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Transcript
00:00 Yolati, my guest here on Pimetick. Thank you very much for your time.
00:04 Thank you very much. I feel honoured, highly honoured for you to have me in mind towards the end of my life.
00:15 Right now I'm 96 and for you to be thinking of a 96 year old man and then pack your camera and other accoutrements
00:27 and come to talk to me is great, very great.
00:31 Thank you. You're not getting to the latter part of your life. In fact you have many more years to live.
00:36 You have got many more years to live. We need to tap on the knowledge that you've got and you'll live for many more years.
00:43 Thank you, thank you, thank you for wishing me good.
00:46 Thank you, thank you very much. So what was your genesis like, your upbringing?
00:54 The upbringing was rather strict, very strict. My dad, my mother were all leaders of a Methodist church at Kolegono.
01:06 They played a major role in the establishment of the Mount Zion Church of today.
01:13 And my dad, as well as my mother, they were very strict.
01:19 So strict that I had an English friend who nicknamed my dad as Killjoy Father.
01:29 Killjoy. Because I wasn't allowed to do many things. I wasn't allowed to go to cinema.
01:36 I wasn't allowed to do sports. I wasn't allowed to practice music.
01:42 I remember very well that my brother-in-law, brother-in-law who married my sister, had an organ in his house.
01:54 And he decided to teach me to play the organ. And I went to his house one night to learn to play the organ.
02:03 When I came back, my dad gave me a good hiding. I was sick for about two weeks.
02:10 Yeah. And you know, it made me very sad. Then I gave up. I gave up the organ.
02:18 Then, at school, government school in Accra, I joined the school band.
02:26 And I was playing the side drum. So I was playing the side drum on the day the then Asantehini visited Accra.
02:37 And my dad was with an uncle of mine on top of what we call ABBA, AMA today.
02:45 They were up there and they were watching the scene. And I came along playing the side drum with the band.
02:53 And my father saw me. The next day he went to Accra Government School where I was attending,
03:00 went to the headmaster, H.M. Grant was her name, and told him to get me out of the band.
03:07 And I was cashiered from the band immediately. And stopped playing.
03:12 So many things. I wanted to play the mandolin. I brought a mandolin to the house.
03:19 The old man saw it. He took it and broke it up. Then the owner came.
03:24 The owner came demanding the mandolin. And he paid for it. And that was the end of my mandolin course.
03:32 Very interesting. Very strict. Seven o'clock, the gate to the house was locked with a big padlock.
03:42 Nobody went out. Nobody came in. And I wasn't allowed to have friends.
03:49 I didn't have friends. But the few friends that I had, my dad would always order six uniforms for school.
04:01 Six. And I used to give them to my friends. Give some of them to my friends over the wall.
04:08 I threw it over. So the childhood was pretty tough. Very tough.
04:15 And it led in some way to my joining the British Navy at the age of 16.
04:22 Oh really? Yeah, I did. I joined the British Navy at the age of 16.
04:28 Went to war. I'm an ex-service man. And when they were banned, let me say "we" because I was part of it.
04:38 We marched to the castle. The 28th February incident. Yeah, I was part of it.
04:45 I was in my naval uniform. Small boy. My grandmother said, "Don't go. Don't go." And I went.
04:54 When the shooting took place and we ran back and I was trying to get back to the house,
04:59 my grandmother said, "You shouldn't open the gate for me." Interesting.
05:05 Really? Yeah. I'm an ex-service man. I had my medals.
05:10 And I can tell you the story of my medals. I had a classmate from Accra Government Boys' School.
05:19 When I was transferred to teach at Latte, and I was at Latte teaching,
05:27 and this friend of mine came to find out whether I could get him a job. I could get him into, you know, something to do.
05:37 A day came, I left the house and went to school. By the time I got back, he had stolen everything of mine.
05:45 My medals, my discharge certificate, everything. He went with it to Corfu, India.
05:53 They got him. The police managed to get him. But they forgot to ask him about the things that he stole.
06:04 So I lost all that. And he was sent to prison in Yakupon.
06:11 And funny enough, the day he was discharged and was going back to Accra,
06:17 he was standing by the roadside waiting for a car.
06:23 And I was in the main truck leaving Latte for Accra, and I saw him.
06:30 Interesting. I was very sad. He's dead long ago.
06:35 So it's part of the adventures.
06:39 Were you the first child of your parents?
06:42 I was the first child of the two of them. But my father had some other children before he took my mother.
