The ambiance of calm that had preceded the area I live in was that of prestige and status, it felt like being the sole owner of a bus stop with your face boldly plastered for every passerby, vehicle, and human sitting under the shade you’ve provided to see that you were a person of esteemed status.
This was how I felt every time I told someone I live at Tseaddo and they begin the marathon of telling me how old undeveloped Tseaddo of those days has become so darn expensive to live in now. And they ended this disdain with a sigh for an expensive undeserving place.
We cannot blame the people who have bought lands here from the original owners or rent houses here, we were also given the certificate of original ownership to behave without restraint considering the high amount of money spent on housing in Tseaddo, one would think habitants of this area were not part of the hardship that enveloped and engulfed the country.
It was not just the houses, the streets were high, the supermarkets and street sellers had unbuyable items, and the eateries sold meals that if you bought one plate, you would imagine that a stroll to Makola market would have produced items to cook meals for a whole week. Everything in Tseaddo was rising like the building structures we see every day too, all that was left was for the air we breathe to join the queue of expensive things. Perhaps this was why it was named Tseaddo High Street.
It is in this high living which goes up like one’s age with no hope of ever coming down, that one deserved some quiet and solemnity to exist and think of strategies to make more money to afford the Tseaddo high street life.
So when my landlord built his rooftop bar, I imagined that the peaceful silence that came with our high house rent will still be available to us as part of our tenancy agreement. But you cannot stop a man who did not have clothes growing up from having two wardrobes full of wanted and unwanted clothes now that he has made money.
It started with the lights in the compound, you should visit us at night, it is so bright that if the entire Accra suffered dumsor from lack of bulbs, they could conveniently get all the light in the compound and we would still suffer insomnia that has plagued our nights from excess light. There are six halogen lights on every veranda, I must mention there are six verandas in both storey buildings, and then three halogen bulbs stand as security guards to these verandas. The back of the compound has its fair share of guardian angel halogen bulbs. My compound is the light of the world.
My landlord calls it a small city, therefore he increases the rent every year without pre-notice, it is the high cost of living my landlord says. It was not like he added anything new to the houses we rented, the high cost of living just simply affected everything.
However, the best part of being an original Tseaddo landlord was that one could defy the bans on music and drumming. When my landlord started his parties on his rooftop, it took away the soft silence we experienced at night, sometimes I would pray that ECG takes away power, just for some silence. So when the ban came for the Homowo festival, it brought some relief that finally, we can have our quiet and peaceful nights with no disturbance and disregard for the high rent we paid for a month. However, though it seems like the entirety of Accra is practicing the ban on music and drumming, the landlord of my compound keeps blasting songs of Spyro, and when the singer asks ‘Who’s your guy?’ I suppose we should answer from our rooms ‘Tseaado landlord my guy, my guy.’ while we also nod our heads without choice to the music coming from the other houses in Tseaddo high street.
If you were still wondering who owns Accra, these are the original landlords who love the gift of a partying expensive life and do not consider the Homowo ban to apply to everyone. As Ga people and owners of Tseaddo, they cannot afford to live life any other way. We party on.
The writer: AWE OGON [Email :aweyan.dyzn@yahoo.com]
www.aweogon.wordpress.com,www.aweogon.blogspot.com