Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
Ghanaians are today, July 1, 2008 celebrating the country’s 48th year as a republic.
The day, which marks the climax of Ghana’s process towards political autonomy from Great Britain, is celebrated as a statutory public holiday and Ghanaians are expected to observe it as such.
As part of the celebration, the day has also has been set aside annually to celebrate senior citizens comprising mainly retired public servants for their contributions towards the development of the country.
President J, A. Kufuor has for three successive years, given National Awards to deserving individuals to mark the day.
For this year’s event, the President has nominated a total of 241 persons for National Awards to be held tomorrow, July 3, 2008 at the Accra International Conference Centre.
The Awards are in the following categories: Grand Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana (for Presidents of the Republic of Ghana), Order of the Star-Companion, Order of the Star-Member and Order of the Volta - Companion.
The rest are Order of the Volta - Officer, Order of the Volta - Member and Grand Medal.
Since the country attained republic status in 1960, the transformational process in Accra, the nation’s capital has been phenomenal as the city has witnessed a lot of landmark changes, reports Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
Presently, Accra can be described as choked as buildings comprising houses, offices and shops have sprung up everywhere.
Whereas some of these landmarks have been properly planned and well demarcated to make way for easy access, some have also been built haphazardly especially, in densely populated areas leading to the creation of slums within the city.
As part of Ghana's Republic Day celebration, the Daily Graphic spoke to a veteran “Accra Boy”, Mr John Allotei Kofi, a lawyer who has lived all his life in Accra and knows the nooks and crannies of the Capital City.
Reminiscing on how Accra used to look like before and just after independence, he said most of the places that are now developed, in the 40's were open spaces and mentioned some places such as the Independence Square where he said was a sea front, the Graphic Road which started from the Railway Station and said apart from the Accra Brewery Ghana Limited, the whole stretch of the main Graphic Road up to Abgobloshie was a high ground and was filled with wild mangoes and, therefore, the area was referred to as “mango line”.
Communities such as Adabraka, Agbogbloshie, Awudome Estate and Kaneshie he said were small settlements as compared to their vast sizes now and the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area was non-existence and that the whole area was water logged up to Avenor a condition which he said enabled people to fish around the Joy FM area.
Accra was a free flowing area to the extent that according to Mr Kofi, one could drive on the High Street which was one of the few colonial roads in the capital, to Nigeria or Benin. The whole stretch according to him was filled with coconut trees.
Unlike today where the High Street is filled with shops, offices and houses, he said people were restrained from erecting permanent structures along the sea and the only solid buildings that one would come across when driving from the Osu-Re end of the road along the beach through to the High Street was the Christian Borg Castle, the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) building and the Light House.
Korle-Gonno which is now one of Accra's densely populated areas, was filled with coconut trees which were lined-up along the beach. Also the beaches along Labadi, Nungua and Teshie were filled with coconut trees and the three communities which today are joined together, were sparsely located back in the 1940's.
The Sempe Town which is near the Light House in Accra according to Mr Kofi was the centre of activities in Accra. Sempe had all the big European shopping centres and it stretched from the Light House up to the present Standard Chartered Bank which was then known as the Barclays Bank of West Africa.
The Holy Trinity Cathedral which was built later was the site for the Bishop Boys School and the present location of the Bank of Ghana was the Methodist Girls School.
The location where the Accra Magistrate Court is presently situated was a well equipped community centre which was built around 1947 and 1948 and 'big entertainment events' were held there.
There were also places in Sempe such as the Brazil House and the Azuma House which was also known as the Ga Mantse We, a private house where the Ga Mantse lived and according to him, in 1949 when the then Asantehene, Agyeman Prempeh visited Accra for the first time, a reception was held at the house in his honour.
The Ministry area which is currently housing most of the country's public services buildings, was a play ground where national and inter-school sports were held and where people also played cricket and other international sports.
The Old Parliament House according to him was built by Governor Arnold Hudson as a memoriam for King George and hosted big entertainment such as dances, concerts and variety shows.
Makola he said was the end of Accra and WATO, which is a popular spot in Accra near the Post Office, was the last landmark one could come across.
Dzorwulu according to him in the 40s was a big gorge where water collected from the Aburi Hills in those days and according to Mr Kofi, Dzorwulu started from the present area known as Abavana near Kotobabi.
Giving a brief history of Legon, he said the place was named as such because it was a mountainous area and the Madina community which had then not been formed was the collecting point of water coming from the mountain.
Mr Kofi said most places in Accra were full of reeds which showed that they were water logged areas but said today these areas have become homes for thousands of people in Accra.
The Railway Line which was then located at the present State Transport Corporation (STC) area, the Industrial Area through to Alajo, Kotobabi and Dzorwulu were soggy areas where people could not live and according to him the Railway Quarters was located around the STC area but it had to be relocated after a massive downpour about 40 years ago
Mr Kofi who is also the Chief of Ngleshie Amanfro and is known as Nii Kofi Agyenkwa III in going down memory lane said when he was growing-up there were not many places to while away the time but was quick to add that the few that were present were places that one could enjoy ones-self.
With nostalgic feelings, he mentioned places such as the Seaview Hotel near the Light House on the Accra High Street, the Avenida Hotel on the Kojo Thompson Road, Weekend in Havana Club at Korle Gonno, LIDO at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Lisbon Hotel at the Airport as some of the 'joints' where people could sit after a hard days work and enjoy their chilled beer, meat (kebab) and local and continental dishes as well as good music.
On Night clubs and cinemas, he mentioned the Kalamazoo at Osu Estates, the Accra Roger Club on the High Street, Jacks Cafe at Osu and the Regal, Roxy and the Rex Cinemas as places where people could go to.
On Shops he mentioned the Kingsway (UAC) which sold expensive ladies and gents wear and perfumes, SCOA Motors for Dodge and other American cars and the Scottish Mission Printing House located at the Ussher Fort, where all text books and office stationery were printed.
On hospitals, Korle-Bu was located at the present site of the Lotteries building and it was a general hospital. The Children's Hospital before independence has been functioning with some private hospitals such as the Morton Hospital at Adabraka and some few others complementing their efforts.
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