06:52 Was he in the military? Why was he so strict?
06:59 My father was a civil servant. A civil servant in the Treasury Department.
07:06 He served in Cape Coast, served in Tamale, you know, before he retired at the age of 54.
07:14 In those days, we were retiring at that age.
07:18 So tell me, do you have other siblings?
07:22 Yes, I have a number of siblings. That is an aspect of my life which will appear in the memo.
07:31 I won't tell you.
07:32 Oh, you're writing a memo?
07:33 I'm writing a memo.
07:34 Oh, wow.
07:35 My life without a memo will be like Shakespeare without Macbeth.
07:40 [Laughter]
07:42 But how many siblings do you have?
07:44 Siblings? Right now, I have two.
07:48 Okay.
07:49 A lady and a gentleman.
07:53 How was it like with your siblings growing up?
07:57 Well, in actual fact, when my father married my mother, they had me and a second one called Nate.
08:11 And he died at the age of seven.
08:14 So I was left alone.
08:17 And because I was the only one between the two of them, that was one of the reasons why they were so strict.
08:26 They wanted to ensure that I survived.
08:31 And I think they were right.
08:33 Here am I, 96. I've survived.
08:37 My father died at 84, and I have lived up to 96.
08:41 My mother died at 91.
08:45 91, my mother died.
08:47 And I buried my mother.
08:48 I buried my mother with the help of other siblings.
08:53 My mother also had one or two children before she met my dad.
08:58 Okay.
08:59 And I have a big picture of the two of them.
09:01 Yeah, I've seen it here.
09:02 Yeah, that's right.
09:03 I've seen it here.
09:04 So tell me, how were you able to get yourself into the Navy when, despite how strict your father was?
09:13 Oh yeah, I ran away. I bolted.
09:15 That's the way they were to you.
09:18 I bolted from the house, from my family.
09:21 And I worked it all out with friends.
09:25 At that time, during the war, the British Navy was recruiting some Ghanaians at Takradi.
09:36 I think they still have a base there, you know, Takradi base.
09:40 So we arranged.
09:42 I was only 16, so we had to forcify my age, you know, so that I could get into the Navy.
09:50 By the time they knew I wasn't the correct, I didn't give them the correct age, it was too late.
09:56 I had taken the oath, and therefore they couldn't get me out.
10:02 So I continued until the end of the war.
10:06 Which war was that?
10:08 The Second World War.
10:09 The Second World War.
10:10 Yeah, the Hitler War.
10:11 Oh, okay.
10:12 Yeah.
10:13 Oh, okay.
10:14 Yeah.
10:15 But what age did you give them? You were 16, what age did you give them?
10:17 23.
10:18 23.
10:20 So you added seven years to your age.
10:22 And I had to brush my hair backwards to make me look old and funny things we did. Funny things.
10:30 That's quite an interesting one.
10:33 But at what point did you switch into sports? Because none of us know you for your broadcasting career.
10:43 My dad did not allow me to do sports. He didn't allow me, but I did sports.
10:49 And when I started doing commentary on GBC, he sent for me and he said, "Who taught you to play football?"
11:00 I learned to play football partly in the Navy.
11:03 When I came out and I went into teaching, I was also playing football, doing sports.
11:10 So he was disappointed.
11:15 So when you came back from the Navy, did you go back to the house? Because you both had to go to the Navy. Did you go back home?
11:20 Yes, I both did. But I went to... My dad was streaking. He was, you know, he macheted.
11:31 He had a big towel around his waist and we embraced each other. He held me and he said, he looked at me, I was in my naval uniform.
11:44 And he said, and I quote, "I did not know that the Navy could make boys out of, could make men out of boys." Unquote.
11:56 And then we shook hands and I started telling him the story, some of the things that I had done in the Navy.
12:03 It was a memorable occasion. I've never forgotten it.
12:07 So this one, when you came back, he didn't fight you?
12:09 No, he didn't fight me. He was happy I was back. Very happy. You don't know the things they did for me.
12:15 Threw a party and so on.
12:17 Oh, wow!
12:18 Yeah. Because it wasn't a joke.
12:22 The boy became a man.
12:24 You know, the protégé son.
12:26 Yeah, the protégé son, actually.
12:28 But at the Navy, what was life at the Navy like?
12:35 Life in the Navy, life in the Navy was interesting. Interesting.
12:42 We were knocked out of our beds early in the morning, around 5.30. And then we started doing all the necessary things.
