Before I Let Go

My first recollection of this house was when I arrived from the UK at the age of 10 years. Prior to my birth my late Mum had been given a scholarship to study Home Economics in the UK and it was that she met my Dad who was then an Accounting student. On completion of her course, she returned to Ghana to offer her services to the Ghana Education Service. As a 10 year old born and breed in South London, everything looked extremely different. The weather was the most noticeable difference. It was extremely hot. The next thing were the mosquitos. I hated them with a passion and initially they made my life a misery, however I soon got to get myself accustomed to these two annoying things and soon forgot about them.

So, the address for home at that time was “House No. 156 Blogordo Road” and as an adventurous lad, it did not take me long to make friends and settle down. It was a whole new outdoor life for me. As a kid growing up in South London, a normal days routine would be school, fights on the play ground; after school just roaming about from shop to shop and occasionally engaging in a bit of shop lifting just for the fun of it and finally returning home after 8PM to some serious grief from my Mum for staying out so late. Being a student in the UK, my Mum and lived in a one bedroom flat on the second floor of a three story house. You can then imagine my glee when we turned up at 156 Blogordo Road to a three bedroom house with a massive front garden and an equally massive backyard. I remember turning to my Mum and asking her if we were sharing the place with other families. The building was unusual to me with its wooden windows which had mosquito nets and for added security, wire meshes. Over the years, my Mum added the boys quarters. This had two bedroom, a kitchen and separate bath and toilet. To enable her renovate the main building, we moved into the boys quarters. The master bedroom of the main house was extended a bit at the back, the wooden windows were removed and replaced with glass louvers.

We remained in the boys quarters and the main building was rented out to various people. When my Mum finally retired from the Ghana Education Service [ I had then moved back to the UK]….she used the boys quarters as her nursery school [GyeNyame Nursery School] and lived in the main building with my daughter and my cousins daughter for sometime.

After my mums death about 15 years ago, I rented out the main building and the boys quarters to a Swedish businessman and his Ghanaian girlfriend. Based on the terms of the tenancy agreement, they further modified the main building to their taste. So what you see, in videos and optics are what the house looks like now. The place holds a lot of memories for me. I would have loved to renovate it and keep as much of the original design as possible, but unfortunately I have to execute my plan to totally demolish the building and erect a new building. So much has changed at Nyaniba Estates. Most of the people I grew up with have moved away to other parts of the country or abroad. The architecture landscape has also drastically changed. When I first moved to Nyaniba, I believe the only storey building their was Hotel Christianburg. Storey buildings were not allowed in those days because Nyaniba was considered a flight path for airlines departing from Kotoka International Airport [KIA]. Those who can afford to do so have demolished the olds style estate house and built 2 - 3 level structures.

I love Nyaniba. The place has not lost its vibrance.