Executive Secretary to Ghana’s president, Nana Asante Bediatuo, says Kwahu, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, is one of the blessed regions that the country should be proud of.
According to him, Kwahu is Ghana’s Switzerland because of its good weather, development, and the kind nature of its people.
“I always say Kwahu is Ghana’s Switzerland. Those who have not been to Kwahu are the ones who don’t know it. Here is Ghana’s Switzerland. The weather is very good, the people are also good and the people of Kwahu have united to develop the place. Kwahu is like travelling abroad,” he told Kwahu Ambassador in an interview sighted by GhanaWeb.
Nana Bediatuo, to reiterate his points, added that it is for this reason that the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been spending his Easter holidays in Kwahu, for the past fifteen years.
He added that it is so because the president sleeps better when in Kwahu because of its peaceful environment.
“Even the president, Akufo-Addo, celebrates the Easter festival at Kwahu. He has been doing this for fifteen years. He feels at peace and he sleeps better when he is in Kwahu,” he told the presenter.
Background
The Kwahu or Okwawu are hardworking mountain-dwelling agriculturalist and the famous business-oriented Kwa-speaking people that forms a subset of the larger Akan ethnolinguistic group living in the south-central Ghana, on the west shore of Lake Volta in the Eastern Region. The Kwahu live specifically on part of the Kwahu sandstone plateau, with the Afram Plains to the north, Akim Abuakwa to the south, Ashanti Akim to the west, and the Volta River forming an approximate boundary to the east.
Kwahu people speak a Twi-dialect of Akan language, which is within the Kwa language group (Twi, Sefwi, Mfantse, Chokossi, Nzema, Ewe, et al), but also falls in the larger Niger-Congo phylum. The derivative of Kwahu-Twi spoken in indigenous Kwahu towns such as Abene, Abetifi, Pepease, Atibie, Nkwatia, Obo, Bepong, Tafo, Akwasiho, Obomeng, Twenedurase, Nteso, Nkwakwa, Mpraeso, Asakraka, Aduamoa, Pitiko, Sadan, Burukuwa, Nkwantanane, Ahinasie and Donkorkrom is slightly different from Asante-Twi, Akwapim-Twi and Akyem-Twi. According to Linguists Kwahus are fond of using the syllabi (La), (hunu) and the like. Thus they end their speech and pronunciation with words that end with “La” sound. In most cases, you will find that instead of “saa” the Kwahu ends it with “Saala” (that’s it), “yei ala” (just this). Therein dwells the distinction, and the Kwahus especially Obos are noted for such trend in speech delivery. The Kwahu slogan is Asase Aban, Yεnte Gyae (Protectors of the Land, We don`t quit) and also Oboכּ (Rock) or Oboכּba (Child of the Rock).
The beautiful Kwahu Scarps, their residential polity has received platitudes from historians and anthropologists alike. Historians Macmillan and Kwamena Poh (1965) describe the wonderful climate of their mountainous town, Abetifi as “… the Switzerland of West Africa, with nights as cool as May nights in Europe”.
The people are very wealthy and successful traders who were the first to utilize their interior middlemen role to emerge as strong local business gurus.