12:50 We had, I don't know, it's no longer that I'm sure, but we had a base in Freetown.
13:00 The training center was called King Tong, King Tong Barracks. That was where we trained.
13:07 And then after training in King Tong, you were drafted to another barracks called Kisi.
13:14 Kisi Barracks. It's a shore base. And there you had all the ships and all the arrangements were there.
13:26 So when you were recruited in those days, in Takradi, then they transferred you to Freetown to do the training.
13:40 Then after the training, they would be drafting you to that ship, this ship, and so on.
13:46 It was very interesting.
13:49 When you were drafted into a ship, maybe a big ship, and these were not merchant ships.
13:59 They were warships. We had corvettes, we had destroyers, we had submarines.
14:07 And we had a big ship in Freetown called Philokites. Philokites was a supply ship.
14:16 I was in the supply department. So we were working, I was getting things from Philokites to the shore, to other ships and so on.
14:28 Very interesting. They were very careful about our health.
14:34 If you went to town and picked up a disease, you were caught here, straight away.
14:42 So it was interesting. We attended church services. They didn't play with us.
14:52 We attended church services on board. At shore, we were attending church services.
14:58 We had parades. And the Navy, what I liked about the Navy, they made sure that you had everything that you could get in the course of your service.
15:11 Your shoes, your clothing, your caps, everything, everything.
15:17 Your raincoat, you had a raincoat for warm weather, raincoat for cold weather.
15:25 And so when there was a parade, when we had a parade, there was no way you could say you couldn't attend.
15:35 You dare not. And like I had in mind, the training and the discipline in the Navy was superior to what I had at home.
15:46 So while others were complaining about the Naval discipline, I was taking it easy.
15:53 Because I had been prepared for it, inadvertently.
15:59 The old man didn't know he was preparing me for the Navy.
16:03 Tell me about the World War II that you said you were a part of.
16:07 Because Christian, a young man with strict parents, all of a sudden in the Navy, then there was the World War I.
16:17 How was it like?
16:18 Well, I went into the Navy because there was a World War I. I went into the Navy because there was war.
16:27 If there wasn't war at the time, I couldn't have gone into the Navy.
16:31 So you went into the war to...
16:33 I was in Accra Academy doing my secondary school course.
16:40 And I ran away from the secondary school, Accra Academy, and joined the Navy.
16:46 And I joined the Navy because there was war.
16:49 And they were recruiting... what they did was they wanted Africans who could stand the weather.
16:56 The tropical weather. That's why they recruited some of us here.
17:00 So immediately the war ended, we were discharged.
17:04 Oh, okay. So after the war, you were discharged.
17:08 Yeah, that's right. I came back. That's why I came home.
17:12 And then I went to report to my dad, and then he was grieved.
17:18 But he was happy to see me back.
17:21 Yeah. Pony Gansan. He will always be happy.
17:25 But you said, despite the strictness of your parents, for you not to do sports, for you not to do music, you still got into sports.
17:33 What sort of sports did you do?
17:35 Football. I was a very poor footballer.
17:38 [laughter]
17:40 I went to do my teacher training at Winneba.
17:46 Winneba Training College. It was then brand new, fresh.
17:51 We were the first intake.
17:53 The pioneers of that.
17:55 Yeah, pioneers of that.
17:57 And during the period in the training school, we were playing football.
18:03 We were doing sports.
18:05 Because as a teacher, you should know sports. You're going to teach children.
18:10 Now you have the freedom from your parents to participate in sports.
18:13 Oh, I mean, then I was a man.
18:17 You were now a man.
18:18 That's right. So my parents didn't come into the picture.
18:21 Yeah, I see.
18:22 After the war, after the Second World War, when those of us who were discharged, both from the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force, we had to be given jobs in the civil streets.
18:42 That is at home.
18:44 And the jobs were not there.
18:47 And that was why we organized a march to the Usu Castle to tell the governor that we needed jobs.
18:57 We held a rally at the Palladium Cinema House.
19:02 You know the Palladium? Very near the Methodist Cathedral. That's right.
19:06 We met there. And from there we started the march to the castle.
19:12 And when we got to the crossroads, there was this man, Emery, a white man.
19:18 He was in charge of a platoon of general policemen to stop us going to the castle.
19:27 And he ordered them to shoot, but they refused to.
19:31 So he took the rifle from one of them and shot Ajete and the rest.
19:37 So from that point we started running back to Accra.
