It was a major news story on BBC Newshour on Monday. Yes, someone had chopped down a famous 300-year-old kola tree in Ghana. Many Ghananians especially in the town of Feyiase were outraged because this tree was like a deity with mystical and healing powers. You cannot write the history of the legendary Ashanti Kingdom without mentioning this tree, indicating the treasured nature of this tree.
Who might have chopped it? And for what?
If you lived in the village as I did, you might have encountered young men who wanted to test their new belief by challenging and demonstrating that the gods are not indeed capable of defending themselves. Yes, they will go to the village stream to harvest fishes (abominations!) or draw water from streams with basins violently, when you are expected to gently scoop the water with small native bowls.
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I was a member of my secondary school Scripture Union and we were part of the “anointed ones”, baptized and protected by the Blood. But going into a shallow freshwater village stream to kill fishes made no sense. I felt there was a Physics in the ordinance passed by the elders, despite anything the gods or norms or beliefs might have held.
In Ovim, while the Tantuta Ugwunta stream has an ordinance of not to fish therein, the Iyinta Obayi banned both fishing and using large buckets to scoop water. Examining the two streams, Tantuta flows from a higher level to a lower one which means there was no need to restrict on the scooping method since if you stir the lower level, it would not affect the source of the freshwater. But when you go to Ide (a bigger water body), all those rules vanish, allowing you to fish and do whatever you want!
Indeed, if you fish in shallow village streams, you will distort a source of drinking water, causing problems for the whole village. If you use a large bucket to scoop the water, you will distort its flow and it will take time to settle in slow flowing streams. So, to stop people from doing those things, norms are invented, scaring people. And most times, it was a tradition which has emerged as a means for people to preserve a way of living, and not necessarily connected to any absolute deity. So, when you kill those fishes, you may not be annoying any god; you are simply a stupid person who does not want people to have clean water!
People, do not chop native trees. Some of those trees may be the only survival herbs which have medicinal value. When people boil their leaves, they get better, and due to that villagers will come together to protect them. That tradition is passed from generation to generation. You do not need to destroy them just to prove your new faith because doing that is stupidity since most of the time, there is really nothing religious about them!
It is all part of the physics of African culture; if they had invented a way of writing to chronicle them, you may be studying for a PhD to master them.
(Sure, some trees, fishes, etc have powers. Do not try)
It was a major news story on BBC Newshour on Monday. Yes, someone had chopped down a famous 300-year-old kola tree in Ghana. Many Ghananians were outraged because this tree was like a deity with mystical and healing powers. Who might have chopped it? And for what?
If you lived… pic.twitter.com/qLWmCjQ0O4
— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) November 16, 2023
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The chopping might have come from one of the ‘born again’ creatures, wanting to show there’s no power therein.
Trees live for hundreds of years and the legendary ones need to be protected, for history, heritage and other intrinsic value.
What needs to change across Africa is the scare tactics, rather than preserving they end up endangering those trees, because today’s kids can be very daring, so telling them that spirits live on those trees might no longer be effective. We are not making money from our beautiful masquerades because they were demonized, so as the trees remain deified, they are also vulnerable.
A new narrative is needed, one that is enriching and splendid, engendering and endearing everyone to become custodians, and perhaps mini historians too. When things of value are elegantly framed and communicated, you essentially make everyone a fan, with a huge tourism value.
Things that are rich, distinct and edifying should not scare, rather the stories and customs around them should bring admiration and reverence. We are losing more than we are gaining with our approach, it needs to be updated.