University College of the Gold Ooast 
Department of Extra-Mural Studies 
REP 0 R T 
of the 
TON G U 
R U R A L 
SUR V E Y 
held in the areas of the 
Uppar and Central Tongu Local Councils 
April, 1953 
Together with a Foreword -by the Chief Regi~nal Officer, 
Trans-Volt~Togoland 
~~Jversit~~lege of the Gold-2oast 
Departn:I~1l1... "2f._ 1;}xtr~ral Studies 
R U R A L SUR V E Y 
held in the areas of the Upper 
and Central Tongu Local Councils 
April 9th-20th, 
1953· 
survey on"ly. 
INTRODUCTORY 
This small s0uvenir booklet is being sent out to all who 
took part in the Rural Supvey organised by the Department of 
Extra-Mural Studies of the University College of the Gold Coast 
in April, 1953. It is intended onl~ for those whf' took part, 
and a smull certificate of attendance will also be sent to them 
later. 
T~e report of the work done is 'l.l. separate document and 
wi l l be sent tn all course students and many other interested 
persons. 
The aims of the Survey were:-
1. T~ give students an understandihg of social 
surv~y techniques. , 
2. To conduct an enquiry into the economic position 
of part of Tongu, with particular emphasis on 
water supply, and present a report to the Local 
Councils concerned, the District C0uncil and the 
Regional Administration. 
3. To improve public knowledge of a little-known 
and under-developed area of the Gold ~vast. 
The course started with briefing on Survey work and a set 
of background lectures, for which all members stayed in 
Adidome. On April 13th, they broke up into groups and 
travelled by 'launch or lorry to six different villages in the 
Central and Lnwer Tongu areas. Five were under the supervision 
of a graduate tutor, and the sixth was visited by the Director 
of Studies. 
Five of the headquarters villages were on the banks of the 
Volta, owing to cnnvenience of communication, but naturally all 
parties struck inland in search of villages with water supply 
difficulties. They travelled on foot or by bicycle; sometimes 
they had use of a lorry. Maps were made, photographs taken, 
samples of water collected; and this booklet gives a summary 
of work achieved on the prescribed work-sheets. 
On the last day all parties re-assembled at Adidome for 
a final pooling of information and then students returned to 
their jobs. 
LALAGE J. BOWN 
Resident Tutor, T.V. & S.T. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
The success of the Rural Survey was only possible owing to 
the help of a large nillnberof people, and the teams' gratitude 
must go to all of them. In this Souvenir of the Course it is nnly 
fitting to mention as many as we can by name. 
The origin.al. idea Which blossomed int.o the. Survey came from 
George Sinclair O.B.E., 'Regional Officer, Trans':"Volta and Southern 
Togolund, and thanks are due both to him and to Serge Thomas, B.A., 
Government Agent, Sogankope, for information and help. 
) The Goverr~ent Agent placed thee Rest Houses at our disposal 
throughout the Survey, and we are also grateful for this. Shelter 
was provided by schools as well, and we thank the Reverend Managers 
and Headmasters of the Presbyterian Schools at Adidome, Mepe and 
Mafi Kumasi, the Roman Catholic School at .Battor and the Methodist 
School at Aveyline. Numerous cateresses and boys too helped our 
well-being, and congratulations go to the Chopmasters of most of the 
teams for efficiency and economy. . The organisation of meals at 
Adidame would have been impossible without the hard work of G. Adali-
Mortty, Adult Education Organiser. 
The academic side of the work was mainly the burden of Gustav 
Jahoda, lvl.SC., Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology, University College, 
and David Apter, M.A., University of Princeton, U.S.A., the able 
and energetic Directors of the Survey, and their directions were 
carried out with enthusiasm and · understanding by the group leaders, 
Mrs. Eleanor Apter, B.A., Miss Lalage Bown, M.A., Resident Tutor, 
Trans-Volta and Southern Togoland, Professor Hugh Blaney, M.Sc., 
Ph.D., and Theodore Mathias Tetteh of H.M. Fisheries. The teams 
appreciated the lectures which were given, and the t~e and trouble 
\ taken over them by S. Thomas, B.A., J.K. Nutakor, Professor J.V.F. 
Phillips, D.Sc., A.S.B~ Wilson, B.Sc., E. Quartey-Papafio, B.Sc., 
\ E. Mundy, Driller and A.L. Titley, M.A. 
Mr. Titley, the Regional Community Development Officer has 
put us espeCially in his debt by allowing all the members of his 
I· Department working in the area to attend the course ana take full part in the work. The Regional Education Officer and the Chief I 
Fisheries Officer also allowed members of their respective staffs 
to attend. 
The welcome the teams received almost everywhere was due to 
many individuals, but we should like to record our special thanks 
to Fia Asem III, Head Chief of Mafi for sponsoring our work and for 
a generous gift of whisky, turkeys and pigeons; and also to The 
Rev. S.A. Dzirasa, Chairman, Lower Tongu Local Council, K. Agbonu, 
Chairman, Upper Tongu Local Council, and in particular, Justice K. 
Nutakor, Chairman of the Lower Tongu Local Council for support and 
co-operation. The Mafi Youth AssOCiation as a body displayed 
generosity in supporting the Survey and making members at 
a very pleasant Saturday night party. One of the Associ 
members F.K. Dra Goka, Assistant Education Officer 
Mr. Nutakor represented them ably throughout the 
in innumerable ways, from arranging the big sail 
members of the teams to Adidame to setting 
the cateresses cooked. 
The lndiv idual chilli's .JY~~.""\l~V 
to mention; we 
3. Obstacles and Problems i.n th~ wfjiY of 1n}provement. 
Consevatism of farmers allover the world. 
The systems of land-tenure, which make for small 
holdings and do not encourage enclosure. 
The chaotic marketing system. 
4. Pigs and Poultry. 
The problem is that pigs and paul try both compete -rot' food 
useful for human consumption, and it is hardly wise to recommend the 
breeding of more pigs or poultry until food supplies are really 
plentiful. 
The black pig is not the most economical type. Varieties like 
the large White will give a better return in meat for the food they eat. 
Poultry in this country is so mixed that its origin is unknown. 
5. General Conclusions are: 
( a) That the Gold Coast needs an all-round increase in 
food-supplies. 
That the Animal Health Department deserves every support. 
That damming is necessary to improve water-supplies. 
That a new approach is needed to the control of tsetse 
fly since the method of cutting-out bush at its breeding 
grounds will take hundreds of years. 
(e) That mass education is needed to ' stir farmers' enthusiasm 
for new methods, and to change society's valuation of 
the farmer. 
III. Mixed Farming in the Gold Coast 
by E. Quartey-Papafio, B.Sc., Agricultural Officer, Keta. 
1. Definitions: 
Arable farming is cultivation of the soil for crops. 
Livestock farming is breeding and herdingmd caring for 
animals. Tribes like the Masai go in for this. 
Alternate farming is where one system is practised at 
one time and then followed by the other, on the same la~ 
Shifting cultivation is where arable farming is practised 
on one piece of land until its fertility is exhausted, 
and then moved to a new piece of land, as in many parts 
of Africa. 
(e) Mixed cropping is the growth of a variety of crops on a 
given piece of land. . 
( f) Mixed farming ts the keeping of livestock and growing 
of crops at one and the same time, so that the animals 
have food, and the crops may be fertilised with manure. 
2. The value of mixed farming is that it maintains the soil's 
fertility. 
3. The practice of mixed farming: 
(a) Crops. Rotation is advisable to avoid disease, and 
fertility should be ensured by the use of manures, 
composts (rotted vegetable matter) and chemicals. Manu-
res should not be used until they are mature (after the 
heap has finished smoking). 
Care of animals. The baSis of cattle-feeding is grass, 
we need to adopt the idea of preserving grass for 
in the drr- DI:iQ.~ 
~h~y provide meat, milk, dairy 
~i~~~~'~~JL+~"~' bones, hooves, horns 
. ~'z.~ __. ; .lso they work as draught 
SUMMARIES OF LECTURES 
I. The Ecology of the Gold Coast 
by :J".F.V. Phillips D.S~., Professor of Agriculture, University 
College. 
1. Material development in Africa is taking place against a 
background of intellectual and moral awakening. We must not let 
that awakening and the impatience it generates hasten us into over-
rapid development. Over-hasty schemes, such as the Ground-Nut Scheme 
in Tanganyika, and the Poultry Scheme in the Gambia, lead to a waste 
of men, money and machines. We should, when we plan, take adequate 
note of the natural hazards to be over-come. We must never forget 
such obstacles as drought and tsetse fly, nor must we forget that 
when these are dealt with, other problems will follow them, e.g. 
over-stocking of land with cattle. 
2. Ecology simply means the study of living things and life in 
all its aspects. We need to apply our ecological knowledge to the 
Gold Coast, and before development plans go ahead we want knowledge 
of: 
Climate 
Soils 
Possibilities of blending old and new farming 
methods. 
3. Development will change the face of Tongu. When the Volta 
Barrage is completed, between two and three-hundred acres of land 
on the Accra Plains, and possibly Tongu will be watered, and will 
be able to produce many new crops. 
I 
II. Animal Husbandry in the Gold Coast 
\ by A.S.B. Wilson, B.Sc., Senior Lecturer in Animal Husbandry, 
Department of Agriculture, UniverSity College. 
1. Types of cattle known here are: 
(a) The Gold Coast short-horn, which has the advantage 
of 1mmtinity from tsetse, but is unlikely to increase 
its size until the water problem is settled. Euro-
pean in origin. 
(b) Humped cattle, of Asiatic origin, which are not 
tmmune to tsetse, and therefore not seen so much 
in the South. 
(Cd) A cross between the short-horn and the humped cattle 
( ) Ndama from French Guinea. These are rather rare. 
2. Ways of Improving Gold Coast cattle could be: 
(a) Selective breeding. The coice of 
greatest importance. 
(b) The provision of "winter teed" 
Grass could be cut and a1r-~~_' 
dement "silos", l,lntu ,, ~I_,a."1i!II 
ion at better M1~f!I~'rl 
SOME COlVIIVIENTS ON MAPI HISTORY 
Instead of hiB lNelcome Address, we are including at his own request 
these notes by P.D. Adjani M.L.A. 
The Origins of Mafi 
Mafi people migrated from Notse, and settl~d at Tse~po for 
some years. Later they left and came and settled at their present 
place of abode. They were led by their King Fia Bometsuleh of the 
Gbortah tribe, w~o was then the ruler of Mafi. Fia Bometsuleh 
came to Mafi with his daughter, named Amewoame. After the death 
of Fia Bowetsuleh the stool passed into the hands of Amewoame's son, 
whose father came from Torfi. From that time until today TO~fi 
tribe has been the ruler of Mafi. 
The Naming of the Volta 
Tongu people call the Volta Amu, am an explanation is this. 
Anyafoi was a hunter, and Amu a hunter-in-training. On the arrival 
of the Mafi people at their present place of settlement, Amu was 
asked by his master to go into the River first to enable him to 
find out whether it was deep or not. VVhen Amu entered the water, 
he got drowned, and was never seen !'gain. 
When the news reached the immigrants who were waiting outside 
the River, they said that they were going to see the place where 
Amu got drowned. Hence the Volta River was named after Amu; 
Mafi Fetishes 
Apart from other fetishes, there are two particularly 
important ones in Mafi, namely Avakpe and Korloeh. Avakpe (war-
stone) is the senior fetish, am Korloeh is the messenger of 
Avakpe. The guardians of the fetish Avakpe are at Avakpedome, 
near Adidome. The name of the senior fetish priest in the state is 
Avakpenuor, and he lives at Avakpedome (under the war-stone). , 
The Avakpedome people are part of the Gbortah tribe which 
came with the Mafi paramount stool, and they claim to have been 
the first settlers of modern Mafi. There are eight tribes in Mafi, 
and of these Gbortah has been the king-maker; the right to enstool 
and destool has from time immemorial been vested in it. 
Mari Land Tenure 
The Akan custom of stool land does not exist in Mafi, we 
believe. Mafi has tribal lands, which may be entrusted to a chief, 
or sometimes to a fetish priest, since in the olden days of Mafi 
a fetish priest wielded a greater influence both in the political 
and spiritual life of the people. 
GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR TONGU 
from a talk by Serge Thomas, B.A., Government Agent, 
Sogankope, delivered at the Opening Session 
Expenditure under the Government Development Plan which will 
benefit Tongu is as follows:-
Administration 
£ 
District Office, Sogankope ... 2,500 
Bungalow, Sogankope 6,000 
Junior Staff Quarters (nearing completion) 2,520 
Police 
1952/53 Station and Quarters .4. 10,179 
Local Government 
District Council buildings, equipment 5,000 
Local Councils buildings and equipment 8,800 
Note that this becomes available when Councils have completed 
---- acquisition of ·land and contract; it may not all therefore 
be granted in 1953/54. 
In addition to the above, Government makes a grant-in-aid for 
development work to Local Councils, proportionate to rate collection. 
Communications 
Accra Tefle road ... 100,000 
Sogankope - Dzodze road 1,600 
Improvements to 
organisation ..r.o. ads under Regional .. . 15,000 (not known 
hW~I 1  ,m0 uctho  
Animal Health Tongu 
.\. 
Station and Junior Staff Quarters, Sogankope 2,950 
. Community Development Funds 
195~53 Used for various schemes ... 2,500 
1953/54 .. .  . . . ... 
Housing 
Allocated to Region for Housing Loans 
Allocated to Region ~ Rural ina 
WELCOME ADDRESS 
Read at the Opening Session by Justice K. Nutakor, 
Chairman, Central Tongu Local Council. 
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, Gentlemen and prominent intellectuals, 
on behalf of the State of Mafi and the Central Tongu Local 
Council, I accord you a most hearty welcome on your visit to this 
historic town of Adidome. The fact that this year a Rural Survey 
is going to be held is an unmistakeable indication of the growing 
need for a knowledge of this unknown and undeveloped region of the 
Gold Coast. 
There is probably some apprehension that the proceedings of 
this Survey may be overshadowed by political exigencies; but 
nothing to my mind can detract from the intrinsic importance of 
a Survey like this, without minimising in any way the importance 
of political problems in our life. I would maintain that the 
problems of Rural development are vital problems; they have an 
importance of their own, and we Who are members of Local Councils 
attach great value and Significance to them. I have no doubt that 
the deliberations of this gathering will be carried on with a sense 
of seriousness commensurate with the responsibility which has been 
cast on the shoulders of yo~ and me. I have no doubts that this 
Survey will give a lead to both the Central and Local Governments 
on some of the most vital problems of Rural life in Tongu. I 
therefore consider it a privilege that we have this galaxy of 
intellectuals among us, and an honour that I should be authorised 
by my Council to welcome you on such an important occasion. ' 
It is admitted in paragraph three of the programme before 
you that this place is a little-known and under-developed area of 
the Gold Coast. And in introducing the Survey, that the only 
qualification needed is an interest in rural life and a taste for 
adventure. Yes~ When the historian of the future looks for examples 
of the worst results of feudal or imperialistic systems of society, 
where avarice allied with State and tribal pride and domination 
showed least signs of shame, where the common people were despised 
and poorest, where vital political and land disputes were tried 
ex parte, where spiritual heads were made chiefs without the consent 
and knowledge of the people, where the law was least regarded and 
loyalty least possible, he will point to Mafi. 
The people of Mafi State comprise eight clans, viz: Gbortah, 
Tofi, Totoe, Gevler, Akorto, Aziewah, Aklorbor, and TOh' Of these, 
three tribes, namely Gbortah, Tofi and Fotoe came together from 
Tsekpor and settled on this land. Thereafter came Gevier and 
Akorto; later an Akan stock migrated from Denkyera after the Ntim 
Gyankare Ashanti war, to Akwamu, and thence to Mafi, where they 
founded Aziewa; then Akorbor, emigrants from Yl10 Krobo, Okpepiem; 
finally came the Toh tribe, who migrated from a place known as 
Agu~lepe. This Mafi State has four military wings, viz: Dome 
(Advance guard), Mia (left-wing) Dusi (right-wing) and Megbe or 
rear-guard. They also have four Asafo Companies: Apadza, Akofoade, 
Bemeka and Kaeampre. 
So much for the introduction to Mafi History. The rest is 
to search and reBearch. Once more you are all welcomp.. 
.... 
Copy of' a Letter sent to The Resident Tutor by the Regional Of'f'icer, 
Of'f'icer and read by her at the Opening Session. 
REGIONAL OFFICER, 
HO. 
7th April, 1953. 
Dear Misn Bown, 
Thank you for sending me a copy of' the programme 
for the rural survey in the Tongu area sponsored by 
the Department of' Extra-Mural Studies of' the University 
College of' the Gold Coast. 
Tre Gold Coast GoveJl.nment, in establishing the 
separate region of' Trans-Volta Togoland, intended to 
increase the pace of development in this area. The people 
of' Tongu are engaged chief'ly in f'ishing in the Volta River, 
of'ten hundreds of' miles f'rom home, and in the creeks and 
lagoons near their own homes, in raising cattle and in 
f'arming. The Government is anxious to help the people 
of' Tongu as well as others to achieve higher standards 
of' living. Additional inf'ormation about the present 
activities of' the Tongu people and localf'actors which 
may be impeding their progress would be usef'ul at this 
stage when the Government Wishes, in consultation with the 
l 4 local councils and the proposed district council, to plan 
the development of' this area. 
\ I am hoping that the results of' your rural survey will 
contribute towards a better understanding of' the problems 
of' the area and that this, in turn, will lead to action by 
the people themselves and their local councils, with the 
technical advice and help of' the Gold Coast Government, to 
improve the economy and the social services of' the Tongu 
people. 
I hope that the chiefs, local councils and people of' 
Tongu will welcome this survey as evidence that the 
University College has an interest in helping them towards 
a better f'uture and I hope that those who take part in this 
survey will f'eel that their experiment has been worth while 
and will wish to continue to show an interest in the 
Tongu area. 
Yours Sincerely, 
IV. TYPES OF WATER SUPPLY 
by E. Mundy, Driller, Dept. of Rural 
Water Development. 
"Develop:nent is water", because without water no human development 
1s possible. 
Sources of water are:-
1. Rain. This is the primal source of all water. It may be stored 
in what the N.T. people call a "bilisi" - an underground 
tank hollowed out of the rock, with a narrow funnel-like 
entrance through the top-soil. But it is more common, 
and more easily practicable to build a cement tank to 
catch rainwater off the roof. A simple tank four feet 
by four feet by twelve will hold a thousand gallons of 
water. It should have an outlet at the top, in case of 
overflow (the outlet should be covered with mosquito-
wiring), and should preferably be divided into three 
partitions, each with a separate tap, so that the user 
can judge the amount of water he has left. 
'I 
Overflow Inlet 
~. 
• 4 
• •
• .,. 
 
•  , Tap 
...... -0 _.  .. 0 • 
2. Rivers and streams. Most waterside villages rely on these. If 
the stream runs in a valley of clay or hard rock, it may 
be dammed. The core of the dam should be an upright wall 
of clay with its foundations down in the clay of the 
stream-bed, below the pervious topsoil. This should be 
supported by a sloping outer wall on eitner side; made of 
rocks or other material. A dam must have a spillwayor 
outlet at one Side, through which water may be allowed to 
go, to prevent its overflowing the dam. 
a. Dam across valley b. Section of dam 
Spillway 
/ 
3. Shallow wells may be dug if there is a top layer of sandstone 
through which water penetrates, followed by a layer of some 
~pervious material like shales. The well shQuld be dug to 
the bottom of the sandstone layer, and water will then 
collect, being unable to escape through the shales. On no 
account ehould the bed of shale be dug through, becau~­
below it there will be a dry layer which will let all the 
water run awat .. 
--------~----~~~1 '1~  
4. Boreholes. Instead of a sandwich of an impervious layer 
between two pervious ones~ you may find the 
opposite condition, a layer of sand between 
an impermeable layer of clay above, and hard 
rock, e.g. granite, below. In this case one 
has to drill through the top layer, to reach 
water which collects in the sand. This hBB 
to be pumped up. The cost of a borehole is 
a disadvantage, and the following figures, 
while not referring to any particular bore-
hole, give an iuea of average costs:-
Drilling of Borehole £400 
Pipes and lining £400 
Pumping plant £2000 
£2800 Capital cost 
Running costs £ 400 per annum 
After twenty years, the whole outfit will need 
renewing. 
These two types of water source both indicate the 
need for a geological survey. 
5. Ponds. These may be natural, or may be made by the const 
tion of a dam as already described. 
LIST OF MEMBERS OF SURVEY TEAMS 
GROUP I. VOLO 
T.M. Tetteh H.M. Fisheries, Adidome, via Ada. 
8.G.K. Adorn Body Corporate Training College, Jasikan 
W.K. Avickson E.P . Church, Adidome, via Ada. 
R.K. Bodza Asst. Mass Education Officer, Sogankope, 
via Ada. 
Karimu Lawani Adidome, via Ada. 
GROUP II. MAFI KUYASI 
Hugh Blaney, M.Sc., Ph.D. Prof'essor of' Mathematics, University 
College, Achimota. 
G.A. Agbanu Presbyterian Mission, Mafi Kumasi 
Paul K. Agbeshie P.O. Box 14, Dodowa 
Kofi Ahorsey "Daily Graphic", P . O. Box 742, Accra. 
L.A. Degbor Presbyterian Primary School, 80g~nk9pe, 
via Ada. 
