SEKONDI ‘LOCO’ UNDER SIEGE: GHANAIAN ARTIST IBRAHIM MAHAMA AND THE ILLEGAL PILLAGING OF ARCHIVAL MATERIALS AND OTHER VALUED HISTORIC OBJECTS FROM THE GHANA RAILWAYS WORKSHOP, LOCATION (LOCO) IN SEKONDI
RIKKI WEMEGA-KWAWU
PRELUDE
As a preamble to my article, I
must stress with emphasis that “Ibrahim Mahama” alluded to in this paper IS NOT
the Ghanaian business mogul, carrying the same name, Ibrahim Mahama. The
Ibrahim Mahama referred to in this article is the internationally renowned
Ghanaian artist, and Founder and CEO of the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) and
the Red Clay Studios, Tamale, Ghana.
“'LOCATION' – A Giant in Decay” is an essay I wrote in 2015, an Artist Statement, to accompany my application to participate in the 10th Bamako Encounters, the International Photo Festival in Bamako, Mali, curated by the late Nigerian International Curator, Bisi Silva (May she have Eternal rest). My application strangely got lost and never saw the light of day. I had previously shared in confidence the content of this essay and the photos accompanying it with an American girlfriend of artist Ibrahim Mahama (name withheld), who was pursuing curatorial studies in Ghana, in the Art Department at the KNUST in Kumasi. When I did not get to participate in the Bamako Encounters, before I could say, “Jack,” this girlfriend of Ibrahim Mahama clandestinely jumped onto my LOCATION Project, which I intended to honor my late father with, a promise I had actually made to him before his demise. He was a colossus in the Ghana Railways. Mahama’s girlfriend had not only hijacked my work, she had pulled her boyfriend Ibrahim Mahama along with her into the fold. LOCATION had suddenly become their goldmine and the couple were running to the market with it, plagiarizing my original concept. I had been relatively quiet about this all these years and was never going to talk about it publicly, although many of my close artist friends and colleagues knew about it, about the raw deal Ibrahim Mahama and his partner had handed over to me. LOCO, as LOCATION is popularly referred to by the Sekondi Township, the last so many years has become the leitmotif of Ibrahim Mahama’s work. Now, things are getting out of hand with Ibrahim Mahama’s growing inordinate obsession with the LOCO Workshop in Sekondi. I am compelled to spill the beans, to share my story publicly. Enough is enough. The absurdity unfolding before our eyes, with Mahama now on a shopping spree, acquiring and transporting old locomotive engines, coaches and vans from the Railway Workshop in Sekondi to his hometown of Tamale, up-north, amidst a lot of fanfare, is getting nauseating and I am sharing this essay of mine from 2015, as a backdrop to all the drama taking place.
“LOCATION” - A GIANT IN DECAY
For Bamako Encounters - 2015, I would like to show photos of old trains, coaches and wagons in a pathetic state of dereliction at the Ghana Railways Headquarters in Sekondi, near Takoradi, called LOCATION. Sekondi-Takoradi is a Twin-City, a four-hour drive on the coast from Accra, the Capital, towards La Cote d'Ivoire. Takoradi has Ghana's first Port, which was built in 1928, under the colonial regime. Ghana Railways, I understand, is the first railways built by the colonial masters in sub-Saharan Africa. My father worked with them for over forty years and was one of the first privileged blacks sent abroad to be trained to take over from the British. He studied in colleges in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, in England. He retired in 1971 as the Works Manager of the Company, an office specially created for him for his sterling leadership and workmanship in his years with the Ghana Railways. The City Office – The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Authority – further honored my father upon his death by naming a street in the city after him for his distinguished service to the Ghana Railways.
Ghana Railways has collapsed completely and successive Ghanaian governments have been struggling to have it revived. Their workshop is still intact, though, and I believe it could be the biggest mechanical and electrical workshop in Ghana and, probably, the whole of West Africa. The railway lines in Ghana, it is significant to note, only lead to the source of Ghana's minerals - Gold, Bauxite, Manganese, etc., I guess, for easy conveyance of the raw material abroad. LOCATION was the main employer at one time in the Twin-City. It was such a pride to be a worker there. At least, a member of every household worked there. Also, before Akosombo, the main electricity power generator and supplier to Ghana, LOCATION provided Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs with electricity from its workshops.
LOCATION played a great role in the agitation towards Ghana's Independence, through a major strike action, which dealt a most significant blow to the colonial government. LOCATION remained so powerful through Ghana's Post-Colonial political history until the last couple of decades. A strike from them could easily paralyze the whole economy.
It is so sad to see this once all-powerful institution in this sordid, dilapidated state, struggling to get back on her feet. Thousands of their work staff have all been laid off, with just a small, skeleton staff remaining, nursing the hope for a come-back. These photos were taken in two successive days at the beginning of a working week in 2014, and the premises of this vibrant industrial complex just looked pathetically like a ghost town. Interestingly, among the abandoned coaches I came across was one which was especially reserved for Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He and his family only traveled in that.
My late father, Mr. Anthony Wemega-Kwawu, one of the stalwarts of the Railways during its hey days, witnessed the pathetic, slow demise of the Ghana Railways before he himself passed-on six years ago at age 94. In his lifetime, after retirement, he always spoke about the Railways with such pride and glee. His whole life was the Ghana Railways. And its slow demise caused him the greatest pain. He always put the blame of Ghana Railways' death squarely at the doorstep of Government, for poor leadership, and corrupt, selfish, individuals who found themselves at the helm of affairs of state.
LOCATION in its present sorry state, to me, is a metaphor, for our pre-Independence hopes and aspirations of a glorious nation and continent upon attaining political independence, and all those high hopes and dreams being dashed to smithereens, subsequently. It recalls two popular inscriptions about Time you find on the mummy trucks and buses in Ghana: "Time Changes" and "All Days Are Not Equal." Indeed, time has changed.
