Gakli is a pretty suburb of the border town of Aflao in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region.
Interestingly, the predominant language spoken at Gakli is French, the medium of exchange is the CFA Franc and the signposts are in French.
Hausa, Zabrama and Gawo are also spoken at Gakli.
Many residents are of Mali and Niger descent, who came to settle at Gakli more than two decades ago.
They had been trading in Togo for years, but could no longer put up with the land tenure system at one point, so they crossed into Ghana to purchase land and began building houses and shops at Gakli.
At sunrise, the people from Gakli cross the frontier into Togo, where most of them work as traders and return to Gakli by sunset.
Their children also cross to school in Togo and return to Gakli later in the day.
The nearest community is ‘Casablanca’ on the Togo side of the border.
No alcohol
In the largely Muslim community, alcohol is a rare commodity at Gakli and crime is virtually non-existent.
The people of Gakli are very friendly and in the words of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, “the people of Gakli are very law-abiding.”
The shops have their names and other inscriptions at their frontages written in French, a phenomenon that leaves first-time visitors to Gakli with more questions than answers.
Paying for an item in a shop in Ghana Cedi may take quite some time to get change because the shop assistant will definitely reach for a calculator first to find the current exchange rate between the Ghana Cedi and CFA Franc.
I went through that experience when I visited Gakli earlier this June.
After buying a can of Sprite, I paid with a GHc50 note and that was when the drama started.
The shop assistant called someone else to find out what to do and was told to use a calculator to get the exchange rate.The only striking Ghanaian feature is the national flag,
somewhere near the main town, Aflao.
Weddings are grand and probably the only social activities at Gakli.
Allegiance
There is widespread marriage between the people of Gakli and the settlers, for which reason they live in total harmony.
As a result, the people of Gakli are quick to say their allegiance is more Ghanaian than anything else.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Nicholas Kobla Worchlachie, said although there was a CHPS Compound at Gakli, the people prefer to seek healthcare services at the Togo side of the border.
He said Gakli was constantly on the municipal assembly's radar to ensure that cross-border criminals did not find sanctuary in the community.
Meanwhile, Mr Worchlachie said the assembly was showing great zeal and enthusiasm in enforcing sanitation bye-laws at Gakli.
By their cross-border lifestyle, Gakli could rightly be described as a peaceful Ghanaian international community, said the MCE.
With a population of about 2,000, Gakli is an orderly community, with the leaders of the various ethnic groups ensuring that the right thing is done at all times.
“This is Francophone Ghana,” remarked one visitor, to which a Gakli resident responded, “Mais nous sommes au Ghana.”