W.K. Dovlo P.O. Box 14, Peki~ 
C.K. Essilf'ie Presbyterian Primary School, Box 6, 
Big Ada. 
S.V.M. Ocloo Mass Education ASSistant, Dabala. 
GROUP III. MEPE 
David Apter, M.A. The Graduate College, Princeton, New 
Jersey, U.S.A . 
G.A. Adogla University College, Achimota 
Ralph Y. Asamany E.P, Middle School, Box 6, Peki 
Jonathan M.K. Dzre Presbyterian Primary School, Tefle 
S.K. Fleku P.O. Box 31, Anfoega Akukome 
D.A. Negloh Presbyterian Primary School, Tefle 
The Graduate College, Princeton, New 
Jersey, U.S .A. 
tral Tongu Local Council, 
via Ada. 
Local Council, Battor 
GROUP V. AVEYIME 
Gustav Jahnda, M.Sc., Ph.D., Department of Sociology, 
College, Achimota. 
J .K. A tieku 
S.K. Gadzanaki Aveyime Methodist Primary School, 
Battor. 
V.A.K. Sekley Mass Education Assistant, Adldome. 
Kwasi Zu Zukope, Sokpoe, via Ada. 
GROUP VI. ADIDOME 
Lalage Bown, M.A., Resident Tutor, Trans-Volta & S. 
Togoland, c/o Post Office, Tsito. 
R.K. Adewu c/o Central Tongu Local Council, 
Adidome. 
G.K. Ashiaby Health Department, Adidome, via nU'Q.~. 
Miss Sarah E. Gbedemah Mass Education Asst., Adidome, 
via Ada. 
F .K. Dra Goka Education Office, Adidome, v~a Ada 
E .M. Kagbi ttor Presbyterian Church, Adidame, 
Justice K. Nutakor P.O. Box 1, Adidome, via Ada. 
Additional Attendants at Preliminary Course in Adidome 
G. Adali-Mortty Adult Education Organiser, 
Christiansborg, Accra. 
P.D. Adjani, M.L.A. P.O. Box 310, Accra 
J.K.A. Quashie, M.L.A. P.O. Box 13, Keta 
G.A. Atitsogbui Central Tongu Local Council Offices 
Adidome 
Seth K. Attipoe c/o Government Agent's Office, 
Rev. S.A. Dzirasa Methodist Church, Dodowa 
Harding K. Zormelo Zion Schools, Keta 
. AOHIEVEllENT6 OE , Tim l'&A.MS t APRIL 13TH - 19TH 
• 
A B C D E F 
No. of' No. or Complete Sample Mileage Walked 
TEAM Water NlAPS 
Sources Villages Survey Compounds or Cycled 
Geze1ikope 1 
I. VOLO 2 4 Nutekpor 3 23 16 2 
Krebetikope 11 
II. MAFI KUMASI 16 15 Maf'i Kumasi 51 - 35 2 
Degome 23 
III. MEPE 8 7 Zidakope 2 12 38 1 
(known jOintly 
as Fiakope) 
IV. BATTOR 4 7 Battor 35 2 28 2 . I I 
1 
I 
v. AVBYIME 8 9 Lutakolekopel1 13 57 1 I 
V!. AD I DOME 31 18 Ma:fi An:foe 12 12 - 40 2 
Practice Work 13 
Villages 9 
TOTALS 69 60 Compounds 149 75 214 110 -- - -- ~ 
SAMPLE WORK-SHEETS - GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF THE GOLD COAST 
DEPARTMENT OF EXTRA-MURAL STUDIES 
RURAL SURVEY 
(a) ~ - Pr0cedure: each group will make out a map showing: 
1. location or each compound (assigning a code 
number to each). . 
2. location or house or Chier/headman. 
3. location or public buildings (e.g. schools). 
4. location or drinking water sources (position if 
within village, and directionir outside the 
village). . 
5. distance or drinking water sources rrom centre 
or village (in reet). 
6. location or other water sources (position ir 
within village, and direction ir outside the 
village) . 
7. distance or non-drinking water sources rrom 
centre or village (in reet). 
8. location or trazing areas and cattle watering 
places. 
Note - BE SURE TO VISIT THE WATER SOURCES YOURSELF: 
(b) WATER SOURCES - Procedure: ror each or these complete 
Form II, The Water Source Record. 
(c) COMPOUND INFORMATION - Procedure: each individual will 
have Form III, 
The Compound Work Sheet. One Sheet is to be rilled 
out ror each compound, and where possible INFORMATION 
RECEIVED WILL 'BE PINPOINTED ON MAP, in ad~ition to 
being rilled in on Work Sheet. 
(d) INFORMATION FROM CHIEF/HEADMAN - Procedure: one man in 
each group will be given Form IV, the Record Fo~ 
or Chier/Headman. As much as possible, the 
comments should be taken down in his 
NOTE: 
WORKSHEETS II. WATER SOURCE RECORD 
Groqp No, ••• , •• ~.~ ••• ,,~ Vil.;tage ., ••••• ~ ••• ! 
Name of Investigator ••••••••••••••••.•••••••••• Date .. ....... . 
Local Na rne of Water Source ••••••••.•••••••••••.••••••.••••••••• 
Code No. of Source .i ...........................N ote: Pinpoint on map 
Drinking Water •••••••••••• Non-Drinking Water . ...... ., . 
(TiCk off correct description. Tick both, if both) 
(a) Kind of Source (river, well, etc.) ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 
S tagnan t ••••••.•••.•••.•.•• Running ...•.•.•.•.•...•.•.••.. 
(b) Approximate Distance from Centre of Village ••••. • •••• '• ••••••••• 
.. ."  . ". ................... . , ................................... . 
(c) Type of Access (e.g. road, difficult bush path) ................ 
.. . . . . .  ..  ..  .. . . . . .  . . . . .. . . .  ..  . . ..  .. . . . .  . .. .  . . . ..  . . .. .  ..  . . .. .  . . 
.. . . . . . . .  .. .  .. . . . . . . .  .. . . . . .  . . . .. . . . . . . . .  .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
(d) Appropriate Description of Source 
Constant (all year round supply) ·. ......................... . 
Seasonal (give seasonal flow) • •••••••• I> •••••••••••••••••• 
Periodic (give periods) • ••••••• !. ••••••••••••••••••• 
Note: If n£! constant give details of variation of supply 
(e) Any Other Comment~ 
THE VILLAGE AT THE TOP 
II. WATER SOURCE RECORD - SUPPLEMENTARY 
Group No • ••••••••••••••••• Village ••••••••••••••• 
Name of Investigator ••••••••••••••••••••••• Date •••••••••••••••••• 
Local Name of water Saurce ................................................................................ . 
Code Number ' of Water Source ....................................................................... 
(f) If the water source is a well:-
1. How deep is it? (depth should be indicated in Arms lengths) 
.. .......................................................................................... e· ............ . 
2. Is it kept covered? .......... If it is, describe cover 
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . ..  .. .. . . . .. .. . .. . 
3. Get a srunpie of rock from the bott~m. LABEL WITH NAME OF 
SOURCE, GROUP NUMBER, AND NAME OF VILLAGE! 
(g) If the water source is pond-like, is it a sump? •••••••••••••••• 
(h) Describe the appearance of the water (e.g. is it green cloudly, 
clear? ............ ". '. ........................................................................................ . 
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. 
.. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. . . . .. . .. .. . .. . 
(i) Fill a bottle with a sample of the water. LABEL THE BOTTLE 
THE NAME OF THE SOURCE, YOUR GROUP NUMBER AND THE NAME OF 
VILLAGE! 
SAMPLE WORKSHEETS 
III. COMPOUND WORK SHEET 
Group No •••••••••••••••• Village ••••••••••••• L• • 
Name of Iirirestigatnr •••••••••••••••••.•••••• Date ..........••......• 
Code Number of Compound ••••••••••• .. . 
A. 
~ue6ti('ln6 Dri~1ng Water Non-Drinking Water 
1. From what sources 
i~ you get your water? 
( give local names) 
2. What is the total 
amount ~f D .W. used by 
your crmpound!£? 
\ 
}. Do you ever have 
to pay for water? 
-
4. What do you do when 
your usual supply fails? 
B. General: 
(1) What are the main uses for Non-Drinking water ••• ~ •••••••••••••• 
·. .............................................................. . 
· ............................................................... . 
(2) Do you need more Non-Drinking Water •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 
(If' answer is yes) What would you use it for ••••••••••••• .. . . . .  
·. ................................................................ . 
(3) Do you conader your present water supplies sufficient for 
all your needs ................................................... 
I·f' you don't, what do you think you can do? .••••••••••••••••• . ............................................................. \ 
government aas1atance is specified, what do you think 
~~I~mBnt should do, and at what governmental level should 
be taken ••••••••••• .. .... .... ............... ............. . ..  .. . . . . . . . . . . .  .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
C. Population 
FOR MEMBERS OF COMPOUND 
n 
D. Migration 
(1) Where were members of the Compnund born No. in Village •.••.... 
No. out of Village •.....•. 
(2) How many adult members leave the compound to work in ·other 
, 
places part of the year .................................... . 
(3) How long are they gone each time •••••....•••••..••.•••••.••• 
E. Sanitation 
(1) Where do people in the compound have their latrine .......... . 
·. .......................................................... . 
(2 ) Distance of latrine from compound ........................•..• 
(3) Distance of latrine from drinking water ...................... 
(4) What is the kind of latrine .................................. 
F. Liv.estock 
(1) What livestock, if any, do you have ......................... . 
· ........................................................... . 
.( 2) Where do livestock drink (locate on map) •..... . .•.••• 
• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• t •••••••••••• 
G. Other Comments 
SAMPLE WORKSHEETS: III. COMPOUND WORKSHEET - SUPPLEMENTARY 
Group Number •••••••••••••••••••• Village ••.•..••••••••• 
Na.zne of Investigator....................... Date ........••...•...• 
Code number o~ Compound ••..•.••• 
B. General (continued) 
(6) a. I~ you get your water ~rom the Volta, does it ever 
tas te salt? ••...•..•••..•.••....•..........••......... 
b. I~ so during what months? •••••••••••...•••.••••••••••• 
(7) Is any member o~ the compound su~~ering ~rom guinea worm? 
........................................................... 
(8) Has anyone had guinea-worm during the past two years? ••••• 
I~ so, who'? ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 
(9 ) Has any building in the compound a metal roo~? ............ 
(10) a. Is any water collected o~~ the roo~? .................. 
b. I~ so, what is it cbllected in? ....................... 
c. I~ so, what is it used ~or? . .......................... 
( 11) What other drinkables are used in the compound? 
........................................................... 
(12) When water is short, what are the priorities in water use? 
(Number each item listed below, according to its order o~ 
priority. For example, i~ (a) personal drinking water is 
the last item to be cut down, it should be numbered 1.) 
a. Personal drinking water •••••••••••••••••••.•.•••••••.. 
b. Drinking water ~or livestock ••••••••.••.••••.••••••••• 
c. Water ~or bathing . ................................... . 
d. Water ~or laundry .. .................................. . 
e. Other (specify ••••••••••••••••.••••••.••.•.•.•.•.••••• 
HAVE FILLED IN THE INFORMATION AT TOP OF PAGE! 
SAMPLE WORKSHEET IV. RECORD OF CHIEF/HEADMAN 
Na rne of Village •....•.•.....•••.....•..••... Date ••••••••••••••••• 
Name of Chief/Headman ••••••••••••••••••••••• Name of Interrogator • 
.. .................... . 
(a) Water Supplies: 
~e to interrogators: Cover much the same ground as for 
Cnmpound Sheets, but let Chiefs tell you in . their own wnrds 
(to be recorded here as accurately as possible). Special 
emphasis should be placed on getting information on adequacy 
of supplies of water and customs, rites and festivals 
concerning water. 
(b) How does the village earn its living. Note: Attention should 
be focussed on the following: 
1. f'arming (lis t cro ps) .. .................................. . 
·. ....................................................... . 
2. l·i vestock (give details of' kinds and numbers) .. .......... . ........................................................ . 
f'ishing (note the seasons) ............................... 
·. ....................................................... . 
4. miscellaneous (including craf'ts) .. ...................... . 
· ........................................................ . 
(c) Trade and exchange with outside of village 
1. Main products ~ported • 
2. Main products 
3. Transit trade 
(d) General Comments 
. F '0 R E W 0 R · D 
by G.E. Sinclair, M.Ao, OoB.E., Chief Regional Officer, 
Trans-Volta/Togoland 
Ho, 
8th June, 1954. 
Miss L. Bown, M.A., 
Resident Tutor for T.V.T., 
University College of the Gold Coast. 
Dear Miss Bown g 
I am grateful to you for letting me see, in draft, the 
report of the Tongu Rural Survey which you organised for the 
Department of Extra~Mural Studies in April, 19530 
May I say that I regard this report as a most useful 
contribution to the development of Tongu'? I would like 
to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to all ·those 
volunteers who gave up two weeks of their time to the surveyo 
As your helpers have shown such an interest in Tongu, I 
would like to let them know what government has been doing 
and planning for the area between the time of your survey 
and the issue of your reporto You will notice that many of 
the measures taken are designed to solve the most urgent of 
the problems which your report has posed o 
Surveys 
It was decided to treat the whole of the savannah lanqs 
lying south of ~o as a single area for the purpose of 
planping developmento This area is enclosed, roughly, by the 
Ho/Denu road, the coast from Denu to Anyanui g the Volta 
River to Senchi (with a narrow strip of land running along 
the western bank of the Volta) and then the road from Senchi 
to Hoo 
An agricultural survey of representative parts of the 
whole area (excluding the rump of Tongu, the area bounded by 
lines running from Adidome northwards for 12 miles and then 
almost due westwards to Pore and then south-westwards to 
Senchi and then following the river down to Adidome)g has now 
been completedo In the area covered by the agricultural 
reports, a geological survey for water supplies and a 
comprehensive livestoc,k  survey have bo. th been completed. The 
University College of the Gold Coast ~s to undertake a 
research scheme into cattle diseases in this area starting in 
September of this yearo In addition, the Director of Tsetse 
Control has visited the area and is now planning 60 to 
control tsetse-f1y that it will cease to be a limiting factor 
on either agriculture or the raiSing of livestocko , 
Medical Field Unit has started work in the Tongu 
is carrying out a mass survey of endemic and pandemic 
and will eventually cover the whole southern savannaho 
been a~located by the ToVoTo Council for ' the 
of a bed hospital to be run by the Ewe 
the 'loDSU area. . 
P8velRp!len t .plan 
It has now been possible to work out the first phase 
of the develQpm8nt plan ~or the southern eavannaho 
geeder Roads: On the adv1ce of the National Food Board, 
GoverJ.')lllent supplied funds tor the malt1ngot an all-weather 
road tromAbotla Kloe (south of the Abutla .:11le) to j01n 
the main He/Senchi road at Juapongo This road, constructed 
jOlntl~ by the people and the works. staft of the government 
agent, has already done much to open up a rich tood farming 
BreBo On the advice of the same BQard. government provided 
funds for an all~weatber road to connect Adldome with the 
road head fran Ho at Adaklu~ one branch o.f thiS road gOEtS 
north-warde through Ahunda to Tserefe and the other north-
eastwards to Kut1me and thence by Ablonu and W83'a to Abuadlo 
'he western branch of this. road hae been o~en to traffic since 
the beginning of last dry season.and 1s carr~ing a busy traffic 
between the three main market centres of Ad1dame, Matl-Kumasl 
and ~oo This road also was constructed by communal enterprise 
helped by the works staff of the government agent, who have 
built the bridges and culverts, su~~lled transport for the 
gravellingg and provided labour in areas ot sparse population. 
A dry .w eather road from Meps, through Battor and Aveme 
to Sege on the Accr~Tefle road has been constructed by the 
people themselves with the c:ncouragement of a' l4ass Education 
Off1cera A joint econam1c survey of th1s area 1s now be1ng 
~dertaken for the Volta River Project Preparatory Commission 
by an econom1st from the University College and an officer 
from the Department of Agr1culture with the help of the govern-
ment agent, -ronguo If this survey indicates that the · expense 
of br1nging the dry weather road up to all-weather standard 
1s justified, £lOpOOO will be allocated for th1s purpose trom 
funds allocated by the Tongu district council from the £1 mill10n 
spec1al grant made by government to the ToVoTo Council for 
developmenta 
On the basis ot the agrl cul tural reports so far made, 
the construct1on of the following add1tional feeder roads 1n 
the savannah area has now been proposed b~ the three district 
councils concerned and these proposals. are be1ng considered 
bJ governmento 
Ho district 
Waya Zlope 8 miles 
Z10pe Xpeve 7 miles 
Keta dietrict 
Abor Wute 7 miles 
Tadzewu - Rhi 8 miles 
Penyl-,h1-Agbosome 11 miles 
!one d1str~ct 
Wute Eut1me 
In add1tion, the construction ot 
has been rec~eDded b7 tba 
Detailed agricultural and economic reports will have to be 
obtained before they can be recommended to governmento Be~ore 
any decision is taken by the central government to provide 
funds for their construction, the district councils are being 
asked to guarantee , that they w~ll maintain them properlyo 
WaterSuppl,ies: - Th~ pepartment of .Rural Wa1;er Dev~lop­
men:t has been granted £300,000 out of the ToVoTo Cou~cil 
allocation for the whole region for extending i t-s act ivi ties. 
A fair share of this will be spent in the southern savannah 
area and it is hoped, in the next dry season, to dev~lop a 
vigorous progr~e of excayatingreservoirs (200 f'~et squ~re 
by 10 feet deep) and buildi~g wells over mos t of the area. 
Boreholes are unlikely to be succe~sful in the area covered 
by your survey but it is hoped to f'ind water, by boring, south 
o~ the line drawn from AboI' to Sogankope and two drilling rigs 
are to start operating in that area in the next few months. 
The lis t of' priori ties for rural water supplies ~'-rawn 
up by the various local councils, suppurted by the pic "! ' 3 
drawn in -your report of' the handicaps imposed in this!i?.I.'ea by 
the lack' of' good -water, will be a great help in planning 
this worko 
Medical Field Unit: The Medical Field Unit, which is 
now working in Tongu, is carrying out mass surveys of yaws, 
sleeping sickneaa.-~ leprosy, guinea WOn'll, bilharziajl 'malaria 
and river bl1ndn-en and providing ~ree mass treatment f'or the 
~irst three. It is carrying out also mass vaccination against 
smallpox 0 ; 
Agriculture: It is hC?ped to start building, this year, 
an agricu~ral station at Wute (north-~orth=east of' AboI') 
and this station will , be responsible ~r helping ~armers 
throughout the southern savannah. It is hoped to provide 
demonstration plots o~ ero~s suitable ~or the savannah and to 
supply seedlings; to m'aintain cattle, sheep and poultry 
and to demonstrate bullock ploughing and tract0r ploughingo 
One o~ the ~ain objects o~ the station will be to encourage 
mixed ~arming with the proper use 6~ farm yard manureo It 
may be possible to est~blish a SUb-station nea~ Adidameo 
Livestock: The ,Act~ng D~rector of' Veterinary SerVices, 
who has conducted a thorough livestock survey lastin,g over 
six months, has recommended to government the , establishment 
of a veterinary 'station with a resident veterinary o~ficer in 
the Adidome/Sogankope area. This station will, , it is hoped, 
work in close collaboration with the agricultural station at 
Wute and may have as a neighbour a SUb- station o~ the agric-
ul tural 6 ta tion. 
The Director o~ Tsetse Control is recommending to 
government the posting o~ a reclamation o~f'icer to Sogankope 
to organise the control o~ tsetse throughout the savannah 
and the posting o~ an entomologist to Hoo The University 
College is undertaking research into cattle diseases in the 
savannah area with a view of' helping in the improvement of' 
livestocko 
Co-ordination of' Development Work 
conferences, attended by representatives ot all 
~Iament departments concerned as well as by the Department 
"~"J ... .&ture of the Un1vers1 tl' College, have taken place 
at Adidome, one in January am one in Kay, to draw up a 
joint plan :for the development o:f the savannah. It 1s hoped 
shortly to associate the three district councils concemed 
with tne work o:f this conference, which will now meet at 
regular intervals. 
I ho~e that this in:fonnation about what government 1s 
already doing and what it plans to do 1n the immediate :future 
will be o:f interest to those who took part in your survey and 
to those who will be reading the report. 
Yours sincerely, 
(Sgd.) G.E. Sinclair 
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY 
(A) Aims 
The first object of this Survey was to provide a 
number of students in University Extra=Mural classes with 
an introduction' to some social survey techniqueso On the 
principle that the only way to learn to play the harp is 
to play the harp p it was ~elt that the only way to give 
students an understanding of the problema of collecting 
social inform~tion was to set them to collect it ~ under 
the appropriate guidance o 
The area of the Upper ., and Central "Tongu Local 
Councils was selected as suitable for this essay in field 
work 9 because it is a district of which comparatively 
little is knowo 9 and it was felt that furtner background 
infonnation would be useful to those authorities concerned 
in planning its futureo As Mro GoE'o Sinclair~ the 
Regional Officer for Trans=Volta(Togoland p wrote at the 
beginning of the Surveyg 
9 000 addi tional information about the present 
activities of the Tongu people and local factors 
which may be impeding their progress would be 
useful at this stage~ when , the Government wishes, 
in consultation with the four Local Councils and 
the proposed District Council~ to plan the 
deyelopment of this area0 9 
Certain recommendations have been appended to each 
chapter of this Reportp but they are only tentative; any 
specific projects would need further examinationo 
There were 37 students 9 and they worked with a strong 
sense of fulfilling a genuine social purpose 0 Thirty of 
them were teachers an d clerks spending their Easter 
holidays in this unusual and strenuous fashiono 
While the two main aims were thus education and the 
collection of material with the speciric purpose of 
presenting it to the various authorities p it was also 
hoped that the Survey would fu1fil a third end 0 Tonguhas 
been one- or the neglected districts of the Trans=Volta/ 
Togoland Region and~ like Cinderellap has found that he~ 
difficulties are not apprehended outside her own compoundo 
Even wi thin the Region there has been very li ttl.e publ.ic 
interest in the district p and = to the rest of the Gold 
Coast ~ Tongu ways of life are a blanko Bringing a number 
of educated people from other parts of Trans~Volta and 
Togoland into the area was therefore partly an attempt to 
increase public interest 1n Tongu and its problemso 
(B) Subjects of Inquir~ 
Water supply was the main focus of the Survey~s 
attentiono Information was sought about water use, types 
of water supply ~ distances villagers had to go for their 
water, alternative sources in drought~ customs concerning 
water g and any obvious consequences of water shortage, e.g. 
of livestockg or prevalence or certain human ailments. 
question of water supply is inevitably linked up 
of economic developmento The Survey included a 
into TODgu people gained their liveli-
to know whether water shortage 
advance 0 '!'his in turn 
v~""'''''6,~, ... t 
In addition to water, economic activities, and 
cammunications g it rapidly emerged that there was a 
fourth significant factor - the attitude of the Tongu 
people themselves to their problems. It was discovered 
that local morale was overwhelmed by the magnitude of 
the difficulties to be faced, _and consequently this 
Report pays considerable attention to attitudesand 
opinions in Tongu as well as to factual infonnation. 
(c) Methods of Work 
The fieldwork of the Survey was carried out between 
April 9th and 20th, 1953. Worksheets were prepared, to 
be filled in by direct observation of water sources, by 
general questions to chiefs and elders on water lore, 
markets and agriculture, and by detailed questions to . 
householders about use of water and livelihood. 
Students on the Survey first assembled at Adidame for 
preliminary instruction and background lectures, and they 
practised filling in worksheets in Adidome, wi~h the co-
operation of the chiefs and townspeople. Once thoroughly 
versed in the main lines of enquiry to be pursued, they 
were divided into six small teams, and each was despatched 
to a different village Tor its headquarters. Five of 
the teams were supervised by graduate tutors: Gustav 
Jahodap ·M.Sc.(Econ.), Ph.D. g Professor Hugh Blaney, M.Sc., 
Ph.D., and Miss Lalage Bown" M.A. p of the Gold Coast 
University College; David Apter, M.A. p of the Graduate 
'School,Universi ty of Princeton, and Mrs. Eleanor Apter, 
B.A., of Princeton. The leader expected t'or the sixth 
team proved unable to attend, and so Dr. Jahoda guided 
it at long rangep while Mr. T.M. Tetteh of the Fisheries 
Department took charge on the spot. 
In an area with inadequate roads, river transport 
was the only practicable means of disperSing Survey teams 
rapidly. "Therefore riverside vil1.ages were chosen as 
suitable starting points for most of them. The team at 
Volo devoted its attention to villages on the north bank 
of the River Volta g behind the 'oyster'~fishlng area;-
the two stationed at Battor and Avey1me concentrated mainl;y 
on the lagoon communities Qf the south bank; while the 
Mepe team tackled various types of village on both sides 
of the river. Their investigations into the lagpon commu-
nities to the south of Mepe were carried to the Accra-Keta 
road by the Adidome team, which had the advantage of both 
bicycle and motor transport; they we~e able also to work 
in the liv~stock area on the north bank, in a quadrilateral 
cornered by Avedo, Kpedzegblo, Zongo and Adidane. The 
remaining type of community, consisting mainly of prosper-
ous crop-growers, was the business of a team statlone4 
inland at Mafi Kumasi, which surveyed an area bounded b;y 
. Dzogadze, Sasekpe, Tsiati and Kpedzegblo. 
Each team selected one village for+~norOQQD 
by-compound survey I making a sketch-aap 
3· 
the head of every household, as well as obtaining a general 
report from the chief or headman. The six villages 
treated in this way were: 
Krebetikofe , Simple riverside farming/fishing 
community in the 'oyster'-fishing 
section of the Volta. , 
Battor Large riverside farming/fishing 
community with market and Local Council 
Office. . 
DegDrme Fiakofe Lagoon-side community with fairly 
constant water supply. 
Lutakorlekofe Lagoon~side community with water 
difficulties in dry season. 
Mafi Anfoe Typical mixed far.ming village in hinter~ 
land north of the Volta, relying entire~y 
on water holeso 
Mafi Kumasi Entrepot for crop-grOWing area in 
savannah south of Ho, relying on water 
holes and rock pools for water supply. 
Five other villages were surveyed on a sample basis, in 
each case between one-quarter and one-half of the 
compounds being studied. These villages were: 
Volo Large riverside fishing/farming 
community, centre of shell-fish and 
lime-burning industry. 
Kpordzikofe Simple riverside fi6hing/f~rming 
community on south bank of Volta. 
Vome Adidokpui Simple riverside fishing/farming 
community on north bank of Volta. 
Kodzovikofe Creek farming village with no good 
permanent water supply. 
Avakpedome Farming village in livestock area 
within easy reach of large market 
community, but without permanent water 
supply. 
Data concerning 49 other villages (see Appendix) was 
collected by means of discussion with the chief or headman, 
or his representative. Some of these interviews were 
reinforced by questions to heads of compounds selected at 
random. The water sources of all these 61 villages were 
inspected and reported on by team members. Finally, 
facts about water supply and disease in nine other villages 
were gathered from witnesses whose reliability there was 
no reason to doubt. 
This made a total of 70 Tongu villages, covered wholly 
or in part by the Survey.· In the time available, it was 
obviously not possible to visit every village in Upper and 
Central Tongu; nor was it possible to examine every single 
water hole in the whole area. The aim was to obtain a 
general picture of conditions in the different parts of 
the area in which the six teams were based. In this way, 
list of these villages, see Appendix Aj for a map 
area, see Appendix H: General Area of Upper & 
the problems attached to all tlPS8 of water supply 
came under study, and all the main sources ~f the area 
(rivers, lagoons and creeks) were examined. 
Lower Tongu was not covered at all by the Survey; 
it appears that water problems are . not so serious there, 
since most villages are within range of permanent suppliss, 
either the Volta or its side~waters. 
RECOl4MENDATIONS arising out of Chapter I 
Since the Survey was undertaken, at least two more 
specialised surveys have been set under way in Tongu, and 
more are planned p in connection with the development of 
the districto An initial problem for all such surveys 
is that of the correct identification of existina villages. 
The Gold Coast is said to be one of t~e best-ma~ped 
countries in A~rica, and the Survey Department's map on 
scale of 1.014 inches to the mile was found extremely 
useful 0 Its aid, however, was limited by the fact that .there 
are villages which have s_prung into existence since the 
map was made, for example Atsiemfo on the Adidome-Ho road, 
and villages which have since faded away, for example Borne 
of those to the south-west of the same roado A more up-
to-date survey, with today~s water-holes marked on it, 
would b~ more valuable than the map now in use. 
Even old-established Tongu villages are often 
exceedingly hard to find owing to the capricious spelling 
of the Survey Department's mapso The town of Mepe i8 
listed in the last Census as containing over 1,200 inhabit-
ants, and in the second half of the year, when the migrant 
fishermen have returned, it could prObably claim over 
2,000; it certainly seems a pity that a town of such 
size should be disguised under the naIOO 14afi on both large-
and small-scale ma-ps of the Gold Coasto Another exaJ1l)le 
is the village of Mati Dugame, opposite Adidome, which 
appears on the map as Mlet"io 
. 
This comment on spelling is not intended pedanticallyo 
Inaccuracies and inconsistencies in spelling of Tongu 
names, both in maps and the 1948 Census, involved the 
Survey in several embarrassments, which would also be 
likely to afflict future investigatorso HOW, for instance, 
could one render intelligible a report on villages 
which readers could not identify on their maps? and how 
compare population figures obtained by the Survey teams 
with those recorded in the Census when some of the villages 
cannot be located in the lists by any known principle of 
spelling? The spelling in the Census is sometimes casual, 
as i1lust~ated on page 190 where a division is written 
'B a t t 0 r'p and its chief town, with identical name 
'B a t 0'; on page 194 the ~ame name is spelled 'B a 
It may be added that the map's version is 'B a t t 
In this case there is no doubt about the place 
but the matter becomes exasperating when one 
whether 'L 0 t a' refers to Luta or L 
Ewe 1s a language wi th an 'efficient standard system 
of spelling~ and on occasions when it is not possible to 
use the few symbols it employs outside the English alphabet, 
there is general agreement on which are the letters of 
that alphabet which most approximate to themo It would be 
a good thing if th~ standard system with the. standard 
substitutes could be adopted for road signs, maps and 
census listso No documentation of Tongu can be !wholly 
successful until this is done, because variations in ortho-
graphy make comparisons labourious or impossibleo It is 
suggested that the Regional Administration might remind 
the Gold Coast Survey Department of the more -obvious 
solecisms on its maps, __s o that they may 1:>e alt~red in -any 
new editions of, for example, the very helpful Road Mapo 
The Regional Administration and the Local Councils might 
also make a point of keeping all lists of villages in the 
standard spellingp so that registers of electors, Census 
records, etco, may be useful to any research workers in 
the future 0 
I 
Easy reference woul~ also be achieved if all villages 
were given their dual titleo Many names in T9ngu are not 
unique (eog o "Nyatikpo) and there are parts of the 1948 
Census, mainly under the heading 01' °not attached to a 
dlvisiono in which it is impossible to be certain from 
the published report which name re1'ers to which villageo 
A partial remedy for this is supplied in the system of a 
double name which generally applies even i1' an area is in 
dispute between two authorities 0 The name Fiakof'e, for 
instance, is not unique, but the name Degorme Fiakofe is. 
CHAPTER II POPULATION. OCCUPATIONS AND MIGRATION 
(A) Numbers 
According to the 1948 Census, the total popul.ation 
of the Upper and Central Tongu Loca1 Councn areas was 
64,0000 Of the 70 villages visited by the Survey, 40 
could be definitely traced in the+Census, which recorded 
their total population as 10,2170 It would be safe to 
estimate that the full 70 villages represented at least 
15,000 people in 19480 The Survey, then, produced first-
hand infonnation for almos t a quarter of the two Councils v 
citizenso But the villages . were chosen to exemplify every 
type of community known to exist in the area, and the 
problems listed can I' easonably be said to be problems typical 
of far more than a .quarter of the whole populationo . 
After five years, the Census figures can only be 
taken as a very rough guide to the popUlation of a district 
where there is so much migrationo But wl:lere comparisons 
were possible~ it seemed that in most cases the Census may 
have underestim(ited ito In the farming conrnunity of Mafi 
Kumasi g for instance, the Census counted 249 people living 
in 57 compounds; Professor Blaneya s survey team counted 
313 living in 53. Similarly, in the lagoon village of 
Degorme Fiakafe, Mr. Apter's team counted 232 people liYing 
2~ compounds, as against the 1948 figures of 66 living 
In the latter village, the expansion in 
surveyed, see Appendix Bo 
the number o~ compounds suggests immigrat~on as a part-
cause o£ its increase, but this in itsel£ is not enough to 
explain the discre~angy in the two counts. 
The only community which _a~pears startlingly_ 
larger in the Census than in the Survey statistics , is 
Battor, where Mrs~ ApterVs team reported 279 inbabltants 
in 35 compounds whereas the Census notes 520 in 58. This 
divergence seems to indic~te that the Census included 
satellite harniets outside the boundaries limned out by 
the Survey team on their sketch-~lan. Both the results 
show an average o~ ~ight persons per compound, which implies 
that i£ the 1953 team had covered the same ground its 
results would have been comparable with those o£ the 1948 
enumerators. 
In this connection " p there are good ground6 ~or 
believing that many of the migrant fishers fr~ the river-
side villages were not recorded at all in the Census. 
As rar as 'the home villages are concerned,' both the 
Census and the 1953 Survey took place during the season 
when fishermen and wClDen were awa~ f'ram home, and many of 
the compounds were almost deserted. Enquiries made by 
some of the teams showed that some villages are reduced 
by as much as three-quarters during the first half of the 
year, e.g. in Nyatikpo there are over 20 compounds, but 
only 30 people could be found, and in Mafi Dugame several 
compounds were completely empty at the time Survey members 
visited it. Illiterate heads o~ £amilies probably tend to 
count in as many membars of the compound as t hey remember 
having ever lived there, regardless o~ their presence or 
absence. Nevertheless, as Survey members ~oundp in large 
polygamous households it takes very care~ul questioning 
to call to mind all absentees, especially among the 
younger generation. 
As ~ar as the rest of the Gold Coast is concerned, if 
these ~ishermen were included in the returns for other 
ar~as, obviously_no di~~erence would be made to the 
country 9 s total estimated population. aut some of these 
migrants travel beyond the border ~or their fishing, 
place.s _m entioned being Mango and Ouagadougou on the Vol tas 
and even Kopti on the Upper Niger. The majority, who 
stay ~nBide the Gold Coast, live in temporary encampments 
on river banks ~r islands, and many may have been overlooked 
by enumerators. 
(B) WayS o~ Gaining a Living 
~at are the main occupations among the people of 
Tongu' The range is ~airly limited, and in each type of 
village one mode of gaining a livelihood predominates. 
+This should be a matter of interest to local 
since it suggests that a "larger popula~1oB 
recorded in the Census 1s 118b1e to 
the migrants own iDlmovable :prnft.n.i:~. .. 
.p~; ~ 
(i) In the inland villages away from tpe river, the major 
occupation is farming'g sometimes associ 'ated w1 th a 
secondary occupationo The proportion 01' :f'armers to total 
population for the two villages of this type completely 
surveyed may be seen from the following figures: 
Village Mat'i K-umas i MaI'i Ant'oe 
Male population over 16 88 53 
Males occupied only in farming 27 19 
Males combining farming with other 
work 41 29 
Female popu~at1on 9ver 16 115 57 
Females occupied only in farming 49 49 
Females combining farming with other 
work outside the home 000 50 5 
Total adult-population 203 IIO 
Total o,ccup~ed only in farming , 76 68 
Total combining farmi~g with other 
work o 0 0 91 34 
~p~oportion of ~ot~ P9Pulation 
occupied only in farming 
Proport~on of ~otal population 
combining farming with other work 
Proportioli --engaged e1 ther partly or 
entirely in fa~ing , 
Among the men~ the work most commonly combined with 
farming is cloth~weaving. In Mafi An"f'oe~ all the 29 
farmers who had a secondary occupation were weavers; in 
Mafi Kumasi p 41 fa~ers had -a secondary occupation, and 
for 33 of these it was weaving. This pattern - the pursuit 
of farming and weaving in conj,unctlon ... was f"ound typical 
of the Mafi area away from the river. Ten out of the 13 
villages visited by the Survey round Mafi Kuma.si were noted 
down as weaving centres, and in villages like Sasekpe the 
cliCK of shuttles was the main sound in the air. In addition, 
of 16 villages to the north of the Volta visited by the 
Adidome team, 11 were weaving villages. 
Weaving is regarded as a masculine craft, and questions 
as _ to whether it could not be done by women were treated as 
a joke. Presumably, in the days before the wide use of 
imported yarns, the womanvs contribution was spinning, but 
there was only one woman whose ent ire occ'upation was spinning 
in Mafi Kumasi p and only three villages thought spinning 
a craft important en_ough to mention to the teams. 
The wamen's work in these hinterland villages, apart 
from food-farming, seems to be mainly confined to household 
percentages in this and the following tables are 
&4_• • ~o the nearest whole number. 
8. 
duties. Many women may eke out their income by occasional 
crafts like the making of soft woven fibre-bags for carrying 
grain and other foodstuffs g or by the makiqg of ~alm 
and kernel oil. Only in the larger marketing centres are 
there any significant numbers of women for whom the business 
of buying and selling is remunerative enough to rank as an 
90ccupation9. In the small village of MafirAnfoe only two 
adult women quoted trading as their only occupation. In 
the vigorous market village of Mari Kumasi, on the other 
hand, 42 women out of the total of 115 regarded trading as 
an important secondary occupation, and 13 gave trading as 
their sole economic activity. 
Adidome, the economic hub of the area, is un~ypical in 
supporting very many women traders; there, about5~ of 
the women gave trading as their main occupations, many of 
them specialising in particular commodities, e.g. groundnuts 
or 'kakro i , while another 18% combined farming and trading. 
(ii) In riverside Villages _of various sizes the main 
masculine occupations at the time _of the Survey were: 
V~~i~IaI~ g~e Krebetikofe Battor +Volo !vKopmoer dazn1dk ofe 
Total adul t ma""J.es 17 102 65 24 
Farming only 10 19 35 13 
Farmiqg and fishing 1 30 3 
Fishing only 2 9 3 5 
It will be seen that farming is still of major importance, 
for many of the villagers haye to rely on their own work 
for the ir own food. The obvious sup'porting avocation 1s 
fishingg and as one Survey member wrote o~ Kekpo 'fishing 
is a second occupation of every man in t~e village, with 
the explanation that one must have one's own meat to add to 
the farm products to make a meal.' The table above shows 
16% of the adult men engaged in fishing as well as farming, 
and another 10% in fishing alone - this, be it noted, at the 
time of year when many of the full-time fishermen are absent. 
Among the women, feweru of whom travel away for more 
than a short period, the importance of fishing in riverside 
communities is more strikingly evident from the figures. 
+ 
Village Krebetikofe Battor +Volo +i~~~~~ofe_ Total 
Total adult 
females 27 106 87 29 249 
Farming ally 7 11 28 8 54 
Fishing only 9 26 13 48 
Farming and 
fishing 5 36 49 5 95 
Proportion 
of females 
occupied only 
in f'ishing 
Proportion 3" . 
partlT occu-
pied in f'ish-
1118 
9. 
The type or fishing the women are employed in is diving 
for shell-fish. Girls begin this at the age of pubertY9 and 
same women of quite advanced age stated that it was still , 
their occupation. Further details about this are given in 
Chapter IV. 
(iii) In the villages near large lagoons or creeks, on either , 
side of the Volta, fishing still plays an important part. 
In these communities too, farming and fishing go hand in hand; 
and when they are not too Tar from the Volta the women still 
spend some of their t~e diving for shell-fish. 
Degorme 
Village · !Fak120e and !Dove and Fiakof'e Kodzovikof'e Zidakof'e 
Total adult males 56 20 41 
Farming 4 4 5 
Fishing 16 2 5 
Fishing and f'arming 14 7 12 
Fishing .and other 5 
Farming and other o • 0 4 4 
Total adult f'emales 85 20 73 
Farming . 7 13 10 
Fishing 20 1 24 
Fishing and farming 48 
Fishing and other 
Farming and other 1 4 22 
Proportion of male 
population engaged wholly 
or partly in fishing 63% 45% 42% 
Proportion of f'emale 
population engag~d wholly 
or partly in f'ishi,ng 80% 5% 33% 
(iv) In the villages near the smaller creeks and ponds, behind 
Battor and Aveyime, the picture changes. The inhabitants are 
no longer interested in fishing, and farming becomes almost 
the only occupation; on this side of the Volta there are no 
widespread crafts to compare with the weaving on the north. 
Consequently, in the -village of Lutakorlekofe 27 out of 30 
men, and 21 out of 26 women, were listed as farmers. 
Village Lutakorlekofe 
Total adult males , • 0 0 30 
F arming only 22 
Farming and other 5 
Proportion of' male population 
engaged wholly or partly in farming 90% 
Total adul~ females 26 
Farming only o • 0 o 0 0 19 
Farming and other o 0 0 • 0 0 2 
of female population 
wholly or partly in farming 8l~ 
100 
To summar1ze~ ~arm1ng and weaving are the dominant 
occupa tions to the north o~ the Yol ta, e xce:p t in Adidome; 
~ishing and ~arming predominate on the river banks and 
larger lagoons; and ~arm1ng alone to the south of the Volta 
away from the large stretches of watero Ohapter IV wi11 
have more to say about the organisation of these occupationso 
In a11 cases the figures are for individuals over 16 
years of age g following the Oensus in making this tne 
division between adulthood and ' childhoodo Most of the 
children between the ages of nine and l6 g however p have 
begun some kind of work if they are not in scho01o The girls 
generally help their mothers p either with housework or 
farming or trading p while the boys embark on f anning p fishing 
or hunting g according to the localityo Children in and out 
of school may share in family craftwork p and in the -weaving 
villages a school~boy will often make up for his school~fees 
by weaying for his parents durmg the holidayso 
(C) Population Movements 
All the above types of villages seem to have reasons 
for a c~rtain amount of seasonal movement out of Tonguo 
Cultivators and weavers both feel the pull of the wealthier 
areas g culti vators going to earn money on cocoa~farms,either 
thei r own or other people 9 s p and weavers going away to the 
best markets for their clotho 
- -
Many people did not say wher~ their relatives had gone, 
but Buem and Akim seem to be the most popul~ cocoa districts, 
though Akwapim p Awudome and Abutia were also mentionedo At 
Tsurukpo one o~ the headmen stated that those of his people 
who went to work in Akim and Akwapimwent regularlyp 
staying away 1'ran May till November; but the headman of 
Vome Adidokpui gave the period August to Juneo In Mati 
Kumasi g Survey members were told of a number of emigrants who 
had settled in Buem and showed no disposition to return home, 
except for festivals o 
Weaving families sometimes sell their cloth in 'the 
nearby markets of Aveyime p Volo and Akuse p mainly to Rausa 
traders; but often one of their own members goes further 
afield with their textiles p and stays away for about a month 
or six weekso Kadjebi p Akim Oda and Kumasl were mentioned 
as places where cloth would be taken for saleo Other types 
of trader p women hawkers for instancep may be drawn at irregular 
intervals to the large markets of Ho or Adao 
In the fishing areasp as already seeng there is consider-
able seasonal emigration northwardo Some of the women 
go no further than Volo and Duffor for their shell-fish, 
but others go to Kpong p Senchi and Amedicao They take 
children with them p unless they are in B chooL ' A 
of the men go to Kpong and beyond p often leavin 
behindo The rest of the men go still 
River AfraIn is one strong magnet~ and OU 
to have gone away fishing :from Degorae F~~.t.J;(I 
rep~rted to have gone to the 
Upper Vol ta in the Nor~hern Te:rrJLt;f;t<J!'lJ 
men; places mentioned 
!:e.ji on 
or 
11. 
for the autumn flood~fishing in their own creeks and lagoonso + 
Fishermen who go to the North tend more and more to 
take one wife with them to cook and look after one or two 
children. It ~6 not rare for men to disappear and leave 
their wives and families behind~ or to take part of the family 
and desert the remaindero . Surve~ team.s found a number of 
wives who had waited a long time for husbands who had never 
returned from the Northern Territorieso 
Even for those whose husbands do return, the enforced 
strain has double conseQuences. First~ the women find it 
difficult to do all the farming by themselveso This results 
in a fall in subsistence, and means a larger cash outlay 
for foodo SecondlYg the enforced separation and the burden 
placed on the wives and families _who remain in the village 
dur ingthe fishing season tend to upset normal family 
relationships. A few women declared with intense bitterness 
that they looked after a large number of children~ cooked and 
kept houBe~ farmed and did 'oyster9~fishJ.ng, while other 
wives and husbands were away for long periodso One woman 
pointed to a house in serious dis~repair, and said that no-
one was at home to attend to the roof and wallso 
These are the main lines of seasonal emigrationo Through-
out the -area literates and craftsmen go away to work g but 
return at festivals o No attempt was mad e to enumerate these, 
and the whole subject needs further investigationo 
Immigration into Tongu also needs further studyo The 
main immigrants would appear to be Northerners who settle 
down in the Zongos of towns like Adidome and Vola, or who 
work in cattle~hamlets like Awusavikofe o A case history may . 
be of interest~ 
A Dagomba man g No g aged about sixty~ in the Adidome 
Zongo~ said that he originally left the -North as 
a youth to work as a porter in the cocoa area, but 
came to Adidome 'in the time of influenza' (co 1918?) 
and set up as a cattle ownero He said that he now 
qwns 200 cows and three stud bulls; and his family 
have sheep9 goats, guinea~fowl, and chickens 0 He 
has a spacious compound~ housing 22 people~ including 
a tenant (with his family) who is a catt1e~tradero 
No Is _own son~in~law also is a livesto.c:k dealer, and 
does business both in Accra and H0 9 l~aving :for a 
month or six weeks at a time. A son and nephew are 
corn~ml11erso Of the 22 inhabitants Of the_compound , 
nine were children under the age of 16 , and these 
and five other people were born in Adidame and have 
known no other homeo 
I 
A man in such an established poei tion as No has 
committed hLmselr to per.manent immigrationo 
+People alsO go to the cocoa areas rrom the fishing villages 0 
1'1 
120 
CHAPTER III WATER SUPPLIES + 
(A) Riverside Villages . 
In Tongup the dwellers near the Volta count themselves 
rortunate in having a never~~ailing source o~ abundant 
waterp but it would be untrue to say that this gives them 
no problemso 
Villages close to the Volta banks are victims o~ 
the riverQ s great variation in level at di~~ererit times in 
the yearo Getting water ~ram the Volta during ~lood~tlme 
is viewed with distaste because o~ the hazards involved 
~rom the speed o~ ~lowp and rrom ~loating debris, and also 
because o~ the quantity o~ silt and mud in the water; the 
debris includes a number o~ dead animals swept downstream. 
In the dry season g when the water is low p villagers have to 
climb down steep banks with their pots and ke!osene tins, 
and it is not easy to make any permanent appr9ach p owing 
to the seasonal flooding which in sane places may alter the 
shape of the banks. 
Distressed complaints were heard in M~i Dugame p 
opposi te Adidome g that the township was being steadily 
eaten away by the Volta p and elderly inhabitants declared 
that ~i~ty years ago uone could shout ~or oneQs neighbour 
at Adidame Qp which is now nearly two miles away across the 
water. The river evidently used to run in a narrower 
channel p but during this century 1 t has begun to take toll 
o~ the buildings on its south bank. There are now several 
abandoned houses on the very edge o~ the sharp acclivity 
ri~1ng ~rom the dry~season river p with their walls 
cracking apart, and only surviving precariously until the 
next ~lood. Some ~amilies have had to move their dwellings 
three times within living mernoryp in retreat ~ram the eroding 
banks 0 
Several places reported brackish~tasting water owing 
to the e~~ects o~ the tide at the mouth o~ the Volta at the 
end o~ a long dry seasono But it is hard to measure this 
accuratelyo Battor was the most northerly pOint at which 
sal ty water was ever noticed p and the ~ears ment'ioned were . 
1949 and. 19520 Lower down p ~t Adidome, there was general 
agreement that the water was disagreeable ~or drinking in 
1949 and 1952 ~ to such an extent that many o~ the inhabitants 
sought an alternative source o~ drinking water, paddling 
their canoes out to an island which retains a pond o~ ~resh 
water ~rom flood~timeo Eight out o~ 19 heads o~ ~amilieB 
said that the water at Adidame was slightly saline every 
year in March p April or May, but that normally most people 
continue to drink ito As might be expected, it seems to haye 
some laxative effect, and there were complaints ot diarrhoea 
and gripings at this seasono 
Villages somewhat rurther away tram 
same irks of rainy~season pollution, 
and occasional salinity. 'l'hf)7 have 
o~ a long walk t.o the water's edge 
on an ay.rage to cover halt' "",.,,~.,.,.= 
r~yer; tbis i 
fetch 
The annoyances felt in 'villages living close to the 
Volta are insignificant in comparison with the burdens of 
villages relying on other sourceso The Volta is per.manent 
and is relatively disease~free, whereas villa,ges living 
away from the river are ridden with water-borne disease~ and 
50% of all the communities investjgated had to seek 
alternative squrces in the dry seasono 
(B) Lagoon Villages 
Teams visited 13 villages wit~ permanent supplies 
other than the Voltao These rely on creeks or 9 lagoons 9 , 
stagnant during most of the yearp but replenished during the 
flood season by an overflow of the Volta p or by some sm~l 
water~course which shrinks away af'ter the rains D leaving 
only occasional ponds in. its bedo Several of' 1:h e lagoons are 
large p measuring nearly a mile across at the longest partp 
even at the end of the dry $eason when the Survey teams 
inspected themo It is al~ost unheard of' f'or them to dry up; 
the last time there was no water in the Ke Lagoon (south 
of the Volta) appears to have been bef'Qre the First World 
War» probably in 1911 p and the n a good crop of' corn was grown 
on the resid~al mudo 
Such lagoons p then p are not only reliable sources of 
supply for human beings~ but they are largely used by 
cattle p particularly during the dry season p when the smaller 
ponds and runnels have disappeared o Each village on the 
banks generally has its own spot for collecting waterp but 
there is little possibility of keeping cattle very far from 
the appointed places; moreover 9 drinking water is often 
fetched from a point only a few yards away from where the 
women wash clotheso At the end of the rains too p when the 
waters become stagnant once more 9 fishing in them begins» and 
mud is stirred up from the bottom during the making of fence-
trapso 
The Medical Field Units will soon be in a position to 
give authoritative information about diseases in Tongu and 
their Jexact prevalence o It can p however~ be said that the 
lagoon villages are mostly troubled by bilharziao This 
disease was reported in nin~ out of the 13 villages p and 
seemed to be regarded generally as one of the inevitable ills 
that flesh is heir too It is possible that other villages 
also suffered fr~m itD but were unwilling to mention it~ 
since some people hold the fallacious belief that bilharzia 
was a kind of venereal disease o Two of the places where 
bilharzia was reported appeared to suffer from guinea-worm 0 
Several communities complained of stomach ailments in the dry 
season when the water was stagnant ~ dysenteryp diarrhoea and 
gripingso 
(0) Sufferers from shortage 
Most of the communi ties livmg away from the river 
have no permanent water supplyp and during the rains rely 
on water-holes p from six to ten feet deep p generally dug out 
by the people themselves g and filled only by rainfalL They 
are generally dug at the bottom of a amall slope~ and 
r drains into them f'rom a number of' gullies all roundo 
s they are shaded over with trees p which prevent 
but shed their leaves into the water, where they 
e with the green scum and darting insects 
8 of t of' them repulsive to contemplate. 
14. 
A description by one observer' of a 'typical water-hole was: 
'It lay at the bottom of a dip and gets reinforced 
when there are heavy rainfalls. When it is full, one 
could imagine the water ' fairly good, but ~hen half-
full the fetchers ignorantly walk forward or deeper 
for a supposed clean water, and thereby get it muddy. 
The surroundings are bushy, and leaves that fall in 
get rotten and become scented •••• It breeds sufficient 
tortoises rather than fish. Its appearance is green 
and muddy. t 
There are often customary rules against was~ing clothes 
too near the water's edge, but only one water-hole was found 
to be protected from use by animals. This was at Avedo, where 
great care had been taken to dig the hole neat17to bank up 
the sides, and to make ' steps down to the water. As only a 
few people had made this hole, they did not want other villagers, 
who had not helped dig, to pirate the water, and for this 
reason they had fenced it tidily round and installed a pad-
locked gate; the key in the keeping of the Linguist. 
Other villages rely partly on such water-holes during the 
rains, and partly on pools formed of either rain-or spring-
water collected in the rocks. Such a pool is Yorkpe, about 
1500 yards from Mafi Kumasi. It is 15 feet deep and very , 
difficult bt access; its only replenisher is the rain, and it 
is slightly green in colour from the weed growing at the bottom. 
A similar pool is Kpedzegblo, about 700 yards from the village 
of the same name, where the water is retained in a long narrow 
cleft. The actual ' approach through grass to the rock at one 
end of the cleft is ~onstricted, and it is difficult to climb 
over to fill a pot from any other part of the edge. I ,n appearance, 
the water in the dry season is slightly greenish, with some 
decayed vegetable matter suspended in it. Water in these rock 
pools is usually much freer of solid matter than in the ordinary 
water-holes, but clambering up to the rocks is no easy business, 
so villagers tend to use their small water-holes when possible. 
There is a very strong correlation between the use of 
water-holes and the prevalence of guineawor.m. This malady,' 
like bilharzia, is accepted with reSignation as' a necessary part 
of life, and as was remarked of Tsawala, 'they suffer :guinea-
worm from time immemorial.' Information about guineaworm was 
obtained from 21 villages relying only on water-holes; the 
disease was found in 16 of them. Of seven other villages, using 
water-holes supplemented by rock pools, guineawonn was found in 
all. Thus, of all these villages using water-holes either alone 
or in combination, 8~ had guineaworm. This does not s~ply 
mean that an occasional individual is affected. In nine 
~ompounds of Anfoe Mafi 83 people out of 177 were either sutrer-
ing at the t~e, or had had the disease within the pre 
two years. 
Guineaworm on this scale is also theb~ ot 
villages Which draw water during the rains 
and stream-bed pools which vanish with dpnuV.~ 
from five of the eight villages 
Fakpoe, in a compound or '._,_,ft 
were afflicted ., 
that 
out 
nearest rock~pools have been scraped to th~ last calabash~fulls> 
vill~,rs have to travel long distapces to get dr~nklng 
water. Collecting. water is . normally a womanvs work, but the 
headman of one village commented that men also shared the 
task in order to have adequate supplies. 
Another village, Mediage, showed local initiative by 
completing two rainwater tanks in 1948. As a re~ult, the 
villagers are now able to stave off thirst for some days when 
other sources fail. Each tank cost £150, an unreasonable 
amount of this going in transport payments. The carriage of' 
each cement bag from Adidome, mostly by head~porterage, cost 
4s.; that is to say, nearly one-half as much again as the 
price of the actual cement at that time. The inhabitants 
now pay 3d. a gallon for water from the tanks. 
But Mediage is an exception g and in the rest of' the area~ 
during the dry season, the water question is one of paramount 
urgency. In some of' the f'arming settlements in the hinterland 
whose inhabi:tants originally came from the south bank of' 
the Volta, thei'r answer is simply for many of' them to return 
to their old homes. Thus, the headman of Maf'i Zongo reportedg 
VWhen water becomes short, many people return to the 
other bank of' the VQ~ta, and those remaining dig the 
bottom of the pool for slow trickles of water. 9 
Most villages, however, have no second home, and the search 
for water is a diurnal problem. 
Villages whose supplies dry up first, travel to their 
neighbours and put additional pressure on their resources. 
When all nearby water has been exhausted, the daily walk 
becomes longer still. At Anfoe, for exam~le, it was said~ 
vPeople from Alorsekofe, Klukpo, Dadogbui, Tsawala, 
come to share the Anfoe water~sup~ly in the dry 
se~son. Alorsekofe runs short first (this season, 
in Febru~ry), and the others came later. When the 
Anfoe supply is exhausted, all have to go to Adldame 
or Lotor; when Lotor is e~austed they go to Dzanyigoo V 
F\lll information was c011ected from 27 villages whose 
nonnal supplies failed in March and April. Twenty~three of 
them had to fall back on supplies a mile or more from their 
centres ~ which means at least a two~ile walk each morning 
for 4 ~ 6 gallons of water. Twelve of the 23 were five miles 
or over from their dry~season source, and five of the 12 were 
at least 10 miles from it. The cold figures are distressing. 
Their pa'thos is reinforced by some of' the Simple statements 
of the chiefs: 
9Water is so scarce that despite the steepness Lof the 
approach_7 people race f'or it. It does not satisfy the 
community for even a day. If one is unabla to go, 
he pays ~- per kerosene tin for its transportation. v 
vWhen all other sources fail ,-we and all other 
neighbouring villages, numbering about 22 villages, 
flock on Kudita , form a queue where we sleep for one, 
two or three days, to collect a pot. v 
'Agbovita, a spring between two rOcks, {rsJ the only 
in that area between people and thirst; during 
season 2QO - 300 people depend on it .0. They 
to wait three for their turn, and at 
Water f10WB gently and 
es up. e 
16. 
The human effects of this situation are two-fold. In the first 
place exhaustion g and in the second privation. 
With regard to exhaustion, one village elder said: 
vAdidome is so far Labout six milesJ that on 
your return thirstiness almost exhausts the children 
and they ~t faint. 9 
Town-dwellers who get their water out of a tap, and 
villagers who have a perennial stream or spring close at hand, 
can have no idea of the hardship and the physical and mental 
lassitude involved in this toil after something to drink. 
After fetching water, there is not much energy left over 
for social development. People in one village, when asked 
why they had no latrine, responded unanswerably: 
9We have no time to was te on latrine, for when we 
return from farm, we _go for water. v 
There have been a variety of vain attempts to dig 
wells. Survey members saw more than one group of young men 
digging hopefully in a spasm of exertion to reach water. 
The effort almost always ends the same way, and the following 
story is typiqal: 
vThe townspeoile once had - a well dug about 30 . 
armspans deep 0 They dug through a mixture of smd 
and clay for 30 armspans and then struck rock (rock 
white in colour g capable of striking sparks). They 
failed to strike water and filled in the hole with 
reI'use. v 
Fatigue and perpetual discouragement lead to the depression 
of mind discussed in Chapter V. 
. 
Exhaustion is supplemented by actual privation. Figures 
fran Professor Blaney9s Survey team show that the average 
consumption of water (for all purposes) per head per day in 
the Mafi Kumasi area is nine gallons, When water 1s available 
near at hand. But the average for water use at the end of 
the dry season in the same area worked out at only two 
gallons per head per day. The declension from-the wet season 
average is evidence of stringent economy. 
When a place runs short of water, very often the 
inhabitants have to go without a bath for several days -
a genuine cause of distress to people with such a high 
standard of bodi;Ly cleanliness. Clothes-washing a18G s1.Jt'f'ers, 
and 1t was reported that the women of Avetakpo and Horkpor 
sometimes take their garments 12 miles to Ad1dame to wash 
them at the river on market day. More seriously, the vl11. ..~ . 
of the hinjierland obviously do not, in many cas.s, • 
drinkiug water, and what they do get is of poor qu~l 
No~ally, no-one would dream of.dr1nk1ng the 
in pots and drums off a thatched roo~ - but 
other hamlets it was stated that aD7thiaS 
be drunk in time of thirst. 
17. 
water in same places is coconut milk; this is not much used p 
partly owing to prejudice, but mainly because coconuts are 
a source of income . 
water itself may be bought in the dry seasono In 
many cODIDUni ti es there is no regular s'ystem of payme nt p but 
the wat'er~carrier would always be rewarded with a dasho In 
others there are standard rates of payment. In the area of 
shortage, the usual price was 1/= a kerosene ting (four 
gallOns), but the highest was 1/6 (in Dzogadze). 
(D) Water Use 
A standard text-book .for the tropics says~ 
Vthe minimum amount of water for which provision 
should be made is 15 = 25 gallons per head per dayo+ 
This will provide enough for all domestic purposes. 
It would be fair to take a few gallons off the figure . for 
total average consumption, since waEilLng and bathing are 
often done by the water-side, but ten gallons per head per 
day _would be a not unreasonable figure to Bet up as a 
standard for water to be consumed in tl}e cCi!'lpound ' in Tongu = 
particularly since pigs, sb eep and pou:J,.try 'have to share ,. in 
what is fetched. (The average consumption on which urban 
water supplies for the, _G91d Coast are calculated is 11en gallons 0 ) 
All the Survey teams asked questions about actual water 
consumption within thec-ompound, and by finding out w~ieh 
persons fetched water, and how often, and ~hat receptacles 
they used, it was possible to arrive at the amount brought in 
to any giveri household ° , In cases where drinking,water was 
brought in, or stored separately from non=drinking wat~r, the 
amount used f or each purpose could be calculated; but in many 
cases no d1f'ferentiation was possible. The results obtained 
were: 
Average consumption of water in gallons per day per head 
Lagoon and Drinking Non- Undif'f'er= Gross 
River Areas Water Drinking entiated Avera8:e 
Volo 1.1 209 4 
Aveyime 1.8 302 308 4.3 
Battor 1.8 209 ,407 
Mepa 1.7 2.8 309 4.2 
.,; 
Areas awa~ from 
River 
Mafi Kumasi 3·3 5.7 901 9 
Mafi Anfoe 204 508 5.3 604 
Averase for 
all Areas 
1.9 3.7 5 ,4 503 
San1tation_(2nd ed; London, 1949) 
It will be noticed that the average consumption ~~ears 
higher in the inland areas; this is because it 1s less easy 
to bath at a water=hole than in the river or a Iagoono It 
will llso be noticed that the average ~or drinking water 
~al1s considerably below text..,book standard p and tbat the 
sross average only approaches the standard ten=gallon· level 
in one caseo 
Even in areas where water 1s not short p the average 
quantity brought into the compounds is smalIo There 1s a 
reason for this, in that every ~our or six gallons involves 
a journey ~or s~mebodyp and even those villages with a per..anent 
water supply may be a ~air distance away ~rom ito The following 
~1gu~eB for distances ~rom s~ppl~ may. be o~ interestg 
Aver~ge d1stanc~ fram vill~ge to creek used for 
all purposes 000 000 2.,746 paces 
Aver~ge dist.~ce ~rom village to drinking water 
sources in lagoon area 000 740 " 
Aver~ge distance ~rom village to non~drinking 
~ater sources in lagoon area 000 645 
Average distance ~rom village to drinking water " 
sources in inland area (wet season) ' 000 457 " 
Average distance from village to non-drinking 
wate~ sources in inland areas (wet season) 417 If 
(E) The Question of Quality 
The quality of water in use is generally not satisfactory, 
either in the lagoon villages or in the townships of the 
hinterland areanorth of the Vol tao Water is clearly the 
source of much disease; the incidence of bilharzia in the 
villages relying on lagoons, and of guineaworm in those ~e~ng 
on water=holes p have already been described p and other ailments 
exist which are probably traceable to watero Diarrhoea and 
dysenterY9 for example p were speci~ically mentioned in ten of 
the villages concernedo 
The necessary equipment was not available to take 
samples for bacteriological analysis~ but a general chemical 
analysis was mad~ by Mro Ro Hulme p BoSco p II:;;A~'g O'f"~h-etDep"r_ent of 
Chemistry9 UniverSity College of the Gold Coast9 rOll' over 50 
samples of wa~er used by various villageso He writes: 
(a) The total solid gives the weight of all substances 
present . in the water (organic and inorganic) irres-
pective of their physical fonno The figures have 
been obtained by evaporating down 50 cc of each of 
the waters to dryness at temperatures of 150 ~ 200 
Cent1gra~eo 
(b) The chloride content has been deter.m1ned by 
titrating 50 cc portions of each of the waters 
N/3505 silver nitrate using a dichromate . 
Very high values indicate pollution from 
the sea or sewage, but wouid not necess 
the water unmankable if measurea are 
bacteria. . 
19. 
(d) The pH (acidity or alkalinity) of all the waters 
has been measured, and is sensibly constant at 
neutrality. 
The results are tabulated below. The values for the 
Achimota water supply have been given to afford a standard 
of comparison, and a6 the samples had to be analysed rapidly 
and the results can only be looked on as approximate, the 
limits of accuracy are also given ~ 
Total Chloride Resist-Solid ance 
Limits of Accuracy +40 ppm +2 · ppm +0.2 3 
Achimota Water Supply 130 4'0 -0.9 x 10 
(1) Water Holes Village Total Solid Chloride 
Resist~ 
~ 
Agorvu 
Dirty Alorsekofe 3200 26 
Gbetorvu 
Stained Alorsekofe 2200 24 
Vudogobo 
Cloudy with 
smell Kutime 1520 11 
Agorvevu 
Cloudy Klukpo 1440 26 
Vuga 
Cloudy Kpezegblo 1380 20 
Fiegavu 
Stained and 
slightly c10uQy Sasekpe 1380 19 
Semanuta 
Stained and 
slightly cloudy Atsiemfo 1100 
Devu 
Cloudy with 
smell Anfoe 820 40 
Dedeke 
Cloudy A10rsekofe 700 34 
Mewuvu 
Stained and 
cloudy Mebiawe 700 18 
Gble~te 
Cloudy Mediage 660 19 
Amegavu 
Slight stain Tsawala 620 17 
Agodovu 
Slightly cloudy Kpedzegblo 600 43+ 2.1 
Azadavu 
Slightly cloudy Gbalave 520 29 206 
An:f'oe 
Slightly cloudy Anfoe 500 1,7 303 
Vuga 
Cloudy with 
smell 000 Kutime 480 26 
Jtodavu 
Cloudy 00 0 Jlaf'i Kumas i 460 22 
1ta 
1Iaf'1 Jtumas1 420 21 L8 
400 14 401 
206 
I" 
20. 
(1) Water Holes Village Total Chloride Resist -Solid .!!!£! 
Amezugbevu 
Cloudy with 
smell Kutime 360 15 2.5 
Yevunuvu 
Slightly cloudy Kporduwla 340 18 4~0 
Husorvu 
Stained Avakpedome 340 58+ 1.5 
Adavu 
Stained but 
clear Dzogadze 280 15 1.8 
Gborlavu 
Clear Zongo 220 9 5.7 
Vuga 
Clear Asierkpe 200 12 4.0 
Dekpor 
Clear Zongo 160 15 307 
Sakp1t1kot'evu 
-Clear ... Sakp1 tikot'e 100 16 200 
(2) Creeks, 
Lagoons and 
Ponds 
Vlekoe 
$tained and 
cloudy Aviloko 2800 21 400 x 103 
Kapa 
Stained and 
cloudy Lu takorlekafe 1480 25 2.0 
Avakpetor 
Stained and 
sligh tly cloudy Meyimpor 800 17 4.5 
Korlor 
Stained and 
cloudy Nutekpor/ 720 17 700 
Gezele 
Klagoe 
Slightly cloudy Dove 560 18 204 
Ts  imor torvu 
Slightly cloudy Fakpoe 480 31 106 
Luta 
Clear 0.0 Lutakorlekcf'e 280 11 4.5 
Le 
Slightly clouCW Lengu 260 15 4.0 
Aklakpa 
Stained but clear (except t'or much coarse suspended matter) 
Dadome 240 18 
Avilo 400 
·a-lightly cloudy Avil~ko 220 
Dzanyigo 1,4 6.0 
Clear 000 Awusav1ko:fe/ 220 13 3.0 
Avedo 
ICe 
Clear AIIledulkor 160 
Torylboe 
Clear ~ 0 0 Ma:f'l Dugame 
Amedui 
Slightly c1oucJ.y 
Aklamador 
a leal! 
2~0 
Total 
( 3) Rock Pools Village Chloride Resist= Solid 
~ 
Amekpe 
Cloudy with 
smell Mediage 380 15 Ll 
Vuga 
Stained but 
clear o 0 0 Sa;?ekpe 200 13 L5 
Sasekpe 
Clear o 0 0 Sasekpe 180 10 502 
Yorkpe 
Clear Maf'l Kumas i 140 10 205 
Kpevudo 
Stained Dadogbui 120 12 400 
Kpedzegblo 
Stained Kpedzegblo 100 8 700 
Akpokphor 
Clear with 
slight sediment Maf'i Kumasi 100 10 200 
Tsamavu o 0 0 Tsakpo 100 16 300 
Avakpetor 
Sparkling 000 Avakpedome 70 12 500 
Now two of the f'irst criteria for wholesome drinking 
water are that it should be without taste g smell or colour g 
and that it should not contain an undue amount of' solid 
constituentso Most of' the supplies analysed above are 
unwholesome on both counts 0 Only about one=thlrd of' all types 
of' source are listed as vclear~o With regard to solid matter g 
it can be seen that only two out of' the 28 water~holes 
approximate to the Achimota standard p and it should be pointed 
out that one of' these two (Sakpitfkof'evu) has not been 
disturbed for a long time p as the hamlet it served has died 
outo The remaining 26 contain ~ high proportion of' SOlid 
matterg and the indication ' of' the third column is that it is 
largely organico Of the 16 lagoons and pondsl> only f'ive 
approached the Achimota standard in \ the proportion of' solid 
mattero Rock=pools seem on the whole the most satisf'actory 
type of' source g since they are f'reer f'rom solid impurities and 
have a lower average chloride contento ~ 
There is a ' general dislike of' using water wi thdirt 
suspended in it; s~me supplies g wh~ch are obviously thick 
with solidparticles p being reserved f'or building purposes g 
or f'or animal so In additionp some custOmB p whether by accident 
or design p help to avoid too much stirring up of' impurities in 
the drinking sourceo For ins~ancep Havenuo and other villages 
have a custom .~hat every f'ourth daY9 corresponding with Xeta 
market daY9 should be observed as an Af'enoegbe or resting day, 
when no=one is aJ.lowed to fetch water from Yorkpej t.his gives 
sediment time to settleo Moreover it was claimed that ' ~n 
several villages it is customary to clean out certain sources 
at the end of' the dry seasono 
Many villages have no latrine p acting on the optimistic 
notion that ~our pigs are our sanitary labourers~o There is 
thus no guarantee that elimination will take place at a 
onable distance from the waterp and urination near streams 
water=sources seams to be commonplace 0 This could 
contribute to the apreading of bilharzia and various 
In addition, the pigs themaelves may be seen 
iit the If-.tero 
22. 
Even those villages which do have some kind of sanitary 
provision often fall far below a reasonable standard. This 
is a description by one Survey member of the public latrine 
of a village with oyer 600 people: 
fA broken wail, rotten roof with holes, and cannot 
keep out rain. It is filled to the brim and 
yet in use. Both men's and women's are situated 
in one place a few paces from each other. Women's 
latrine is not roofed, and a grass fence is made 
round .i, t. ' 
Another habit which encourages the spread of disease, 
particularly guineaworm, is that of wading into the water to 
fill a pot or tin. In only very few cases is there any 
proper approach to a water-hole or lagoon, and. women thus 
have no op~ion but to walk ight into the water. Up till 
now there has been no understanding of the dangers of thiS, 
both in spreading guineaworm and contracting bilharzia. 
RECOJ4J4ENDATIONS arising out of Chapter III 
It is clear that the water situation in Tongu is 
fundamental ~ a serious social problem in itself, quite apart 
from its effects on the areavs economic life. As a result 
of the Survey, considerable thought has been given to the 
question of wnat might be done on the local level in the way 
of palliatives, and a number of recommendations may here be 
mentioned. There are two aspects of the problem: what 
may be done to improve the quality of existing supplies, and 
what may be done to increase the quantity. 
To take the question of quality first. It is B1 ggested 
that an onslaught on sanitary conditions should be made by 
Local Councils, as a first step towards breaking the bilharzia 
cycle and preventing general contamination of _wa~.er ,sources. 
The provision of latrines is someihi~ which should ~ot 
strain the resources . of either Council; it r~quires energy 
rather tlJ.an money, and the help of the Sanitary Inspectors 
-may be sought. Latrines can be dug by communa~ labour, and 
the Councils' part would b~ confined to persua.ion and the 
provision of same building materials. The District Develop-
ment Committee might give consideration to requests for 
building latrines before all other requests for assistance, saTe 
only those for the sinking of wells and building of water 
tanks. Larger communities should be given priority consider-
ation, and should be followed by small market centres, such as 
Avedo (which had no public convenience at all at the time or 
·the ~urvey). . 
stimulus to the construction of good latrines 
given by the Councils' making some other serTice c 
on the existence wi thin the village of 'a good .......... '. . 
definite specifications should be aTailable 
Poor transport facilities make bucket latr~. ••I .; 
proposition in most places, and uauall7 
more practicable. Pita shou~d 
a ide. should be reintorced 
ahould be c oyered w1 th • 
than 
a plan to get his teams to concentrate for some months 
on latrine=bu11d1ng and the boiling and filtering of drinking 
watero It should be remembered that instruction on water 
treatment will be unsuccessful if confined to meaningless 
precepto Mass education workers must themselves set an 
example by always asking for boiled waters and everything must 
be done to induce a real faith in its valuep rather than a 
mere verbal assent p which leaves untouched the real springs of 
actiono A small travelling exhibition might be arranged p 
including peeps through a microscope at water swarming with 
repellent bacteriao Without the aid of such visual evidence 
it is difficult to convince people in any part of the world 
of the existenc-e of harmful agencies in clear=looking watero 
The prestige of central and regional Government could be 
thrown into the scale if the Government Agents were to emphasise 
the importance of proper latrines and water treatment on any 
visit ~o a villageo 
But more valuable than the attitude of outsiders to 
water would be the example of the local literateso All too 
often p a teacher p after giving ~ hygiene lesson p will himself ' 
act in direct con~ravention of the prinCiples h~ has just been 
te~chingoThis is a problem not confined to the Tongu area 9 and 
by no means easy to solveo Bu t _sometl].i~g must be done to 
make teachers and children act according to the pr~nciples of 
hygleneo For examplepthe Local Councils might announce a 
prize to the school which best kept to the rul~s of hygiene by 
faithful use of latrines and baaing of water during a whole 
termo 
It is especially important to enlist the help of all 
influential people in the community 0 The clergy can be asked 
to give practical advice to their congregations p .as well as 
setting a personal example 0 Again p if chiefs and headmen p even 
fetish priests p can be convinced of the need to boil and filter 
waterp their pronouncements would carry weight with many 
peopleo (The senior fetish priest of Mafi Divisionp for examplep 
showed a genuine understanding that bad water produced diseaseo) 
The second problem is that of quantityo As already 
described p the most usual measure attempted by the local people 
has been the digging of shallow water=holeso Their limited 
size conduces to constant stirring up of impurities by the 
water=fetchers 9 and also it appears that guineawonn flourishes 
better in small holes than in large areas of watero The 
Councils p therefore p should do nothing at all to encourage the 
digging of these shallow holeso Moreover p once alternative 
water supplies are provided 9 they should ensure' that water= 
holes are filled inp and not left to breed mosquitoes and other 
harmful organisms 0 • 
A second method of increasing water supplies is the 
digging of wellso The Regional Administration has received a 
report from the Director of Geological Survey which suggests 
that in only a small area are Qcarefully sited deep wells Q? 
likely to be productiveo The Distdct Development Committee p 
therefo~ep sho~ld be very care~l to refer to geological advice 
giving grants for wellso Where wells are feasible p 
,;: ,.. ., . ....' .. ou.ncUs should take sui table measures to see that 
~,~~~~ted, eogo by providing a fence round the well~ 
a number of shallow wells g 
gneiss running from 
What other possibilities are there' One is the 
provision or rainwater tanks. Several communities have a 
school with a metal roor p and the Councils might build 
tanks to catch the rain orr the school roor. Ir proper 
gutter1ng is not available, it can be cheaply made by a 
local blacksmith rrom a rew metal roofing sheets. In order 
to prevent pollution from the washing down or bird and 
animal droppings during the rirst rains g there should be a 
small intermediate tank to catch the rirst washings, and the 
pipe leading to the main tank should be at a high enough 
level to take only the overflow when the first tank is rull; 
thus all the sediment~ deposited in the first tank. This 
rirst tank ~ay simply be an old petrol drum. The larger the 
tank p the better, rrom the pOint of view of increasing 
supplies, but advice should be sought from the Department of 
Rural Wa~er Development on what size and shape takes the 
greatest strain with the minimum of expense on materials. 
The Council should be able to recoup the cost of such a tank 
by charging a very small fee, similar to the Mediage rate. 
Storage tanks may be a great help to a small community, 
but obviously they are only reasible in villages which have 
a road approaching them p and at least one public building 
with a roof made or imported materials. 
In one or two or the larger tcwnships p transporting of 
water from the nearest large source may well be the only . 
possibility a Local Council can consider. In Adidome p for 
example, it has been shown that about 900 miles~worth of 
human energy is expended daily on fetching water ~ energy which 
could have been used in far.ming p fishing or other constructive 
ways. Clearlys it would be useful to have some kind of 
organised means or bringing water to such a town. The Local 
Council might make a commercial proposition out of th1s p 
since the idea of payment is not new. In Adidome, for 
example, the standard rates at the time or the Survey were 
2d. a pot for river=water, or ~4d. for a 44~gallon drum 
on Tuesdays and Fridays (market days); while for water for 
animals to drink the rate was 4d.for 20 gallons. 
Only one other mode of increasing the quantity of 
water available could be practicable through local effort. 
mhat is the making of dams, such as are encouraged in certain 
parts of the Northern Territories; they are inexpensive, 
can be achieved by communal labour p and afford benefit to the 
livestock owner. However, Government geologists pOint out 
that the topography of Tongu is not favourable to dam-building. 
In summary then p as far as Local Councils are concerned p 
it may be said that they have a _large part to play in 
improving the quality and making the best of existing wat~~ 
supplies. They need, however, the co-operation of the DAn.~~~~. 
ment of Social Welfare and Community Development. Incre 
the quantity of water available is hardly withln local 
in most cases. 
Other ways of providing more 
on by central Government. In the 
might be useful In a few p1aceB, 
But the black-Boll areas 
are unsuitable for bore~holeso An alternative might be 
the excavation of strictly con~rolled large ponds to ' serve 
as reservoirs g and Mro loGo Hughes of the Geological Survey 
Department writes~ 
QIn those areas where ponds are the only 
solution to the problem~ these must be fenced 
in and draw~off arrangements should be fitted 
to prevent pollutiono The provision of shade 
is important, and in my opinion its value 
outweighs the harm done by decaying leaveso 
In this context p I can only endorse the 
call for the education of the people in the 
principles of hygiene oooQ 
The construction of fences and draw=off arrangements 
would prevent livestock using the same supply as that 
intended for human consumption p but there are still certain 
health problems produced by the existence of ponds (or 
indeed reservoirs behind dams)o Large water surfaces tend 
to woo disease=bearing insectsgand bilharzia too i-s a danger 0 
However, with the help of central Government agencies~ 
these di~iculties may be alleviatedo As in the Northern 
Territorles p the Fishe-ries DepartmentQs help may be enlisted 
in stocking the wa~ers with fish to keep down insectso 
Failing the provision of fishp then Local Oouneil employees 
might be instructed in methods of spraying, so that Councils 
could carry this out as a control measure twice yearlyo 
Then p the Department of Agriculture might be asked to help 
with the supply of ducksg to villages using ponds or other 
reservoirs; ducks are useful in keeping down bilharzia, since 
they kill the fresh=water snails which carry bilharzia 
parasiteso 
Only Government could carry out a comprehensive 
programme of excavating ponds of the type envisaged, and 
only the resources of Government could face the contemplation 
of some even more costly and far-reaching scheme, such as 
the pumping-up of water from the Volta p to be piped down from 
the Abutia hillso On human grounds, Government expenditure 
in aSSisting to provide water is easily justifiedo Whether 
any large ex~enditure is economically worthwhile depends on 
material. . considerations 0 Would more and better water 
enable Tongu to contribute apprecia~y more to the economy 
of the Gold Coast? That is the next question to be consideredo 
CHAPTER IV ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS 
The aim here is to give a general outline of the main 
economiC activities, including fishing and fanl1ing~ and in 
eabh case to see if water problems have reacted on them in any 
wayo Fossible lines of economic development will be discussed, 
in connection with the second main problem of the area, 
communications 0 
(A) Fishing 
the lagoon and river villages, small boys start 
to fish at the age of seven or eight, and they 
to work seriously in pairs when they are 15 or 16 
t men caatinue fishing as long as they have 
that in Degorme P'iakofe only 
bed as being 9beyond fishing 
Yo'.mg men migrating to other areas to :fish :for the 
first time will buy their e~uipment on arrival, and this 
probably means resorting to the money-~endero Prices of 
fish in the North were often described as 'good', but sellers 
are in a fiercely competitive positiono In order to avoid 
the ups and downs of the market, fishermen get their w1ves 
to smoke and preserve the fish, so that it can be Bold out 
of season. The disadvantage of this is that some families 
ha'Te to remain in the North, processing and selling out of 
season p during periods when they would normally be back in 
the villages tending their farms and getting basic food 
supplies storedo 
The men who fiah at home often eke out only a marginal 
existence. They fish either in the'Volta, or in the creeks 
and lagoons? the season being the low-water period from 
February to ~lay. Methods used include fence~traps, basket~ 
traps~ netS g and hook and line fishingo A fisherman may 
make free use of the Volta, but creeks and lagoons are 
regard'3d as the :rrop':l!'ty of those whose lands run along3ide 
their bounds g or else of a part::'el'.l3.t' village on th.e. bank. 
The owners let out f'ishing rights by the seaeon; a .typical 
seaaon 9 s fees a~ tgbetsikpo we~e 1280 for dropping a line, 
258 , for ca.sting a net~ and 50so f'or erecting a fence~trapo 
In some creeks in the Aveyime area it is the custom f'or t.he 
lessee to pay over as rent on~~third of his season 9 s catch. 
There is considerable bitterness between some villages 
over the ownership of f'ishing rights, and in Iarticular 
ever the Ke LagooD~ which is at the moment in the charge 
of the Tronua Gbenuor at Doveo The Government has recognised 
his position as chief' of Dove, while t.he Fiaga of l'=~fi, and 
consequer.tly mauy of' his subjects, have r.oto 
Catches of' fish fU:-e so2d to wcmen g who may be Nigerians 
oX' Kr·ooos g or- Tongu.:!. It is not uncW1llon f'Olc u f'ishern:an 
tQ sell to l1i03 wif'eo 'l'her-e 18 always a sale f'or f'lsh, and. 
it is in damand all 0ver .the Tongu ar'es, being scld in the 
markets such as lwiafi Kumssi and Adidome g .supple.ment.ed with 
8ea=f'ish brought in from Ketao Half the hinterland villages 
mentioned fish as a common importo A certain proportion of' 
the catch is marketed f'urther afield, of'ten passing through 
Akuse en route for Accra, Kof'oridua and Kumasi. 
The inaccessibility of' the Tongu area, the unorganised 
position of' the sellers, end their ignorance of market 
conditions, prevent them f'rom getting good prices 'for their 
fish. Since f'ew buyers come into the area, the villagers are 
only too glad to get rid of' their surplus, md middlemen 
appear in the villages at the end of' the selling 
purchase large ~uantit1es of' f'ish at low priceso 
fishermen who have their fish tak~n to Akuse, 
and canoe, are no better of'f'o Buyers know 
di~ficulty with which goods have been b 
they understand the reluctance Wi th which 
them home unsoldo 
hours a day ~ except when they are undergoing monthly 
periods, and on other 'tabu' occasions 0 In Volo it is 
~tabuO to collect 'oysters' every fourth dayg though 
other occupatiQns, such as farming g may be freely indulged 
ino 
The women's catches are generally sold to middlemen from 
Krobo, who come to the women's encampments or to the nearest 
markets, and buy in panfuls valued in a regular scale between 
Iso and £10 The price of shell~fish seemed low in comparison 
to the effort involved and the women appear ,to be in an even 
weaker selling position than their men p since the demand is 
not so great and the fish are not so easily preserved 0 No 
social organisation was found among either fishermen or divers 
to compare with the company system of the coast, which ~ends 
to protect the sellers' interests to some extent 0 At present g 
the average yield of a seasonQ s Qoyster' catch is between 
£20 and .£3.00 
The supply 01: wat-er is clearly a major factor de-termining 
the supply of fish caught in the area, both for local 
consumption and for sale further afieldo The peo~le themselves 
show continual anxiety about water :flow, and in many of the 
creek -villages wat-er ri tea are not concerned directly with 
personal water needs but rather with a flow to enhance the 
supply of fisho Only one example was encountered during the 
Survey where the shortage of water for consumption interfered 
directly with fishing~ 
~ Wes t of' Ahunda there is a pond called F-eda~ 
which in the old days was dammed and then drained 
of water to make the fish easy to geto When 
this is exhausted, there is no other water in 
the area, so fishing there has now been stoppedo 
Fram the village to the River Aklakpa, the only 
~lternative, is more than four mileso' 
The great problems of fishermen at the moment are those of' 
indebtedness, marketing and the over~fi8hing of the large 
lagoons, such as Keo 
Fishermen and the Volta River Project 
There are several benefits which riverside fiShing 
villages might derive from the Project, and t~e people them-
selves showed some awareness of themo A go~d deal of ~ope 
was expressed that the Yolta Project would employ labourers 
from Tongu, enabling men to find 10ng~Bo~ght employment 
within reasonable distance of their homes o 
If' the floW of' water below the dwn is maintained at a 
constant level, this should help to banish salinity from the 
river water, and to reduce ~he annual damage to crops and 
erosion of townships brought about by uncontrolled f'loodso 
Oet against these, there are certain very !teal d1ft'i~ 
eul ties --which -the 'fishers are likely to incur, and which 'Will 
Deed exceedingly careful investigationo During the first 
atter the building of' the dam, the gradual piling up 
waters behind it will present the migrant f1she~en 
change in the shape of' their old fishing 
eh "7 aftect both catches and moraleo 
below the dam will also 
lems mus t be solved 0 
$ource of iivel1-
the fiahingt 
28. 
And can new arrangements be made about water supplies, 
in order to replace the deteriorating creek supplies? 
(B) Orop Farming 
Most families in Tongu produce at least some o~ 
their own food o In almost every village, even those with 
the poorest SOil, cassava is grown and is the main staple, 
eaten in various forms» cooked ~resh, dried and made into 
porridge (kokontekple), or processed into °gari'. In 
infertile places the quality is poor; ~or example, in the 
Volo area it was reported that 
9~00d is cooked cassava» very hard and pale 
yellow in colour. This kind o~ cooked cassava 
is not eaten in places where the soil is ~ertile 
and the cassava is so~t and white when cooked.' 
There is a certain transit trade in cassava and gari by 
the river route p and in fact cassava is both exported and 
imported by all the market villages in Tongu. People seem 
to recognise the inadequacy and monotony of a diet founded 
on cassava, and try to vary it by buying groundnuts and 
cocoyams for frying. Women from the fishing villages exchange 
their wares for plantain from Akuse, which they either fry 
or boil. 
The other most widely~grown crops are maize and 
grou~dnuts, gr6undnuts being grown in 47 villages out of 60, 
and .maize in 46. Groundnuts in_particular are exported to 
Accr~on lorries from Adidome market. The soil is onIy 
suitable for yams round Mafi Kumasi. And thus only 16 
villages were found raising them, all lying in or near that 
area. Water-yams and cocoyams too are more or less confined 
to the hinterland. 
The Fiaga of Mafi pointed out that the Mafi Kumaai 
district is the whole Division's crop supplier, and indeed I 
it is the most fertile strip of land to be found in the 
combined territory of both Local Councils. The geological 
explanation for this is that the underlying gneiss runs in 
a belt of coarse grain, and the soil itsel~ is therefore 
coarse and well-drained. 
On this propitious soil, a wide variety of crops 
flourish. Besides the staples already mentioned, the Survey 
recorded ri,ce, bambara nuts, pigeon peas, beans, t 1gernu ts; 
tomatoes, garden eggs, onions, okro, pepper; oil palms, 
coconuts» avocado pears, pawpaws, and pineapples. Same of 
these find their way northwards to markets such as Ho and 
Tsito. Others are sold in Mafi Kumasi itsel~, in Adidane, 
Soganko~e and other Tongu markets. Rice has a speciali7 
sale, and, like groundnuts, is exported via Adidome to 
Accra. Only two crop ~ailures were report~d to ,the 
one in 1938 owing to locusts, and the other in 
to maize rust. 
The existence of a district 
yields, tied by history and 
80i1 s only support the 
fOB 
may eat some of what they produce, but they sell a 
sufficient surplus to pay for various imported goods, whereas 
the fishermen and live~stock owners in other places cannot 
produce all that they require to eat and have to pay for 
their sustenance by sale of fish and animals. 
Apart from food crops, a little cotion was found 
growing in some of the villages around Mafi Kumasi, but 
interest in this has fallen away recently. The 'aggor' palm 
also formed part of the vegetation, and this can be split 
into light balks useful for roofing. 
The Mafi Kumasi area is already relatively well 
populated, but there is a large extent of uncultivated land. 
Inevitably, the present population and its farms are huddled 
round the water sources; the small outlying settlements 
suf'fer very heavily from water shortage in the dry season, 
which impedes further cultivationo 
(c) Hunting _ 
The hunting season runs f'rom December to April and 
animals found near the Mafi Kumasi village~ include small 
antelope, guineapigs, squirrels, hares, wild pigs, partridge 
and guineafowl. Hares s~em to prevail right down to Sogankofe 
on the north bank of the river, end several may be seen on 
the Sogankofe~Adidome road any night. It was said that 
monkeys were also plentiful in the whole of the hinter'land; 
the village of Tove complained of monkeys as a serious nuisance 
to farmerso 
In addition, on the South bank ot' the Volta, especially 
round the Ke Lagoons there are numerous snakes. The people 
kill puft'~adders and pythons and sell their skins to Rausa 
traders. Only two haunts of crocodiles were mentioned p the 
Aklakpa and Dzanyigo Creeks; but allover Tongup being 
bitten by crocodiles is one of the f'avourite penalties assigned 
in popular imagination to persons breaking any of the water 
tabus. 
(D) Livestock 
As elsewhere in the Gold Coast,' amali domestic animals 
are to be f'ound in most villages. The one curious exception 
/was Dove on the Ke Lagoon, where the f'etish is said to 
'hate' live-stock and especially the process of' birth (even 
women must leave the town to bear their children). ln 
addition, one or two villages in the prosperous crop~farming 
belt said that they had abandoned keeping sheep and goats, 
because of the damage done to unfenced crops. 
Domestic fowls are widely kept, but the numbers owned 
by each compound are low. Throughout the area, six to ten 
chickens was as many as any individual would keep • . Ducks, 
~rkeys, guineaf'owl and pigeons are sometimes kept. Ducks 
are to be f'ound in lagoon villages, like Aviloko, and also in 
some of the prosperous hinterland settlements. Turkeys and 
afowl are, of most interest to places on the South bank 
Volta, ranging from Tsurukpo to Maf'i DUgame, because 
U~".~'D~as trade with Accra. Pigeons are a speciality 
where grain can be spared to feed 
D.ogadze they are kept in 
are fa'taled in BllBII basket-
30. 
With the exception or these pigeons, domestic birds 
roam about the village, picking up scraps and water where 
they can. Several villages complained that they lost birds 
in the dry season and it seems likely that heat exhaustion 
is the cause, aggravated by thirst, since it is not customary 
to provide water specially ror fowls. Actual disease is 
also a cause, and more than one village described the 
symptoms or Newcastle disease, and asked if there was any 
way or averting it • 
. Sheep and goats are a commonplace in the area, but in 
spite of the complaints about damage to crops, villages in • 
the Mari Kumasi area seem to own the largest numbers. There 
is no doubt at all that these animals suffer in times of 
drought and water shortage. Their pots are not always filled, 
and the quality of the water they drink is bad. Consequently 
in all the villages where there is no regular water-supply,~re 
were reports that their animals died. As it was pOignantly 
put by the headman at Atsiemfo: vWe were having about 100 
sheep and goats. Owing to the scarcity of water, they all 
died away.' The biggest mortality is arter the rirst rains, 
when animals who have survived on insufficient water gorge 
themselves over-greedily when at last they find sufricient 
to drink. 
Pigs are often kept as scavengers, and in same cases for 
export to Accra, but there were no complaints that they 
were troubled by drought. 
An interesting feature is the increasing number of 
cattle being kept in the area. The Department of Animal 
Heal th conduc ts periodical comprehensive cattle censuses, 
and their figures show a remarkable expansion. Cattle-rearing 
is still new enought for some or its beginnings to be 
remembered; for instance, it was stated at Adidome that 'zebu 
cattle' were only introduced into the area arter the First 
World War. 
Cattle-rearing appears to be a profitable enterprise, 
and large herds are owned by some individuals, or kept in 
tzust by them for family-groups. Grazing rights are obtainable 
at a very small cost. Until recently, in the Upper Tongu 
Local Council territory, grazing rights in perpetuity could 
be acquired by the presentation or one cow ~rom the herd; 
now the Council is attempting to rix a yearly charge for 
such rights. Herds are generally kept by Fulani herdsmen, 
who establish themselves in small cattle-re~ring villages 
(witness the name Awusavikofe - small Hausa farming v~llage), 
and are paid in kind, usually in milk, to the detriJBen" . 
of the calves. Only in the Battor area do local inhabitants 
Beem to take part in the actual work of herding, ana it is 
an indication of the way they have assimilated a 
economY that milk is often drunk; in Agbet8itpo 
customary to give it to the children. 
The best grazing Erounda are to 
and a town on the south bank, like ~""""'-.. lII 
animals to the far aide. Cattl 
traders a~ the age of ••Y ~"'±" 1iN 
the price of .. 
aish" 
31. 
Disease is one hazard o~ the cattle~rearing industr y , 
for example, at Nutekpor, near Volo, most o~ the cattle 
were wiped out in 1952p ~nd the rearers returned to their 
homes. The work o~ the Department of Animal Health in 
recent years hasp however p minimised the danger o~ , some o~ 
the most deadly d, iseases. 
,\ 
Water shortage de~initely bulked as the largest 
single problem ~acing owners. The greatest number of 
animal deaths occur in the dry season~ between December and 
April. Moreover p out o~ 30 cattle~rearing communities 
inve6tigated~ no less than 12 are ~orced to keep their 
beasts at a distance ~rom the village in ord~r to ensure them 
water. The only alternative is to keep them close at hand 
and subject the~ to continual long trips in search o~ water 
during dry weatheri~ people in Gbalave asserted thatp as 
they had to take their animals regularly ten miles to the 
Volta durlng the dry season p many o~ the young ones ~lagged 
and died. There is inevitably an unhealthy concentration 
o~ animals round the main water~sources during the dry season p 
and this puts overmuch pressure on the grazing near them. 
Four villages stated that they would like to keep cattle 
i~ they could be sure o~ water ~or themp and people in M~i 
Kumas i s aid that they would keep many more cat tl e i~ only 
more water were available. 
(E) Other Aspects o~ Economic Development 
Mineral resources appear to be very poor in Tongu. 
Some rock-samples were re~erred to Dr. W. Bruckner, o~ the 
Department o~ Geology, University College o~ the Gold Coast. 
He writes: . 
lIdo not belieye that any o~ these rocks or 
soils is o~ economic importance. The gneisses 
may be use~ul as building stones, ~or garden 
walls~ pathsp pavements and as road or railway 
ballast. I think some rocks may be Batis~actory 
~or quarrying. Such material is, however p 
common ' all over the Accra plains. The laminated 
granite~gneiss may be used for the Bame purposes p 
though it is less decorative and probably breaks 
easily into small splinters. The quartz is 
usually condensed in a stone layer under the top 
soils and distributed over the whole o~ the Accra 
plains. One might think o~ glass~making from it, 
but as far as I can remember, there should not be 
any ' iron oxide_ _i n glass quartz p and this substance 
is always present in the quartz stone layer. Alao 
its thinness may prevent an economic quarrying. 
The "clay" samples ~romKudita and Gborko~e are 
very sandy and certainly no good for pottery 
requiring very ~ine-grained clay." 
paper, Animal Health SurveY in Trans~Volta/Togoland, 
~~~, Mro RoCo Hutchinson emphaSises this d1~~iculty, and 
~~; ••~ gS that tit is quite common for a journey of seven 
\ m11ea in each direction to be necessary'. 
32. 
As regards export crafts, the most widespread is 
weaving, which was carried on in 23 of the villages visited. 
Of masculine crafts, smithing (particularly gold and 
silverwork) comes next, in importance, followed by basketry 
and net~making. Boat-making from the silkcotton tree is 
another natural craf~ for a fishing community, and is a 
traditional occupation at Mepe and Veme Adidokpuij bu~ i~ 
is usually carried out away from home. Other crafts which 
earn money for Tongu men are carpentry, building, stool-
making and wood-carving, aggor~beam splitting and pa1m-wine 
tapping. Corn-milling is met with in many of the crop 
centres, and cortain special occupations are met With in 
special placesj for example, lime~burning in Volo , the 
ITiaking of'shuttles and combs in the weaving villages, and 
mattress-making at Avekpedome. 
Female crafts include p f'irst in importance, gari and 
kokonte-making. This is followed by palm-oil and coconut-oil 
manufacture, also that of soap. Some pottery was mentioned 
to Survey teams 0 
(F) Trade and Communications 
There is no stimulus to increase production unless 
goods can be taken easily to market. The Survey found some 
f'lourishing markets in the area, particularly those at Mafi 
Kumasi, Adidane and Sogankof'ej while Sege holds an important 
position in the livestock trade with Accra. Several of the 
small markets in the district have had to close dowp owing to 
lack of' water to satisfy the needs of incoming traders. 
There are other markets outside Tongu, such as Ada and Akuse, 
which draw Tongu trade. But very many Tongu villages suf~er 
f'rom the absence of' any easy access to existing markets. 
A glance at tl e map will show that Tongu is an area of' 
poor communications . The main economic artery of the 
Conf'ederacy is the River Volta. .Short-distance travelling 
between villages is of'ten done by canoe, and the single UAC 
launch service plying between Ada and Akuse provides the means 
both of' communicating with other villages and of travelling 
out of the area. It carries both passengers and mails. 
Store goods are brought into the area, and fish and other 
local produce taken out, mainly by large sailing canoes. I~ 
is hardly coincidence that the riverside villages have been 
among ~e f'irst in the area to develop churches, schools, 
small trading stores, larger markets and ~mproved types 
of house~building. 
The f'urther one goes away from the river, the more 
important road communication becomes. The whole of Tongu baa 
the aspect of a no-man~s-land lying between ,wo highwaya 
to Accraj that from Ketap crossing the Volta a' S~~_J'A~~ 
Tefle, and that from Ho, cIOssing the Volta at 8au~u,~ 
Ho-Keta route passes to the east of Tongu, and the 
between the two Accra roads which passes throngh 
that between Ho and Sogankof'e. 'Thi. i. "he 
motorable road in Central Tongu. The ' 
section of thi. road had been new17 
the Survey, ,and ft. ~ou~ 
'proper culver,. 
Ad1daae 
33· 
There are two or three side~roads raying o~~ the 
main Ho.,.sogankofe on~. That passing to Maf1 Kumasi and 
ultimately to Waya, was the only one extensively used by 
lorry traf'fic. Many side-roads were in almost derelict 
condition, and dld not seem to be much used. Often they 
had been built in a burst of enthusiasm, but no provision 
had been made to maintain them. Government help had 
enabled a road to be started from Volo which was planned 
to run to Pore and join the main Ho-Accra road somewhere 
near Frankadua. Unfortunately, the stretch of good 
surface peters out after a few miles, as political 
differences continue to smoulder between Volo and its 
ne ighbou:rs • 
On the southern bank, a motorable track runs from 
Aveyime to the Acqra road at Sege. The surface varies 
greatly in quality, and ~s subject to flooding ,in the 
rains. This and the Ho.,.sogankofe road were the only two 
major communication lines which the Survey teams found, 
apart from the r~vero 
The people themselves are ~ well aware o~ the 
depressive effect on trade resulting from such a sparsi t y 
of outlets. Tongues recurred to the complaint as to a 
sox'e tooth. One group of people said: 'we find it 
difficult to transport our foodstuffs to where we can 
get good markets. Because of thiS, we are poor.~ In anoiher 
village, the exact analysis was given again: vWe find i' 
ver.y difficult to get our crops to the markets. As a resul~, 
our crops are bought at a very low price. i The migrant 
fishermen, who are only at home for a very short cropping 
season, are the chie~ sufferers from this state of affairs. 
Customers have to pay high ~rices for Euro~ean goods, 
owing to the difficulty of bringing them in from the large 
trading stores at Akuse, Ada and Keta, and the single one 
at Adidame. As a consequence, the range of imports into 
Tongu tends to be rather limited; the main foods are f'ish, 
salt, sugar, corn, flour, onions, and tinned meat; 
manufactured commodities are mainly confined to cloth, 
weaving yarna and fishing lines, tobacco, cigarettes and 
matches, kerosene and hurricane lamps, building materials, 
enamel ware, ani toilet articles of all kinds. It was hard 
to estimate the quantity of imported drinks, such as beer and 
gin, because much was evidently sold by un-licensed personse 
Markets as institutions suffer ~rom bad roads. Mafi 
Zongo was bound to feel a shrinkage of custom after the rise 
of the Mafi Kumasi market , with its far be tter poai tion for 
exporting rice and groundnuts and the far more FOpulous area 
behind ito But it need not have suffered such a ollapse 
as it has if the half-built road to link it with the Ho~ 
Adidome one had been completed aId extended to same of the 
neighbouring villagese It could then have attracted some of 
the lorries which at present take advantage of the Mafl Kumaai 
J'oad. . 
Postal communications are also poor. Mail services 
deal", wi"\h. b;y only a few Pes tal Agenc ies on the Vol ta 
Lack of roads has meant lack of delivery facilities 
terlaDd, and at the time of the Survey no Po*1. 
~a.re. ~e people of a 19orous school-
Mafi Kumasi h sa. to go 18 miles i 
~cu~~., but they were luckiar 
than the cluster o~ villages at the upper end o~ the 
Aklakpa creek which lie away ~rom both river ani road, and 
have an even more arduous journey to obtain letters. There 
are no telegraph lines at the momen. in the two Councils' 
areas, and telegrams have to wait ~or mail days ~or delivery. 
RECOMMENDATIONS arising out o~ Chapter IV 
The establishment o~ co~opera'ive selling organis-
ations for both ~ishermen and 'oyater9 d1vers ia deairable, 
in order to strengthen their bargaining ~owor; but the 
~iahing industry o~~e~s ~ew possibili'ies o~ develo~ent, 
particularly ip view o~ the uncertainties arising out o~ the 
Volta schemeo .' Alternative sources o~ livelihood are desirable, 
both to increase cash incomes, and to alleviate the social 
problems of migration f rom the villageso 
Industrial development is remote; the only possibility 
would be some exten&ion of the weaving industry 0 In view 
of the lack of success which attended the loDoCo 's ef~orts to 
expand th~ weaving industry in Avatime, there is room for 
caution about thiso The main problem here is marketing; 
traditional cloth in the Gold Coast is both heavier and more 
durable than imported textiles, ani therefore the demand for 
it is comparatively lowo 
The main prospects for Tongu seem to lie in the develop-
ment of ~armingp both ~ood crops and cattle rearingo For 
this, improved water supply is the ~irst priorityo I~ water 
shortage could be overcome, perhaps by building dams, the 
~ood growing area around Ma~i Kumasi might be extended; more 
groundnuts and rice, ~or example, might be produced for 
sale _to other parts of Tongu, to Accra and - in ~uture - Temao 
More important would be an increase in t he number o~ cattle 
kept 9 and if mixed farming were introduced, crop yields would 
thereby be further increasedo 
Here is to be ~ound _ the most pressing economic justi~ication 
for central Governmen t ecpendi tlJre on improyed water supplies 
in Tonguo The Gold Coast is still relying largely on meat 
imported on the hoof from French territoryo Any area closer 
at han~ which is able to supply more meat to the large towns 
is surely worthy of considerable help. Tongu, moreover, is 
close to Tema and to the whole area scheduled ~or development 
under the Volta Projecto When the inevitable influx of 
population to the Volta area begins to put pressure on the 
local food-supplies, there is serious danger o~ a steep rise 
in ~ood priceso 
Only if some good food-producing area is developed cloae 
at hand can this type of i~lation be avertedo Tongu 
appear 'to be one obvious area for the prOVision of 
to some extent of food-crops tooo More wa~er in 
mean more and better cattle, and hence more meat 
Terna, Kpong and Ajenao 
I~ water is given ~irst priority, 
are also essentialo Materials 
o~ the drilling r 
in without 
o~ the value o~ Adidome as a meeting-place between the Ada 
salt~producers, the Keta onion-farmers and sea-fishers, and 
the Mafi cro'p=growers; ang. they stressed the need o~ a 
really good road to sccOp in all the trade along the Ho-
Adidome routeo The present road was est~blished in the inter-
war period, and then it was common for the District Commissioner 
to visit the vanished rest-house at Kpedzegblo, the J 
traditional seat of the Fiaga of Mafi. But the deterioration 
of the road confirmed the decision of the Fiaga to move to 
Adidome. There is stil;l.a fear that history may repea' 
itself and that the present Ho-Adidcme road (at the moment 
none too easy going after rain) may be neglected again. 
At this point, it may be worth repeating a principle 
to which lip-service is often paid, but which nevertheless 
tends to be neglected in practice. The history of the Ho-
Adidome road confirms that it is a waste of effort to establish 
a road where there is no provision ~or maintaining ito If 
the existing Tongu roads are to be improved, and new roads 
driven through, funds ~or maintenance must be available from 
the start, unless the Government or one of the Councils can 
undertake their upkeep. Economic development cannot be 
success~ul, where there is no continuity in the standards o~ 
the communications system. 
The present lIo~Adidome road, converted into a gooa.-
class ~otorable road suitable for use throughout the year, 
would be the obvious backbone for _one or two carefully 
selected feeder reads, such as tmt now running to Mafi 
Kumasi. This would provide an outlet to north and to south, 
for both crops and livestock. If the food needs Qf the Volta 
Project are to be taken into consideration~ a ~rt~ outlet 
to the north-w~st would be ne~ded, ani the abortive road 
between Volo and Pore could use.fully be:taken up~ ag~in now 
that the National Food Board has had the stream b~idged 
between Pore and the main Accra raado If local pmli ti cal 
diff~rences are too acute, the road could -be s-tarte~ ­
o~posite Ba~tor ~nstead. Such a road would have an ipcal-
culable e~fect in opening up the area of Upper Tongu west 
of the River Aklakpao This was outside the Survey's scope, 
but is known to be very backward and isolatedo 
On the south side of the river, tre need is to open 
up an e~fective way to the main Keta-Accra road. Great 
energies have been dislllayed on the track from Aveyime to 
Sege, but it needs the helll of the Government with ~ulvertso 
Other villages might then be encouraged to construct side-
roads to join it. 
Postal and telegra~hie services are badly neededo Since 
the Survey, one Postal Agency has been opened ~t Volo; but · 
it is suggested that the District Councll might take up the 
task of ~ressing ~or more Postal Agencieso 
It is not easy to make recommendations on river 
transport until the effects o~ the Volta Scheme become apparent 0 
Meanwhile, it can only be said that improved launch services 
are desirableo 
To SUlD up, the most ~ressing need .18 for Government to 
an interest la TODgu wa'er supplies. Apar' from the 
di:f'f'1cultieB tbl inhabitants are Su:f~ering from, 
by the lack Gr good sup~~es rot 
Ko. only is their own economic 
~heL r ability to contribute 
36. 
to the supply o~ food for the Volta Project area, and for 
Tema. These supplies demand good communications, and in 
many cases communications and water supplies must be 
developed simultaneously. 
There is another reason for Government to take an 
interest in Tongu. We found there a prevailing mQod o~ 
hopelessness and depressed uncertainty which was not 
conducive to good or effective citizen8hip. Same radical 
demonstration of the Government's goodwill is vital if the 
people of Tongu are to alter their attitude. 
CHAPTER V ASPECTS OF PUBLIC OPINION IN TONGU 
(A) Introduc~ion 
In the course o~ the Survey, investigators were 
constantly gathering impressions about the attitude of 
mind of Tongu people about £ongu problems, and some of the 
opinions most commonly expressed are recorded here. It i8 
necessary to caution the reader that the Survey was not itself 
an attitude survey, and that the impre8sions gathered here 
are those whic h are in effect by-produc ts of the main Survey. 
It is not possible to say that these are the attitudes of 
the people in these areas; what can ~said is that these. 
are some of the attitudes expressed by some of the influential 
people in the villages involved, particUl8rly some gf the 
headmen and chie~s. 
The people of Tongu feel neglected by the Gold Coast. 
Even though same o~ the villages are only 70 mile8 from 
Accra p they are cut off from their more fortunate neighbours 
by lack of direct communication lines, and hence lack of 
trade. They feel their -remoteness and isolation keenly. 
They suffer from neglect, disease and poverty. Many of the 
villages have no schools and hardly any have even the minimum 
of medical facilities represented by a trained dispenser. 
Inter-woven with the prevailing feeling of neglect 
there is a distressed uncertainty about the future. Here, 
where traditional social lif~ is more intact than in most 
southern areas of the Gold Coast, there is a dry-rot of 
anxiety about the future which makes it difficult for communities 
to act - even on their own behalf, and in ways pre8cribed to 
them by tradition, such as communal labour. 
Anxiety and apathy are the more pronounced since so 
many of the young men are away for larg~ parts of the ;yearo 
Anywhere in the world, it is nor.mally the younger generation 
who leaven a community with optimi8m in its struggle aga1n• • 
an adverse enrivonment. When development is left \0 the 
and exhausted, it is unlikely tg be tackled wi~ hepe 
faith. 
(B) Attitudes about water 
In those villages Gn 'he Velta 
water source, there waa aD 
tha 11 peopl e 8hould wa. 
thq 
" , 
What did seem signif'ican t was that many of' the 
villages thought their supply was 9 good 9 if the quantity 
was suffici ent, and reasonably easy t J access 0 They were 
not concerned with the quality of the water~ and were 
generally ignorant of water-borne diseaseso Many people 
though~ that guineaworm was hereditary. There was a wide-
spread belief that boiled water was not good for drinking, 
since it 9 acts as a purge. 9 Even some members of til e Survey 
teams shared this prejudice. In almost every village, too, 
there was , a 9 tabu' against taking a pot blackened by fire to 
the water source. 
In spite of the lack of concern over pollution g there 
was much cnncern visible dirt. People disliked using water 
that was obviously muddy; for instance, villages along 
the Volta generally turn t@ neighbouring creeks and ponds 
during flood-time. Where villages had a stagnant water 
supply, it was found that bathing and washing clothes ware 
carried on in a different place from the drinking water 
source. Sometimes the two might be separated by only a few 
yards, but often there were rules about the distance one 
must go from the water-source before washing ene's clothes g 
and these rules had strong customary sanction. Many people 
would take water back to their compounds for bathing or 
washing. 
In some places, there was an understanding that throwing 
refuse into a drinking supply, such as a river, is not 
desirable. In one village, the headman and elders devoutly 
repeated that in their village throwing ref'uEe into the 
river was just not done. Further investigation showed that 
refuse was in f'act being dumped in the water. Often, such 
chiefs or headmen and elders are concerned that their 
village should be seen in a good light p and when certain 
practices occur which do not conform to 'European' standards, 
there is either embarrassment or distrust on the part of 
responsible villagers when they are questioned. 
The Survey revealed a good deal of misunderstanding on 
the question of wells. There was a belief that almost anywhere 
a well is put, it will functicln.No understanding was shown 
that it can only be useful where the underlying geological 
structure is suitable. Rather g the dryness of a well wag 
attr~buted to its _not being deep eno~gh. The ge~eral 
attitude was that this is semething which Government must 
provide-. It furnishes a cl~ar, if ill-in:t'ermed grudge 
against Government,_ which becomes a symbol of neglect out 
of all propor'ion to the issue of wells itself . There is 
a feeling of resentme~t that Government dGes nGthing, and 
it is coupled with a conception of Government as a remote and 
undifferentiated thing which ignores poor people. I~ is a 
CQmmen complaint that only the well-developed areas gei 
further developmen~; the underdeveloped areas suffer neglec • • 
~n the other hand p when asked why they did net \ry 
to dig a well themselves, villager's indicated that it waa too 
difficult; tha~ they did not ubve the toels; that they did 
not knew hewo In seme ca2es they have tried and given upo 
e~e·r cases they knew of villages which had tried and met 
,.UI:t"-CI,st . Pe(Jple did nei ~ew where to turn f or advice on 
Iod"''''~''.'''' er there t. get technical aSSistance and tools. 
ileA .. aelf- help was tendered, the normal attitude 
rea. ... why . elf-help was out of 
~~u~~ar case, er elae a c8urteous 
catien tha t l ack of 
38. 
Some sign o~ where the people looked ~or help c~e 
~rom statementm made by chie~s and headmen o~ villages. The 
statements were mostly vague. In one place where water is 
a perennial problem, the headman said: 'I think we are 
helpless and we want the Government to send labourers to 
dig a well ~or us.' In another, where some e~~orts had 
been made and the headman seemed anxious to demonstrate 
the willingness of his people, he said:. 'We need wells and 
are ready to help in any way for we suf~er from acute 
shortage of water during the dry season; we made several · 
attempts to d~g a well of our own, but in vain.' Here 
lack of knowledge is the bar. One chie~ said: 'We shall 
supply ~ree communal labour to any interested body that 
may help to dig a well for us, because all the wells we try 
to dig outselves fallon rocks. v 
These two were exceptions. EJ ani large, the 
villagers' own vgrd 'helpless' sums up their own feelings 
about self-help. They feel helpless and view themselves as 
helpless. This kind of depression and self~pity is as 
effective a bar to any self-sustaining and co~ordinated 
activity as any other more formal barrier. 
(c) Transport and Communications 
Along the Volta, adequate roads rather than water 
supply took first priority in people's demands. Poverty 
was often directly blamed onto lack of roads. The obvious 
question which teams tended to ask was: 'I~ you want 
roads, why don't you go and build them?' The reasons 
given were sometimes complex, occasionally slightly 
ludicrous, but on the whole of general importance to anyone 
trying to get people to work ~or themselves and their Local 
Councils. 
One of the major barriers to sel~-help was the 
di~ficulty in any village of getting things done which are 
in some way out of the customary pattern in technique or 
organisation. In one place, people pointed out to the inter-
rogators that the school needed a metal roef! The 
interrogators agreed and Q-sk'ed why the Government Agent had 
not been consulted. The villagers announced that he had 
been, a year ago. The interrogators were on the point of 
assuming that nething had been done in response t. the 
request, but discovered that the roofing had actually been 
sent and had been Ii tacked up for almost two months. When 
asked why they did not get on wi~ the jeb, the villagers 
replied with some indignation that the Gevernment Agent had 
failed to supply the nails and timber necessary fer roofiRg. 
This incident is not quoted in a spirit of repr~of bu~ 
simply ali an example of an attitude of mind. 
In so~e cases, ~he SBme attitude applies tewards 
roads and general comnunication faci1it1 es. Agaill t 
are excuses, in the ~erm o~ lack ef skill and lack 
knowledge. In many cases, h.wever, it .euld 
these excuses are all ta. valid. In ene 
ants started t. build a read. '!'he 
e~~erts at key paints. ~he7 
t. put in a bridge, 
the A.'. h:,1l1 
. 
obstructing trees, and in building culverts, was also relt. 
The Tongu public need to be inf'onned about Government, 
about places to go to f'or help and adv1.ce, and about the 
role of' Local and District Councils in such affairs. 
As inf'o'rmation ~acili ties are not good in Tongu (theTe 
is no wi'reless rediffusion available) a great resporisibility 
res ts on the should-ers o~ C ounc illoTS. They should 
themselves be well~inf'oTmed about sources cf helll, and they 
should act as sllurs to any hal~-rormulated urge to sel1'-
help by referring problems of road-building to 'such organs 
as the District Develo~ment Conmit;teeo In f'act, it was 
found that certain Councillors were already taking this 
responsibility seriously; it was significant that where 
Councillors themselves had thrashed out the road probl em 
with their Ward and f'orwarded its request ~or help to the 
Development Committee, not only was technical assistance 
forthcoming but the villagers themselves seemed spurred on 
to erfort and recei yed new heart. . 
On further probing, same of the villages revealed local 
jealousies wh.ich prevented co-ope~ation in building longer 
roads (ror instance links from the south Volta-side to 
the main Accra ro ad~. Each of the villages ' alleged that the 
next village was not putting in its fail' share qf hard work. 
Where these grievances appear genuine, old feuds between 
villages or their chiefs survive. These are often aggravated 
by latter-day boundary m d land dispu te~, as in the Maf'i 
Division, where occasionally a hostile village intervenes 
between a more enterprising township md its possible link 
with the main road. The issue of' roads tends to perpetuate 
and even enhance land disputes, because there is a clear 
apprehension that wealth and commerce f'ollow the opening of' 
a road, and a f'ear that new wealth and power disparities might 
f'urther weaken certain traditional elements. 
But peTha~6 the major cause o~ apathy in sel~~help is 
an economic one. During a good portion of' the year, there 
is a genuine lack o~ man~ower. Many of' the f'ishing villages, 
as already mentioned, send their able-bodied men away~or six 
or eight months o~ every year, and when they return they 
have to tend thei I' f'arms 9 During the ~ishing season 'ftey are 
not at home to sUPll1.y communal labour ,and during the 
f'arming period they are hard at work putting by some of' their 
subsistence. In the hinterland villages too, men are of'ten 
absent in the cocoa Cl stricts or the mines . Thus there is 
a vicious circle: to keep the men at home, greater prosperity 
1s needed; to get greater prosperity, roads are needed; to 
build roads, men~s labour is needed. It is not easy to 
escape the v11lagers 9 own conclusion that Government must step 
in, or the Local Council, to break the vicious circle somewhere. 
probably by employing more paid road-labourers. 
Apartf'rom roads, other f'onns of' improved communications 
are desired. The UAC Launch is the subject of' some rather 
bitter f'eeling. While it is recognised as an invaluable 
link with other parts of' the country, it is not regarded as 
adequate. Overcrowding was seriously criticised; as one 
pClLWoM"'_ said: 
been experiencing great dlf'f'icultles 
ODe UAC lauDch plying the Volta. 
excessively loaded that 
up rrom our station 
taful if this should 
• 
40. 
(D) Attitudes towards social and economic problems 
Schools merit attention as symbols of advancement and 
progress, as well as means for training and educating 
children. Most of the larger villages which have not yet 
got schools would like to have them, if only for the fonner 
reason. . In one village where the plea for schools was made 
in very strong terms, a talk with the headmaster of' a 
neighbouring Middle School showed that in practice 
people were often averse to sending their children, 
particularly their girls, f'or schooling. For many in the 
area where school buildings and teachers were available, 
schools appeared a nuisance since they took children away f'rom 
f'arming and f'ishing, trading and domestic duties. A large 
family might feel that it could spare one or two children, 
but only because, it seerrBd socially undesirable to have no 
representative of' the family in school. 
. In villages just outside the more centrally-located 
communities with schools, the cry of 'we want schools' seemed 
universal. In one village, a handful of children walked 
the three and half miles twice a day to and from school in 
the neighbouring village. The argument was that more children 
would be forthcoming if the school were on the spot. 
Medical and health fac il i ties are als 0 resb-ed , but 
seem far more out of reach. People felt desperate at the 
distance to b~ travelled on foot and by canoe or lorry in 
order to get/tHe dispensaries or hospitals. In one village, 
a Survey team was told that so many people died before the end 
of the journey that they had stopped going at all; seriously 
ill people had a better chance of recoveI'y by remaining in 
the village and resting. Moreover, it was comrrJented that 
often treatment prescribed to out-patients at Keta or Akuse 
was outside the income or possibe living conditions of the 
patients. 
This intense concern with water, roads, schoo"ls 9.nd 
health seems to create a picture of economic 'backwardness', 
the term the people apply to themselves. ~hey are upset 
by circumstances felt to be beyond their oWl control. They 
are only too "VeIl aware of what they need ard they expect 
to get help from outside. They do not have any very clear 
picture of how to implement partial self-help by communal 
efforts of their own; further they see only too derinitely 
the difficulties involved in any large-scale projects like 
road~building, demanding sustained ef~ort over long periods 
of time. Moreover they have only the vaguest conception o'f 
the relation of tax-paymentw improved living standards, 
and although local rates are lower in Tongu than in most 
o~ Trans-Volt~Togoland, they are felt as a burden ow1Rg 
the relative poverty of Tongu people. 
RECOM1~NDATIONS arising out or Ohapter V 
The Government, like God, preters 
those people who help themselves. 
of opiaion in ToRgU 1s not very ~~~~.~ 
It is felt that 1a order 
people, the 
41. 
as a body should make an effort to contact all literates 
in the area~ both by written material and by meetings. 
With a little imagination and ingenuity some new ways can 
be devised for pressing home to the public that there are 
certain organs of local and central Government which can 
offer practical help and adviceo 
To take a measure of which the cost would be trifling: 
a member of the District Council might devote a day to 
travelling up-river on the public launch with a megaphone, 
and shouting a few simple hints on p say~ where to apply 
for tools for village improvement; villagers always 
congregate . onthe bank when the launch is due~ and one would 
be sure of some sort of audience, Thinking up simple 
ways , like this of spreading information should not be 
beneath the dignityp or beyond the imaginationp · of the 
Councils. . 
(2) Help must be given by Mass Education teams. Their 
immense value is in el~inating the spirit of apathetic 
'helplessness and, more positively, in initiating a feeling 
of participation in the new ways of life spreading in the 
Gold Coasto At present it was found that :fishermen 
especially have no sense of sharing in, or belonging to, 
the Gold Coast itselfo Rather, the Gold Coast is to them 
a somewhat hostile environment, contributing to their plight, 
but doing little for them 0 As a result, the past becomes a 
kind of golden ageo Wnere the old solutions no longer work, 
imaginatiolll. and skill. are dii'ficul t to find p because of the 
enormity of the problems to be facedo Such a spirit is mot 
in the best interests of a young, striving am forward= 
looking nationo Mass Education p by providing the outside 
stimulus p the new techniques and new ideas~ can help to 
create a sense of sharing in something e xci ting ~ the 
improvemen t of ome y s own comnuni ty in collaboration wi th , 
the powers that beo 
(3) Tongu needs f'urther direct developmeIlt by the central 
Government 0 Where the problems are too large to be f'aced 
locally 9 the Government will have to step in, as it is in 
f'act doing already. AIlY development project should be givert 
the widest publicity, so that the people may be thoroughly 
roused out of' their apathy. 
Government has two allies in development in the area, 
the local Councillors and the general publico The reception 
given to the Survey teams was an indication of' this, It was 
out of' all proportion to the promise held out by the Survey, 
but presents were given and speeches made which showed that 
the teams were regarded as vehicles through which the world 
would come to know about Tongu, and as tangible symbols of' 
better things to come, If' this mood 9~ be made use of', the 
Government's task in Tongu will be easier. There seems 
great wisdom in the Regional Administration's plan of' a 
concerted development programme which will have a real impact 
on the area, and thus improve not only material conditions, 
but mental horizons as wello 
420 
Acknowledgsmea,s 
The Rural Survey was only made ~easible by the 
help of a large number of peopleo It is impossible to 
mention all by name; but special thanks are due to 
G. Sinclair, OoBoE., Regional O~~icer, Trans-Volt~Togo­
land, J.KoA. Quarshie, M.L.A., . and P.D. Adjani, MoLoA., 
~or their interest and encouragement; to S. Thomas, Assist-
ant Governme~t Agent, Sogankofe, ~or information and the 
loan of Re~thouses; to the Chairmen o~ both Upper and 
Central Tongu Local Councils for active co-operation; and 
to A.L. Titley, Community Development O~ficer, ~or allowing 
all members of his Department stationed in the area to take 
part in tIe Survey. -
The succe~s~ladministration of the preliminary . 
course at Adidame depended largely on the zeal and activity 
of F.K. Dra Goka and J.K. Nutakor, with the help of G. Adali-
Mort ~y 0 AC90mmoda t ion for the t earns in th~ f.1eld was provided 
through the court~sy of the Rev. Managers and Headmasters 
of the Presbyterian Schools. at J.didame, repe and Mafi tumasi, 
Th~ Roman Catholic School at Battor, anU. the Methodist 
School at Aveyime. The ?iaga of Mafi, Asem III, all other 
chiefs, headmen and elders, and also the officers and members 
of the Mafi Youth Association, warmly welcomed the Survey, 
and gave invaluable information and hospitality. 
The Department of Extra-Mural Studies is grateful 
to all lecturers, team leaders and others who gave advice 
or aSSistance, and to the keen and energetic Survey members 
who volunteered to g ather the material contained in this 
Report. In particular, worksheets were prepared, and the 
fieldwork mainly directed, by Gustav Jahoda, Ph.Do, M.Sc.(EcOIl.), 
and David Apter p MoA. The initial planning of the Survey, 
the main burden of administration, and the collatio~ of 
material for this Report, were the responsibility o~ Miss 
Lalage Bown, M.A., Resident Tutor for Trans-Volta and 
Southern Togoland. 
430 
APPENDIX A (see Chapter I) 
List o~ Villages ~ram which first~hand infonnation was obtained 
GROUP I Nwne of Village Chief or Headman interviewed Cor other i~ormant) 
Tewn based Gezelikofe Gezele Kudor 
at Volo Krebetiko~e Adzorme Agbem~le 
Nutekpor 
Volo Mankrado Ko~i Avorvator 
GROUP II 
Tewn based at Asierkpe Kodzo Gazo 
Mat'i Kumasi Dzogadze Asafohene Anoba of Aziewa 
Gborkofe Dadevi A ti t"sus1 
Havenuo Hode Gbemu 
Kporduwla Korlogo 
Mafi Kumasi Mankralo Asafo III and 
Acting Mankralo Fiator 
Mat'i Ku time Tu tordo V1aza 
Mebiawe Bedzra Amoli 
Med1~ge Akorli .Agbanu 
Nukp9rtoe Kwao Adade 
Sasekpe Boa~o II 
Ts1at1 Kofi Logo 
Ts1r1nyikofe Adzer Ts iriny1 
GROUP III 
Tewn based Adwn~s1 
at Mepe Dadome 
Degorrne F 1akof'e Akorli A~orlor (for 
Hoqoameda Hlo~or) 
Doye Tronua Gbenuor 
Fakpoe Kodzo Agbenyega 
Kodzovikof'e 
Lengu 
Mepe 
Z1dakofe Kobla Gator 
_. -- .. _-------------------------------
GROUP IV 
Team based Aklamador Kwa Begu Kotoade 
at Battor Aviloko Hevi Mankralo 
Battor Councillor Gota & Postal Agent 
Kekpo Kwnedzro (represented by Viba) 
Nyatikpo 
GROUP V 
Team baaed Agbets1kpo 
a~ Ave)'ime Xpordz1kof'e 
Luta Asaf'oatsekot'e 
Lutakorlekof'e 
Tsurukpo Ada . 
44. 
Name or Village Ohier or Headman interviewed GROUP VI {or other inro~ant) 
Team based Adidome Fia Asem III 
at Adidome A~orBeko:fe Ve4z1 Agbevellu 
Ameduikor Aaafohene_Dzra II 
Ma:fi An:foe ZohYina Aboetaka II 
A ttliemro Sebewu Hozame 
Av akpedome Avakpenuor 
A~aaviko:fe 
Avedo Boatin 
Dadogbu1 Agl;>ep.-yega Pani ___  
Ma:f1 Dugame Gomelesio Adz9rmehe 
Ma:fi DugalJIe Aziewa Kugbadzor Adzirackor 
Dzitsekore Kodzo Dengu (:for Dzitse) 
Forkpo Te:fle OhriB~ian Forvlo 
Gbalave Fiaside Hode 
Kpedzegblo Awuku Siem Azietor 
Klukpo 
KudadzolfU Agbadzi 
Larvorkofe Kwami Ahiabll 
(for Avedo Bakpa) (:for Togbui Ziga) 
J4eyikpor Tage AdzaRi 
Tsawala Adebuhlo Kuvordo 
Tove 
Ma:fi Zongo Asa:fohene X ••s i Wusu III 
List o:f villages not visited, but :for which re11.ble second-
hand in:formation was obtained 
Adakpatosuko:fe Fia Asem III 
Adudonu G.A. Adogla 
At sie:feme pia Asem III 
Avetakpo G.A. Adogla 
Fierkpe Fia Asem III 
Hevitoe Fia Asero III 
HOI.'kpo G.A. Adogl~ 
Srekpe Fia Asem III 
Tator G.A. Adogla 
450 
APPENDIX B (see Cha;pter II) 
Population figures for villages surveyed 
(1) Villages surveyed co~pound by compound 
1948 Census Figures 
Compounds Population .~C~~~~ 
Mafi ,J\nfoe 15 216 
Battor ( 58 520 35 279 
Degorme-Piakofe 19 66 25 232 
Krebeti~ofe 000 12 78 
Lutakorlekof'e 11 74 
Mafi Kwnasi 57 249 53 313 
(2) Villages, covered with general ~uest1onnaires 
1~~8 Census Figures 
~ Compounds Po;pulatioLl 
Gezelikot'e 
Nutekpor 
Vol0 o 0 0 61 763 
Asierkpe 67 373 
. Dzogacize Gborkofe 24 153 Ii 
Harvenuo 50 180 ! 
Kporduwla 22 170 II 
Mafi Kutime o 0 0 53 354 
Mebiawe 000 26 132 
Mediage o 0 0 34 146 
Nukp()rtoe 
Sasekpe o • 0 18 780 
Tsiati 36 153 
Ts irJnyikofe 38 201 
Adwnasi o 0 0 3 46 
Dadome 
Doy~ 74 418 
Fakpoe 16 222 
Kodzovikot'e 4 63 
Lengu 3 51 
Mepe 319 1,258 
Zidakofe 
Akl amado r 
Avlloko 
Kekpo 22 167 
Nya'tikpo o 0 0 29 150 
Agbetsikpo 
~pordz 1ko:t'e . 000 7 47 
~a Asa:t'oatsekofe 
(3 seetio.a) 
46. 
12~8 Census ~1~res 
~ Compounds populatIon 
Ad1dane 130 874 
Alorsekof'e 
Ameduikor 
Atsiemt'o 89 496 • 0 • 
Avaltpedome 
Awusavikoi'e 
Avedo o 0 • 72 429 
Avedo Bupa 40 214 
Dadogbu1 
Maf'i DUiame 127 605 
Dz1tseko~e 
Forkpo l'e~le 38 144 
Gb al ave o 0 o· 11 99 
KlukpO ·. . 56 307 
.pedzegblo 0.' 49 401 
Kudadzowu 
F lave Kportame 17 124 
Meylkpor o 0 • 4 25 
Ts,"wala 
Tove 
l4a~i Zongo o •• 19 105 
AdakpatoBuko~e 27 177 
AdudOl\U 
At a1e~eme o •• 41 190 
Avetakpo o •• 9 30 
F1erkp'e • •• 62 110 
Hevltoe 
Ho~kpo 
Srekpe 
Tator ·. . 36 159 
470 
APPENDIX C (see Chapter II) 
Analysis o~ occupations in certain selected villages 
10 Krebetiko~e S~ple riverside farming/fishing community in 
'oyster'-~ishing se~t1on of Volta. 
Males Females 
Farmers+ 10 Oyster~pickers 9 
FisheImEm 2 Farmers - 7 
Farmer/fisher 1 Farmer/ oyster~pickers 5 
Traders 3 Hawker/oyster-pickers 2 
Teacher 1 Traders 4 
Schoolboys 0 •• 2 Girls no·t in s-cho-ol 8 
Other boys 10 I~ants under ~ive 
Infants under five ~ ~ 40 
38 
+Note: Includes one ex-teacher 
20 Battor Large riversidefarmiDg,!fishing cOImlunity, with 
market and Local Council headquarters. 
Males Females 
Farmer/~ishers 30 Farmer/fishers 36 
Farmers 1.9 Fishers (oyster) .00 26 
Fishers 9 Traders 15 
Clerks 10 Trader/~~rmers 12 
Teachers 5 Farmers 00. 00. 11 
Labour~rs 5 Herbalist/traders ••. 2 
Traders 4 Teachers •.• 2 
Carpenter/~armer/risher 4 Servants 2 
Tailor •• 0 4 Schoolgirls 8 
Policemen ~ Other girls and 
Masoq/herbalists 2 i~ants ~ 
Shoemaker 1 
Canoe-builder 1 134 
Mason 1 
Fa~er/trader 1 
Oarpenter 000 1 
Herbalis'/f~er 1 
SchoolboJs 0 0 0 44 
Other bo.s and infants 9 
155 
48. 
Degorme Fiakof'e Lagoonside community with cORStaD~ 
water-supply. 
Males Females 
Fishers ·. . 16 Farmer/ oys ter-pickers 48 
Fisher/t'armers 13 Oyster-pickers 20 
Fisher/hunters 3 Farmers 7 
Fisher/farmer/hunter 1 Traders 5 
F isher/ f'i t ter 1 Tr~der/ t'armer 1 
Farmers 1 Housema~ds 4 
Clerks 4 Schoolgirls • ! • 2 
Traders ·· .. 3 Other girls 22 Tailors . . 2 Int'ants under t'ive 18 
Smi ths 2 127 
Fitter · .. 2 
Driver · .. 1 
Teacher 1 
HUlilter 1 
Cowherd ·. . 1 Servant 1 
Arbi tration I 
Unemployed "1 
Schoolboys 16 
Other boys • 0 • 24 
Infants under five 11 
107 
4. Lutakoriekot'e Lagoonside community with water 
difficul ties in dry season. 
Males Females 
Farmers 000 22 Farmers 19 
Farmer/mas~:ms 5 Traders 2 
Cowherds 3 Trader/farmers 2 
Boys " not in school 7 Bakers o • 0 2 
Infants under five 2 Milkmaid 1 
Servants 6 
39 Girls not in school --L 
35 
50 Mafi Anf'oe Farming village in hinterland north of Volta 
Males· Females 
Farmer/weavers Farmers .0. 
Farmers 0 •• Weaver/farmers 
Weavers Traders •• 0 
Carpenters Housewife 
Blacksmith Schoolgirls 
Schoolboys Other .airla 
Other bo ~ 00. 
49. 
6. Mari Kumasi Market to,w n in crop-growing area 
Males Females 
Farmer/weavers o 0 0 30 Farmers o • 0 49 
Farmers o 0 0 27 FaI'mer/ tr~ders 0 · 0 0 42 
Farmer/ traders 0 •• 7 Traders 13 
Farmer/weaver/traders 2 Members of.' cult living 
Farmer/weaver/priest 1 wirth priestess and 
Carpenters 5 f.'arming and trading on 
Tailors 3 her behalf' 8 
Teacher., o •• 2 Priestess 1 
Trader 1 Porter .. .  o 0 • 1 
Tailor/trader/farm.erBr1ckla,yer ..  1 · Housemaid o 0 • • • 0 1 1 Schoolgirls . , o •• 10 
Laboure:r 1 Other girls and 1nt.'ants 40-
Cornmiller I 
Servants 6 166 
Schoolboys 29 
other boys and int.'ants ~O 
147 
I twill be obs-e;rved that data ;for children and 
infants was not collected on a unif.'orm basis. This 
was because the teams were concentrating on adult 
occupations. . . I 
APPENDIX D (see Chapter III) 
Name of TlI2e of' Distance Diseases R e 12 0 r t e d+ 
Water Source Source from Village Comments Go Worm Bil. Drl-Season A.ilments Eye Troubles 
Volta River 100 paces Filled wi th mud JE JE JE JE 
and -decayed matter 
in floods 
Volta River 200 paces Filled with mud JE lE ]{ - JE 
and decayed matter 
in f'loods 
1I1agoe Creek 130 paces · Stagnant, but runs lE Yes V'I 
into Volta in 0 
f'loods 
Creek 50 paces Customary to take If Yes 
clothes to Volta 
f'or washing, one 
mile distant. De 
nearly dried up in 
1951-
Creek 250 paces Villagers turn to JE Yes 
A.k1smador Lagoon in 
August; it is used 
also for f'~shing 
that the disease was reported to be absent. 
that no information was obtained. 
( continued) 
Kame of' TyPe of Distance , Dis e .a ~ e . s R e E 0 r ted 
Water Source Source fromY-ill age 
Comnehts 
G: "Norm Drl-Season ill· Ailments . Eye Troubles 
Volta River Recourse to 
:pools in August JE : 
De Creek 270 paces Yes . . Stomach 
troubles 
Aklamador ' Lagoon 100 paces 
--, 
Volta River 630 paces ]f .Yes Dysentery 
Volta . River 120 paces JE Ye~ 
Bleto. 'Creek 550 paces Yes Yes . Stomach · 
t.ro ubles 
River 'Close ., Malaria reported \, ..1..1 .  
Luta Creek 490 paces Yes 
Volta River 50 paces Diarrhoea, 
. worms , cow-
boil, coughs 
Volta River i mile When Volta is very Rare Laxa t1 veeffec t 
~a1ty people turn of salt water 
to Kome I })ool on 
isle,nd in Volta 
Arnedui Creek 300 paces Amedui is an arm Yes Yes 
Ke Creek 1000 paces of Ke 
.. ~wusavikofe Dzanyigo Creek 600 paces Dzanyigo is filled Yes Yes Yes 
by R • . Tordor and 
Vol ta in floods 
(continued) 
Type of' Distance Diseases Reported 
Source f'rom Village Corrments G. Wonn Bil. Dry-Season A-ilments Bye Troubles 
River 50 paces Resort to Torylboe Yes Yes Yes 
Creek when Vol ta 
is salty 
Creek 700 paces Yes Yes 
Creek 410 paces Yes 
Creek 2t miles 
\JI 
I\l 
D1'Rases Reported 
Distance Comments Drz Season Su~~lZ Name Distance G.1I>l'Df,B11. Dry-8eason ~ !l! Ailments Troubles 
1 mile Coloured and Volta River 3t miles + 
stagnant in (f'or drinking water Only) 
dry season 
Coloured am. Vol ta River 3 miles + 
stagnant 1n (f'or dr1nk1ng water only) 
dry season 
( continued) 
es and Rock 
Diseases 
Season Re~orted Distance Coounents Dr~ Su~~l~ Name Distance ~ G. Worm Bil. Dry-~on Eye 
Ailments Troubles 
WH 440 paces Adakpa Stream Yes lE Dysentery Yes 
WH 
..ldavu WH 1 mile Todzi streani Ii days' 
Gpadavu WH 1 mile journey 
K. ..v u WH 1 mile 1 
Iud1ta WH Close Todzi Stream 15 miles . Yes lE 
I.ud1ta WH 210 paces Adakpa Stream 8 miles Yes Coughs 
Yorkpe Rockpool 1500 paces Todzi Stream 15 miles 
Vudogobo WH Close J, ' ( ., y~s Yes 
Vuga WH Close Adakpa Stream \.11 VI 
Various WH Close . Kudita Rockpool 
Various WH Close Yes 
Amakpe Rockpool 350 paces 2 water tanks in 
Gblete etc .. Yes WH 240 paces village 
At! teglo WH Drinking water 
Vukpe Rockpool Non-drinking Todzi Stream Ii days' 
water journey 
Fiegavu WH 110 paces Todzi Stream 
Vuga 8 miles Yes WH 190 paces 
Sasekpe Rockpool }20 paces 
Dzovu WH 620 paces Vgga VVH Yes Dysentery 
Yorkpe Rockpool 
Adakpa Stream 
(continued) 
Diseases 
D£l Season SUEEll ReEorted Distance Comments Name Distance ~ Go W:>rm 
Bil Drl-Seasm Ele 
__ 0 Ailments ~_ 
bles 
WH Close Adakpa Stream Yes 
WH Close Adakpa Stream Yes 
WH 100-500 Agorme Pool 7 miles Yes 
paces 
WH 100-500 Adudon 
paces (Women take clothes 
to Adidome to wash 
12 miles) 
WH 220 paces Anf'oe WH i mile Yes Yes IJI 
WH 1 mile Lotor Stream 4 miles -.'='" 
1m 830 paces Dzanyigo Creek 5 miles 
WH Close Lotor Stream 4 miles Yes Yes 
1m 125 paces Dzanyigo Creek 5 miles 
1m 530 paces About 18ft. Volta River 6 miles 
deep 
Small poalClose Aklakpa River 4 miles 
1fB 500 paces Volta River 3 miles 
WH 1 mile 
120 paces Volta River Ii miles Yes Yes Skin erup;-
800 paces ions and 
worms 
600 paces Dug by villagers Dzanyigo Creek 2 miles Yes Yes Yes 
and only us ed by 
those who helped. 
Others always go 
to Dzany1go 
( continued) 
Diseases ReEorted 
Distance Comnents Drl Season SUEEll Distance G.Worm Bil. Dry-Season Eye 
~ ~ Ailments Troubles 
WI{ 1 mile Dzanyigo Creek 2! miles Yes Yes Coughs Yes 
Rockpool 910 paces Anf'oe WH I mile Yes 
Volta River 6 miles 
WH t mile Af'orvu VIJH ip. 6 miles Yes Stomach 
WH 12" miles at Adakpa Creek-bed troubles 
Volta River 
WH Close Aklakpa River It miles 
WH Volta River 6 miles Yes \JI \JI 
Various WH 200-500 paces • 
Kpedzegblo Rockpool 770 paces Kpedzegblo Adakpa River 3 miles Yes 
seldom f'ails 
Busorvu WH Volta River ~ miles 
A:vupetor Creek 
Various WH Volta R:).,ver 10 miles 
Saltpi ti- WH 200 paces Village has 
kofevu died out 
Various WI! Tod~i Stream 6 miles 
Amegavu WH 730 paces Volta River 
Awlevu 6 miles Yes Yes WH 450 paces 
Korgboe WH 500 paces Dzanyigo Creek 
Tordor It miles Yes Yes Stream 530 paces 
Dekpor 
- WE 420 paces Gborglavu During dro~ght many inhabitants Yes Yes WH Yes 600 pacJ'3S return to other bank of' Volta. 
Remainder scrape bottom of' WHs. 
( continued) 
Drz Season Diseases Re~orted Distance Conments ~u~~ll Name Distance Go Worm Bil. Drz-Season Eze-~ Ailments Tl'oubles 
Creek 530 paces Rarely fails Volta River Rare 
River Close Rarely fails Volta River Yes 
Creek 1 mile Filled from Afadra Creek Ii miles Yes 
Aklakpa Volta River 
during :floods 
Creek 2 miles Filled from Tsimor _C reek 2i miles Yes 
Aklaltpa durl.ng \J1 0'\ 
floods 
Creek 60 paces During wet Aklamador 
Creek 80 pace s season many of Creek i mile 1E Dysentery Yes 
inhabitants 
return to Ba~i 
both o:f these 
last dried up in 
drought, 1949. 
Close Filled by River i mile 
Volta in rains. 
Last dried up 
19490 Used only 
:for cattle in 
dry season. 
Never used :for 
clothes-washing 
\ 
llanent Source of SupplY .( cC?ntinued) 
Diseases 'Reported 
Comments Dry Season Supply Distance Name Supply Distance Go Worm B~l 0 Dry-8eason Eye-Ai~ents Troubles 
Creek 450 paces Malaria reported 
Creek 500 paces Kapa used mainly, Mieletsonya Creek i mile Yes Yes Yes 
for cattle 
; 
Creek i mile Used only for Agbate Rockpool i mile Yes Yes ' Piles 
cattle in dry 
season 
\11 
-... J 
58. 
APPENDIX B (see Ohapter III) 
> 
Summary tables shOWing incidence of diseaae in 
different tYpes of water supply 
Number of villages for which adequate information was noted: 
66 with living inhabitants. 
(1) Villages with single all-season supply 
Type "ot sup~11 ••• ..0 o •• River Volta Lagoon 
Total villages investigated ... 9+ 13 
Of which: Gu~neawor.m reported in o • 0 2. 4 
Bilharzia reported in 2 9 
Eye troubles reported in 3 1 
+rare in both cases 
lflagoons 8.lso used in bo th cases 
(2) Villages relyin"g on water-holes in we-t season 
Type of supply Water-balsa 000 o • 0 •• 0 1fater;:"~oles 
only" " and rock-
poola 
Total villages investigated 8 000 \ 
Of which: Guineawor.m reported in •• ~ 7 
Dry Season ailments reported" in "I. 
Bilharzia reported in 1 000 
+ of\  these, fo"" \u r only rarely 
-this vi1lag~uses a lagoon as well 
, 
villaies not reBorti~ to water-holes in wet aeason, 
bu t w th no permanen supplY "(  
Type "of supply o •• Lagoon 01' creek"> 
Total villages investigated " 8 • o. 
Of which: Guineaworm reported "11l. .. ,. 
Bilharzia reported in " 
Dry season a1lmeDta re~4 
APPENDIX F 
SKETCH PLAN OF ANFOE-MAFI 
Smith 
o 
FO 
2&3 . Kpesese 
4. Akuwovi 
5. Zonyino Aboetoko II SYMBOLS 
6 Goko F Fetish 
7. Gbeku Aboetoko G Grovemound 
8. Aqordo ....,...,.,., Hedge 
9 Anioku Akpo K Kitchen 
10. Azometi Sotsi 
R Metal Roof 
II. Awuku Doga 
SR Stool Room 
12 Kwosi Nego w Weaver's Shed 
13 Awuku Atlomoa 
14. u Uhcompleted BUilding Koblo Dzoka 
15. ' . Po II nqs Or Temporary Shed Koblo Atiamoo 
\~ Rubble 
100 0 100 20(1 FEH 
LI_ _ f)] Tree L -~I ____- LI_ ___~ I 
APPENDIX G 
WATER SOURCES 
Surveyed by Team based at Adidome 
t 
N 
Dadoqbu1 • 
+ w,. Tsowalo .w Alonekofe l • w'" ..,:K1ukpo -Bakp.a.  -Seva '" 
"I' ·Sokpitikofe 
·Atsiemfo 
.. " 
Avokpedome. ,a--
WATER SOUJl.CES 
Wi The volta (Am.,) 
w2 OZQ"y1tO 
wJ Kc La'iloon 
w" A",cd"" LogoOft 
W S A. Lotor 
w6 R Torder 
W1 ,.horto (woter-hole.. AnfOf) 
w8 Anfo. (~mlle rrom Ante_) 
w' onu C.otu-tlOlc: "."fol) 
W/O Dc.dc:kc: <.. .. oter-hole: AlorsellaU) 
W ll Gbe:tOr-vu(' .) 
W/Z Agar-viol ( ") 
Wt.1 Kpnudo (woter-hOM OadOIbul) 
W/4 Awloyu (.oter-holf:. Tio_Olo) 
w IS Ilmcgo'IU( ) 
W 16 Agorve (.otcr~olc br kluk,o) 
W/1 Wcdcd. (water-hole ,..,cdO) 
W/ 8 5 • .,0'11,1 (.ater-hot,; se.o) 
w', SollpitlkO'uu (.O~C:k;::l~) 
W2J TorYlboe (creek:. Data".) 
wZ4 A'Iokpctor(Crcd:: A'fok,doflle} 
wZS Kome (pon. Oft i.leMi) 
wN Huso"'" (.alcr~~ .."  
APPENDIX H 
GENERAL AREA OF UPPER CENTRAL 
-------- ... .:;,~tfe_ H.odquol'leo of Su.vey ',onu 't2!9 • 
e"u ••• 
V.lloqu obo ... ' .hleh ,nlo."'OIIoIl 
_01 (oUeCled by leo"', Dodol"" 
Roc., wl'Ikl- <oUte! 
'" 6epI'eliooni " 
Poth. .l(udoclzowu 
'fori Zonqoi 
'" 
I. .. 0 <4 Milt'1 
.' 
,/"  
,,, ..t  
• 
Unive~sity College of the Gold Coast 
Depanment of Extra-Mural Studies 
REPORT 
OF THE 
TONGU RURAL SURVEY 
held in t~e areas of the Upper and Central Tongu 
LoCal Councils, April, 1953 
together ~h a Foreword by the Regional Officer, 
Trans-Volta /Togoland