I wanted to have a show of these photos – over one hundred of them - exhibited collectively together and titled, "LOCATION: A GIANT IN DECAY." That will tell vividly the sad story of this once powerful institution.
As organizers of this photo biennale, however, I leave it to you for your final judgment. It was very difficult for me to settle on just a few of the photos, as your application guidelines required applicants to submit only a few, twenty five maximum. I leave it to your discretion to select the few photos appropriate for the event, if you approve of them, but it is not possible for you to show all or the bulk.
P.S. The small village among the
pictures, with the mosque, is situated just across the street from LOCATION. It
offered another interesting subject for photographing.
I
The Ghana Railways was established in the late 19th century by the British colonial regime, beginning its operations in 1898 under the Gold Coast Civil Service. It was then called the Gold Coast Railways, with its headquarters in Sekondi, which was the Western Regional Capital. The administrative capital for the Railways was later moved to Takoradi, right inside the Harbor, but the engineering workshop remained in Sekondi.
The Ghana Railways, though currently ailing, is not on sale. It has not been liquidated and items belonging to the Ghana Railways are not for sale. This goes for the Railway Workshop in Sekondi, popularly called, LOCATION, or LOCO, for short. It is the biggest industrial workshop in West Africa set up by the British Colonialists. LOCO has not been liquidated. It is not defunct. All items and archival material within the premises of the workshop are not for sale. They belong to the State, the Government and People of Ghana. The Ministry of Railway Development and the Minister presiding over it are just custodians of the facilities of the Ghana Railways, including the Workshop in Sekondi, LOCATION. In other words, they are only caretakers of the Ghana Railways and its properties, and are holding them in trust for the Government and People of Ghana. They reserve no right to sell or authorize a sale of any item, big or small, especially, historical and archival materials. Likewise, successive governments, the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) and/ or General Manager (GM) of the Ghana Railways Company Ltd. are all custodians, holding the Ghana Railways and its vast properties in trust for the people of Ghana,
Therefore, whoever is surreptitiously selling or authorizing the sale of archival and historical materials belonging to LOCATION in Sekondi to renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, which he goes around the world showing as his art, is complicit in an illicit and criminal transaction punishable by law. These illegal acquisitions by Ibrahim Mahama have gone on on the blind side of the Twin-City, Sekondi-Takoradi, Headquarters of the Railways in Ghana, the last seven years or so. Dr. Amos Anyimadu, a resident of Takoradi and a former lecturer in Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra single-handedly, brazenly fought Ibrahim Mahama publicly on social media – Facebook, to be specific – launching a vitriolic attack on him and demanding that he expressly returned all the items, classified and archival documents he was illegally acquiring from the Ghana Railway Workshop, LOCO, and exhibiting as his art. Some of Mahama’s exhibitions, in Chicago, USA and Manchester, UK, ridiculously had photographs of my late father with his workers at the LOCO shed; my father was then the Carriage & Wagon Superintendent. These photographs were safely lodged in the archives of LOCATION. How did they get into Mahama’s possession? Obviously, they were illegally acquired, monies had changed hands, no two ways about that. People are so poor and needy here and Mahama has been exploiting that to his advantage.
Dr. Amos Anyimadu, the astute public intellectual he is, even at one time declared Mahama a personae-non-grata in Sekondi-Takoradi. Anyimadu was a lone voice, however, and all his patriotic fights to save the plundering of the Railway Workshop in Sekondi have been to no avail. The plundering continued unabated and with impunity. Ibrahim Mahama, consciously oblivious of the clarion call to desist from plundering the Railways Workshop, has gotten even more emboldened by the day, ostensibly backed by some inexhaustible financial resource, which he claims are from his art sales.
In a Facebook post on February 7, 2020 on his wall (reposted recently circa January 11, 2023), Anyimadu juxtaposes a picture of the interior of a coach of a recent railway journey from Takoradi to Tarkwa with an installation shot of a view from Ibrahim Mahama’s exhibition, dubbed Parliament of Ghosts, which took place at the Whitworth Art Gallery – The University of Manchester Art Museum –in 2019 as part of that year’s Manchester International Festival. The installation shot showed a large collection of train seats, apparently from the LOCO Workshop in Sekondi, arranged in a terraced format. Anyimadu’s text accompanying his juxtaposed pictures reads:
Mahama’s dislocation of Sekondi Location: Seats
The first
picture is a scene from the recent railway journey from Takoradi to Tarkwa. The
second picture is from Ibrahim Mahama’s exhibition Parliament of Ghosts in Manchester. He illegally took hundreds of
seats from the Railway Location in Sekondi. This is not ethical art.
Fig. 1. Photo Credit: Amos Anyimadu
The attack on the map history of Ghana by the
unethical practice of Ibrahim Mahama.
Apart from the first map image, which has been reproduced in the latest PhD on the higher civilization of Sekondi-Takoradi, and which is from the British Archives, all the other maps have been illegally acquired by Ibrahim Mahama and are being used primarily for his own profit in the name of art around the world. The first map is only a composite national map. The maps Ibrahim Mahama has illegally uprooted are detailed maps of important railway locations such as Obuasi. He has uprooted boxes of these maps from their original source, unethically preventing all others from ordinarily accessing these crucial maps. He has illegally uprooted these important maps from the 1920s, obviously does not understand their essence, and is going around the world spewing nonsensical theories around them to a largely ignorant patronizing art world. He is making a presentation to the Pratt Institute tomorrow. I hereby warn him not to use any of these illegally acquired items and for him to return these and all other archival items he has liberated from the Ghana Railway to their original places.
 |
Fig. 2 (i). Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: The British Archives
 |
Fig. 2 (ii). Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
 |
Fig. 2 (iii).Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
 |
Fig. 2 (iv). Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
 |
Fig. 2 (v). Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
 |
Fig. 2 (vi). Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 1/27/2020
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
In yet an even earlier post on Facebook, on December 23, 2019, Anyimadu’s commentary on the plundering of the Railway archives at LOCO reads:
The dislocation of Sekondi Railway Location by Ibrahim Mahama
From a contribution I just made to the ‘University of
African Art’ here on Facebook.
