MONEY CHANGERS

BY THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS.

As any typical afternoon in Madina would look like, it was bustling with activity and a money changers’ corner, brisk business was going on. This was the part of town where you could get to change your money into mostly the Nigerian Naira, CFA Franc, Ghana Cedis, US Dollar and British Pound Sterling. This is what some people refer to as the black market.

With all that was going on, I thought these guys were doing some really good business and comparatively they appeared to be offering better exchange rates than what was available than what was on offer at the bureau de changes. These money changers mostly men, are the most reliable when it comes to money issues. They are so well versed in the trade and very vigilant in detecting fake currency. There are even times they could get clients currencies not available on the forex market.

One needed to have an appreciable amount of money just in case things went bad. Of course, I thought, who wouldn’t do that. The issue that I struggled with was the fact that apart from being money changers they were also money lenders. The terms they offered in addition to the exchange rates were not for the faint hearted. They meant business, I was told.

I was not going to raise the issue of taxes and all that. I was out numbered. I was about wrapping up at the money changers when an angry call rang out and it was getting closer to my end. I quickly sought refuge amongst them for a while as people turned in the direction of the commotion.

After what seemed to have been forever, I mustered courage to finally thank them and leave after which I made enquiries about the commotion. As it turned out, my instincts were right .A poor soul had been dispossessed of her phone in a split second whilst she was engrossed in a conversation.

The lesson: keep your eyes and ears wide open.

TALKING CARS

BY  THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS

In Ghana, our culture has unique ways of expressing itself, in the clothing, food, language and what have you.

We also have talking drums, which have been used to communicate messages for ages, whether at the time of birth, death and during festivals. This we are used to but then, has it ever crossed ones mind that there could be a talking vehicle?

Well, talking vehicles drive the streets of Madina on a daily basis and practically speaking, all across the country. What I am talking about expresses it self in the form of phrases or statements that are written behind many taxis and commercial vehicles.

The statements, perhaps may express the experience the owner of the vehicle may have gone through or heard others go through such as “ fear woman and save your life” .His love life may have taken a nose dive.

“When sea dry go by land,” and “life is war” as well as “to be a man is not easy” all give food for though. Perhaps life may have dealt whoever was concerned in these cases hefty blows.

A particular phrase that got me laughing was “China baby” and set my mind thinking all sorts of

things but I looked out for some more and they appeared religious in nature.” Jehovah Jireh” Jesus is Lord and “Allahu Wahid” were some of the religious phrases which to say the least meant to reflect the religious persuasions of the owners. Some even had quotations from the Holy Bible such as Psalm 23 and John 3 v 16.

One of my favourites was “You lie bad” that I saw behind a Mercedes Benz Sprinter vehicle, may be it was a message to detractors of whoever was concerned that they would not succeed. Out of nowhere “Woyomi” sped past only for me to catch sight of “All die be Die”.

There were others in the local languages too such as “Dzen Sane” in Ga, “Lomnava” in Ewe and “Kakra Ye Be Di Nti” in Twi. “Skin pain” also came up for observation with the owner by all intents and purposes having translated word for word into his or her own version of English.

There seemed to be some advice from” Suro Nipa”and “Good name is better than riches” but “Lucky boy” and “Yewo krom” were perhaps looking at the more exciting angle of things and “Ganja Planta” was a bit too offensive for me.

My wondering eyes finally met “At long last” and just when I was about to call it a day,” Never say never,”  stopped right in front of me, took on some more passengers and sped off into the night.

 

 

NEXT TATOOS AND PIERCINGS

NEXT TATOOS AND PIERCING

BY THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS

The first thing that comes to mind when you come into contact with Shittu Babangida are the elaborate tattoos on parts of his body and piercings below his lips.

This 25 year old Nigerian proudly displays the tattoos on his left hand, showing   detailed drawings on his hand of a feminine figure with wings surrounded by other designs.

