Special Feature: An encounter with 'dwarfs' on the Dwarfs Island

It is an island of very friendly people with peaceful atmosphere, beautiful weather, fertile lands, green vegetation, plenty of food and the abode of ‘dwarfs’. But, sadly, it is a neglected island where politicians never dream of going, except for votes during election time.

“After election, the people are neglected; nothing is coming from the government,” says a disappointed Assembly Member for Edavokope Electoral Area in the Dwarfs Island, Mr Raymond Amelewu.

Some of the islanders say for more than 20 years under the Fourth Republic, no President of Ghana has visited the Dwarfs Island and that it was Professor J. E. A. Mills (then Vice-President in the Rawlings administration) who visited the island.

Apart from politicians, teachers, health workers, agricultural extension officers and other essential service providers decline posting to the island or abandon post after a short stay. Nonetheless, after staying on the Dwarfs Island for three days, I have no doubt in mind that it is a dreamland to visit and a veritable tourism potential yet to be explored.

The Dwarfs Island

The Dwarfs Island is located in the Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region. According to historical accounts, the island used to be the abode of dwarfs, and although nobody can tell of any personal encounter with the small imaginary humanoids, there are tales that they cause people who cross their path to get lost in the forest.

As a result of increased human settlement on the island, the dwarfs are said to have either abandoned the land or moved further into the bush.

Currently, there are at least 869 villages on the island with many of the inhabitants hailing from Battor in the Volta Region.

The people are mainly farmers and fishermen, undertaking their fishing activities on the Volta Lake and cultivating the fertile land for cassava, yam, vegetables and other crops. “Here, even if you don’t use fertiliser, your crops will do well,” they claim. The evidence of that claim is clear from the abundant food and fat locally bred fowls walking leisurely around.There is also a large presence of cattle and mass population of bush meat on the island. Indeed, it is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’.

But the people need help, such as tractors to increase their yield, and gari-processing machine to enhance the production of gari.

Journey to the island

My journey from Accra to the Dwarfs Island was breath-taking and a mixture of fun, anxiety and discomfort. The island can be reached from many entry points, but going through Nkawkaw and Donkorkrom presents an awesome experience to me, having to climb the Kwahu Mountains in a taxi, cross River Afram on a pontoon and traverse the Volta Lake in a small canoe.

I have had all three experiences on separate occasions in the past, but this time, they come as a single mouth-watering package of tourism experience that many tourists, especially foreigners, will relish.

As usual, it is fun climbing the Kwahu Mountains (my hometown), regardless of the bad nature of some portions of the road, as I make my way to Adawso to catch the pontoon to cross River Afram to Ekye.

Sailing on the pontoon for the second time after almost a decade, is also refreshing. But the two-hour journey from Ekye to Donkorkrom on a Metro Mass Transit bus is rather discomforting. Some portions of the road are terrible, and having to stand for almost two hours in a position that makes it impossible to turn the neck because of overloading, and in a bus with dead shock absorbers on that terrible road, is really a bundle of discomfort.

But the anxiety to see the Dwarfs Island revives me the next day for a bumpier journey on a motorbike from Donkorkrom to Bruben, to catch a boat to cross the Volta Lake. Although it is just a one-hour ride, the journey from Donkorkrom to Bruben appears to be endless because of the rough nature of the road.

Crossing the Volta Lake

Tales of boat disasters on the Volta Lake and the pleasures of adventure keep waging a fierce battle in my mind, but the latter prevails on the prodding of a faint sense of hope procured by the wearing of a life jacket. With my co-sailors, Francis and Christian, in charge of affairs, we set off smoothly.

The beautiful light blue skies, the calmness of the water and the melodious whistles it blows beneath the canoe, as we sail gently, offer a lot of confidence. But at the same time, the many tree stumps scattered throughout the lake present a constant reminder of danger.

Shortly, in about 55 minutes, we have landed at Sinafukope on the Dwarfs Island, as Francis and Christian escort me to the regent of the village, Kodzo Amegbanu, who becomes my host.

Initial experience

A meeting of the elderly in the village is quickly assembled to welcome me and ask of my mission as tradition requires. They are so excited that I have come all the way from Accra to visit and spend Christmas with them when even people at the district capital, Donkorkrom, who have the responsibility to do so, do not desire to visit them.

