If anything notable in history could be likened to how parents scrambled for their wards from the campus of the Kumasi Academy [KUMACA], in the Ashanti region, then it is probably how Europe scrabbled for Africa.
These parents stormed the school requesting nothing but one thing. That, authorities allow them take their children to their respective homes.
Indeed, neither the parents nor their wards could stand the agonizing episode of a series of death the school was witnessing. First, it was a student who died. Well, man is born to die. So, they grieved and were almost picking themselves up from the painful departure when the death toll went to two. Then to three and four! All in a spate of roughly two weeks.
At this time, as the media got hold of this news, I could imagine the number of superstitious tales- associated with senior high schools- that the students of the KUMACA would have to endure. During my days at the then Sunyani Secondary School, there were a number of such tales including “Madam Shoe” and “Kabiwe”- to wit, bite and chew.
Hearsay had it that a female teacher fell ill and when she was being rushed to the hospital, one of her shoes fell on campus. This ‘female teacher’ who could not survive the illness would later surface at night, on campus, in search for the left behind pair of shoe. For Kabiwe, it was said to be a creature with the head made of ballfloat. When he meets you at night, on campus, it tells you to have a bite of his head and chew (eat). Refusal of which meant the end of your life.
These were mere tales of which no single individual on campus testified of ever meeting these spirits. I am sure, however, that even at the mention of Madam Shoe or Kabiwe in my former senior secondary school now will get students shaking as the hand that holds a glass of Akepteshie. So, you see, my imagination for the KUMACA students fearing the supposed spirit causing deaths and, as well, fearing the thought of their departed souls cannot be faulted.
On television, radio, online and in the newspapers were but KUMACA! The pressure on the school authorities this time surpassed that which the Israelites gave to Moses. The media demanded the real cause of the reported deaths. Parents deepened their demand for their wards, too and the students felt like fish out of water. Then, it was announced that autopsy reports of the dead students would be made public to ascertain the cause of the deaths.
Finally, the day came and the cat was let out of the bag. According to the autopsy reports, the students died of Meningitis.
At a media briefing, Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah said that “There have been several explanations to account for the sad event but I want to assure you that an answer has been found to give meaning to the demise of the students.
“Through the collaborative effort of experts from the Ghana Health Services at the district, regional and national levels together with an experience colleague from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the school of Medical Sciences, we can propose the cause of these deaths as meningitis,” reported 3news.com.
Indeed, the autopsy reports from the St Patrick’s Hospital at Offinso Maase, St. Michael’s Hospital at Pramso, and the KNUST School of Medical Sciences all arrived at the doorstep of meningitis.
Now, tensions seem to have subsided on the campus of the Kumasi Academy. Parents who wished to have their wards home have been granted their request.
At the end of it all, I think there are at least three lessons the nation must learn from the KUMACA’s slideshow of anguish. Self-control, not drawing hasty conclusions and cutting down on superstition.
Whereas every discerning mind would side with and tolerate to an extent the anger expressed by the students and parents of KUMACA, such frustrations were expressed leaving behind self-control. A peaceful demonstration by the students could have been appreciated much more than they hurling stones and the like at their headmasters’ bungalow. The school also had its fair share of the students’ anger as a number of properties were damaged.
There were a couple of times students of my former senior secondary school either matched to the dining hall’s pantry or to the school authorities to register their displeasure over unpalatable foods or bad happenings in the school. It is true the Sunyani Secondary School did not protest over any series of deaths, we have seen and heard some students burning their schools’ properties to ashes over such petty displeasures as unpalatable foods.
The then headmaster, Mr. Joseph Awuah, thought his students this mastery of self-control. So, when students’ belongings were being stolen from their respective dormitories incessantly he told us one thing. “When you catch the thief bring him/her to me. Ensure you don’t injure him or beat him up [to death]. Just hand them over to authority,” he would say.
As if by design, the students finally caught the thief, also a student, and off he was paraded to the headmaster’s bungalow. Although some tried beating him up, many were those who prevented the thief to be manhandled.
The other lesson we can learn from KUMACA is not drawing conclusions. Drawing of hasty conclusions has ruined many institutions. Many a time, we tend to form our own opinions of happenings around us without probing these happenings with hard hitting questions to tease out answers.
Above all, we do tie these hasty conclusions with superstition that it becomes difficult for us to comprehend issues when we are eventually told the truth. While some said the KUMACA series of death was as a result of food poisoning, others believed it was the work of the over blamed witches of Africa.
The KUMACA story tells us as a nation that we have no justification to bastardize our forefathers for indulging in superstition. Indeed, we all need extra classes in scientific studies to shape our thinking.
The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 3FM’s editorial policy.
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