Story Zakaria Abdul Hakim Cisse || Sanatu Zambang
Nkrumah ‘volini’: the myths surrounding Nkrumah’s ‘dungeon’ in Tamale
For decades, this structure has been abandoned and its purpose is not well known to the public. Built with all standards, the Nkrumah government had built this structure purposely as a warehouse for foodstuff and other storage purposes, according to some sources. Unfortunately, successive governments have chosen to abandon it, which has made many people forget about its existence, except for it being in government records.
The 500m2 yard has different buildings in it which people have over the years wondered about their intended purposes. Comparative to modern-day buildings, the thickness of the concrete for these buildings is very overwhelming, not forgetting the depth of iron rods that were buried in the pillars and body. There is a one-story building that is currently taken by Diamond FM as their office space and studios. Another portion of the building has also been taken by one company. The bay has in a way been also hooked up and contractors like the brother of the former president of Ghana, John Mahama have been packing their trucks there.
A very big, high tech machine is also situated in the yard, confined in a five-meter square building. This machine has been said to be a textile machine, which Kwame Nkrumah planted there. The site of Attraction in the yard, is also a story building, with underground compartments. Due to their uncompleted nature, they reserve water during the rainy season and retain them to the dry season.
Despite the many decades of situated at the site of clayey soil, mud and water beneath it, the structure has withstand the threats of the water. This saddens me by the look of today’s contractors and funded of contracts in the country who just do mere works to blind the eyes of the public.
To those who were born in the 1970s, 1980s and the 90s, in Tamale, the story of Nkrumah ‘volini’ was part of the stories told to children.
Located at Nyohini, three-hundred (300) metres away from the Abedi Pele roundabout, Nkrumah ‘volini’ has been believed by the locality to have some form of spirituality surrounding it.
In the early 1990s and early 2000 up through to even 2008, this place was a key destination where residents of Tamale especially people in Nyohini, Zogbeli, Lamashegu, Sabongida, Aboabo, etc. used to scout for water. These were hard times when water shortage was common in the Metropolis especially, during the dry seasons. And indeed, people got what they sought there in times of water crisis.
As significant as the place was in terms of providing water for households for domestic and other purposes, there was equally a myth about this ‘sacred’ place. It was noted that at least, each year one or two people used to drown in the place in the process of fetching water. This brought some fears among people as they thought of it as a spiritual phenomenon.
The last incidence was a mere 12 –year old boy in Nyohini who went there to swim only to give up to the water. For the whole day, the best of the best swam through, nay, they could not find the young boy. It took only three boys among those who have been swimming in the water routinely each day, to find the boy at the depth of the water the next day. The corpse was handed to the Tamale command of the Ghana Police Service.
It was after that, that people were abandoned from swimming and going there to fetch water. Few farmers then used it to irrigate their vegetable farms.
As a very old structure, Nkrumah ‘volini’ is a habitat to some owls, pythons, vampire bats, and other few creatures. The pythons are said to be spiritually inclined to the place, since the locality in which it is situated (Nyohini) consider their land god to be a python.
Unlike today, a decade ago, it was very common to come across big snakes in the place. People who used to go to work or school early in the morning, will see prints of the movement of a snake across the path between the yard and the shea nut factory adjacent to it.
On rare occasions, people have come across a very big python there, which have been considered as a god. Sometimes, some snakes are seen with ring(s) around their tail ends. This even intensify their spiritual thoughts about the building.
People often said those days that, Dr, Kwame Nkrumah had built the place as a safe house – and that, it was connected to all regions of Ghana. According to the myths told, Nkrumah had envision times of wars and by way of protecting Ghanaians, he built it as a secret passage through the underground to the ocean.
Many said in time of wars, Nkrumah would have taken everyone into the dungeon and through the underground, they could get to the coastal belts of Ghana for safety. As children, we were also made to believe that therein lie some items of the first president of Ghana. These include his sandals, spoon, bucket, etc.
People had said concerning the structure that, beneath it are riffles and other big machine guns with ‘countless’ bullets. These they said, were preserved and hidden by Kwame Nkrumah, as reinforcement should in case there is war. As part of the tales we heard about Nkrumah ‘volini’, it was said that, in the water, are crocodiles, which responded to the call of Dr. Nkrumah. People said like the boat, they were also a means of transportation for the late president, buy sitting on their backs.
As fiction as these tales surrounding Nkrumah ‘volini’ are, they have become the guiding history of the structure. Many have grown to feed these stories from the elderly and have also told it to others.