19:42 And it was something that you should see, not describe.
19:48 Wow.
19:49 Yeah. I'll give you the details in my memo.
19:53 But that must have been some scary experience, isn't it?
19:57 Oh yeah, it was a scary week.
19:59 That was when the looting started.
20:01 There was looting and shooting.
20:04 And the looting went on for weeks.
20:08 So they brought troops from Nigeria.
20:12 Law and everything broke down in Accra, in Ghana.
20:18 So they brought troops from Nigeria to control us in Ghana.
20:25 It was interesting. And these chaps came, they robbed our people.
20:29 They were searching houses and so on. They robbed our families before they went away.
20:36 There was rumor that on their way back they drowned in the Vosa River.
20:43 It's a story that I never confirmed.
20:48 Okay. That's quite an interesting one.
20:52 But let's move to your professional career.
20:55 Something we heard a lot about. Your journalism career.
20:59 How did it start?
21:01 It started like most people. You start writing a little bit on your own.
21:07 Maybe writing to the newspapers.
21:10 In our time, in the days that we had,
21:16 Azikiwe, who became a president in America,
21:21 he was in Ghana.
21:25 He was one of the people...
21:27 He's a former Nigerian leader.
21:29 Oh yes. He was here.
21:32 He was one of the people who opened the eyes of the Ghanaian youth to independence.
21:40 They started clamoring for this and that during his time here.
21:47 So the British government in Ghana cashiered him.
21:51 They sent him out of Ghana.
21:53 They took him to court.
21:55 Charged him with...
21:57 They gave him a charge of sedition or something.
22:01 And they deported him from Ghana.
22:05 And my eldest brother, he was interested in Azikiwe.
22:10 He was one of the apostles of Azikiwe.
22:14 And from that association, I learned a lot from my eldest brother, G.E. Ancra.
22:23 So Azikiwe left Ghana.
22:26 And after he left, things started taking...
22:30 We had newspapers.
22:32 He was in charge of one of the newspapers.
22:34 I think it was the Morning Post.
22:38 He was editing.
22:40 And his editorials were stinking.
22:43 He was, you know, bamboozling the British colonial system.
22:50 And they didn't like him.
22:52 So I think they managed to get him out.
22:55 He left Ghana.
22:57 And people were sorry.
22:59 So from there, I started having ideas about journalism.
23:04 How to write.
23:06 And my eldest brother gave me a little bit of tuition.
23:10 Allowed me to read, read, and read.
23:14 And when I was in the Navy,
23:17 interesting, when I was in the Navy,
23:20 we were running shifts.
23:22 On the ship, we ran shifts.
23:24 Morning shift, afternoon shift, night shift, and so on.
23:29 And during our free time, when we weren't on duty,
23:34 we practiced public speaking.
23:37 So we wrote topics on pieces of paper,
23:41 folded them, put them into a hat,
23:43 and then you picked, when you picked a subject,
23:46 then you had to speak on it.
23:49 That was the beginning of my interest in public speaking.
23:53 And when I came, I was in charge,
23:55 there was a shop in Accra, Lutheran Street.
23:59 There was a bookshop there.
24:01 That was where I bought my first public speaking book,
24:05 called Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business.
24:09 That's the title of the book.
24:11 You know.
24:12 So it developed.
24:14 It developed.
24:15 One interesting, eh?
24:17 From one thing to the other.
24:18 Oh yeah.
24:19 So I learned to do sport outside my home.
24:24 I learned to do sport outside my home.
24:27 And it helped me.
24:30 You see, because later on, later in my life,
24:34 I managed with the--
24:37 I got a friend, an American Peace Corps retired fellow.
24:44 The two of us, we brought toastmasters to Ghana.
24:48 And toastmasters today, we have about 30 clubs in Ghana.
24:51 Oh wow.
24:52 Teaching people how to speak without fear, without hesitation.
24:59 You know.
25:01 So before you got into journalism fully,
25:07 in fact, which year did you get into journalism?
25:10 I can't tell you.
25:11 You know, the beginning was check it.
25:14 Yeah.
25:15 So I can't say exactly.
25:16 But I got into it.
25:18 I never went to a training school here.
25:21 Yeah.
25:22 The Institute of Journalism.
25:23 Journalism.
25:24 I organized my first public speaking course
25:27 in the Institute of Journalism.
25:30 You never attended the school?
25:31 No, 24th May.
25:35 19-something.
25:36 I've forgotten it.
