My Aggrey Days

I enrolled in Aggrey Memorial from 2001 – 2004 where I pursued General Science. I wasn’t particularly happy when I gained admission as it wasn’t my first choice (Adisadel College was my first choice) and became sadder still as I realized that the situation was same with many of my classmates. It dawned on me that Aggrey wasn’t a school of choice. But now with the benefit of hindsight, I’m pleased that I attended the school. I will briefly attempt to elucidate why.

 Firstly, there was this inexplicable pang of fear that struck me upon seeing Casford House atop the hill when approaching the school. I have been trying to make sense of it but thus far, it appears to me there are two possible reasons. The first being that one was hit with the crude realization that one was going to face those dreaded seniors again. During those days, the seniors were so big and fearsome that I perceived even some of the teachers feared them (how much less us puny form one boys). One had to contend with such dreaded seniors as Okwonkwo, Pinky, Anyaa Popo, Bashiru, Sakyi and their ilk but gradually, I realized the easiest way to appease these seniors was through paying ntuahoo ¹. The second possible reason was school authority. Though students generally respected the staff, there was one particular man that I perceived every single student from form one to three feared the most. We nicknamed him Pire (pronounced pa-yaa, a truncation of the word Vampire). I immediately understood why he was named such. He had two of this front teeth sticking out like the vampire characters in movies. Though I never personally witness this man punish any student, the mere mention of his name warrants a buee². Whenever he attended assembly, students (even the seniors) could be seen running helter-skelter just to avoid an encounter with him. He still remains an enigma to me till this day wherever he is.

Secondly, dining was an integral part of my days especially when I was in form one as I often spent a chunk of my spending money paying ntuahoo.  We had a reasonable array of meals to choose from but there was one particular meal that featured prominently in the menu. We called it moftoto. This meal though deeply satisfying was particularly notorious for inducing acute flatulence. On nights that this meal was served, I never enjoyed prep as i’ll be too uncomfortable to study (due to gas buildup in my stomach) and also because I have to keep holding my breath due to obnoxious gas emissions from other students suffering the same fate or worse. One remarkable thing I observed during my years in Aggrey was that the girls never attended breakfast. This was truly impressive as the girls demonstrated they had ‘flex’ (I believe the word swag is its modern equivalent) but I later found out the girls usually ate heavy gar-shit before attending class.

Thirdly, there was fun entertainment nights every Saturdays with a variety of activities to keep me occupied. This was a time I usually looked forward to as it was the only form of break I had from school work. On these nights, I got to admire the girls as they dressed down to perform beautiful dance formations to popular tunes of the day. One such dance still rings in my mind like it happened yesterday. About four girls had don colorful shirts with tight jeans and they were performing to a hit song then entitled “mi mgbo” (I’m dying). This they did beautifully interspersing it with the famous Aggrey Dance³. Boy, they were a sight to behold. Moreover, amid the merriment, I will often observe groups of boys and girls engaged in intense dabor⁴ and this will often go on till entertainment session ends. The dabor often turned even more intimate when the boys are escorting the girls to the girls’ side and they converge at the Y-Junction (which was incidentally nicknamed dabor junction).

So on the whole, my Aggrey days were nothing short of eventful with a roller-coaster of emotions with alternating highs and lows. Besides the teeming student population and the much extortion by seniors, the school also afforded me the chance to meet people from the various strata of society thus grooming me on how to coexist with others and also sat under the tutelage of seasoned teachers like Kriss-Kross who immensely contributed to my success as a student. I AM DEFINITELY A PROUD AMOSA!!!!!!!

 

[1]Some sort of goodwill money (or bribe if you like) paid to avoid extortion.

[2]Alarm call made to alert students to flee impending danger.

[3] A dance form exclusive to Aggrey Memorial. It involves forming a K – shape with one’s leg and the swaying from side to side to the rhythm of a song.

[4] Basically describes a conversation between a male and female student

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