Story Zakaria Abdul Hakim Cisse || Sanatu Zambang
The founder and executive director of the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) has again taken up a laudable initiative. The artiste, who recently hosted hundreds of people at the centre for the opening of the Akutia Art exhibition, has bought part of the left-to-rot Nkrumah building situated at Nyohini.
The many decades old building has been abandoned by successive governments of the fourth republic.
The highly regarded international artiste has on several occasions, defended why situating the SCCA and the Red Clay Studio in the north is not misplaced. Despite the lack of support, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama is on a course to instill the artistic ecosystem in the north.
He has bought the famous Nkrumah volini and is on a mission to give it a flare of the artistic beauty. While maintaining the natural form of the building, the artiste intends to use the place as another artistic center of wonder and astonishment.
As many wonder how one man is able to put up such big art spaces, it is good to note that, these works are largely from his personal funds.
To officially open the new venue (Nkrumah volini), Ibrahim would be holding a special event there. Participants would be invited persons across all fields who are doing amazingly amazing in their respective fields. The tentative date for the opening is scheduled for October 2, 2020.
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 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.
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.
Photography Source: Abdul-Haqq Mahama
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.