25:37 Yeah, I can understand.
25:39 But there was this interesting story about one Richard Akwe.
25:44 OK.
25:46 Richard Akwe.
25:47 Yes.
25:48 The Lionheart.
25:49 The Lionheart.
25:50 That's right.
25:51 Tell us about him, because we are made to understand.
25:53 He was one of the founding fathers of Ghana football.
25:57 Correct.
25:58 And he played a major role.
26:00 And he and one Adakwa from Ashanti.
26:04 They played a major role in the founding and development
26:08 of especially the league system.
26:11 It took a lot of time for the league system
26:14 to operate as we are doing it today.
26:17 They will start, it will collapse.
26:19 They will start, it will collapse.
26:21 So it wasn't easy.
26:23 And Richard Akwe, the Lionheart, he was chairman.
26:27 They put him there as chairman.
26:30 And he was very strict.
26:32 Maybe, maybe, I'm saying maybe, he was dictatorial
26:37 in some of his activities.
26:39 But there he was.
26:41 And he played a good role, helping to make football
26:45 or soccer a thoroughly good thing.
26:50 Enjoyable sport.
26:51 Yeah, that's right.
26:52 So we respected him.
26:55 He founded a school.
26:57 He had a school in Accra.
27:00 A very big school.
27:02 I think the school is still there.
27:04 Okay.
27:05 Yeah.
27:06 Okay.
27:07 But I remember reading about the football history of Ghana.
27:13 Where in the 1940s, he accused Kofi Bidu
27:19 of using his spend to get him out of power
27:22 because the Black Stars then were supposed to go to the UK
27:27 for some friendly games.
27:29 For a tour, yeah.
27:30 Yes.
27:31 Well, Kofi Bidu had a pen that I think we haven't had again
27:42 in journalism in Ghana.
27:44 He was a terrific writer.
27:46 And if you ask me, I'll say he had a poisonous pen.
27:51 Yeah.
27:52 When Dr. Buzia became Prime Minister of this country,
27:58 his writings were some of the factors that got Buzia out.
28:04 Wow.
28:05 Oh, yeah.
28:06 He could write, and his command of the English language, superb.
28:10 Quite recently, I wrote to him.
28:12 I wanted to visit Yassanti Hini.
28:15 And he never wrote back.
28:17 I don't know why.
28:18 Maybe he's still busy.
28:20 Maybe when he hears this, he'll call you.
28:22 [LAUGHTER]
28:23 Maybe when he hears this, he'll call you.
28:25 But talk to us about the football history.
28:31 You spoke about the Lionheart, where, like I mentioned,
28:35 he accused Kofi Bidu of using his pen to get him out of power.
28:38 He just mentioned that his pen was too poisonous.
28:40 So the poisonous pen got Richard Akwe out of power.
28:45 Then, a champion, right?
28:47 Oh, well, after Richard Akwe, a whole lot of things happened.
28:51 Development of-- you know, one time good, another time bad,
28:56 and so on, so we've now been able to study
29:00 to make the league system work.
29:03 But I understand, were you in journalism?
29:06 I was in journalism from '61, professionally.
29:09 Oh, OK.
29:10 That was when I joined the GBC.
29:13 GBC, yeah.
29:15 And initially, I wasn't going to be with the sports department.
29:22 I was sent to the talks and features department,
29:26 talks and features.
29:28 And I was writing stories and editing stories
29:32 that other people wrote from outside.
29:34 Editing, because I had a teaching experience,
29:37 and they thought my English was good.
29:39 So I was doing this editing.
29:41 Then, somebody took ill in the sports department.
29:46 Oh, OK.
29:47 And a man called Festus Adai.
29:52 He joined the army later, so he ended up as Kenel Adai.
29:57 He was in charge of the sports department.
29:59 The sports department was known as the outside broadcast
30:03 department.
30:04 The outside broadcast department, which we call the OBs,
30:09 the outside broadcast department contained the sports
30:13 department.
30:15 So the real name of the department that I later joined
30:19 was OBs.
30:21 OBs, the main thing they did was sports and ceremonies.
30:27 Oh, OK.
30:28 You get it.
30:29 So somebody fell sick in the OBs department
30:35 and was out of work.
30:38 And I was asked to go on relieving duties at the OBs.
30:43 So I went.
30:45 And when-- after I had-- the man was about returning
30:49 to the department, Festus Adai refused to let me go back,
30:53 because he thought I was a good material for the OBs
30:57 department.