Having won their hearts, I have to quickly satisfy my foremost curiosity by asking whether there are dwarfs on the island. That question draws long laughter from the gathering and a chorus response in the affirmative. But none of them is able to give a personal experience of an encounter with a dwarf on the island.

They, instead, recount tales of how dwarfs cause people to lose their way after the people have crossed their path.

Drinking water

As tradition demands in many Ghanaian communities, water is first served after the visitor is offered a seat.

The inhabitants of the Dwarfs Island are strong adherents of this tradition and so, as soon as I am offered a seat on my arrival at Sinafukope, they serve me water.

I take and drink the water; not because I am thirsty, but essentially to indicate that I have come with clean hands and heart. I later learn the water the people drink is fetched directly from the Volta Lake, without boiling or treating it.

The lake is their only source of potable water; for drinking, cooking, washing and doing everything. Some of them say it is better to drink the water raw because, in that state, it is heavy and in the absence of food, a good gulp can assuage hunger.

I have carried along with me, some sachet water, but I keep drinking the raw water from the lake, as I am welcomed to various communities, because I cannot break tradition and have to adhere to it.

Access to healthcare

Apart from drinking water, the inhabitants on the Dwarfs Island face other chronic challenges such as lack of access to healthcare.

Whenever someone is sick or there is an emergency, they have to rush the victim to Donkorkrom by crossing the Volta Lake on a small boat to Bruben. That takes about one hour, before they continue another one-hour journey from Bruben to Donkorkrom on a rugged road.

But the more daunting task is to find money to hire a canoe at the cost of GHc30 to cross the lake and arrange for an ambulance to come from Donkorkrom to Bruben to pick the victim to hospital at the cost of GHc50. In the absence of an ambulance, the alternative is to hire a taxi from Donkorkrom at a cost of GHc30 to transport the sick person.

In such a poverty-stricken community, the Dwarfs Islanders, invariably, find it extremely difficult to raise that kind of money. Even when there is money, they still require fervent prayer for the availability of pre-mix fuel to power the outboard motors for quick transportation across the lake since the supply of pre-mix fuel to fishermen in the area is irregular. When that happens, the only option is to contend with the manpower paddling of the canoe to transport the sick person across the lake. The implication is spending more time on the lake and risking the loss of the sick person with each passing minute. In many instances, the people have abandoned such emergency evacuations mid-way because they lose their dear ones.

Pregnant women go through similar transportation challenges to attend ante-natal clinic at Donkorkrom. I ask one pregnant woman whether she’s been attending ante-natal clinic, and her response is only a wry grin.

“When women go into labour, sometimes the idea of rushing them to Donkorkrom is not even contemplated,” Mr Amelewu remarks.

He says the people need at least three clinics in his electoral area, considering the large number of people living there. In the desire to reduce the burden of the people, a concerned citizen has donated his house at Cidekope for use as a temporary clinic to serve about 80 villages on the island but the health worker posted there is said to have abandoned post at the time of my visit.

Education

Education is another major problem on the island.

At the Sinafukope D/A Primary School, which serves about 80 villages, there are only three teachers handling eight classes. The head teacher, Mr Richard Vudugah, handles KG1, KG2, Class 1 and Class 2, while another teacher handles classes 3 and 4, with the third teacher handling classes 5 and 6. Mr Vudugah thinks under the circumstance, it will be helpful to post national service persons to the school to augment the teaching staff strength.

Since the establishment of the school in 1974, national service persons have been posted there only once; in the 1980s. “Because there are no roads, electricity and mobile telecommunication network, teachers don’t want to come here,” Mr Amegbanu explains.

What is worse, as the community members complain, some of the teachers in various schools on the island are “drunkards” and report to school very late.

In other instances, the teachers allegedly attend funeral frequently outside the island, and they often spend about one week before returning to post.

“It is a challenging situation,” Mr Vudugah asserts.

Indeed, it is a challenging situation because circuit education supervisors at Donkorkrom may not desire to cross the lake to check the waywardness of teachers, and even if they do, withdrawing or transferring the teachers is not an option.

In view of the lack of teachers and the negative attitude of the few at post, many parents have withdrawn their children from the school, crippling it gradually. The enrolment in classes 4, 5 and 6 at Sinafukope D/A Primary School has reduced drastically to between five and 10. A vibrant junior high school (JHS) stream has now collapsed with the building overgrown with weeds.