Shittu learnt his trade in Lagos after an experience with a tattoo artist his brother had hired to work on him. “I started out as a graphic designer and I could draw very well,” he said. I had drawn an image on the wall in our house when a man my brother had hired took interest in the drawing and said that I could do well as a tattoo artist.”

That was in 2011 and since then he has not looked back. He learnt his trade in Nigeria and relocated to Ghana in 2015, setting up shop at Madina. “Tattooing is my life and I not only make a great deal of money but I also enjoy it”.

A young lady I figured would be in her early twenties walks in to the shop and as Shittu offers her a seat, she gives him her specifications and they begin leafing through a catalogue of designs  and then they went online to look up other designs. She settles on the design of a butterfly to be done on her wrist and Shittu slaps her with a GHC 60.00 price tag.

The young lady who later identifies herself as Sandra, decides to come back later not before I ask her reason for wanting a tattoo to which she replies,”it is cool”.

Shittu describes himself as a master and insists that he is good at what he does for that matter his services do not come cheap. His catalogue and other pictures reveal prices depending on the size of the drawing and where it is done .A drawing on the back could cost as much as GHC 200.00 whilst one on the upper arm could go for GHC 150.00.Clients decide to have tattoos on different parts of their bodies.

A normal session would not take more than two hours according to Shittu, as he showed me the instruments of his trade; a metallic syringe he uses for drawing and another he uses for shading and a piercing machine as well addition to tattoo inks.

On his point of view regarding perceptions about people with tattoos, he shakes his head and laughs. ”My clients come from all walks of life, be they students or prostitutes. It is their choice and mine as well”.

Outside Shittu’s shop, I pose the same question to Kofi, a mobile phone retailer. “I don’t mind and after all it is the person’s money, the decision is theirs”. He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Adjoa, a civil servant explained that tattooing   and piercing were unacceptable as far as she was concerned.” It is not good and you even have to look at the kind of people who have it, gangsters, drug peddlers, prostitutes and even footballers. It is not good”.

As far as tattooing and piercing were concerned, Shittu closed the interview by noting that. “Tattooing is not for the faint hearted or the cashless”.

In the end I couldn’t help but agree with him.

 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ABOTSI

BY THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS.

In the sweltering heat in the middle of the day, coupled with the chaos and noise all around me, nothing caught  my attention more than the young men many people refer to as “Abotsi”.

This gentleman in question was tending to the feet and fingers of a patron selling wares by a drain from which such unbearable stench emanated. The cares of this life, I thought got this man not thinking so much about his surroundings.

My decision to engage him initially did not please him so much, but after some convincing he gave way. His name he told me was Amadu and he spoke of the fact that he was originally from the southern part of Mali.

The name Abotsi through checks revealed its meaning as friend in Hausa and he added, clutching his instrument being a crude scissor like implement, a small container with soapy like water and foam.

The lack of prospects of jobs, he said as we trudged along got him into the  trade which earned him between  GHC 10 and GHC 20 a day. Woefully inadequate, I thought but then, he had to make a living. He added that he was always on the move, eating out all the time and using public bath facilities as well.

My mind was drawn to the issue of the large nature of the informal sector that people like Amadu found themselves in,as the state could not derive any revenue from their activities.

A more pressing issue for me was that of the health of the patrons of Amadu’`s services. How safe were the instruments he used in his trade? Did the patrons themselves realize the harm they were causing themselves? What did the Health authorities think about it and how were they going to sanitize the operations of these people?

Walking back to my end, a statement Amadu made came to mind that he needed to survive.

Survival  indeed.

 

 

GET RICH…

BY THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS

It is common knowledge that quite a number of people living in and around Madina profess to be Muslims yet there exist people of other faiths as well, specifically speaking Christians.

An observation through town revealed imposing posters, sign boards and banners of men of God who seemed larger than life itself .It seems as if they were rather the center of attraction and not the God they were professing.

