My personal Easter resurrection

For a number of years, I have been toying with the idea of journeying up the Kwahu ridge for the Easter break, only to balk at the last minute and promise myself  that I would definitely go the following year. 

It happened to me again this year for the umpteenth time.

One recalls the fable of the vulture, which promises to build its home as soon as dark clouds gather, pregnant with rain, only to forget its promise as soon as the clouds clear up and the sun begins to shine.

This is getting absurd. Next year, I really must do ‘Kwahu oh Kwahu!’, whilst I am still handsome,  young (relatively) and my knees and waist are in pretty good shape for all-night dancing and revelling on the streets of Obo, Abetifi and Nkwatia.  

Easter Sunday lunch

Perhaps, the only highlight of my long, quiet weekend in the capital was a lunch invitation on Sunday afternoon by a very good friend and his lovely wife.

It was a fufu with groundnut soup lunch, with the wonderful aroma of the soup pervading the whole house, invading my ravenous nostrils in the process and blending beautifully into the booming sound in the backyard of a pestle crashing repeatedly into a mortar.

I was famished. My nose kept twitching even as we chatted over whiskey, my mind darting furtively into the kitchen and the backyard in anticipation.

I must admit I was a little startled when the hostess informed me, almost casually, that I could opt for kokonte if I so wished, as an alternative to fufu.

Even though I had been salivating over fufu, I suddenly realised that I did not recall the last time I had tasted kokonte.

So I opted for it as several distant, interesting memories kicked in. After all, why not?

‘Face the wall’

Back in the 1980s, one of the nation’s foremost stand-up comedians, John Graal, popularly known as Waterproof, loudly proclaimed that kokonte’s nickname was ‘face the wall’.

This, he said, was because the meal suffered such a low image that patrons who bought it in chop bars had to sit facing the wall so people would not cotton on to what they were eating.

Its poor image was understandable for various reasons.

First, was the process involved. Usually, stringy cassava pieces were left  in open spaces to dry out before pounding them into powder for preparation in a pot over fire.

Lizards and chickens would casually catwalk across the sun-kissed, drying cassava.

It was very cheap and ,therefore, seen as a poor man’s food. Finally, its appearance when finally cooked was an unappetising dark brown colour. There was nothing elegant about it.

In the early-to-mid 1980s, when the crops were so bad due to a nationwide drought, many Ashantis had to learn to forgo their staple daily fufu meal and settle for kokonte because the cassava (or cocoyam or yam) that the soil yielded was stringy and simply useless for preparing fufu.

In Asanteman, this was nothing short of calamitous because going without fufu is tantamount to going to bed hungry.

I was in secondary school at the time and that was my first, rather unpleasant engagement with the meal.

Among many students and young people of the day, it was simply known as ‘laps’, perhaps in a vain effort to ‘jazz’ it up.

Changing times, health benefits

Just as ordinary ‘koobi’ was elevated and upgraded to expensive, exotic grilled tilapia, thereby featuring on the tables of middle class eateries, so has kokonte witnessed nothing short of a miraculous resurrection, finding its way from crumbling ghettos and backwaters  into many posh dining spaces in a relatively short space of time.

I think this has been primarily due to two reasons.

First, the mode of preparation has changed dramatically. Today’s kokonte powder, factory-processed and attractive packaged alongside fufu and banku powder for the busy urban dweller, is a far cry from the unsightly mess of yesteryear.

It is more convenient and easier to prepare. Besides, the final product has lost its dark brown hue and rather looks light and attractive.

What my friend’s wife served me could have been mistaken for plantain fufu.

The quiet kokonte ‘revolution’ appears fuelled by the notion that it is much lighter and healthier than fufu, especially on starch content, causing many health-conscious people to reconsider their options.

In 2021, for instance, modernghana.com reported that Nana Kofi Owusu, a Lecturer at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, had stated on Accra-based UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' discussion on eating kokonte that, it is far better than fufu with respect to its health benefits.

He is reported to have listed the health benefits of kokonte to include helping the digestive tract for better digestion of food, cleansing the body, providing natural vitamin B and C for the body, also helping treat stomach disorders among others.

That sounds rather impressive.

 Gastronomic salvation

As I attacked my Easter lunch with sweaty, whiskey-propelled gusto,I pondered not only over the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its message of salvation for mankind, but also over the resurrection of kokonte on my palate and what salvation it could provide for my body.

Of course,as a quintessential Asante man, I cannot abandon fufu, the attractive benefits of kokonte notwithstanding. Rather, as a compromise, I intend to swing between the two meals like a dutiful pendulum. 

Dear reader, I am happy to report that I did not have to face my friend’s dining hall wall whilst enjoying my Easter lunch. Kokonte is risen! Hallelujah!!

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.

E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com