“This discussion is beginning to get pedestrian and
inefficient. Now that the KNUST Masters student here identifies himself as a
critical part of the accumulation practices of the artist under discussion, I
will want to know what he knows about the objects in this picture which were
shown at Manchester University. My conclusion at the moment is that they were
stolen from the Railway Location at Sekondi. The accumulation process of
Ibrahim Mahama is not a sublime engagement of subaltern labor such as ‘Kayayei’
or displaced Northern Ghana Laborers. It is an industrial scale vacuuming of
delicate knowledge infrastructure. The picture in this picture is of Ghanaian
engineers at the Sekondi Railway Location including, surprise, surprise, the
father of Rikki Wemega-Kwawu….The Sekondi Location, for example, was the cradle
of engineering in Ghana and is crucial to the political economy of Ghana. I,
myself, undertake research there and, in fact, gave a lift to Rikki on one
occasion where he took hundreds of photographs. The knowledge resource of the
Sekondi Location must be Ghanaian commonwealth and not self-declared junk for
weak, largely Oriental, greedy privatized perspectives on our history in
foreign lands.”
 |
Fig. 3. Photo shared by Amos Anyimadu on his Facebook wall. 12/23/19
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
Dr. Amos Anyimadu’s 2021 Facebook comment on Ibrahim Mahama and the Ghana Railways, describing Mahama’s plundering of the Railways Workshop in Sekondi, LOCO as “an industrial scale vacuming of delicate knowledge infrastructure" is a fact and very prophetic.
Now, Ibrahim Mahama’s latest acquisitions from the Ghana Railways Workshop in Sekondi are old locomotive engines, coaches and vans, which he transported on Saturday, January 7, 2023 on a fleet of low-loader trucks all the way from Sekondi to his art centers – Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) and the Red Clay Studios – in Tamale, a journey of over 600 kilometers (400 miles), from Southern Ghana to Northern Ghana. Pictures and videos of the transportation, were liberally splashed with arrogance on social media - Instagram and Facebook - drawing a lot of commendation and praise comments from his fans for his “courageous” and “historic” act, which, indeed, was only of wealth being flaunted in a despicable show of bravado.
Commenting on this latest scoop by Ibrahim Mahama from LOCATION, Dr. Amos Anyimadu, in a Facebook post on his wall on January 11, 2022 writes:
A still
unknown chunk of the archive has been lost. The entire archive of the railways
has been lost and its operational record not insignificantly illegally acquired
by Ibrahim Mahama, the artist. The machinery from the railways he is widely
reported to have acquired could be genuine junk but given his previous hugely
unethical conduct, the Minister for Railways must order full public disclosure
on the transaction.
Silver, J.
B. (1978), The Sekondi Archives, History in Africa, 5, 365 – 370
It is worthy of note that Anyimadu tagged the Minister of Railway Development, Mr. John-Peter Amewu, in this post.
II
Ibrahim Mahama says his motivation for acquiring old airplanes and trains for his art space in Tamale is to empower the children of Tamale and its environs and spark their imagination for higher creativity. These are pedestrian reasons, I must say; they, obviously, are not convincing one-bit, because the Northern half of the country has produced outstanding Ghanaian, international pilots. One of them was my school and dormitory mate, Captain Albert Abugah, who started off his career flying Ghana Airways before joining top foreign airlines. Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana, is also not the only town or city in Ghana which did not have the train service extended to them during the colonial era. Many towns and cities, in fact, never had the train service. So, what is Ibrahim Mahama’s beef? As I stated in my 2015 Bamako Encounters application letter, the colonial train lines extended primarily to mining sites in Ghana and some heavily forested areas for the bulk haulage of bauxite, manganese, cocoa and timber for export. Successive governments, after Independence, have not been able to build upon what the colonialists created; they have not been able to extend train services to other areas outside the traditional mining towns. Mahama does not have to create the erroneous impression to the world as if it is only Tamale which never saw the train during the colonial era and the first decades after Independence, hence, it was imperative he brought the train to Tamale.
Sekondi-Takoradi, being a cosmopolitan city, saw people travel far-and-wide, even from neighboring West African countries to work with the Railways or at the Takoradi Harbor. Certainly, there were many people from Northern Ghana and from Tamale who settled here in Sekondi-Takoradi with their families and worked with the Railways or the Harbor. I recall, growing up as a teenager, a very good friend of my father who worked with him at LOCATION was from Burkina Faso.
In any case, these old trains and locomotive engines Mahama is acquiring for his center in Tamale are not for sale, as I intimated earlier. They are not supposed to be in individual possession. They belong to the State, that is, the Government and People of Ghana. The Railway Workshop, LOCATION, is situated in Sekondi, the Western Regional Capital. By inference, the trains belong to the People and Chiefs of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western Region of Ghana. These locomotives and all of the historical and archival materials of the Railway Workshop in Sekondi, do not, and, I reiterate, DO NOT, have to be in individual possession. If people were pillaging archival stuff out of the Ghana Railways Workshop in Sekondi, as Ibrahim Mahama is blatantly doing, or, has done, would he, Mahama, in his thirties, certainly, a Generation Y, have come to meet anything in the workshop to elicit his interest and curiosity in the failed history of the Ghana Railways?
 |
Fig. 4. The interior view of one of the Mechanical Workshops at LOCATION,
Sekondi.
