Bomaa Bronya
Esi Arhin • December 20, 2020
Recollections of Christmases Past
Afia Bremponaa Hinneh, second from left with her older twin sisters circa 1993/94.
For a reason I cannot put my finger on, this Christmas has become particularly important to me. Perhaps it is that the year 2020 has brought so much negative anxiety. For years, since I became a mother, I've gone through the festivities of the Christmas season just for my children. I had entirely lost interest in Christmas until my childhood memories were recently evoked, reigniting my interest in the season and the joy and genuine goodwill it brings.
I find myself in the spirit and looking forward to Christmas day as much as I used to as a child growing up in the military barracks on an apartment block full of so many other children, one of whom is William Kwame Asiedu, managing editor of EIB Network. His handsome older brother, Mike and I, got on famously. He was the DJ of the block. Mike would play music and gather the kids for a dance competition periodically. The height of the competition was during the Christmas festivities. Back then William, Kwame I call him was a great dancer; he had moves!
We lived.
Lately I've taken to asking people how they spent their Christmas holidays as children and what it meant for them. My enquiry got Afia Brempomaa Hinneh showing me some photos of herself as a child all decked out in her Bronya dress ready to go "Afehyia pa-ing", visiting friends and family to wish them the best of the season and the coming year.
The traditional afehyia pa tour is a kind of well-wishing affirmations spread around to turn fortunes round for the better for everyone. Afia, who comes from Bomaa, a small town in the Tano North District of Ahafo Region where she also grew up, told me Christmas was the highlight of the year for which the entire town anxiously looked forward to and prepared for.
Preparation towards Christmas begin as early as December 10th for the people of Bomaa. Afia recounts how Christmas festivities proceeded.
“We gather firewood, harvest food from the farm left purposely for use during the Christmas season. It was during this period that some of the best crops were preserved for harvesting.
By December 20th, the families get much busier where every member was required to go to the farm to help out. One of the main duties was to bring home ‘ Bronya Aduane'; farm produce for the celebration of Christmas – cassava, yam, plantain, cocoyam, vegetables and fruits in large quantities. Even children as young as three were given something small to carry home from the farm. Stocking up on firewood was most important as lots of cooking is done during this period.
On 24th December, every member of the family will go to the farm for the last time of the year to bring home their “Bronya Dua” Christmas tree. This is not the "conventional" Christmas tree you may be thinking of.
The Christmas tree we bring home are crops that can be planted to bear fruit. I preferred the plantain sucker and always went for that. Immediately after returning home from the farm, everyone scrambled to find just the perfect spot on the compound to plant their christmas tree. It was each individual’s responsibility to water and look after their tree to ensure it flourishes through the year. If the trees grow, it is a sign of good things to come.
Christmas eve was no time for sleeping. I imposed upon myself a kind of wake keeping. I would toss and turn on my mat going over and over in my mind how my "Bronya ataadi3", Christmas dress, would look on me. I was way too anxious for Christmas to arrive that sleep would often not come until much later, deep into the night.
On the 25th December, alas Christmas day, everyone was up at the crow of the cock!. Sounds of neighbours wishing each other Afehyiapa can be heard from nearby homes.
We take our baths early, take our mini special breakfast and set off to church. Christmas church service was special, the church windows were decorated with wreathes woven from palm branches intertwined with colourful flowers of all kinds. There was lots of singing, dancing and hand shaking. Some handshakes were so vigorous that one may actually feel a slight jolt of pain in the upper joint of his or her arm.
The adults hurry home after Christmas service to light the kitchen fires in preparation for the evening meal.
After dinner, nice and full, we take our evening baths and settle down for storytelling. Most of the stories were mainly fables with some, downright spooky. We would break out in song, call and response and make merry by the dim lit fire until bedtime.
Christmas for the people of Bomaa truly begin on 26th December, boxing day. It is the biggest day of enjoyment. At dawn, all the fowls in the coops sadly for them but joyously for us, meet their death.
