NYU students mesmerized at Ananse Village in Ghana
By Kofi Ayim, Mampong Akwapim, Ghana
About thirty five New York University (NYU) students on an exchange program in Ghana, indubitably fell in love with Ananse Village, a 3-acre farmland tucked 35 miles away from Accra. Ananse, is the Akan name for Spider, a notorious wiseacre creature in Akan mythology. The Ananse Village, carved out of a 39-acre virgin forest boasts of medicinal and other indigenous and foreign plants. The virgin forest known as Ananse Kwae, “is a gift to Ghana and the world”, according to its owner, Professor Kofi Asare Opoku. When all forests are depleted of their natural contents, Ananse Kwae would still be the forest as it is, Professor Kofi Asare Opoku, an international scholar and traditionalist told the students in a pre-tour briefing.
The farm, started in 1969 the farm has cinnamon, avocado, Ethiopian pepper-“hwentia”-(xylopia), moringa, jatropa, jacaranda, calabash plant, African tulips, aloe vera, grapefruits, oranges, osmium, “nunum”, cashew, quinine and palm trees, aridan –“prekese”- (tetrapleura tetraptera), the bark cloth tree ”obofu or kyenkyen”, baobab tree(adansonia gregorii) , noni plants, and many more. He pointed out the origin and physical/chemical properties of each plant, shrub, or tree on his property. For example, Spondia, “atua” usually used locally as fence wall, is known to stem bleeding at birth and also facilitate the release of placenta after birth. Soursop (ntunkum) is believed to isolate and destroy early stage cancer cells. With apt attention and curiosity, the NYU students tallied along Professor Asare Opoku on an hour long educational tour of the Ananse Village. Professor Opoku pointed out that the ancestors settled in specific areas on the basis of their knowledge of a given environments more so than creating a settlement out of a vacuum.
The mimosa, a shrub that closes or shrinks upon contact with the hand and the miracle fruit (synsepalum dulcificum) – a berry that sweetens every food or liquid after eating it captivated the students. They experienced the potency of the miracle berry after serving themselves with it and some oranges. Students from Temple, Drew, and North Carolina universities as well as Moorehouse Medical school, all in the United States. National and international figures that include the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Dr. Martey and New York City’s Mayoral candidate Bill DeBlaise have also toured the Ananse Village.
Posted by admin
on Dec 16 2013. Filed under Community News.
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