MANASSEH WRITES: The Kumasi mall trolling and matters arising

Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II at the Kumasi City Mall

On Thursday, I observed that social media were awash with jokes about the Kumasi Mall. It started as a Kumasi-Accra rivalry, and developed into a joke that, in Kumasi, the mall would be called “more” because the people there find it difficult to pronounce the letters “r” and “l”.

Some said it would be called “Kumasi Accra Mall” because the only mall the people of Kumasi are used to is the Accra Mall. Funny and fake quotes like those often attributed to Mugabe emerged about the mall, and were attributed “Chairman Wontumi” of the NPP. There were also funny pictures, which some people posted, purporting to be some of the first patrons of the mall. Many of those pictures emerged when there were jokes about the West Hills Mall after two young men  recorded a video and stated that they were making it “real big” in a “coded location.”

The last time Kumasi came under such teasing was when the Ratray Park was commissioned. It was said that the people there would find it difficult to pronounce the name so they would call it “Ratlay” Park.

On Friday, I saw Facebook posts by some notable persons in society praising Asantes for not getting angry over the social media trolling on the Kumasi Mall. I have also read some disturbing posts by some people who have not taken the teasing lightly and have reduced it an ethnic issue. Some of them went to the absurd levels, warning other ethnic groups not to complain when it is done to them. What started as an inter-city (Accra-Kumasi) rivalry is assuming ethnic dimensions, with some drawing comparisons and others issuing threats. This is unfortunate. “Kumasianos” are not only Asantes. Kumasi is a cosmopolitan city and has a lot of people from other regions and ethnic groups who live there. Some of these people have adopted Kumasi as their home and proudly refer to themselves as Kumasi boys and Kumasi girls.

My work colleague, Victor Brachie, who was one of those who spearheaded this teasing, is an Asante from Kumasi, who lives in Accra so I don’t see how this should be looked at from the ethnic angle.

But I don’t blame them. I blame those who triggered the ethnic angle by ignoring the lighter side of life. And it beats my imagination why anybody thinks Asante people have any justification for getting angry over the social media teasing. The “r” and “l” jokes about Asante people is not new and we should not expect people to react differently now, when we have always laughed about it in our schools and workplaces.

Besides, other ethnic groups in Ghana are often subjected to more crude jokes and teasing and we have always laughed about it. What makes Kumasi or Asantes different in above teasing?

We tease “the Number 9 people”, the Ewes, because we say they have a funny accent when they speak English. Not every Ewe speaks English like Doe Adzaho, but our plays and movie characters often have characters who speak the English Language in that funny way and they always bear Ewe names. In most of Uncle Ebo Whyte’s plays, there is always that character, who speaks English with the accent we attribute to Ewes. Everyone, including Ewes, often join in the laughter.

There are 1001 jokes about Ewes and their love for cats as a delicacy. It is often said that if your cat is stolen, you should ask the Ewe nearby. These jokes are often woven around Efo, who steals people’s cats for light soup. Don’t Ewes have emotions?

Fantes and Gas are subjects of jokes relating to food, and the Fantes have extra jokes about them. We all may have heard about the “M’agya tu” joke in which the white colonialists placed one gun in a room full of captured Fantes and they asked permission from the gun to go ease themselves outside and came back to captivity. When I was growing up, there was a comedian called Waterproof who made a lot of jokes about ethnic groups, especially those from northern Ghana.

Atongo or Atia, who often represents people in the northern part of Ghana, is that character in local movies and concerts who speaks and acts in a certain way. The inability of some people in the north to speak Twi well, is a main feature in local movies and concerts. The late Nkomode played such a character in the Concert Party fame and that made him very popular apart from his comedy. When Nkomode’s master called him, he responded, “masha” instead of master. He was supposed to represent a particular people and how they spoke English. Like Asantes and their “r” and “l”, the Atinga and Efo characters often elicit laughter from the very people they are teasing.

Those who also say they are offended because the teasing was manufactured should tell us whether they think all the jokes about Fantes, Ewes, Gas and other ethnic groups are real stories.

Almost all the ethnic jokes are often manufactured

Some specific ethnic groups take the ethnic jokes beyond light-heartedness and engage in “serious” exchanges that outsiders often consider too offensive. If one is not very conversant with their culture, one is likely to take sides and fight for their friends. This explains why Abdul Hayi-Moomen and I always have to explain to our relationship to our social media followers. The Gurune speaking people of the Upper East Region and the Dagaaba of the Upper West Region have these jokes. I had to step in and explain to someone who did not understand this and took Anthony Karbo on when he made some remarks at the vetting. The Dagaaba claim we the Gurune people like dog meat and we have eaten all the dogs in our region. Beyond that, we call each other slaves.

When former Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama (a Dagomba), died, the Moshie people made their inter-ethnic relationship clear at the burial ceremony. These inter-ethnic relationships and jokes do not happen only in Ghana.

On Tuesday, I was in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, for an investigative journalism training. At the opening ceremony, the MC told the Minister of Information of Burkina Faso that he (the minister) should not think that he was more important than him (the MC) because he was seated at the high table. For those who did not get the joke, the MC later explained that the Minister was a Fulani and he was a Bobo and they had those jokes.

There jokes about Fantes and there are Jokes about Gas. There are jokes about Ewes and there are jokes about the Dagaaba, Gonja and Dagomba. We all laugh at each other and move on as a nation. What has happened should not open the Pandora’s box about ethnic prejudices that are divisive and detrimental to our nation. Those who are talking about other ethnic groups reacting in a certain way are saying so because there have been reactions of some ethnic groups to some pronouncements mainly by politicians in the past. But we should not confuse the two.

There are humorous and harmless ethnic jokes, but there are also ethnic prejudices that fuel hatred and cause animosity among people. When you think some people are not fit to hold certain positions in the country because of where they come from, it should not be compared with an ethnic joke. If you think someone’s confidence and pride in their culture means they are arrogant and disrespectful, it is not a joke. If you label a group of people as thieves or witches because of their ethnicity, it is not a joke. Almost all ethnic groups in Ghana have jokes about them. In the same way, they all have prejudices against them, even the biggest ethnic groups. While the former can be described as bringing out the lighter side of life, the former divides us and retards our progress.

Some of the people trolling Kumasi are Asantes from Kumasi so this is not an ethnic thing

People have the right to be offended by the Kumasi Mall jokes because we all have different ways of processing and interpreting what we hear. Our levels of tolerance are different. In so doing, however, such people should be reminded of the fact that other ethnic groups are subjects of such teasing in our daily lives. It happens in our schools, workplaces, churches, in movies and concerts, as well as on social media. There is nothing special about what is happening to Kumasi or the Asantes as some people would want to stretch it. It is difficult to establish any malicious intention beyond the humour. And it is difficult to accept the praises and threats unless someone is able to explain why Kumasi people are above teasing.

The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a journalist with Joy 99.7 FM. His email address is [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Multimedia Group, where he works.