Ghana’s History: From Lord Listowel to GEN. ANKRAH - AM Show on JoyNews (14-6-21)

[Music] well thanks to muftau for sports and certainly dr pumble for that education but let's move on also to something really important and this is a conversation that you love really nowadays do we get the opportunity to explore the early days of ghana's independence through the eyes of one who saw and lived it all but we get such an occasion as we host emma florence she's a lady in waiting uh to lady listowel wife of the last governor general father and chroma and felicia ankara general ankara's other otherwise this is a conversation with benjamin a couple to enjoy well we are today in the eastern region and for very good reason a beautiful story has drawn us from accra to akusungbu specifically the volta hotel where we find ourselves uh currently and it's a privilege basically to speak to the person with whom i'm about to discourse she turns 90 on the 20th day of june that is this this month and she served with the asada for himself dr kwame kroma for six years she was there by his side by his family for those six years before the coup d'etat on the 24th of february 1966. i speak of none other than a woman whose story has not been told but which we are telling today emma florence she is our guest today mommy yes thank you so much for joining us for the conversation so let's start from here before you even uh encountered assad for dr kwame in chroma something happened there was a recommendation by governor general lord listerwell who served between 1958 and 1960. tell us a bit about what did you what was your interaction like with lord listower i saw in the daily that they want somebody to take care of ladies to win okay and they they said the person who is 25 years to 35 by that time i was 26 years and again a person who attended a girls school and i have attended girls school for four years so i thought that i can reply and i reply they give us the dates that when you reply you bring the application yourself so when the dates come i send the application myself so i reached there i saw one watchman a guardian boy and i asked him and he said this is the gate to flush that house he never entered there before so i should stand those who are working there will come and pass so i was standing there and in north dak was about to pass he was opening the gate and i asked him is he working there he said yes i am coming there they said there is an interview there so this is my application letter i'm coming for the interview and he said i should follow him so i follow him and we enter he gave me a seat and i sit down later on the workers come the car come and drop the workers and the chief steward come near me and ask me malam are you one of those who are coming for the interview then i said yes he brought the three silver tree and i put by letter soon the girls were coming one by one at by 10 o'clock then the adc edicam medical for the governor came and took the applications in were there other ladies yes other ladies about 12 ladies about 12 of you yes they put it there letters in and the eddie cam came and took them by 10 o'clock and he welcomed us and call us in and brief us about the interview it wasn't a written interview how to save how to serve people they make trees down when i saw the trees i had one of one boy speaking heavy then i greeted him and asked him wow this plenty dress what are they going to do with them then he said we are going to use them we are going badab is going to invite some people and we will serve them so i look through the trees some of the things are not familiar for that me like i saw some sponsored sugar with colored green blue and white and yellow and some pastries yes sugar and i asked the boy what is this and he said it's sugar for coffee oh right i saw as lime they slide it and put in the sausage what is this too going to do with tea and he told me some people don't like milk so they will have a life but if i'm going to save i should ask so when i take it to this person i'll ask please what do you want tea tea with milk or plenty tear tea with milk and with two cubes of sugar or no sugar tea with lime i do it i go here or do you want coffee and give you with that sugar so i go through all of them like that and i finished when i finished it was 12 o'clock so we close how did you feel when you were done did you feel you had done enough to get the job yes he felt yes yes so the adc came and called us in again and felt us that he thank us for coming and he asked who is emma dinah and i said i'm sir he said come this way and i went to his right the other girls were here when when the adc called you like that how did you feel were you afraid yes you're afraid yes if i was afraid about the man already the white man he called me do you remember his name yes a major potent major port hunt yes metropolitan so i was a bit afraid and i stand there and i thank the other girls and beat them goodbye tell them that next time when they call them again they shouldn't have stated they should come and they left and i remained there i was afraid and he asked me and he tell me they have taken me to work here to take care of lady and her belongings be there will i do the work i said yes how much did i want them to pay me that one rather made me afraid it was a headache for you yes it was a headache for me so i make like this and he smile and he's asked me are you working i said yes how much are they paying you i said seven pounds and he said we will add one and pay you eight pounds thank you sir because we will give you a place to stay a lorry to pick you to work in and out so play you it down i was glad within me and so that was how you started working yes so after the christmas and new year first january i came killed philosophers and started the work with a lady as for lady he's a feminist you won't see him sleep there every place any place you see he can sleep on the veranda the balcony any place when you went to the room to tidy you won't see her i have to be looking around before i saw her somewhere with her message there so pretty much of a free spirit but what was the experience like generally how long were you with the list of wells two years two years yes what was it like working for lord and lady mr well what was it like briefly what was the experience like uh there are some of the things i don't know before but when i went there staying there opened my eyes we were transitioning from the independence period until there was asajjovo who would you know take over prime minister and then as president of of ghana how did you come to meet osaji for what was the role governor general lester well played when it was time for him to leave ghana he went around to every region to beat them goodbye so it came to volta