Photo Credit: Rikki Wemega-Kwawu
Ibrahim Mahama’s latest coup, a foolhardy daring act is an affront to the dignity of the people of Sekondi-Takoradi, who are not publicly aware of the pillaging taking place in their backyard. Mahama is spiting the people of Sekondi-Takoradi right in the face, “To hell with the distress cries of Dr. Anyimadu or anybody else,” his defiant action blatantly belies that. He has openly demonstrated his total lack of respect for the people of the Western Region. All caution to him to stop desecrating the Railway Workshop, LOCATION, and plundering it dry through his reprehensible illicit means have fallen on deaf ears.
Don’t the children of Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs also deserve to know the history of the Ghana Railways by having these trains around them? Are the children of Tamale and its environs more human than the children of Sekondi-Takoradi? Don’t the children of Sekondi-Takoradi also have to have their imagination and creativity sparked up by exposure to these historical trains, too? Do they have to be denied of what rightfully belongs to them at the expense of other children elsewhere? Do they now have to travel the length of the country to Tamale to see these historic trains? No, not at all! These trains belong to Sekondi-Takoradi, which is the Headquarters of the Ghana Railways in Ghana. They are not junk to be disposed of. These trains have to remain in the LOCO Workshop, where they rightfully belong. The LOCO Workshop in the foreseeable future could be turned into a Railway Museum to the benefit of the Twin-City, the Western Region and the entire country. The Railway Museum should be for all-and-sundry, not an individual. Every civilized Western nation has a Railway Museum. Why would Ghana also not have one?
The history of Sekondi-Takoradi is
the history of LOCATION, the Ghana Railways and the Takoradi Harbor. Nothing can
change that. Nothing should change that. LOCATION and its famous Bottom Tree, a
convening point for the Railway Union Workers is an integral part of Ghana’s
political history – the Independence Struggles and the major role the Railways
played in it, the political struggles and Trade Union activism in the decades
and years after Independence. LOCATION, indeed, was a political force to reckon
with. Successive governments after Independence all held LOCATION in great
reverence. If aggrieved, the Workers Union could easily paralyze the economy by
laying down their tools. They always had to be treated with special care. Their
industrial actions and position were usually the position of all workers unions
around the country. Everything revolved around LOCATION in Sekondi. Many of
Ghana’s most outstanding engineers worked at one time or the other at LOCATION.
It was, in fact, the mechanical and electrical industrial hub to be. LOCATION was
the heart-beat of the Twin-City.
Everything should, therefore, be made possible to preserve the great, rich history of Ghana Railways and the Railway Workshop in Sekondi, LOCATION. Ibrahim Mahama wantonly and arbitrarily taking vital historic materials out of LOCATION, or any of its sub-stations dotted in other parts of the country, where the trains plied, is a desecration of the soul of LOCATION.
With the current universal, Standard Rail-line Gauge (SG) for speed trains - 1,435 mm/ 4ft 8 1/2in – the old train line narrow-gauge (NG) – 1067mm/ 3ft. 6in. – used in Ghana from the colonial times is now obsolete. With new rail lines being constructed around the country, and the previous and current governments’ determined efforts to revamp the Ghana Railways to its original glorious state, obviously, the old locomotive engines, coaches and vans would eventually be redundant and have to be phased out. Phasing them out, however, does not mean declaring them as scrap and disposing of them to an individual. None of the original Steam Locomotive Engines which were used during the colonial era and well into the 1960s are in existence at LOCATION. Sadly, they have all been scrapped. At least, one should have been kept for posterity. As a nation, we should have a responsible sense of history and keep all these locomotive engines, coaches and vans in a National Railway Museum, which can only be LOCATION, the proverbial Ghana Railway Workshop in Sekondi. I even advocate that LOCATION, because of its rich history, technologically, culturally, socio-economically and politically, should be declared a World Heritage Museum by UNESCO, and its original holdings and archival materials all have to be left intact for posterity. Well taken care of, LOCATION would inure to the great benefit of the entire nation, generations to come, and all-and-sundry. It would be the pride of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western Region, as it had always been in the past.
The Twin-City boasts of a number of technical and engineering schools – the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Departments of the Takoradi Technical University (TTU); the Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI) and the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit(ITTU). Students from these technical and engineering schools stand a lot to benefit greatly from the engineering and technological heritage of LOCATION. Then there is the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa, in the Western Region and the newly established University of Railways at Essikadu, Sekondi, a stone-throw from LOCATION. They would all be benefiting immensely from the historical heritage of the Mechanical Workshop at LOCATION. Through practical attachments with the old coaches and engines, juxtaposing that with exposure to new technologies, we would be nurturing a new breed of creative railway engineers who would help pull our ailing Railways out of the doldrums, thereby, creating job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth and people in the area. In its prime, LOCATION was forging machine parts for all the manufacturing industries in the Twin-City enclave and elsewhere in the region, and in the country. In fact, there was no mechanical work which was beyond them. LOCATION will rise up again, I am overly confident about that. The establishment of the Railway Museum is an imperative. The earlier we had it, the better. It would boost the local economy astronomically, bringing extra revenue to Sekondi-Takoradi and government.
 |
Fig. 5. The Insignia of the Ghana Railways Company, formerly, Ghana Railways Corporation boldly painted on the gate of one of the locomotive engines in the workshop at LOCATION (LOCO) in Sekondi.
|
Photo Credit: Rikki Wemega-Kwawu |
III
We know who has been pillaging stuff
and treasures out of LOCATION in the last few years. As a matter of urgency,
therefore, Ibrahim Mahama, the culprit, must do the needful. It is his moral
duty. He has to return to LOCATION all the locomotives and coaches he recently
pulled out of the place, whether it was with the authority of the Ministry of
Railways, or the Minister responsible for the sector; or the General Manager of
the Ghana Railways Company; or the Chief Mechanical Engineer of Ghana Railways
Company, or whoever. They all got it wrong if any of them, or, collectively,
was responsible for giving Mahama the green light to pillage the trains out of
LOCATION. It was myopic and very selfish on their part to allow such a
misdemeanor, to quickly dispose of these historic national treasures, to an
individual for his personal gain. This individual was already cruelly
plundering the archives of LOCATION through illicit and unethical means.
