Focus on National Youth Authority - Tamale Branch

By Saul Sebag-Montefiore

This week the Metropolitan Youth Coordinator at the Tamale Branch of the National Youth Authority spoke to Central Press about the extensive list of issues facing Ghana's youth in the Northern Region and what the Youth Authorities are doing to aid and empower the Nation's abandoned future.

It is common knowledge that the youth, as the future of Ghana, must be nurtured and raised in the correct environment to give them the opportunity to make an honest living and provide them with the right resources to carry Ghana forward. However, it is an unfortunate truth that a sharply rising number of the Nation's able youth are leaving Universities and Colleges after years of training only to find that there are no jobs. Although, some would say that these young people coming out of university are the lucky ones because in the Northern Region there are still groups of young people who don't get the opportunity to go to school and are mercilessly spat out into adulthood with no real skills, training or qualifications. The National Youth Authority of Tamale draws direct connections between incidents of young people committing street-crime, engaging in street-fighting, having unprotected sex with peers, and turning to drugs and prostitution as desperate attempts to deal with or escape from their bleak situation.

The Metropolitan Youth Coordinator, Mr. E.B. Gyan Ansah, stated, 'The family system is breaking down leading to young people turning to drugs, violence and crime. The devil finds work for idle hands and it is inevitable that if the youth are left unemployed they will cause trouble - just look at the recent events in London.'

There is a certain truth to these claims by Mr. Gyan Ansah that has been demonstrated by the recent riots that occurred in London where many frustrated young people took to the streets to steal and cause damage despite many of them not knowing what the original protests were about and after a year that has seen thousands being made unemployed there is much evidence to suggest that this violence was an angry reaction against the establishment after struggling to find a source of money to survive. Therefore this issue is not isolated to Ghana but is present all around the world.

Mr. Gyan Ansah also pinpointed the neglect of young people's Human Rights in the family environment as a major factor in the rises in unemployment. He reflected on a study that was made by the NYA in 2006 that revealed that a large group of young people in Tamale were being denied basic education, being draughted into child labour. According to Gyan, 'some parents even denied their children nutrition, for example, we came across a mother who would not feed her child an egg because she believed it will make him steal, despite the child's desperate need for sustenance.' The Metropolitan Youth Coordinator sees the unemployment issue as having its roots originating in the home of the young person and if parent's fail to do their duty to guide their children along the correct path then there is an inevitability that Ghanaian children will emerge into adulthood with no skills to create their own livelihood.

After Ghana became the first African Nation to join the UN and sign the Children's Act in 1998 it has become imperative that Ghana maintains its image as the most progressive, developed African Nation. Mr Gyan Ansah saw the reason for the mismanagement and neglect of young people as a lack of education rather than a lack of care. He explained that after the damning report of 2006, 'we needed to tell them the truth', and with the sponsorship of the US Assembly Human Right's Fund a large program was set up to educate the parents and children of Tamale. Workshops were organized for 50 people at a time and a community sensitization program in 10 communinities was set up that reached over 1000 people, and the NYA received free airtime on 'Radio Justice' to highlight the issues affecting children. The result of this program was astonishing and after returning to the communities 5 months later Gyan Ansah reflected, 'there was a very big change - a lot of children went back to school and were educated because of the program and there was also a major drop in teenage pregnancies.'

The experienced Youth Coordinator of Tamale then reflected on another similar action that was taken by NYA in 2003 following a wave of political, illegal and tribal street-fighting from youths. Gyan stated, 'We went to our communities to educate the youth and built up a network of support for peace building as ActionAid and the Christian Council came and helped us talk to the youth on how to prevent conflict in Tamale.' This educative program was another great success as hundreds of young people were reached in every community the NYA and it's collaborators visited. As Mr. Gyan stated, 'It has helped calm the political storm and violence in the region and now incidents of political violence are few and far between.'

These are examples of how instantaneously effective simple actions such as talking and educating people about the importance of giving Ghana's youth every possible opportunity to blossom and flourish can be and the NYA in Tamale have proved that they have the personnel and experience to make this happen. However, as usual, funding prevents the NYA from being able to do more. Gyan declared that the main issues facing NYA are, 'inadequate resources, lack of funding, lack of transport, and lack of equipment.' He pleaded, 'If we can get more funding we can reach out to more communities and we want to reach as many as possible in the future so that we can provide young people with the skills that will help them get employment and empowerment.'  