The national school feeding programme, which is designed to increase enrolment in schools, has not done the trick because the meals are served only twice in a week, and so many children go to school only on days the meals are served.

Mr Vudugah says due to the lack of school uniforms, many children feel reluctant to go to school. According to him, the supply of free school uniforms to the school is inadequate.

Transportation

Many of the schoolchildren walk long distances to and from school, and that alone is a big disincentive to schooling. There are no roads on the island and the only means of transportation are motorcycle, bicycle and walking.

Several appeals by the people to the district assembly to construct a road to link the island and the mainland have not yielded positive results.

According to the people of Sinafukope, on several occasions, the district assembly has requested them to clear some areas for the construction of a road, but all to no avail.

“Now, we have lost confidence in them (district assembly) and if they ask us to weed again, we will not do it,” the regent of the village said in a disappointing tone.

Negative effects

The lack of roads on the Dwarfs Island is having a serious negative effect on the livelihood of the people. After harvesting their crops, they have nowhere to sell them on the island. 

A once vibrant market at Sinafukope died many years ago because of the difficulty farmers faced in transporting their farm produce there. The farmers are, therefore, compelled to travel elsewhere to market their produce, crossing the Volta Lake in canoes/boats. Oftentimes, the canoes/boats are overloaded, and in the process, many people perish on the lake, as the small vessels capsize.

Social life

The inhabitants of the Dwarfs Island have strong communal bonds but they have no social life. There are no recreational facilities, especially for the youth.

It is even a luxury for one to own a television set, essentially because of poverty and lack of electricity.

The use of mobile phones may be in vogue in many parts of the country, but for the inhabitants of the island, it is a big challenge to use mobile phones. That is because reception is either non-existent or very poor.

On the compound of the regent of Sinafukope, Airtel is the only network received, but the reception behaves like the traffic indicator light of a vehicle for about a minute and then it goes dead. The only place the inhabitants can get a fairly stable reception is on a school park, about 60 metres away.

And even there, one has to stand close to a particular tree, sometimes virtually embracing it, before one can get reception for Airtel and Vodafone.

The tree serves as a natural mobile telecommunication mast, while its immediate surrounding serves as a communication centre where privacy and secrecy are not rights and guarantees.

Environmental and other concerns

The Dwarfs Island used to be a thick green belt in the past. That may explain the presence of dwarfs and wild animals on the island. But that beauty of nature is fast fading due to rampant bushfires on the island allegedly caused by farmers to clear their lands and some unscrupulous people on grasscutter hunt. Apart from the bushfires, there is also wanton felling of trees for charcoal burning.

“I know cutting the trees is not good but there is no job for the youth and that is the only job I do to survive here,” Atsu, a charcoal burner explains. Some people also cut the trees for fishing in a practice called ‘Atigya’. Under that practice, trees are cut and dried together with the leaves. Later, they are put into a particular spot beneath the lake and left for a period of time. As the trees and leaves get rotten and become dark, they are said to attract fishes for trapping and harvesting.

In spite of the poverty, seclusion and official neglect, the Dwarfs Island still holds a lot of promise for agriculture development that can save Ghana from Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) foods, and tourism transformation that can greatly attract tourists into the country.
 
Journey from Dwarfs Island

It is an interesting experience going to the Dwarfs Island and staying there for three days, but my return journey is equally intriguing.

A few minutes after setting sail from the island, the outboard motor powering the small canoe goes off, and for the next 10 minutes, it would not start. We have about 45 minutes to cross over to Bruben, and looking at the vastness of the lake, it is not a pleasant moment to relish at all.

Fortunately, the outboard motor comes back to life and the apprehension turns into confidence, as I begin to appreciate the gentleness and beauty of the lake.

But I have another interesting experience ahead at Donkorkrom, as I board a taxi to Ekye to catch the pontoon. I am the fourth passenger to sit in the taxi, and according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) standard, that saloon car, with five occupancy seats, is full.

But the driver keeps calling for more passengers and eventually two passengers come to join, making the number of persons in the vehicle seven– four at the back and three in front.

I am torn between shutting up and ‘enjoying’ the ride, or complaining and getting down, which comes with missing the pontoon, or picking a ‘dropping’ for the one-and-half journey. Under the circumstance, I prefer to shut up, as I ponder over the popular local mantra, “Travel and see”.

 

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