The year was 1894. The 19th century was ebbing to a close. MARY SERWAA was born, just like any other child, the difference being that her habitat was Berekum in the North Western part of the Asante Empire.
In the year 1900 when the legendary Yaa Asantewa fired up Asanteman Council to wage war on the while man at the colony, Mary Serwaah was only six years old, still walking about literally naked.
When the 1st World War broke out in 1914, Mary Serwaah was a nubile of 20 years, a little diminutive but with powerful hips to send young men crazy. Naturally, someone hooked her and pierced her womb with its first fruit.
In 1928 when Gordon Guggisberg laid the foundation stone for the construction of the famous Achimota School, Mary Serwaah was already a mother of four, and s till counting.
When Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on 1st September 1939 to open World War Two, Mary Serwaah had already brought forth six daughters and two men, in Berekum.
In 1957 when Kwame Nkrumah stood at the old Polo Grounds now converted to Nkrumah Memorial Park to declare that ?at long last the battle has ended and Ghana your beloved country is free forever? ? by that time, Mary Serwaah by village standards was an old lady, at 61 years.
When in 1969 Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia led his Progress Party to win a landslide general election to Ussher in the Second Republic of Ghana, Mary Serwaah had retired to Senase near Berekum as an old lady? of 73 years, watching new jackboots stride the countryside as men.
June fourth, 1979.
A new radical youth took the nation by storm, with rowdy reckless hot headed youths proclaiming revolution ? Mary Serwaah was already 83 years old, quietly listening to strange stories from her children.
In the year 2000, as the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Berekum, I went to Senase, on my rounds, and greeted my mother?s age mate and direct sister ? in Akan custom and traditions we don?t have COUSIN ? we just have brothers and sisters ? Mary Serwaah,? the nonagenarian was my mother?s sister, aged 106 years.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw her. She was so quiet? yet so strong in body that to believe that she was 106 years was a challenge to t eh mind.
As MP for Berekum it was just a sheer joy for this centenarian to hug? me and scream on top of her voice????? my son Kwame?
She breathed her last in June 2014 at the ripe old age of 120 years????? who said that the Guinness Book of Records is very accurate? Who said that it is only in Japan? that we have 100 years olds walking about?
Go to the hinterland, Ghana, and you will see plenty of centenarians ? most? of? them women though, still marching strong.
The family set the funeral for Saturday 23rd August 2014 and it was one funeral? that even if my friend Apostle Annor Yeboah was being buried in Accra I still had to go to Berekum.
Thus it was that at circa 10 pm on Friday 22nd August 2014 I ignited the engine of a friend?s Nissan Patrol 4×4 vehicle and set off from my Asylum Down office bound f or Berekum.
The drive to Berekum was uneventful and by 0400 hours we were in Berekum ? myself, a spare driver and an auto security aide.
Saturday morning. The entire family gathered ?at our family Headquarters in Biadan, near Berekum and the Catholic Church organised the funeral service. Burial.Funeral rites.
Sunday was set for the Thanksgiving service and that is why I am writing this memorial.
The Catholic Hospital Chaplain Rev father Kyere Kwateng, simultaneously in charge of the Biadan Catholic Church preached the sermon at the Thanksgiving Service,? attended by a large crowd of sympathisers friends and others, including the Akyempimhene of Berekum Traditional Area.
Nana Baffour Asare Tutu, Jinjinihene, and the Deputy Upper West Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, ACP/Mr Asomah; including Akwamuhene of Berekum Traditional Area.
Father Kwateng?s sermon lasted about thirty minutes and it was solid, reader, very practical, down to earth and call it an education a forum on health, and you will be right.
He condemned our crave f or foreign languages, saying that language is the embodiment of culture, history, norms and knowledge. Lose your language and you lose your identity.
Then he descended onto? the current fears challenging everybody ? the scare of EBOLA and declared that it was a plague born out of DIRT ? RUBBISH, FILTH, GARBAGE in Akan language ? ?FII?
He asked us to look at the source of? the disease, Liberia, Sierra Leone ? and see how WARFARE, unbridled bloodbath, reckless killing of humans by humans ? for what ? VANITY !! sheer litigation, sheer greed for power, influence, money ? all for what? Resulting in Killing on the streets, dead bodies all over,? in the streams, rivers, fishes eating rotten bodies, we eating fish, eating rats, animals that had fed on the carcasses? of carrion men?????..
Rev. Father Kwateng called on all of us to have a regime? of healthy behaviour ? wash your hands, as many times as possible, and he revealed that the full course of hand washing is 13 times !!!!!!!!!!!!
Fr. Kwateng said stop using your fingers to pick your nose or rubbing your eyes, stop eating food in your bedroom, insist on washing plates in the night before sleeping. Wash your socks, clean your armpit, don?t overuse handkerchiefs, avoid people using their handkerchiefs to wipe your face??????..
It is regretted that the sermon was not recorded for posterity.
As the Revered Father drove home these practical life saying habits, I noticed that the entire congregation was quiet, listening to every word.
We all broke into uncontrolled laughter when he said this funeral had given him an opportunity to see for the first time ever certain ?big names? and sitting at my mother?s funeral Thanksgiving service I felt very humbled when he mentioned my name!!
To God be the Glory.
By Nkrabea Effah Darteh