The work of the NYA and men like Mr. Gyan Ansah has resulted in an atmosphere of calm and peace in Tamale these days. Yet the battle against youth unemployment still rages on in Tamale and throughout the whole of Ghana. Hearing the issues facing the youth of the Northern Region and how the Youth Authorities have attempted to deal with them gives an interesting perspective on the situation in the Central Region where the sky high levels of youth unemployment has also become an uncomfortably prevalent issue. It seems that the pathway towards the empowerment of the Nation's youth is only Cedis away but where these will come from is far more ambiguous. The only thing that is clear is that more people must start to take heed of this issue to give the youth of this great Nation an opportunity to become its future. 

BLACK MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT AND MYSTERY AT TAMALE FETISH MARKET

By Saul Sebag-Montefiore

On the surface Tamale market is like any other dotted around Ghana, buzzing with life, commerce, vivid sights, colours and smells. However, there is a small section of the market buried deep in the vast maze of incredible cloth and food stalls that opens a window to a dark, ancient world shrouded in mystery.

The fetish section of the large central market is tucked away in a small muddy corner of the market, comprising of just a few small stalls selling a large variety of weird animal artifacts. Scraps of tiger, leopard, snake and crocodile skin, horses tails, dried chameleons, lizards, turtles, vultures and shriveled monkey heads, imported from Burkino Faso, sit eerily in the stalls like a series of darks secrets that no-one wishes to whisper. The reason this section of market is such an incredible and unique place to visit is because it is a living relic of ancient superstition, black magic and voodoo witchcraft that used to be so prevalent in Ghanaian society and religion. Stalls like these are becoming a rarity in Ghana as the majority of people begin to finally accept that paracetamol tablets are more effective for curing a headache than running through a series of fires, entirely naked while swallowing dog eyes and waving a decapitated chicken above your head. However, there are still local people who cautiously sidle up to these dark, mystical stalls and purchase a piece of exotic animal to be used for traditional medical purposes.

Mohammed Kwesie, a shopkeeper from one of the fetish stalls explained, ‘local people come here and buy ingredients that they use in their own recepies to make herbal remedies to cure a variety of illnesses. Headaches, malaria, stomach bugs, body pains, skin disease and many other things. For example: to cure a headache some people use Ayigali, which is a black powdery substance. You use water and rub the block of Ayigali against a rock to create a watery paste that you rub onto your head and your headache will disappear within minutes. Ayigali is also used by many to clean the eyes and they spread the watery black paste onto their eyeball leaving vision clean and clear.’ Mohammed Kwesie looked at me strangely when I asked him whether it actually worked before stating, ‘Yes it works!’

A customer at one of the stalls came up and quietly bought a chameleon and a monkey head. He refused to give his name but explained, ‘monkey and chameleon is a Muslim medicine that cures anything. I personally prepare my remedy by crushing it into powder, burning it before either rubbing it into the skin or consuming it with food or tea. I use it to cure hand pain and stomach upset and it only takes minutes to relieve the pain. I have been using it for 15 years and it works, certainly.’

Although, this customer was happy there are also many conflicting views on the subject of whether the herbal remedies actually work. A middle-aged woman who was passing through the market stated, ‘I do not believe in this medicine, how can a crushed monkey head cure a headache? It does not work. I’ll never use it myself.’

The substances in these stores are not just used for medicines but are also used for much darker purposes, such as cursing. There was hardly anyone in the market who was willing to talk about this sensitive subject that is treated with extreme trepidation. However, one shopkeeper explained, ‘cursing is a way of putting bad luck and encouraging harm to befall upon a person who has wronged you – there are many different spells and methods of cursing so I could not tell you how people do it but generally the procedure involves crushing and burning the substance, to release the spirits and chanting and praying to invoke the deity to bring bad luck to the victim of the curse.’

Whether one believes in curses or not, there is an incredibly sinister, threatening and dangerous undertone to the uses of the substances in the fetish market. It is obvious to see why there is such fear and secrecy surrounding the subject because only a select few have the knowledge to carry out the mysterious rituals and even fewer are willing to talk about it. However, to experience this incredible place of secrecy and mystery transports you to an ancient African world of magic and witchcraft that still lives in a small corner of Tamale Market – a sight that you will see nowhere else on the planet.