Back to the Past

I was in Tamale this weekend. I visited all the places i grew up in and as i rode along those familiar roads, which once were footpaths that i trod to school, market, church and my mother's office at the Tamale General Hospital. It was good to be back home.

Yes, Tamale for me is home. It is the land of my nurture and grooming. I learnt most survival tactics on the harsh, dry savanna plains of tamale for the first 18years of my life. I stayed long enough to develop a love and passion for its food, language, people and culture. The sight of 'garawa'(a metal container for water vending) brought back memories of our search for water from Kalpohini Estates to Sakasaka, Nobisco to Waterworks or Jisonayili. At home we chased the water tankers from the third road to the second and first roads of Estates. flowing tapes were a luxury and the chase for water was the norm.

For the few days i stayed i crammed into my belly all the zuo zafi,(local corn meal) fried yam with groundnut powder, kulikuli-made from groundnut paste, and you name it. It was good to be home, the memories made it seem like just yesterday yet the profound change found all around Tamale reminded me that i was in a different age and time.

Tamale had changed, yet in the midst of the change, structural change, i will say, one can still find the things that make Tamale uniquely Tamale. The bicycles and motorbikes that carry a mother and two children, a husband, wife and child, and rider, passenger with load. These never change. The hot blazing and scorching sun and the dry hot air all remain the same. The greetings, hustle and bustle of its markets all remain the same.

So much change and yet certains just remain the same. It was my second trip in 15years and the longest and this time i have dreams of going back more often. I have fallen in love and it is with Tamale, where the person me was groomed and nurtured, educated and thought the virtures of respect for people no matter how different their way of life may be from mine.

My trip to Tamale was also like a therapy. I was connecting to my past to find answers for the future and i guess i found it