region so when we went he used to ask me all the time away from you i saw my job but he won't say anything till the last visit to who to beat them goodbye the governor called me and tell me that i should get ready you want to take me to the prime minister we were staying at state house but prime minister is staying at castle right so i got ready and we went when we went he called me and introduced me to them that this girl amen he is going he wanted to go take me along but my grandfather did not like that idea so he brought me back he don't want to leave me as an orphan so he brought me to them to take me as their own daughter and take care of me told them i'm a good girl i'm a humble girl i'm a smart girl it was like you was nodding his head like this was that the first time you were seeing yes that's the first time i saw him so they said he asked me have i agreed to stay with them i said yes have i taken my annual leave i said no okay when governor left i stayed i should take my annual leave after that i should come to them they will not be here again if governor left they will go to flustered house so i should spot reports at the flaster house okay so i took my annual live for one month after that i report there and when i went madame took me to the children's room and that was the first time he didn't assign me with anything yet but he let me stay with the children there was a nurse there i was helping the nurse playing with the children i bought story booths and reading for them so they were so happy when they are eating i'm reading how many were they then the children the children was small but i was playing with them then if the nurse is sick or asked permission for something to go for some place i will stay with the children so they were friendly with me i was there for one month and madame then madame started to call me to his red room okay tidy her room and so on and so forth was was fatiha and he differentiated is she different from lady listerwell yes you mentioned how they did list the world would either scatter things around it was party difficult no she she she fatiha didn't scatter things on the ground right she put them on either a stool or go and take it so she started drawing in here herself when her hairdresser came [Music] she would call me to come and help give he's a man joseph hold yourself i'll be giving him pins to do the hair one day joseph dress the hair finish madame says she don't like the hair she make her hands in and scatter it and she told me to come and do it and let's see when i i did it she appreciate it then another day she left me to do it again joseph was there and read it she liked it the third day and she liked it then she told yourself that he shouldn't come again oh wow yes i will do it so i started but she sent me to joseph's workshop to go and polish so every morning 10 o'clock when i finish with her then i go to joseph's workshop i was there learning anyway for three months making her hair here too so she saw that i am okay to do her efforts so she stopped joseph and asked me to not go to the workshop in the nation what i have learned learn it's okay so i stopped and i took over to make her hair what was your relationship like with her obviously she liked your she liked how you worked but yes she like is your relationship like with fatia through the time you stayed with her what was the relationship like we were friendly she was like my sister and i was i was like her sister was she older than you i was older than her one year by a year so you had things you shared yes yes did you ever talk about life about the things in your life in her life yes where she had yes i come from yes you used to see we used to talk even how the husband was treating her she used to tell me excuse them we used to confess what are some of the things and mother we went there to egypt yes we went there so i know a lot of them she and her siblings yes but you were making a point about how she used to share real life uh stories with you what are some of the things she shared with you about osaji she said if i didn't like her she said he's a womanizer so the day papa left to we used to call him papa left to hanoi madame madame to park that he's leaving she's living to her hometown and she won't come back again so in fact i packed all her things we those who are going to follow her the controller came and take our passports to renew them for us we brought our lobby to follow her to egypt again yes our luggages we brought them we prepared get ready to go i washed her hair on the 23rd that morning put on the rollers and thinking that 24th i would come and dress a half hair in the evening then we fly to egypt but before they break we heard of the coup yeah we heard of the food and i didn't see her again so that was the last time you saw that was the last time and the children yes and the children i made efforts that day today to go to flaster house there's the car which used to pick me didn't come and i walk to the streets you won't see any car you won't see anybody you always see amateurs going up and down but i walk from state house hours they give me a place sit down for hours from there to flashback us with all these military patrols you you didn't bother you i want i like my work i know that there i am getting my bread from i didn't mind at all i walked to sankara circle but then just to interject had you heard that there had been a coup yes you knew yes i knew and when i was going i reached the correct circle at the right side i saw the soldiers they are ambushed in the gutter there i was watching walking then hey woman where are you going from i was afraid and i ran today other side i walk till i reach the really reached the flustered house then i turned to the right where the helicopter used to park before we bought and go to where we were going i stand at that park that place the soldiers we used to change god i went and stand there and looking through flat staff house how they shoot and the gates was broken i stand there and look after about i stand there for about one hour because my luggages to a day so i was thinking that maybe i'll get a chance to enter were you able to enter well i didn't see any soldier around that time so i made up my mind that i will enter thinking that i will see madam and to make a hair for her but i didn't see anybody in there when i stepped like here today i heard a loud voice go back the the the voice were like a thunder not going to suggest we're standing on the tower at the gate there so they all shout at once i fell down in fact when i was lucky that no car was coming otherwise it was smashed me when i got up from there ran again to where i was standing and quickly i pass switch back route i don't know if you go this i ran past there going i was mad