30:58 There was a tug of war between him and the head of programs,
31:02 a very tough guy called Joe Gatti-- not Latti, Joe Gatti.
31:07 OK.
31:08 He was the head of programs.
31:10 And they tussled, tussled.
31:12 Eventually, Festus won the tussle.
31:15 And I was asked to stay in the OBs department.
31:20 Then I took up the commentary and am telling you
31:24 the story of how the over to you developed.
31:29 My boss was Kenel Festus Adai.
31:33 He was a very good commentator.
31:36 He had a very good voice.
31:38 I always tell people he had a velvet voice, beautiful voice.
31:45 And he saw what I could do.
31:49 So any time there was a commentary, something
31:51 to be done, a spouse and ceremonial,
31:54 I shared the commentary with him.
31:57 He would start-- or he would ask me to start--
32:01 tell people about the scene.
32:04 And then when I finished with the scene, he would take over.
32:07 I say, over to you, Festus.
32:10 When he finished his bit, he would say, over to you, Joe.
32:13 And we covered a number of interesting--
32:16 when Therma Harbour was commissioned,
32:18 we did a commentary.
32:20 When the Queen visited Ghana the first time,
32:23 he and I and somebody from BBC called Gottfried Talbot,
32:30 we were sitting on a tall scaffolding at the airport.
32:36 When the Queen arrived, she came in a Boeing 707.
32:43 And when the plane stopped and she descended, she said,
32:49 I am here at last.
32:52 Unquote, I am here at last.
32:56 Why?
32:57 Because the visit of the Queen to Ghana that time
33:02 kicked up a lot of national debates.
33:07 Should she come or not come?
33:10 Should she come or not come?
33:12 And it went forwards and backwards,
33:14 halfway through the process.
33:16 The Queen was pregnant.
33:17 She had a baby.
33:18 And so when she came, and finally, the Queen came.
33:23 So when she landed in this tropical--
33:29 she said, I am here at last.
33:32 And then the chiefs with the umbrellas,
33:35 the exhaust from the 707 was blowing the umbrellas.
33:42 And the whole place was agog.
33:44 That was one of the interesting topics--
33:50 interesting ceremonies like we covered.
33:55 Now, give us a brief history of Ghana football.
33:58 Well, Ghana football started quite a long time ago.
34:05 It was one great thing.
34:08 He was headmaster of a government school in Cape Cod.
34:13 He started the thing.
34:14 And he recruited a few local boys.
34:17 And they were practicing under moonlight and so on.
34:22 And bit by bit, it developed until Hatsheput came in.
34:29 Then there was Stamfast.
34:31 Stamfast died.
34:32 For a very long time, we had Hatsheput and Stamfast.
34:36 But Stamfast is gone.
34:38 Stamfast is now Olympics.
34:40 Oh, OK.
34:41 Yeah.
34:42 And it went on like that.
34:44 And we had problems with coaching.
34:47 So when Ohinijan became the sports director, as I told you,
34:53 Kwame Nkrumah was interested in sport.
34:56 And he knew Ohinijan was interested in sport.
34:59 And he was around Richard Akwe and so on.
35:04 Oh, OK.
35:05 In Samoan.
35:07 He was doing football from Samoan.
35:10 And he was there.
35:12 So when Richard Akwe gave way, there was this one.
35:19 Then we had problems with coaching.
35:22 So the director of sports--
35:23 So Richard Akwe gave way to Ohinijan.
35:25 Ohinijan.
35:26 Let me say, Richard Akwe's period passed off.
35:32 And then a new period with Ohinijan in Adakwa in Samoan.
35:39 No, Adakwa was in Ashanti.
35:41 Oh, OK.
35:42 And then they picked up the loose ends and started developing it.
35:49 And Ohinijan did a lot.
35:54 He was more or less acting at the instructions of Nkrumah.
36:01 He brought in the Real Madrid.
36:04 Nkrumah personally organized that part of our history in football
36:12 and brought the Real Madrid to Ghana.
36:15 They played against the Black Sox.
36:18 It ended up in a 3-3 draw.
36:21 And it went on then.
36:24 Ohinijan developed-- we were told at the instruction of Kwame Nkrumah,
36:31 he developed the Republicans.
36:35 Real Madrid came, then we had the Republicans.
36:39 And the Republicans brought a lot of problems.
36:42 People were picking the best from each of the league clubs.
36:47 And people didn't like it.
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