Anyhow, the people of Sekondi-Takoradi are so aggrieved and urgently demanding
that their trains be returned to them, including all those Mahama picked from
LOCO Sub-stations in Nsawam and elsewhere. Ibrahim Mahama must be civil to
return all the archival materials – Colonial Maps, Files, Photographs, Books,
Mechanical& Technical Drawings – and other valued historic treasures –
cabinets, drawers, train seats, clocks, lamps, etc. – he had previously
illegally been pirating out of LOCATION and be proudly showing around the world
over as his art. They belong to LOCATION and the good people of
Sekondi-Takoradi, not to Ibrahim Mahama and his SCCA/ Red Clay Studios in
Tamale. The history of LOCATION is not complete without all these valued
archival and historic objects and materials.
.jpg) |
Fig. 6. A
hundred-year old locomotive towing engine being catered on a truck from Sekondi
LOCATION (LOCO) to Ibrahim Mahama’s Red Studios in Tamale in Northern Ghana, a
journey of over 600 kilometers (400 miles), which took four days, I understand.
I do not buy Ibrahim Mahama’s narrative that he bought it off a scrap dealer
who had acquired it as scrap. It is all a ruse to disposess the Ghana Railways
Workshop, LOCO, of all its valued, historic treasures, because monies are
changing hands. This is clearly a rare, important historic relic which should
be in a Railway Museum, not an individual possession. Why is the Ghana Railways
disposing of it now, and to an individual?
Why was it not scrapped 50 years ago, 30 years ago, 20 years ago or even 10
years ago, but now. I smell rat.
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama
In numerous interviews on radio and TV,
the latest on CITI TV’s Heritage Caravan,
with the host, Nana Tufour Boateng, beamed on late Sunday morning, January 15,
2023 (repeated on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, same time, late morning), Mahama
in addressing a tour group to his Red Studios, seeks to create the impression
that his penchant for collecting archival material from collapsed Ghanaian
industrial institutions which once flourished in the years after Independence
was engendered by the state of disarray and poor conditions of those archives,
some almost near-destruction. It is a sad fact that by the 1980’s during the
Flt. Lt Jerry Rawling’s administration, many state-owned companies set up by
our First President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had collapsed or were on the
brink of collapse, due to poor management and corruption in high places over
the decades. Many of these companies were divested to mostly foreign investors,
or, were on the list yet to be divested under the World Bank/ IMF Structural
Adjustment Program. Mahama intimated he set himself on a Messianic path to save
those archives. Yes, he could be right about the state of dilapidation of the
archives of some of these factories or State enterprises to be divested, but
the same could not be said for the Ghana Railways archive at LOCATION. It was a
completely false representation Mahama made of the Ghana Railways archive at
LOCATION. He could not be peddling such blatant untruths. I had personally
visited the Railway Archive, housed at LOCATION, in their Technical Drawing
Room; in fact, more than once, during and after my photo-shoot of the
facilities at LOCATION. It was absolutely intact, not in any state of
disrepair. It is significant to note that of all struggling Ghanaian companies,
it was never Government’s intention to divest the Ghana Railway Company, or,
put it up for sale. Government made every effort, though with much difficulty,
to keep the Railways afloat and still running. Reviving the Ghana Railways to
its original great heights has been key in the Manifesto of every political
party in the Fourth Republic. The Nation looked forward to it with high
expectation.
In the latest CITI TV’s coverage of Mahama’s Red Clay Studios, the artist, as voluble as ever, made damning, self-confessional revelations about his modus operandi in collecting those hordes of archival materials from the Railways LOCATION Workshop in Sekondi and other State enterprises, like GIHOC (Ghana Industrial Holding Company; a conglomeration of different State manufacturing companies). “It was only a matter of developing a relationship with the security,” he casually admitted. What kind of a relationship? Obviously, an inducement with money. This is a self-incriminating, blunt statement from Mahama. Security was bribed to smuggle out archival material for Mahama. This is very irresponsible, unethical and criminal and must be condemned outright. It falls foul of the Laws of Ghana. The Security at Location was on the payroll of the Railway Company Ltd. They were paid to protect the facility and its entire holdings. However, Mahama dastardly got them to act contrary to their core duty of protecting the compound and everything in it. This, I am afraid, amounts to daylight robbery!
Some unscrupulous individuals in the Railways who have no sense of the importance of history in nation building are colluding with Mahama to rip LOCATION of all its history.
We live in a culture where people look on unconcerned when a wrong or a crime is being perpetrated against an individual or a people. The usual Akan consolatory slogan to the victim is, “Ony3 whee”…“Fa ma Nyame,” which literally translates to, “It’s alright”…“You give it to God.” This “Give it to God” or, better put, “Leave it in the Hands of God” syndrome and this obnoxious culture of apathy, in the face of a wrong-doing must cease forthwith. Ibrahim Mahama is a friend, but what he is doing is evil, a crime against the innocent people of Sekondi-Takoradi, and the Western Region of Ghana. And he must be told so, without any mincing of words.
Ibrahim Mahama cannot deny the people of Sekondi-Takoradi of their heritage. They are not going to be fighting a hundred years from now for a restitution of what rightfully belongs to them. They want their items back now! Just as he took them away, he should peacefully return every single one of them to LOCATION, without any rancor.
