Reflections: The Date, Yesterday and Today
I somehow last week Friday found myself at the Date, a hotel on the Adama Road in the heart of Adabraka. It is more popular as an eatery where one could have good fufu with different types of soup and other accompaniments to go with at lunchtime.
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I was at the good old place that day, not by design but I think by accident, to have some lunch and also relax as the weather at that time was not friendly. It was hot and I thought I should have a place to cool off.
I was actually coming from Tudu where I had gone for my Friday prayers and had planned to attend the funeral rites of young Yvonne Abbey, 33-year-old first child of Ms Mary Abbey, a retired employee of the Graphic Communications Group.
However, when I got to Mary’s family house on Glover Street, behind GLICO and not far from the St Joseph CYO Basic School, the venue of the funeral, I was told members of the family and sympathisers were still at the All Saints Anglican Church, also at Adabraka, for the funeral service.
It was around 1.45 p.m. I knew after the service, they would go to the cemetery at Awudome for interment. I thought of the nearest place to go and wait and the Date came to mind, since it was close by. I drove to the place in five minutes.
I was tired and asked for some fresh pineapple juice for a start. I also ordered fufu with ‘’ abunuabunu’’, green kontomire soup, with dry fish and snails, a special delicacy of mine.
There were not many people around. I could count, in all, not more than 10 tables with chairs in the main yard and on the veranda. The patrons, when I walked in, could not be more than six, the same as when I was moving out.
Memories
I expected service to be fast but I had to be calling the many servers who were around. They all told me the lady who brought me the juice was the one to serve me. The situation brought back lots of good memories of those days when the Date was the Date.
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To share my thoughts with someone, I had to turn to the person sitting closest to me on another table. I told him things were not like this some 40 years ago when the place was usually jam-packed with patrons from far and near just to have lunch that also included jollof rice, plain white rice and ampesi.
The Date Hotel used to be owned by a popular building contractor who achieved some level of popularity as a football enthusiast. He was the late S.K. Mainoo.
‘’S.K’’, as he was popularly called, used to be a patron and Director of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, on whose board he said he was representing Otumfuo, the Asantehene. But he will be best remembered by followers of the beautiful game as a former Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
Mr Mainoo’s status in society made him a very popular person. He himself was sociable, affable, amiable and generous. He was also credited with the unearthing of Abedi Pele whom he gave scholarship from the basic school until the future maestro decided to move to his home region in the north where he enrolled at the Ghana Secondary School and therefore played for Real Tamale United, his only club in Ghana.
All these factors made the Date a popular rendezvous for many in Accra in the early 70’s as a place to meet people who mattered in society and also enjoy some good meals.
The Date was run by the young daughter of S.K, Ms Agnes Mainoo. She had able lieutenants who made the difference between the Date and any other spots serving fufu. Good old Aggie is still around, 40 years down the line, to guide the young ones.
Prices
When my bowl of fufu finally arrived, it looked like the fufu of old, still appetising. When I asked how much it cost, I was told GH¢15.
I then turned to the man sitting nearest to me again. I told him 40 years ago when we used to come to the Date for our lunch, a bowl cost only GH¢1 or GH¢1.40p for special and GH¢1.60p for super special.
I can’t tell now which is cheaper but there was always a crowd at lunchtime at the Date in those days, which probably goes to say that it was within the means of everybody and was not expensive than elsewhere. But if patronage is so low today, it can only mean that people can get a similar size of fufu and of equal quality cheaper elsewhere.
For some of us at Graphic in those days, we could never afford to miss lunch at the Date every day. Myself, Ken Bediako. Eric Segoh, Nana Daniela, Christian Aggrey, Charles Asante, Kofi Akumanyi, Ben Mensah and others would always leave the newsroom at 12 sharp. We would stop two taxis and jump into them for only 20 pesewas per taxi, and within five minutes, we would be there.
This was the period of military interregnum when General Kutu Acheampong of the Supreme Military Council (SMC I) held sway. If it were today, at such a gathering as we had at that time, politics would have taken the centre stage.
Rather, most of the discussions revolved around sports, football in particular. We would all argue about latest matches involving, Asante Kotoko, Accra Hearts of Oak, Sensational Akotex and Dumas Boys. Interest in European football was still decades away.
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Apart from those of us from Graphic, other journalists were also regular customers. They included, Oduro Kwateng, publisher of the Sporting News, the late Stan Abayaa from the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the late Mike Anamzoya, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Ghana Airways.
My brother, Alhaji Fattai El-Aziz, whom we call Big Fat, but who is neither big nor fat, would always come all the way from Osu to link up with me. I still remember the fracas we used to have with the servers over the service they gave me.
Big Fat would order super special for two of us. But while he sat down to be served, I would rather go to the kitchen and make my selection of meat from parts of goat head to goat legs, to dry fish and snails, to crab and herrings.
My brother would be wondering what was going on. I would then lead the server to our table. Big Fat would look at his food and look at mine. He would then flare up and get visibly angry and ask the servers whether my food cost more than his. He would also ask them whether it is because of my height that they have been frightened to give me special attention.
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I would always laugh at Big Fat to ‘get him more angry’. He would ask me whether it was fair for my food to be completely covered by meat without the fufu being seen when he was footing the bill? Yet, his fufu would show up with meat covered by soup.
It was a very interesting period, no doubt. We made fun and we made merry. It was always in a state of happiness that we used to depart from the Date to return to our places of work to continue with the afternoon session.