i don't know where i was going i passed through the the bungalows running going and then later on i came to a forest like a reserved forest i saw suggests which they were shoot some were groaning before i read that there were two applauses at the roadside so these were those who have been shot yes in some battles running some who were dead the stretcher was speaking them to the ambulance so i i just don't know running through them until i i made up my mind that i was going to police station my sister's husband is was a police i was running to him were you able to make it there yes i made it i made it and what happened when you got there when i reached his place he was at after i then rap i can't climb i threw myself on the floor he was in the room then he heard something and calm down come up what do you want here where did you pass i couldn't talk i was so tired he gave me water and drink and sit down for some time before i could talk to him that i know that madame is there and i'm going to make her for her say oh madam has gone i said going to where oh to her country madam is no more here how did you receive that was it shockingly yes shocking i was that shaking my head because you really wanted to go with her yes i say just like that say yes the egyptian ambassador come and take him hey they have all gone with the children then he dressed in his police uniform and took a car and take me to back to my house his brother two was a security man so he gave me his scottie his car was in the flustered house so he know that anytime they come back whether night all day he will get me at work and get his key so i hold the key and give it to the man and he took me to his to my house tell me not to come out again it is cool and on that note of a coup what was the mood like in the country you had had your first taste i'm sure of a coup d'etat what was the mood like in the country how did people react to the coup some were happy but somewhere sad i didn't go to the town but i was hearing the noise those you see the state house our place is near osu all the also there was people at our side there came and hooted who turned to us they were hooting at you yes why they don't want to grammar and now has gone his workers they are hurting they were hooting at you yes so we don't go out but me another security man who is also staying with at where i'm saying left his children two children with me his brother through is a policeman so i let this alex took me to the man and i told him that his brother left his children to me and his car so what shall i do said i should take the children to their mother my and i tell him my brother he's the driver he's with me he should take the children to their mother and after that i should bring his belongings the one i can take put it in the car and bring to him at the police councilman so i did that i sent the children when i went the mother their mother stayed at cocom lemon the people surrounded her and they were whipping throwing themselves on the floor knowing that the two children are killed but that's what they were thinking and they were thinking alas here we are somebody saw them carrying their things i was following them run and tell the mother that you stopped some people coming like aku and she ran out to see an exam her children come and see how she embraced all of us so it was a general state of fear for for some people yes and then happiness for others who did not want increments but but tell me there had been many things that supposedly had led to the coup dissatisfaction in the armed forces the military some police people some had spoken about corruption some had said so many things about the incremental administration you know the preventive detention act and all of that and some had said that kumar had become a dictator you lived with the man what was he like from from the standpoint of someone who was there you saw him what was with my alive as for me i don't see him as a dictator well outside maybe he's outside a character but the character inside we those who are working with him he loved us he never speak english to us he speak tree i came he was always friendly thank you he always speaks fantasy to us and he like laughing playing so me i know him that he used to play he's not a dictator as people see him yes do you feel the coup took away from ghana it set us back in any way do you feel looking at the things when puma was doing the factories and everything the black star line and all of that do you feel the cool cut short that and and maybe prevented ghana from becoming what it could have become yes i feel why this this school it it cut short so many things [Music] so the one who who made the fool yana kotoka i don't like to hear his name at all you don't like to hear no he some of us we suffered in that school for instance me i was the only woman who stayed with the men went among the men and when they saw me i was slim not how i am today small you see me as a small girl so when the soldiers drove to the state house and saw me you see that they went to every room and bring the workers out they left their wives i was the only woman worker they beat me mercilessly the soldiers beat you they beat all of us men they beat them they beat me to beat me kick me they kicked you if they slap me and i fall down they will kick the boots to the other man it will kick me they made me ask football stamped me by back by waist my lower abdomen ah i suffered one of them lights is lighter and smoke and bend me here is that the mark yes this is the mark you mean one of the soldiers he lit a cigarette lighter yes and then he used the burning end yes to bend me wow with the lighter bend me i was shouting he slapped me again i shouldn't shout and suffer suffer do you get to see the soldier's name you know i don't know them now before us some were beating us here somewhere in our rooms packing our things they looked us they took our everything so your your everything you ever was taken by the soldiers everything when they match you in your room they will call the room's name i was c-16 they said well you say yes so then you get up a soldier follow you with a gun then you are in the middle then a soldier at your back with the the gun double wrap double up drop wrap till you reach your room everything they see cloth bed sheet blanket they tie they turn all your things from your box type it put them then they will put it on your own head and you w put it in the la rover for them everything everything everything so you lost everything everything everything ever how did you how did you get your life back after that experience what was it like it was terrible in terms of work did you get any work to do how did you find your feet again economically you had lost your job and all that how did you