An Anlo man fell in love
with and married a Fanti woman. Since they both hailed from coastal
towns, they liked to eat fish, especially fried fish. The lady was a
really good cook and her husband was always more than satisfied with
her food. However, the man had one complaint. Before frying, his wife
would cut the fish into small portions and he preferred his fish
fried whole.
After being quiet about
this oddity in her fish frying method for a while, he finally decided
to ask about it. According to his wife, cutting fish into smaller
portions was the right way to fry fish. It made the fish taste better
and besides, it was Fanti tradition. He wasn't too convinced about
this explanation. In his opinion, the cut fried fish didn't taste any
better than fried whole but when he pointed that out, his wife became
unhappy. Not too keen to offend her he decided to let it be.
His mother-in-law came to
visit one weekend and asked her about the fish cutting. His
mother-in-law gave him an almost similar answer to his wife. Still he
wasn't satisfied with explanation but decided to let it go for a
while.
Somewhere around
Christmas, the family decided to visit the wife's grandmother and he
took the opportunity to ask his usual questions. According to
Grandma, when she got married, the frying pan her husband bought was
quite small and most times, the fish was too big to fit into it. She
therefore decided to be cutting the fish before frying just so the
fish could fit into the frying pan. Her daughter who learnt to cook
from her picked it up and in turn taught his wife.
Granda said no one ever
asked her why she always cut fish before frying and she hadn't really
given much thought to telling anyone why she did so. It wasn't
tradition, it was just done for convenience.
Asking "WHY" is not a very Ghanaian character. "IT'S TRADITION" and "IT'S WHAT GOD SAID", are generally accepted as valid answers, sadly
— Efo Dela (@Amegaxi) October 3, 2013
I grew up in a family
where asking questions was encouraged. Even when we didn't have
questions to ask Dad would ask why we thought something was the way
it was. The answer didn't have to be right but you had to give your
honest opinion no matter how outlandish it was. If we were wrong, Dad
would tell us the right answer or give us a book to read.
Unfortunately, this isn't
a very acceptable thing in the Ghanaian community. Most adults found
it disrespectful when I asked questions. I got in trouble quite often
for asking questions that were perfectly acceptable at home. It's not socially accepted for a child to know more than an adult or question adults in anyway.
A friend was teaching ppl to use new gadgets. He asked them a question one person told him he was younger than his kids n walked out @OZionn
— Efo Dela (@Amegaxi) October 11, 2013
Most things have
perfectly logical explanations but the Ghanaian way it to credit it
to some supernatural force or simply say it's tradition. Questioning
the status quo often leads being branded a heretic or disrespectful. Sadly, most people can't be bothered to find out for themselves the reason things are the way they are. "It's tradition" is a perfectly acceptable answer.
(Loosely based on a popular children's story)