Do the present crop of Ghana Railway administrators know that LOCATION in Sekondi once built coaches right here in Ghana? Yes!...the famous Blue Train which operated in the 1960s and 1970s! Yes, my late father, Mr. Anthony K. Wemega-Kwawu, an exceptionally brilliant and talented Mechanical Draughtsman and Engineer, designed and supervised their construction right here in LOCATION. This is just an iota of how powerful LOCATION was, and this vital history must be preserved for posterity. We cannot allow the rich history of LOCATION to fizzle off into thin air, because of the vaulting ambition of one young man, who is blindly determined, in fact, hell-bent to distort and rewrite the history of the Ghana Railways. The history of the Ghana Railways and for that matter, LOCATION, is minted with the history of the Twin-City, Sekondi-Takoradi. Nothing can change that! Nothing should change that! You cannot talk about one without the other. You cannot talk about Sekondi-Takoradi without talking about Ghana Railways and LOCATION. Neither can you talk about the Railways in Ghana without talking about Sekondi-Takoradi. They are indelibly linked to each other. You cannot ostracize one from the other.
I find aspects of Ibrahim Mahama’s practice as an artist very problematic. Despite his good intentions for his ethnic people, to create a viable art space for them, the methods he has employed in his acquisition of archival material and other valued treasures from the Ghana Railway Workshop in Sekondi, LOCATION, is unethical and borders on criminality. It is tantamount to how the European colonialists plundered Africa of all its classical art and artefacts, and other vital resources, because of their economic strength and military power, coupled with a superiority complex. By their act, they took away Africa’s future, leaving the continent groping in the dark till today. Likewise, Ibrahim Mahama is dastardly plundering the Ghana Railway workshop and its archives of all the valued, historical materials to do with the existence of the Railways in the Gold Coast and Ghana, because of his apparent mega-financial resources. He is taking away the future of Sekondi-Takoradi, and for that matter, the Western Region of Ghana.
From his latest act, he has become heartless and insensitive, trampling on the feelings of the people of the Twin-City, Sekondi-Takoradi. He has no modicum of compassion whatsoever dispossessing a people of what they have, what rightfully belongs to them, for his personal aggrandizement.
These trains are not for sale or supposed to be for sale. Whoever is selling them to Ibrahim Mahama or authorizing their sale, whether from government or the Railways itself is contravening the Statutory Laws of Ghana, indulging in gross illegality, a criminality punishable by the Laws of the Land. The person or persons must own up and be accountable to the people of Ghana. Ibrahim Mahama is complicit in every way in all these illegal transactions.
Could anybody pick any of the cannon balls from the Slave Castles of Elmina and Cape Coast and send them elsewhere, with the excuse that the children there needed to see them to familiarize themselves with the Slave Trade History? These cannon-balls belong to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles first, then, by extension, the towns of Cape Coast and Elmina, respectively, and, finally, the nation, Ghana. Once nobody could take anything from the Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, as well as, all the other slave forts and castles in Ghana and claim them as their private property, why should it be possible for items to be taken out of the Railway Workshop in Sekondi, denying the people of Sekondi-Takoradi of their vital history? Given that it is possible to uproot Okomfo Anokye’s legendary Sword he planted in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region, could anybody go to Kumasi to remove this historic sword, with the excuse that it had to be shown children in an area where the children never experienced Ashanti culture and history first-hand? The Ashantis in unison would rise up to crush such an intruder. Just as the Sword and the Golden Stool, also commandeered by Okomfo Anokye, are the pride of Ashanti history and culture, and the indigenes would safeguard them to the hilt, with their blood and soul, LOCATION is the pride of the history of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western Region of Ghana, which has to be jealously safeguarded by the people of the region. Similarly, I believe Tamale, the Northern Regional Capital, has some important historic treasures the people of that region would never like to part with. Some unscrupulous individuals who do not care a fig about the history of the Railways in Ghana are being unduly influenced and making it possible for Ibrahim Mahama to pillage stuff out of the Railway Workshop in Sekondi for his private art space in Tamale, SCCA and Red Clay Studios, and for his art exhibitions abroad. Those individuals cannot put their parochial, selfish interest above the Twin-City, Sekondi-Takoradi, the Western Region and the State.
.jpg) |
Fig. 7. A Diesel Locomotive Engine sitting on a low-loader truck, about to set off on its journey by road from Sekondi in Southern Ghana to Tamale in Northern Ghana. and to Ibrahim Mahama’s Red Clay studios.
|
Photo Credit: Ibrahim Mahama |
I am not opposed to the art facility
Ibrahim Mahama is trying to create for himself and his ethnic people. It is a
laudable effort and, certainly, puts Tamale on the African art map.
Nonetheless, it is absolutely wrong and untenable for Mahama to rob a people of
their heritage, to empower himself and his people at the expense of others. It
is most absurd and unfortunate and deserves the fullest condemnation. This is
gross injustice which does not have to be countenanced one-bit. Ibrahim Mahama
has to be courteous to return the trains and other archival and valued
treasures he pillaged from LOCATION back to where he took them from, and to the
people of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western Region. He is morally bound to do
that. Alternatively, for his SCCA and the Red Clay Studios, if I may suggest,
Mahama could use what is referred to in pedagogy as Vicarious Learning, where
audio-visual aids are used to teach the children of his area about the history
and activities of the Ghana Railways, without the children necessarily having a
first-hand, physical contact with trains. With Government fast expanding and
modernizing the Railway service in Ghana, through the Ghana Railway Development
Authority, which was established in 2008 through an Executive Instrument to
oversee the development of Railways in the entire country, there is a National Master
Plan to extend rail service to Tamale and beyond, in fact, to neighboring West
African countries. We only have to pray and hope that the process is expedited.
Meanwhile, what rightfully belongs to LOCATION and the people of Sekondi-Takoradi
and the Western Region should remain in Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western
Region.
