Manager (Mrs Frimpong) and I spent Saturday, August 29, 2026 “home” at Arakan Officers Mess, Burma Camp.
Why do I call Burma Camp “home” and what took us there?
In his review of my Autobiography “The Military My Life – 43 years, 5 months, 25 Days,” Maj Don-Chebe Esq (Rtd), former Director-General, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (DG GBC) described me as a “barracks-brat,” a term used in describing children of service personnel who grow up in barracks.
The Ghanaian equivalent of “barracks-brat” is ace broadcaster Kwami Sefa Kayi’s coinage, “soja-pikin!”
My emotional attachment to Burma Camp stems from the fact that apart from having my primary school education while living with my parents at the Arakan Officers Mess, when I was commissioned into the Armoured Reconnaissance (Recce) Regiment in 1973, Arakan Mess became my home again.
Indeed, my first room in the Single Quarters was directly opposite the house I had lived in as a little boy with my parents.
It was at Arakan Officers Married Quarters where I moved to on getting married that I met Auntie Aggie and her husband, then Captain GKT Sam.
Auntie Aggie
The occasion was the 75th Anniversary (Diamond Jubilee) of Mrs Agnes Araba Sam, who worked at GTP for 27 years.
The Arakan Officers Mess, therefore, saw a gathering of family and friends as well as “Old Arakanese,” as families who lived at the Arakan Officers from the 1960s-1990s call ourselves.
In addition to family and friends, there were Generals and senior officers both serving and retired.
The retired Generals included Brig Gen Amamoo, Brig Gen Nkrumah, Brig Gen Opong-Kyekyeku and Brig Gen Dan Frimpong.
Also present was ace broadcaster and fellow “soja-pikin” “twin-brother”of Maj Gen GKT Sam, Auntie Aggie’s first child.
Gen Sam’s classmate and childhood friend from Ghana National College, Cape Coast, Lawyer Egbert Faibille was also present.
In her justifiably emotional response to the toast proposed by her son, Auntie Aggie said that ordinarily she called herself wife of the late Lt Col GKT Sam (Rtd).
For the occasion however, she called herself, mother of Maj Gen GKT Sam.
She thanked God for the honour her children had done her, acknowledging her as a mother while she is still alive to savour the joy, and not after she has joined the ancestors.
This took me to my September 2022 article in the Daily Graphic/Peace FM titled “Give me my flowers while I can still smell them,” partly quoted below.
Funerals permitting, I start my Saturday mornings resting peacefully with my radio. Joy FM’s “Home Affairs” which starts soon after the 6am news dovetails into the “Weekend City Show” around 7.30am, and then crosses-over into “Newsfile” at 9am.
While the first discusses family issues and relationships, the third discusses serious current affairs on national issues.
However, “Weekend City Show” (WCS) is a comedy show designed to make listeners laugh and in the process hopefully, bring down unruly high blood pressures to the 120/80 doctors demand of us.
On Saturday, September 17, 2022, one of the quotes which came up during the humorous “Weekend City Show” programme was: “Give me my flowers while I can still smell them!” Before delving into what the quote means, what is “Weekend City Show” about?
‘Weekend City Show’
As stated, this is a Saturday morning comedy show, hosted by Sammy Forson, involving two actors, Joseph Langabel of Black Stars Cheering Squad fame, and Reuben Adarkwa of Dome-Kwabenya fame. Joining the cast himself, Sammy Forson humorously leads this trio as an “agent-provocateur” to entertain listeners.
They call themselves “weekend doctors” who heal listeners of their ailments by making them laugh during their comedy show.
After Langabel and Reuben had taken listeners to the moon and back, trying to explain the quote “Give me my flowers when I can still smell them,” Sammy Forson explained what the quote meant.
In the words of the American rapper Kanye West, it means “if you admire somebody, you should go ahead and tell them.”
Simply put, if you admire someone for any positive reason, make the person aware of it by praising him/her while alive. Do not wait till after their death before showering them with praises.
Said to have started in ancient Graeco-Roman times over 2000 years ago, the physical act of giving flowers is a form of expression to show others one’s appreciation, love and gratitude for their good deeds. The use of the quote took me down memory lane.
Bob Cole
At a Saturday night “dance” in an Accra nightclub in the 1970’s, Ghana’s ace comedian/musician Bob Cole who was going through difficult times financially, made a passionate appeal to the revelers that those who appreciated him should show their love to him while he was still alive.
He added that flowery praises, huge expenditures on a grand funeral to honour him after his death would serve no purpose as he lay motionless in his casket unable to appreciate goings-on. In effect, “Give me my flowers while I can still smell them!”
Bob Cole’s situation resonates with that of many Ghanaian oldies who live in penury and die miserably.
However, on their death, their children living abroad jet in to give them grand “befitting funerals” at which money is splashed about rather obscenely!
The question often asked is, if such children had that much money, why did they not take good care of their parents?
The 16th president of the United States who was assassinated in 1865 for abolishing the slave trade, Abraham Lincoln said, “A nation that does not honour its heroes will not long endure.”
Over time, is has been modified though with the same import to, “a nation that does not honour its heroes, is not worth dying for!”
Discussion
Has Ghana honoured our deserving heroes? In September 2001, Zimbabwe’s Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA), honoured the first African United Nations Force Commander, Ghana’s General EA Erskine by naming a Centre after him called the “General Erskine Research and Documentation Centre” (GERDC.) With his death in 2021, hopefully a monument will be named after him posthumously.
However, there is a waiting opportunity to honour Ghana’s second UN Force Commander and former Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), General Seth Obeng, while he is alive. While there certainly are others, I have restricted myself only to the institution I know well, the military.
As Bob Cole said, multitudinous platitudes heaped during Thanksgiving Services mean nothing to the deceased as they lie stiff in the “chop-box” as a little boy called his grandfather’s casket!
While they are alive, let us give deserving individuals the recognition, praise and honour for their contributions to Ghana/humanity, and also to encourage the younger generation to make sacrifices, in the words, “Give me my flowers while I can still smell them.”
Discussion
Auntie Aggie’s 75th birthday was a memorable occasion which brought family and friends together.
Significantly, using herself as an example she emphasised the need to live in peace and love one another with respect, a feature which is fast disappearing from Ghanaian life.
She was thankful for the honour of being given her flowers while she could still smell them.
Let us go back to basics – mutual respect especially for older people, decent language totally devoid of insults, clean and hygienic environments, Road Traffic discipline, etc.
Above all, stop galamsey and its hydra-headed negative ramifications on our food-chain, water pollution and environmental degradation! Auntie Aggie, Happy 75th Birthday! Leadership, lead by example/integrity/humility! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University, Teshie, Accra. E-mail:
