THREE RECIPES, ONE POT
Geswani loved to have his grandchildren stay with him for schooling while their parents focused on their jobs outside the home. He recollected seeing a similar thing, with admiration, at Keta on a marketing trip. He handled the kids with a couple of principles that he had applied to his children in their school days.
These were one: Schoolchildren should not wash their uniforms on Sundays but on Saturdays. He believed that, no matter how wet the weekend was, the uniforms would be dry enough for use from Monday onwards. Two: He never told schoolchildren to abandon school in order to assist him on the farm whenever demand for labor was high, for example, at planting or harvesting times.
If children were not called upon to assist on the farm, how would they take over farming from aging parents and grandparents in the future? Geswani believed that such labor demand could lead to child abuse. He knew, at that time, the school timetable had periods for gardening and craft practicals during which the children could acquire farming skills.
Nevertheless, it did not mean Geswani never took children to the farm. Our elders say that even though a fowl is inside a hen coop, it knows its tail feathers could be appearing outside. Occasionally, Geswani took the children to the farm during vacations and weekends. He did that to prevent truancy and, at the same time, shield the kids from trouble while he was away on the field.
The first motivation, incentive, and enticement for them to go to the farm was the chance to eat big fish. There was no specific job assigned to them on the farm. However, they could observe what the elderly were doing—that is observational learning. They could also practice weeding with worn-out tools, pick wild fruits from nearby bushes, hunt birds with catapults, or serve frontline workers with fresh drinking water on demand.
Another motivation for the children was harvest time. There was no limit to the quantity of roasted maize and groundnuts they could eat. For it is said that no one pays customs duty on what is in the stomach. In the course of harvesting yam, the children always took possession of broken pieces of tubers called ‘tezi’ or ‘yam eggs’ when collecting and packing to the shade.
It was during one harvesting episode that diverse preferences for meals caused a disagreement on what to cook. Fofo requested the peeling of yam to cook ‘dzogbo’ or yam potage. One of the children said he did not want potage but rather slices. Fofo then said they should cook ‘tsimenuko’, which is slices in the sauce. Another child objected to that. Fofo finally moved a motion for cooking ‘dablui’, meaning cook-and-stir. None of them knew ‘dablui’, so the motion received silent secondment followed by silent votes. The motion was carried because silence meant consent.
At the end of the day, ‘dzogbo’, ‘tsimenuko’, and ‘dablui were cooked together at the same time. They all ate, and everyone was satisfied.