It must remain a scar on the conscience of the people of Sekondi-Takoradi to sit quiet and unconcerned for international artist Ibrahim Mahama to plunder dry LOCATION (LOCO), the Ghana Railway Workshop in Sekondi. Future generations would never forgive us. We all collectively owe it to the present generation and generations yet unborn to conserve and preserve the history of LOCATION. Reciprocally, Ibrahim Mahama has to have a self-introspection. He has to examine his conscience and come to terms with the evil he is unleashing on the people of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Western Region.
FOR FURTHER READING
Akwetteh, L. N., Xu, C. Y., Putri, M. D. P. W., & Okoe, L. N. (2021). The Current Railway Development and Its Influencing Factors in Ghana. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 228-244, March 19, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2021.93015
Andoh, R. (2018). The Politics of Railway Transportation and Development in Ghana: A Case Study of Nsawam and Akim Achiase Junction Railway Stations, University of Ghana, Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) Political Science Thesis
http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/bitstream/handle/123456789/26116/The%20Politics%20of%20Rail
http://way%20Transportation%20and%20Development%20in%20Ghana%2C%20A%20Case%20Study
http://%20of%20Nsawam%20and%20Akim%20Achiase%20Junction%20Railway%20Stations.pdf?
Annin A. A. (2020). Allowing the Collapse of Ghana’s Railway Sector a Mistake – Akufo-Addo, Citi News Room (CNR), August 21, 2020
Busia, K. A. (1950). Report on a Social Survey of Sekondi-Takoradi, Crown Agents for the Colonies for the Gold Coast Government, London. Pp. 164, illus
Published
online by the Cambridge University Press: August 21, 2012
Bullock, R. (2008). Off Track: Sub-Saharan African Railways, Background Paper 17, Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD)
file:///E:/Africa_Offtrac%20-%20SubSaharan%20African%20Railways_EN.pdf
Clarke, J. H., (1962).Third Class on the Blue Train to Kumasi.JSTOR, Phylon (1960-), Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 294 – 301. Published by Clark Atlanta University
https://doi.org/10.2307/273811
https://www.jstor.org/stable/273811
Daily Guide (2020). COVID-19 Cannot Stop the Completion of Tema-Mpakadan Rail Project—Contractor Assures. Modern Ghana.
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1021113/covid-19-cannot-stop-the-completion-of-tema-mpak
Dinye, R. D., (2012). Prospects and Issues of Railway Infrastructure and Development in Ghana, Journal of Construction Prospect Management and Innovation, Centre of Construction Management and Leadership Development (c)
Vol. 2 (1):259 – 284, 2012
ISSN 2223-7852
Dinye, R. D. (2012). Prospects and Issues of Railway Infrastructure and Development in Ghana. databank.worldbank.org.
https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/JCPMI/article/view/25/17
Ghana Railway Development Authority (2013). Republic of Ghana, Ghana Railway Development Authority of the Ministry of Transport,Provision of Engineering Consulting Services for the Preparation of the Railway Master Plan of Ghana Final Report Annex 1 Inception Report Abstract (Chapters 2-3-4-5-6).
Ghana Railway Development Authority (2014). Study for Safety Operation and Management of Railway in Ghana. Final Report, Ghana Railway Development Authority, Republic of Ghana.https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/1218567 01.pdf
Ghana Web (2020). Ministry of Railways Development—Ghana—Railways Ministry to Order about 35 Trains.
http://www.mrd.gov.gh/4/16/108/railways-ministry-to-order-about-35-trains
Gordon, J. A. Y. (2018). Development of Ghana’s Railway Sector – A Non-Starter?, myghanalinks.com, August 1, 2018
Graphic Online (2015). Ghana’s Railway System: Which Way, Feb. 3, 2015, 06:38
https:///www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/ghana-s-railway-system-which--way.html
Gyamfi, N. A. (2017). Railway Development Would Transform Ghana’s Economy, Ghana Business News, June 1, 2017
https://www.ghanabusiness.com/2017/06/01/railway-development-would-transform-ghanas-economy-chief/
Gyan-Apenteng, N. K, (2022).The Train is Coming, The Insight
Hammond, J. (2020). Engines of Growth: Ghana’s Railway Boom. NewAfricaDaily, newafricadaily.com. https://newafricadaily.com/engines-growth-ghanas-railway-boom
Haynes, J., Railway Workers and the P.N.D.C. Government in Ghana, 1982 – 90, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Cambridge University Press, Volume 29, Issue 1, March 1991, pp.137 – 154
https://doi.org/10.1017/50022278X000020772
Iddrisu M. A., Abdelhak S. and Au Yong, H. N. (2021). Prospects and Impediments of Railway Infrastructure Development in Ghana: impact of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Technology, Journal of Infrastructure Development, Volume 13, Issue 2
https://doi.org/10.1177/0949306211058500
First published online December, 2021
IEA (2019). Railways Could Provide Much Greater Benefits for Energy and the Environment, According to IEA Report. News. https://www.iea.org/news/railways-could-provide-much-greater-benefits-for-energy-and-the-environment-according-to-iea-report
International Railway Journal (2020). Ghana Orders New Standard Gauge Rail Equipment. https://www.railjournal.com/africa/ghana-orders-new-standard-gauge-rail-equipment
International Trade Administration (2020). Ghana—Rail Industry.
www.trade.gov. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/ghana-rail-industry
Jedwab, R., &Moradi, A. (2011a). Revolutionizing Transport: Modern Infrastructure, Agriculture and Development in Ghana Seminar. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/42263/1/Revolutionizing_transport_modern_infrastructure%2C_agriculture_and_development_in_Ghana_(LSERO).pdf
Jedwab, R., & Moradi, A. (2011b). Transportation Infrastructure and Development in Ghana. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00607207/document
Jeffries, R. (1978). Class, Power and Ideology in Ghana: The Railwaymen of Sekondi, Cambridge University Press(Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi), First Published 1978; The Digitally Printed Version 2008.
