My most recent visit to Kumawu in the months of February and March 2024, discovered the reconfirmation of the steady degradation of the town’s landscape.
I had a few years ago conveyed to the attention of the Ghanaian public how Kumawu, the seat of the paramount chief of the Kumawu traditional area and the administrative headquarters of the Kumawu district, has pitifully been left at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather.
My usual walk around the town and its outskirts whenever I go on holiday in Ghana to update myself on the developmental state of the town, always reveals a shocking sight that sends cold chill down my spine and leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The site keeps getting more horrible each time I visit, leaving me to wonder why and how? I am usually left to gasp for air with mouth agape in total disbelief.
What do I mean to say here? It is all about how Kumawu has intentionally or inadvertently been left by both the public and especially, the traditional leaders, to suffer continuous blanke
t erosion. The topsoil of the town is practically washed away by unchecked rainwater, leaving behind dangerously exposed sharp stones that can easily fatally pierce through the body of any unfortunate soul tripping and falling on them.
I never knew my paternal place of birth, Kumawu, is sitting on such many, and dangerous stones until a few decades ago.
Could we be running around in the dark behind buildings at night doing hide and seek in what we used to call, ‘Koko niase koo, wo ni koo, wo se koo’, when I was growing up as a child, if there were such numerous protruding dangerous stones? No and no!
Why and from where are these stones today if I may ask?
Yes, many buildings are being built with probably parts of the land coming under crop cultivation of some sort for one reason or the other. However, should the leaders not find a way to ensure that the town’s ecology was not left destroyed by blanket erosion? Could they not engage the services of a qualified town planner or a civil engineer worth their s
alt to help construct gutters at various places and intervals to control, or redirect the rainwater without leaving it to take its own destructively erosive course as it is currently the situation?
The gully behind the ‘Chief Park’, when going towards Hyiewu that never existed when I attended the Kumawu Roman Catholic primary school is now getting wider, deeper, and more dangerous. Just fall into it and you will have become a ghost instantly, yet many people visit the park for various recreational purposes on frequent basis.
When I passed by the park in March 2024, many were those playing football and other games. It was such an enjoyable sight, seeing how the field has been levelled and gotten rid of the weeds that used to grow on it in the 1960s until they were finally cleared probably most recently.
I tip my hat off to Paa Agyei, a fellow Kumawuman subject residing in Switzerland for giving a better face to the ‘Chief Park’.
It is my responsibility and that of the entire Kumawuman subjects to ensure th
e cessation of that disastrous blanket erosion of the landscape as ongoing in the town.
It is disgusting to see and hear of the ‘chief’ and his sub-chiefs indulged themselves in other activities that are unhelpful toward the development of Kumawuman but their detrimentally selfish and myopic aspirations.
Would the traditional ‘chiefs’ and the public servants entrusted with overseeing the development of Kumawuman please take a walk around the Kumawu township to ascertain the veracity or otherwise, of my assertion?
Why has Kumawu so been neglected to lose her respect to comparatively smaller towns like Effiduase and Agogo, just to mention a few examples? Could it not be down to the lack of vision, greed, sheer wickedness, selfishness, and ingrained corruption on the part of the leaders and the nonchalant attitude of the subjects towards checking the leaders do fulfil their mandate for which they were elected or selected?
Addressing the topic, I say, if there were any serious visionary leaders in Kumawu with
good practical intentions about the town, it would not have been left to suffer such continuous degradation for far too long without any solution found to it.
Now that I am back on the social media after a long absence of what may well be described as hibernation, I assure my fans and the reading public that those views of mine that they have missed for so long will eventually be made public to them. They had better just stay tuned and wait for Rockson Adofo, that proud, fearless, and no-nonsense son of Kumawu/Asiampa soil.
Source: Ghana Web