Depending on the kind of animal each household had kept for the celebration of the season, sharply sharpened knives met their throats.
Chickens clucked, sheep and goats bleated "mmaair" all over town in the early morning. The naughty ones who broke bounds got chased. That was a whole sport in itself for the boys.
Again, we take an early bath and wait with bated breath to wear our Bronya Ataadeɛ for the first time. Woe betide you if you dirtied yourself after your bath, you dare not make your feet dirty or you will be required to take another bath. If you refused you were absolutely disqualified from wearing your new outfit. You simply won't be allowed your dirty feet in your new pair of white socks, often laced prettily and dotted with tiny pearls.
The adults would get busy with cooking. Latest by 10:00 am, fufu would be ready, Bowls of fufu would be lined up before my grandmother for soup to be served on them. This is where you pray for the biggest meat. It was the one chance all through the year for us children to dig our teeth into meat we could not even handle. Yes, the chunks of goat meat served on our fufu were that big. We relished the meal so much, just imagine the amount of finger licking that takes place.
My mother makes the best jollof!.The kind that has a thin layer of oil lined at the base of the pot with oil-soaked crusty bits of rice cake, killer jollof that was. The entire household loved my mother's jollof and looked forward to it in the afternoon after the fufu session. It was the only occasion we had corned beef, which my mom used amply in preparing the huge “dedesen” pot of jollof rice. Unlike the morning fufu the jollof was not meant for just our household. It was to be shared amongst external family members and friends. My mother would serve many portions of jollof rice, garnished with eggs, placed in baskets covered in white lace for us to carry to their various destinations. Children in our household took the eating of my mother's jollof rice very seriously and I suspect the adults did too.
This was the only occasion when rice was eaten in the whole year by our household and for many townsfolks as well.
After lunch, alas we wear our new Bronya ataade3, compare looks and gush over our beautiful selves. Our bronya Ataade3 with matching white socks come with accompanying accessories, colourful sunglasses and cone paper hats attached with strings. Parents took great pride in seeing their children all dressed up looking so good. It is a symbol of blessing for the family in that year. Hence the need for the exhibition of this fashion parade where everyone steps out in their best outfit to go visiting family and friends in greetings of the season, locally referred to as
“Afehyia pa” literally meaning the year has ended well, to which the receiver responds “Afe nko mmeto to yen bio" May the coming year also meet us well.
From these visits, one is sure to return home with gifts of all variety, money, drinks, Piccadilly biscuits, hot rice dishes, chocolate and candies of all kinds.
There is always a football match by the youth in the afternoon. Town folks, including those who have travelled back from elsewhere make it a point to go spectating the football match. Everyone loved this event. There is lots and cheers and merry making.
By sundown, 6:00 pm thereabout, the afehyia pa visits and the annual football match events come to an end. Children head home to show their parents the gifts they have received. In my household, none of us children dare eat a bit of any of the goodies given us until our mother checks and prays over them, blesses the giver and keeps them for sharing amongst us the next morning.
Christmas festivities continued all through until New Year’s Day when another mega meal preparation occurred. Left over prepared food gifts from external family members and neighbours, usually rice, were all put together in one pot. My grandmother would preserve it in an earthernware pot over lightly stoked fire for eating the next day. Not much cooking is done in our household on January 2nd as there was more than enough leftovers from the day before.
By January 3rd, life was back to as we know it, normal and nowhere near as exciting as the season past.”
As I listened to Afia recall her memories of Christmas past, I smiled at the glee in her eyes, she squealed with laughter at the line up feet inspection before the wearing of the grand white socks. The upset faces of those who had to go wash their feet or take an afternoon bath. The delay it will cause them, less the afehyiapa goodies got finished before their turn. I couldn't help but join her in laughter.
May the spirit of joy, goodwill and love for one another all come together to make our Christmas cheerful and warm.
Afehyia pa ooo!
Afe da sesɛɛ na yɛn ne Corona atwa mu sei tentontan!!!.
Esi's Blog
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