It is surprising to find people living happily and normal at places where there is no development.
What on earth will compel people to live at an under-developed place where there exist some dehumanising and weird taboos . Taboos which are even unfavourable to nature?
“My children and I have lived here for almost 27 years now, and we have nowhere to go to, because the cost of a room or house in the mainlands is very costly, we, therefore, have no option but to stay here although we always lose our property when the river or sea overflows its banks”, Efo Kofi explained.
“I had to pay a fine in addition to some items because my wife gave birth on this land and I had no option because if I did not pay I would have been sent out of the land and would not have anywhere to go to”, another man had also told me.
This is the plight of some people who live on a strange Island known as Faa Naa in Accra, where it is a taboo to give birth or die on that land.
This land lies between a sea and a river, located at Tsokomey in Bortianor, a suburb in the Ga West municipality in Accra.
While some of the inhabitants had wanted to move from the place to a better town, others had never dreamt of packing out since for them, they were born and bred there, and, therefore, did not know any family member elsewhere to whom they can go to.
You do not have the right as a pregnant woman on that land, to be delivered of a baby. In this superstitious area, it is a taboo to die. To do that is a sacrilege for which you will be charged a penalty, if you are delivered of a baby and your family will have to pay the price if you die. Anytime a person dies, the family or household from which the person comes from is fined a sum of money and asked to provide a goat, bottles of schnapps, and pipes to perform some ritual to appease the gods of the sea.
This is so serious! How on earth would I know I would die today or tomorrow to be able to plan my exit, if I happen to live there?
For giving birth on that land, it is weird and strange.
Unlike the mainland where when you are pregnant, you have the opportunity to go to the hospital and would be told your expected date of delivery, what is weird on this island is that, there is no hospital for ante-natal care.
The island, according to the custodians of the land, was initially given to fishermen from Anloga in the Volta Region, to use as a landing site to gather their catch and have some rest after fishing , because they could not go back to their hometowns in the Volta Region after long hours of fishing at night.
The trend has changed so significantly that this landing site has been turned into a township, where people have come from far and near to live as well as raise their children and grandchildren.
Some people have lived on this island for close to 30 years now without the hope of moving to any other settlement. This is because they find nothing wrong with where they live now.
Despite constant floods caused by the sea washing away many huts and mud houses on that land, the inhabitants have not been moved to relocate.
I was dumbfounded when I visited this place a few days after the floods that hit Accra last year. What my eyes saw was nothing good to write home about.
The huts and mud houses which serve as homes for families living on that island were washed away, taking away property and leaving debris scattered all over the shores of the sea and the river.
Children were sent to the houses of other fishermen who lived in nearby towns and villages.
The lives of the people living on this island is in great danger, since apart from the geographical location, they also lack the basic social amenities that make life worth living in this developing country of ours.
There is no school, hospital or clinic. Neither is there pipe-borne water nor electricity, yet, those living at Faa Naa, still find it a place worth living.
The few school children living on the island, always need to travel on a canoe to get to the shores of the river at Tsokomey putting the lives of the children at risk.
The Islanders, do not get easy access to health care yet it is a taboo to die on that land.
With neither electricity nor safe water to drink, it seems these people are very far away from the knowledge of civilisation. It is surprising that there is a place like this in the regional capital of Ghana.
Due to the non-existence of a hospital on this land, pregnant women deliver on canoes while they are being transported to the clinic at a nearby town and others also die on their way to the hospital.
This also contributes to the increasing rate of maternal mortality since the women do not get adequate health care when they are pregnant.
How do we achieve our Millennium Development Goals, especially (MDGs 4 and 5), when there is a situation like this in the country?
The authorities must turn their attention to this area and bring some relief to the inhabitants.
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