A few decades back, Ghanaian kids anticipated Saturday mornings. “BY THE FIRE SIDE” was a popular show they anticipated through out the week. For some it was a reward for completing school work during the weekdays, some others just had no other options. Amazing folk tales were told in a captivating way on this show. Ghanaian Children learnt values, virtues- they learnt about their culture. Values that some may have abandoned while giving in to the seductions of the the world and the supposed need to be someone and something else, virtues that may have been forgotten due to the pressures and sudden demands of maturity.
Last Saturday was interesting for a lot of people in Ghana. Well most Saturday’s are, if not all, for Ghanaians. There are funerals, weddings, engagement ceremonies, concerts, and oh! writers and readers and lovers of good, original stories, meet up to discuss stories and appreciate characters. The memory of being a Ghanaian kid back in the late 90’s was relived in a contemporary sense.
It was a celebration on 17th Sept 2016, as Maukeni Padiki Kodjo popularly known as Keni Kodjo of kenikodjo.com met with her readers, and other writers at Workshed on the Spintex road, Accra. It was a lovely space to be at.The meeting started with a few minutes for participants to network and “break the ice”. Shortly after, the first segment took off with Keni answering random questions. This segment was a promise not well kept. Some very pertinent questions were not answered. To this we say, “Keni, don’t start what you can’t finish”!
The highlight of the night was the trivia segment which saw participants pool to create three large groups. The groups took turns answering questions stemming from posts on Keni’s blog especially the two popular series on the blog; CAPITAL HIGH and the famous KNOW THY MAN. It was amazing how much the readers knew about the blog and especially about the stories. The best group at the end of this segment was GHANA JOLLOF. I must admit they were the loudest and the most exciting, and from all angles, deserved the win-they knew their stuff. It was not shocking that the gentleman adjudged the most active male for this segment was from this group.
Participants shared their views on the nature of the characters in the KNOW THY MAN series in the next segment. There was a lot of life experiences to learn from, a number of ideas surfaced and a deeper understanding of the characters and how interestingly their predicaments move and fit perfectly into ones life and experiences.
If you weren’t a regular on kenikodjo.com and had no idea about the last two series she wrote about, you’d have enjoyed the whole environment still. It was power-packed, that is my first favorite thing about the meet-up.
The meeting ended with a photo-shoot before which was a pre-birthday celebration. Participants treated themselves to a taste of the huge cake afterwards and a few other finger foods.
This meeting was one of the most well organized I have been to. Big ups Keni. Let’s do this again, at a park, wearing beautiful Ghanaian prints strapped around our necks, sitting around a bonfire, eating local Ghanaian dishes.
Pixie sprouts!
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