Ipods in Accra by Sophia Acheampong

Author:Sophia Acheampong
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Piccadilly Press Ltd
Published: 2011-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Drumbeats and Heartbeats

‘What’s that noise?’ I said to Delphy.

She was in the bed next to mine and when I looked over she sat up.

‘I think that’s the sound of drumming,’ she said.

‘Makeeda! It’s started!’ Nana shrieked, bursting into our room with Mum. She was more excited about the ceremony than I was.

‘What’s started, Nana?’

‘The bragoro!’

Oh man, already? Today was the day (according to tradition) I became a woman. The fact was, I had actually got my period eleven months ago. To be honest, being the last one of my friends was a total nightmare. I mean, I didn’t do that thing where I pretended I had got it or anything, but it was harsh listening to everyone else – it made me feel so immature. I was probably the only girl in the world who was wishing for PMS! As the ceremony is meant to occur as soon as you got your period, I thought the Queen Mother of our clan had made a special concession for me, but apparently loads of girls from the UK and US were returning to Ghana to have this ceremony, so I was probably not that special after all.

I glanced at my watch. It was four o’clock in the morning! Didn’t they know it was just indecent to wake anyone up before seven a.m.? I attempted to bury my head under the blanket, but Mum ripped it from over me with a flourish.

‘Move it, missy!’ she said, shaking me.

‘Someone is drumming for Makeeda?’ Delphy asked incredulously.

‘Yes, they’re announcing to everyone that Makeeda is having her bragoro.’

‘Couldn’t they have done it on the radio or something?’ Delphina murmured sleepily.

When we first arrived in Ghana, we kept hearing radio announcements about everything – parties, weddings and funerals. Delphy and I were a bit surprised: we kept thinking how people in England would be worried about gatecrashers if they announced their events on the radio. Mum said no one here tended to think like that, they saw it as an opportunity for people who didn’t know about an event to attend.

‘Delphina, before radios, we communicated with drums,’ Nana-Amma said, coming into the room.

‘Oh, right. I knew that,’ Delphy said.

I knew she was lying and really wanted to say so, but Mum was steering me towards the bathroom. My requests to sleep for another few hours were ignored.

I was soon dressed in a white ntoma, which was draped across my body loosely, and told to sit in the courtyard.

Nana-Amma’s courtyard was huge; to the left was a small annexe house where Comfort lived with her cousin, Kwadwo, the gateman. Between the two homes were three rows of plantain, avocado and fruit trees. When we were younger, she had told us that she had planted one row for each of her grandchildren Tanisha, Delphy and me. In fact, it was a mini farm, and I suspected the extra rows had more to do with the money she was making. Now and again, I could see where Delphina’s entrepreneurial side might have come from – Nana-Amma had left full-time teaching for farming.

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