Welcome to Kasoa
Posted by By Akogun Akomolafe at 17 April, at 19 : 41 PM Print
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Kasoa, the town which means ‘Market,’ in the Hausa language, was formerly a small settlement where traders meet to transact business.
Itinerant cattle traders changed things dramatically when they moved in and start to sell goats, fowls and sheep. This increase the popularity of the settlement which was located on the strategically important highway between Accra and the Western corridor of the country. The Western Region is the richest region in Ghana, and it produces the bulk of the country’s mineral and agricultural products.
Kasoa is about twenty kilometers from the nation’s capital, Accra. Traders from the interior find it more convenient to discharge their cargoes in Kasoa instead of risking the heavy traffic of the capital. Accra traders also find it easier to stop at Kasoa, rather than to travel the long distance to the Western Region. So, Kasoa benefited immensely from serving as the interface between the two most important parts of the country.
The highway that cut through Kasoa is said to be the busiest section on the ECOWAS Transnational Highway. This also help to boost the population as it attracts settlers from the West African sub-region.
Over the years, Kasoa grew to become one of the largest towns in Ghana.
The original name of the town is Odupong-Kpehe. Kasoa land belongs to the Awutu people, who traced their ancestry to one of Ghana’s larger tribes or, to be politically correct, national groups, Ga.
The native language of Kasoa is Awutu, but so many foreigners have settled in the town that the native language has become a minority language. One hardly hears Awutu spoken on the streets of Kasoa. With a sizable number of non-Ghanaians, Kasoa is a truly metropolitan town. So many African languages are spoken on the streets of Kasoa that the joke is that the town is a mini-ECOWAS, a true melting pot of diverse African nationalities.
On the Eastern side of Kasoa near Amanfro-Inglesi is a settlement for the Gau Gau people from Niger Republic. They trade mostly in goats and sheep. On the Western side of town, which is on the Kasoa to Cape Coast road, is the large Buduburam Refugee Camp. As the story goes, the camp was originally a prayer camp on the outer fringe of town, before the government set a refugee camp there, to receive Liberians who fled the civil war in their country. After the Liberians came the Sierra Leoneans, who also fled a war in their country.
Today, most of the foreigners have left for their home countries and other destinations, and many Ghanaians have moved in to settle there. There remains a sizable number of foreigners, but the settlement has lost its once-bustling allure.
Buduburam is unlike any Ghanaian town as one hardly hear a Ghanaian language used in business transaction there. Even the Ghanaians who live there speak a form of Liberian dialect of the English language.
Buduburam has such a ferocious reputation that many Ghanaians are afraid to go there. To many native Ghanaians, Buduburam is the modern version of Sodom and Gomorrah where every vice is present and openly encouraged. Many parents advised their children never to venture there as scary stories of cannibalism, prostitution, armed robbery, witchcraft and human sacrifices are peddled to scare the hell out of little children.
Many Ghanaians dread traveling to or even passing through Kasoa, simply because of the city’s legendary traffic jam.
Like most of Ghana’s urban centers, little thought was given to city planning as Kasoa blossomed from a rural settlement into a thriving metropolis within a decade. The only memorable road in town remains the ECOWAS Transnational Highway, which dissect the town. To add to the utter mayhem, the most prominent industry in town, which is the famed Kasoa market, is located right beside the highway. Daredevil traders play Russian roulette with their lives as they run on and off what is supposed to be an International Highway.
Efforts by many governments to move stubborn traders to the brand-new market along the Bawjiase road have proved abortive. The almost impeccable logic of the traders: Trading is carried out where the buyers are – the buyers are those that ply the Highway, so the traders stubbornly refused to bulge. And governments, afraid of the electoral power of the market women, play safe and pretend not to notice the menace they continue to pose.
For many years, Kasoa was neglected in terms of the provision of basic amenities for citizens.
But it looks like the government of President John Dramani Mahama has finally turn its attention to attending to some of the problems besetting what many believe to be the fastest growing metropolis in West Africa.
The contract to build an overhead pass at Kasoa was on the drawing board for a long time. After much speechifying in parliament, approval was gained for a loan to finance the project. Work started on the project in late 2015. It went into higher gear this year, and on 3 February the president, John Dramani Mahama, came to town with pomp and pageantry and officially commissioned the project.
To the joy of the citizens of Kasoa, the Flyover is not the only game in town. The perennial traffic bottleneck is somewhat eased by a new road from the Barrier to the Buduburam area on the Winneba road, totally bypassing Kasoa township. In several parts of town, several other road construction projects are ongoing, much to the delight of the inhabitants of the city.
Finally, Kasoans have reason to cheer after long years of neglect. They will no longer be the butts of jokes from their compatriots, who look down on them because of their lack of good access road.
Here are some pictures:
About the Author
Femi Akomolafe is a passionate Pan-Africanist. A columnist for the Accra-based Daily Dispatch newspaper and Correspondent for the New African magazine. Femi lives in both Europe and Africa, and writes regularly on Africa-related issues for various newspapers and magazines.
Femi was the producer of the FOCUS ON AFRICANS TV Interview programme for the MultiTV Station.
He is also the CEO of Alaye Dot Biz Limited Dot Biz, a Kasoa-based Multimedia organisation that specialises in Audio and Video Production. He loves to shoot and edit video documentaries.
His highly-acclaimed books (“Africa: Destroyed by the gods,” “Africa: It shall be well,” “18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories” and “Ghana: Basic Facts + More”) are now available for sales at the following bookshops/offices:
- Freedom Bookshop, near Apollo Theatre, Accra.
- The Daily Dispatch Office, Labone – Accra
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- Ghana Writers Association office, PAWA House, Roman Ridge, Accra.
- African Kitchen in Amsterdam Bijlmer
Where to buy them online:
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Africa: it shall be well
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Africa: Destroyed by the gods
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Get free promotional materials here:
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A FREE Chapter of ‘Africa: Destroyed by the gods’ could be downloaded here: http://alaye.biz/africa-destroyed-by-the-gods-free-chapter/
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Comradely,
Femi Akomolafe
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