Tamale: Clearing the Air

Tamale is the capital of the Northern Region. Bolgatanga is the capital of the Upper East Region of Ghana and Wa is the capital of the Upper West Region. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t seem to figure out which is the capital of which, google it!

These three regions are independent regions, geographically. They are not one region even though they may share similar cultural elements like the Damba festival, sagibo/sagim; what you would call tuo zaafi (T.Z.). Even the local languages run into one another because many of the languages spoken here belong to the Mole-Dagbanli group of languages. I will be speaking mostly about the Northern Region because that is where I spent most of my life.

Tamale is a ten to twelve hour drive from the nation’s capital. Don’t bulge your eyes at me. The distance does not make it a different planet altogether. You can always fly if you can’t sit in a bus for that long. That takes fourty-five (45) minutes to one (1) hour.

About the language; as far as I know, Hausa is originally a Nigerian language. It may have been one of the languages widely spoken in the Northern Region but it is not the same today. So the older generation may be fluent in it. For example my parents and grandmother speak Hausa but I do not, neither do many of my contemporaries. So if you meet me and I tell you that I am from Tamale and you speak Hausa to me, don’t be surprised if I look at you weirdly because I just don’t speak it. And it is okay that I don’t. My being Muslim does not automatically give me the license to speak it. In the mosques that I have been to, the sermon is usually said in Dagbanli. So do not dare conclude that my inability to speak Hausa translates into religious inauthenticity. 

During my first Eid in Accra, my friends wished me a “Barka da Sallah”. For a period of time, I did not know how to respond. I’d always giggle and nod politely because I was too ashamed to ask how to respond to that. It was only after I had called my mother to ask her how to respond to that was I able to comfortably engage in that discourse. Don’t get me wrong, I love languages. I wish I spoke Hausa and so many other Ghanaian languages.

Do I know everyone who lives in “the north”? Absolutely not! How about I don’t know every single person in my neighbourhood? So when you ask me where I come from and I say, Tamale, Don’t ask me if I know Abu and add insult to injury by saying he comes from “the north”. “The north” is not a hamlet where everybody knows everybody.

I don’t look like a northerner? So what do I look like? An alien? Tell me, how are northerners supposed to look like? Do we walk around with tags on our foreheads that say “I am a northerner”? We really need to put a stop to this needless stereotyping; it does not put food on the table neither does it enhance our development as a people. It only reinforces our ignorance.

And when you ask my name and I tell you, don’t ask me if I have another name. If everyone else I know can say my name perfectly, so can you. What is the use of your eating okro if you can’t say a trisyllabic name?

It is perfectly okay to ask questions for clarity; don’t let your ignorance eat you up.

For all the visitors coming to the Northern Region in droves today and in the future, use the opportunity to learn more about the place. Talk to people; kill the ignorance. When you go back home, share your experience with others. Let’s work together to break these stereotypes one person at a time.

We love people. We are very hospitable (you have no idea how much). And we love to talk about our culture. It does not hurt to ask.

(Signed: The Tamale Ambassador)

What about the other side?

I was born at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and I lived most of my life in this blessed city. Growing up in this city is the best thing that could ever happen to me. Many of you already know how much I love my birth-city. And the noise I never stop making of its awesomeness. It is the place I met most of the beautiful people in my life.

Communality and hospitality is our strong suit. We believe in treating people well and living as one big family. I went home for the vacation a few years ago. I left my stuff in the taxi that took me home. The next day, the taxi driver returned them to my house. I can’t think of the number of times my parents lost their phones in town and got them back from the good Samaritans who found them. How many of these do we hear people talk about?

I hate violence and I condemn it in any form. I am disturbed by the recent happenings in Tamale and I think we should leave the security forces to do their jobs instead of sensationalizing an already sensitive issue. Stop the hyperbolic reporting and let them do their job!

To the young people who have fancy phones and unlimited internet access, if your intent is to help, contact the relevant authorities instead of taking to social media to reinforce the stereotypes appropriated to northerners. The internet is a very powerful tool; let’s use it to educate the rest of the world. Let’s disabuse their minds of the stereotypes that they have attributed to us.

I get that many of these Accra-based media houses are “doing their job”, I only have a problem with the selective reporting that they do. Did you know that Tamale has been voted three consecutive times as the cleanest city in Ghana? Did you know that Tamale has one of the most organized road networks in Ghana? Did you know the Greenwich Meridian passes through Yendi? Did you know that Tamale is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa? I wonder why few or no documentaries have been done on this yet. Or is it not worth reporting? But of course, you have all the resources to do documentaries on “Why Northerners Fight”!

In recent times, entertainment centres, media houses and financial companies have sprang up here, why has there been little reportage on any of these? When the Zogbeli L/A Primary School (in Tamale) won the national championship of the U-13 Milo African Championship why did you not make a lot of noise about it? Why do you refuse to show that side of Tamale?

Until we stand together as a people and work towards development, we will continue to give ghouls something to chew on; we will continue to satisfy these stereotypes. We need to stand together as on to work towards improving access to education in the three northern regions.

-WFM