By Yero S. Bah
Ghanaian founders of the small coastal fishing settlement in the West Coast Region of The Gambia named ‘Ghana Town’ in Brufut, have been narrating how this fishing town was founded, several decades ago.
Following the independence in Ghana in 1957, a group of Ghanaian citizens numbering 36, left Akunfi Imuna village found in the central regions of Ghana 1,676 kilometers to the Gambia.
Among them was little girl Essi Achefoe, now a 73-year-old woman, who left Ghana with her uncle to join his father who had already settled in Bakau village {town} a fishing site in The Gambia months before her.
Sitting on a wooden stool and leaning over a low table filled with kneaded balls of flour to be baked into pancakes, the 73-year-old Essi Achefoe narrates her journey from her country Ghana to Ghana town in The Gambia with his uncle on a fishing boat to the shores of Brufut back in 1958. I was just a little girl; our profession is fishing so we move from one place to another for better catches.” she explains.
“Now, I see myself as Gambian, all my children are born here, they don’t know Ghana even though they often visit relatives in Ghana. This is a journey of no return, though I often visit Ghana but {my} home is the Gambia, and I am back recently from there {to} attend my mother’s funeral.” she touchingly adds.
Essi said that, fishing is their profession and that was among the primary reasons for leaving their home country Ghana to the Gambia in those early years. “We sailed on boats from Ghana to Brufut but Dakar Senegal was our initial stopover for three months before we proceeded to Brufut and Bakau, respectively.” she explains. She recalls that Kutubo Sanno was the Alkalo at the time when they arrived in Brufut village and the place where Ghana town is constructed was just a forest.
“However, it was Kalifa Sanno, the successor and younger brother to Kutubo Sanno, who gave us land to build our settlement now called Ghana town to get closer to the fishing sites as we are mainly fishermen.” she points out.
All the 36 Ghanaian citizens who first settled in Ghana town were from different families but from the same village back home in Akunfi Imuna village, Ghana. Fishing is the main occupation for this Ghanaian community in Ghana town but they are also into other petty trading schemes such as making and selling of pounded cassava (gari) to make ends meet.
According to Patrick S. Amoah, a young man in his early 30s, his grandfather Samuel Amoah told him that, they settled in Ghana town in 1961 and even participated in many pre-independence political activities back in the days, such as the mobilization of youths and villagers with the Alkalo of Brufut for political rallies for the colonial masters.
In a chilling tone, a young woman of Ghanaian origin but Gambian born said that, residents of Ghana town are treated as second class citizens, marginalized and alienated when it comes to job acquisitions and opportunities even though they were born here, attend schools here, grew up in the Gambia and do not even know anything about Ghana; the origin of their grandparents.
“I was born here, grew up, schooled here but I was denied an immigration job here; they said I am a foreigner.” she laments, adding that they don’t know anywhere except the Gambia, but it is hard for them. “We are always harassed by Gambian immigration officers,” she chillingly adds.
Musa Joof is a Gambian who settled in Ghana town since 1986. He was the first Gambian to join the Ghanaian community in Ghana town but also joined them on the fishing business. He indicates that Ghana town was established in 1958 by a group of Ghanaian citizens who left Ghana during the era of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana.
He told Mansa Banko Online that the Alkalo of Brufut at the time, Kalifa Sanno gave this land to the Ghanaian community to settle because the people of Brufut realized that most of the Ghanaians were drunkards and it was better to relocate them somewhere suitable for their religion and cultural activities which were not in line with Gambians’ at the time which formally led to the founding of Ghana town in 1958.
These fishing communities of Ghanaian citizens were on constant move from one area to another in search of better fishing opportunities around the sub-region but they finally decided to settle in Ghana town because in those early years, fishing in Brufut and Bakau were lucrative and business was great. Musa argues that most of the first generations of Ghanaian settlers are no longer alive; only second and third generations of their children are living in Ghana town, today.
With almost eight churches and one mosque at Ghana Town, it’s believed that up to 70% of the residents are Christians.
“However, religious tolerance exists between Christians and other faithful. We live here like brothers and sisters in peace and harmony,” says Joof.
The current population has increased from 36 Ghanaian citizens to close to 4000 residents, predominantly Ghanaian descendants, but majority of them are now born in the Gambia.