manage after that i never see a coup before i had kung goku and when we went to egypt we saw patrice lombard's wife and children that is all i know but when i saw this year one it was terrible i was running my stomach if even i took water everything because of how i was afraid and as i see that i lose everything the cloth that i put on before they were [Music] throwing me as a football team here then they will make a fan of you they put the balance there and then they will be laughing when i took the cloth the one i tied the head i changed it to this thing and that one later on i take it to an idea and it is so throw it together like this cut that one and then make it love for me so things were hard for me i have bruises all over did you have to go to hospital yes i went to reach hospital they put me on injection seven injections and i was having the injection before one day i have three then my son he was with the father here came that the father said they have killed all of us but he and the driver should come and see if i am alive they should bring me they come all my body was this thing and the book injection that on my body so he told me i said look at me i can't follow you i am even running i don't have a club to to come there so and i'm having i'm adjusting to so go and tell your father if i'm better i'll come and they left the third day they come again that the father said i should take the injection from the rich bring it to here here and they will give it to me at the hospital here but it wasn't easy like that then they should go so as they treated me there halfway i have a question at coco minimum i went they asked her to give me a cloth she gave me and put on and i come here when i come the third day he sent me to the hospital they admitted me so i stayed in the hospital for three weeks before i was discharged when i was discharged the third day [Music] a police wireless message came from castle that they want me i say hey now they are going to kill me they didn't kill me before now they will kill me i won't go he said if i don't go they will arrest him i should go they won't kill me i was weeping and go i go when i reached i didn't go to my house i go to my former house where elisto will give me i went there because there's a telephone day i with the intention that i should ring one of my colleagues but i i couldn't even get anybody and for them going to my house then i saw the chief steward he said emma you come and say yes asa they want you at castle hey you don't say castle matter to me i say oh there's nothing there now they say you should come and continue your work continue my work say yes now they they have new head of state general ankara so i used to take care of first ladies so they want me to come and take care of you know a class wife was that a relief for you yes for the moment yes yes it was a relief and i told him that i hear but there's no dress for me to take to work so i'll go to my seamstress i give her two materials if he saw them then tomorrow i will start work but if she didn't show them then i would stay for five so okay i should go when i go truly she's so one and i take it and come home find something to eat and sleep the next day i prepare and go to work at the castle when i walk because they don't know that i come before they will give me a car i walk and go when i go i ask for the lady he took me to her myself and the controller we went to her and the controller introduced me to the lady do you remember her name mildred ankara mildred yes so i the the controller tell her i used to take care of first ladies so here i am i'm going to work with her she asked me what what do you do for madam father to her and your my pay to her she to have a sister who can do that work so she don't need me i was disappointed left with the controller then controller tell me that jana ankara have two wives and she sent me to the other one and how do they call her felicia felicia ankara so i went to her a place at the next castle she said oh and for me it's weak that that well she was wearing a wig and then is the wig you are going to make for me or what she she's half educated so she can speak english well and as for her she's trying buffer to a mind body friend buffered for her or what as they said i should come and help her then the controller said tell her that even you as a the head of state's wife you are not going to do this work again find somebody to do it for you emma is not coming to do this find somebody she said so what is he going to do say i should stay here if any visitor come i will help her so i was there and they asked me to go to her room and see what and what she don't have i call her has this bad and so on are there for you or for the government to stay forehead government is bringing you their own so take this and i tell the controllers to the broadband sheets fridge deep freezer and fridge and they brought me all these they come and fill the fridge with drinks the difference that with fish and meat but they told her that it's a guest house any guest can come and you would you would be in charge yes so how long did you did you never work with mildred after she said she had a sister who would come and assist it was a joke at the castle i left and i came to the hannes okay so it was felicia you were with yes how long did you work with felicia one year because when i was there another coup came yes and the second one to came how could i be with cuckoos so i worked one year with her and i resigned right you resigned yes i resigned because i was so much afraid so that that was i mean from lord listerwell to enchroma to ankara yes did you ever hear from enchroma again did you after the the 24th february 1966 school did you ever hear from uncluma again i never hear of him till ahead of his death yes ahead of his death and the time they brought the body i went and saw madame yes she saw me the controller tell her i used to take care of her first ladies so here i am i'm going to work with her she asked me what what do you do for madame fattah to her and your my pay to her she to have a sister who can do that work so she don't need me i was disappointed i left with the controller then controller tell me that jana ankara have two wives and she sent me to the other one and how do they call her felicia felicia ankara so i went to her a place at the next castle she said oh and for me it's weak that i well she was wearing a wig and then the week you are going to make for me or what she she's half educated so she can speak english well and as for her she's frying buffalo to am i going to fry both fruits for hair or what as they said you

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Id: d4a78gfZmC4

Length: 53min 45sec (3225 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021