ISBN 978-0-521-21806-1 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-10016-8 Paperback
www.cambridge.org/9780521218061
West Africa (London), 2 May 1988, p. 775
Jeffries, R. D. (1974). The Politics of Trade Unionism in Ghana: A Case-Study of the Railway Workers Union, Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. at the University of London
Jeffries, Stuart (2019), ‘People think I’m very odd’: how Ibrahim Mahama brought Ghana’s past to Manchester, The Guardian, London, UK
Keddey, K. (2018). Vibrant Ghana Railway Sector in the Offing. Graphic Online.
DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.93015 243 Open Journal of Social Scienceshttps://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/vibrant-ghana-railway-sector-in-the-offi
ng.html
Kraus, J. (1979). Strikes and Labour Power in Ghana, Development and Change, Volume 10, Issue 2, April 1979
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00043.x
https://olinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00043.x
Kwakye J. (2013). Railway Sector Has “Collapsed,” Ghana M M A, General News of Monday, March 4, 2013,
https://www.ghanamma.com/2013/03/04/railway-sector-has-collapsed/
Laary, D. (2022), Tracks Towards the Future, D + C Infrastructure
Lacy, L. (1965). A History of Railway Unionism in Ghana, M.A. Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon
Lawani, S. (2016). Ghanaian Trade Unionism in Perspective, International Journal of African and Asian Studies, Vol.26, 2016
ISSN 2409-6938
Lynch, David (2019), Ibrahim Mahama: Parliament of Ghosts, My Head is Disconnected – Review –The Guardian, London, UK
Master Plan Ghana (2013).
Ministry of Railways Development (2021). Eleven-Member Board of Directors for the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA) inaugurated.
National Tourism Development Plan (2013-2027) Republic of Ghana (n.d.). https://www.ghana.travel/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ghana-Tourism-DevelopmentPlan
Nketsia, N. (2009). Nana Nketsia Bemoans Collapse of Railway Sector, The Ghanaian Times, Monday, June 29, 2009. p.3
Obeng, D. A., Bessah, E., Amponsah, W., Dzisi, E. K, Agyare, W. A., (2022). Ghana’s Railway Transport Services Delivery: A Review, EL SEVIER Trasportation Engineering
Journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/transportation-engineering
Elsevier Ltd: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.treng.2022.100111
Olievschi, V. N. (2013). Railway Transport: Framework for Improving Railway Sector Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa, SSATP Africa Transport Policy Program
Oumarou, A. (2015). Rail Infrastructure in Africa Financing: Policy Options, Africa Development Bank Group
Pawar, P. K. (1979). The Ghana Trade Union Congress: A Brief Report, (PDF)Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Accra. p.59
Progress on the New Standard Gauge Railway Line on the Western Line (2018). Progress on the New Standard Gauge Railway Line on the Western Line. YouTube. https://youtu.be/7csUckvQvNU
Railway Technology (2020). Ghana’s GRDA Signs Deal to Develop Rail Line in Ashanti Region. http://www.railway-technology.com https://www.railway-technology.com/news/ghana-grda-rail-line-in-ashanti-region
Railway Workers’ Union (Ghana) - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Workers%27_Union_(Ghana)
Republic of Ghana, Ministry of Railways Development (2019). 2018 Annual Report.
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/new-ndpc-static1/CACHES/PUBLICATIONS/20
20/02/10/Ministry+of+Railways+Development_2018+APR.pdf
Republic of Ghana, Ministry of Railways Development 2021 Annual Report (January –December 2021)
Republic of Ghana, Ghana Railway Development Authority of the Ministry of Transport (Provision of Engineering Consulting Services for the Preparation of the RAILWAY MASTER PLAN OF GHANA)
Republic of Ghana, Ghana Railway Company Limited/Home
Robinson, A., Buisson A. (2016). Financing Rail Infrastructure Projects in Africa – Challenges and Solutions, Norton Rose Fulbright
Simpson, Veronica (2019), Ibrahim Mahama: Parliament of Ghosts, Studio International, London, UK
https://www.studiointernational.com/ibrahim-mahama-parliament-of-ghosts-review-whitworth-manchester
Sturgis, S. (2015). How Overlooked Colonial Railways Could Revolutionize Transportation in Africa, Bloomberg: City Lab/ Transportation
Tagoe, A. (2021). Stop Diverting Railway Funds – Nana Kobina Nketsia V to Government, Skyy Power FM. (On June 15, 2021).
https://skypowerfm.com/stop-diverting-railway-funds-nana-kobina-nketsia-v-to-government/
Takengny, Christine (Curator) (2019). Ibrahim Mahama: Parliament of Ghosts at The Whitworth, Manchester, Contemporary Art Society, UK
Tetteh, E. A. (2021). Revamping of the Railway Sector in Ghana—The Story So Far.
The Gold Coast
http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r139.html
Transforming Ghana’s Railway Infrastructure – Deutsche Bank
https://flow.db.com/trade-finance/transforming-ghana-s-railway-infrastructure
Wright, Herbert. (2021). Ibrahim Mahama Reveals Layers of Meaning with Post-Colonial Ghanaian Material in New London Show, Cobo Social
https://www.cobosocial.com/dossiers/art/ibrahim-mahama-new-london-show/
RIKKI WEMEGA-KWAWU
Rikki Wemega-Kwawu is an internationally renowned Ghanaian contemporary artist and writer, born in Sekondi in 1959. He is a keen observer and critical commentator of the Ghanaian art, political and social scenes. He lives and works in Takoradi. Rikki is the son of Mr. Anthony K. Wemega-Kwawu, who was a former Works Manager and a stalwart of the Ghana Railways in its hey days. Rikki describes himself as being born into the Ghana Railways, having witnessed live and firsthand its glorious days and its steady decline. He is so passionate about matters to do with the Ghana Railways.
Comments
Post a Comment