A crowd of noisy school children marched past waving palm branches and singing to the sound of a female teacher’s drum and this experience took me down memory lane as child having gone through a similar experience. I smiled.

A walk down a part of the market saw a group of people haggling over the price that had been offered over a poor goat which was destined for somebody’s soup, and no amount of bleating could save it. I walked on, but what kept on catching my attention was posters and notices on walls, trees and what have you. They were all over the place and in a nutshell they all pointed to one thing; individuals professing to have powers that could make people rich in no time and what have you.

I thought, the abundance of mosques and churches which had imposing edifices made no difference. God took too long in addressing the issues of life so people found their own way. Besides, pastors in churches were now richer than most people in the church and they wanted a taste of it, whatever it took.

The urge to get rich overnight or find every means possible had led to a situation where people were prepared to do all that it took. The fact that people are engaging in schemes that called for questionable means of acquiring wealth provokes important questions.

My point is, whether they are betting schemes or advertisements for travel and work in the Gulf States, people who subscribed to these schemes often got burnt very badly and may only recover enough. There seems to be a gradual breakdown of the very tenets of society and it has become a situation where you either get the better of someone or they got the better of you.

A personal observation gives me the impression that this country is fast loosing its vigour and vitality to these questionable means of wealth acquisition.

Freedom of religion exists, but there is also the need for a concerted effort to sanitize the system.

Any suggestions?

 

 

NEXT TATOOS AND PIERCING

BY THEOPHILUS BRUCE-MILLS

The first thing that comes to mind when you come into contact with Shittu Babangida are the elaborate tattoos on parts of his body and piercings below his lips.

This 25 year old Nigerian proudly displays the tattoos on his left hand, showing   detailed drawings on his hand of a feminine figure with wings surrounded by other designs.

Shittu learnt his trade in Lagos after an experience with a tattoo artist his brother had hired to work on him. “I started out as a graphic designer and I could draw very well,” he said. I had drawn an image on the wall in our house when a man my brother had hired took interest in the drawing and said that I could do well as a tattoo artist.”

That was in 2011 and since then he has not looked back. He learnt his trade in Nigeria and relocated to Ghana in 2015, setting up shop at Madina. “Tattooing is my life and I not only make a great deal of money but I also enjoy it”.

A young lady I figured would be in her early twenties walks in to the shop and as Shittu offers her a seat, she gives him her specifications and they begin leafing through a catalogue of designs  and then they went online to look up other designs. She settles on the design of a butterfly to be done on her wrist and Shittu slaps her with a GHC 60.00 price tag.

The young lady who later identifies herself as Sandra, decides to come back later not before I ask her reason for wanting a tattoo to which she replies,”it is cool”.

Shittu describes himself as a master and insists that he is good at what he does for that matter his services do not come cheap. His catalogue and other pictures reveal prices depending on the size of the drawing and where it is done .A drawing on the back could cost as much as GHC 200.00 whilst one on the upper arm could go for GHC 150.00.Clients decide to have tattoos on different parts of their bodies.

A normal session would not take more than two hours according to Shittu, as he showed me the instruments of his trade; a metallic syringe he uses for drawing and another he uses for shading and a piercing machine as well addition to tattoo inks.

On his point of view regarding perceptions about people with tattoos, he shakes his head and laughs. ”My clients come from all walks of life, be they students or prostitutes. It is their choice and mine as well”.

Outside Shittu’s shop, I pose the same question to Kofi, a mobile phone retailer. “I don’t mind and after all it is the person’s money, the decision is theirs”. He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Adjoa, a civil servant explained that tattooing   and piercing were unacceptable as far as she was concerned.” It is not good and you even have to look at the kind of people who have it, gangsters, drug peddlers, prostitutes and even footballers. It is not good”.

As far as tattooing and piercing were concerned, Shittu closed the interview by noting that. “Tattooing is not for the faint hearted or the cashless”.

In the end I couldn’t help but agree with him.