mentioned, it was this fear of converting Moslem children into Christianity that discouraged Moslem parents from sending their children to school.
Despite my father’s interest in Western education, he still enrolled me at the Koranic School adjacent to our house, which is today the palace of the Serikin Zongo. Our teacher was Alhaji
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Tahir Ibrahim who was a brother to Alhaji Garba Style, who was the Serikin Aboabo. He was also the uncle of the popular politician, Alhaji M.B. Suleinana, who was the Ashanti Regional Propaganda Secretary of the CPP, until the coup of February24, 1966. Alhaji Tahir’s son, Alhaji Dansoho, is the immediate past Serikin Zongo.
A son of Alhaji Garba-Style, Alhaji Asuman Garba-Style was able to enroll at Asante Collegiate and was the only one from his house who had formal education at that time. He went on to the University of Ghana, Legon. He was one year ahead of me.
Earlier in the late 40s my cousins, Omar El-Alawa and Abdul Raheem El-Alawa, who later taught Alhaji Ballah at Asante Collegiate had also been sent to St. Joseph’s School, located beyond the Salvation Army School in Ash Town. They were the true pioneers from Allabar to attend public school.
Apart from public schools at Ash Town, the other nearest schools were Methodist School, overlooking Subin Park and Asawasi L/A School. All these schools were considered too faraway for Moslem parents at the Zongo to send their children to school. In most of these schools you will find only one or two Moslem children.
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Meanwhile, most of our age mates attended Koranic Schools. After that they were apprenticed to tailors and taxi or lorry drivers. But as they grew up they realised that to secure a better future for their children they must send them to public schools.
As a result of this attitudinal change, Allabar today is a far cry from what it was in the 50s and 60s. Education has brought a new crop of residents who are enlightened and know what is going on around them.
Education has also offered opportunities for the youth of Allabar to travel abroad to further their education. Some stay on and work to remit money to their parents, brothers and sisters. They also ship cars to their relations. All these have contributed to the enlightenment one finds in Allabar today.
On their return home, these “been-tos” establish businesses that have turned Allabar into a highly commercialised suburb, probably second only to Adum in the Kumasi Metropolis.
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Allabar has come a long way from the quiet Kumasi suburb it was in the 50s to what it is today, a bustling town and densely populated.
It is very well laid out with good roads and heavy traffic throughout the day. It is one area taxi drivers avoid in the daytime. By night time when shops have closed, it is easy to move about, unlike in daytime when it is difficult to take a step without running into somebody.
All the same, night life at Allabar is quite interesting with food joints all over the place to take care of travellers at the various stations, who usually move out at night. Most travellers to the northern part of the country depart from Allabar.
Whether day or night, Allabar is still a safe and peaceful place, where crime and violence have been controlled.