TRIBUTE to James Worlator Kwami Doe
Author: Dr. James Worlator Doe
"It was that hour of the morning when the birds were ready to fly away after a long chirping, chipping and chapping over the sun shone.
The fuel to drive a man’s day was at full gauge, a time of the year when preparations for advent is nigh and the beginning of chillier days in December.
On a Friday was a harmattan breeze and low white foggy day of the 18th.
In such tranquil moments the cells fell into a deep slumber. The body of a man remained shut forever."
T'was in the last month of that year, 2015 when the body of a wise, courageous, brave and generous man to everybody is to be remembered.
As for the soul went soring to link up to the universe of truthfulness and righteousness, fare thee well. Rest in peace and forever missed!"
For me, my siblings and any person to capture accurately the nearly four months shy of a nonagenarian’s rich life, could only be a monumental task.
I lived just a quarter of a century with dad would have missed over 30 years of all that my siblings would have experienced. So I believe each one of us will have a wealth of story to tell.
Allow me to begin and briefly, say a little bit about the dad I know. While I shall allow others say who dad was to them. Mr James Worlator Kwami Doe was born in Anloga, Keta District of the Volta Region of Ghana on a Saturday April 10, 1926.
First and foremost, Papa would be remembered for a lot of things including his playfulness with children. But the most impactful of the loss could be his departure exactly a week before the year's Christmas festivities. It is his way of making a profound statement to us the living. He chose this time of the year to remind us of the good things of his legacy that he lived for.
Therefore, there's untold sadness in our hearts and in the hearts of the many families who did not receive any gifts this Christmas. As we all know that there was extreme joy in the Doe family, which he extends to neighbours and to the whole community and even to our Catholic Pastor (Father), Fr. Joseph Lauck during yuletide.
"Dad always prepares a huge collection of hampers which we the children send to many designated homes and families in the area. And the fun part is upon delivery, we on those errands received numerous gifts in return, which we cherish so much.
And the shear anticipation of receiving one form of gift or the other we tend to look forward to be sent to deliver presents to the homes that would likely give us the children presents we desire."
His parents were Mr. Robert Hamenu Doe, a.k.a. “Doe Tailor,” of Tunu a renowned tailoring genius of his time, a fun and brave person to be with and his mom a rich merchant Madam Adugbadze Abla Nkornu of Anloga.
As the younger of two siblings, whose elder brother was Lawson. He became separated from his only brother and family when he just turned 10 years of age.
It is believed he was sent to Cape Coast to live with a cousin who was a police officer Mr. Dravie to attend school and be disciplined as his mother was a busy trader and often not around the home.
He transferred from his birth place to then capital of Gold Coast round about 1936 to complete basic education. But he soon returned to Anloga after two years following reports that he was being mistreated. The city of Cape Coast was the colonial capital of the then Gold Coast and citadel of secondary education.
He later moved to the modern capital of Accra after matriculation of Standard Seven from EP Senior School in Anloga and landed a job with the Omnibus Service and became a tenant with a Levantine or Lebanese family, the Millets (Milaad) at Adabraka in Accra. His dream of attending Mfantsipim Secondary School was short lived following the passing of his mother.
Inspired by especially students on his Omnibus service; job as a young conductor, on routes to especially Achimota School and encouraged by the students that he could be one of them as they perceived him to be very knowledgeable for his age of 18 years.
The study of plants came handy so he took the British exams in Botany. He excelled and was given a grant prize to study Agriculture in the colony. During this time the Volta area was from 1916 to 1956 a Trust Territory under the supervision of the League of Nations and later on by the United Nations.
It is believed that his uncle Dalolisa, a herbalist had a part to play in his acumen for the study of plants. He later moved to Kumasi to attend Kwadaso Agricultural College which he graduated in 1953. While in the Agricultural College his father also passed on.
During and soon after his training in agriculture, he embarked on a major project to assist the farming communities in the Keta District. Since fish landings were dwindling and it had become too dangerous to go to sea. And the youth with skills could not afford expensive fishing gear; canoes, fishing nets, outboard motors and even fuel for the boat engines.
The effect of this was joblessness which caused many young folks to leave to Accra, Central, Western regions and others went as far as settling in the Ivory Coast to use their acquired skills when they were young in fishing.
This situation and the fact that farming was also, fast becoming a losing venture due to the declining yields in traditionally very sophisticated shallot farming in the district. Because of the encroaching sea water into the low-lying shallot beds resulting in the salination of the soils.
Dad researched into and published a lot about farming in the Anloland in the Gold Coast farmers bulletin. Especially about how to transform the sandy soils used in shallot farming into sandy-loamy soils. Through mainly, using domestic waste from foodstuffs and especially "guano" from birds and bats droppings as manure to reduce the salinity in the soils.
These methods of soil improvement soon spread widely among shallot (mainstay of farmers), pepper, tomato, and other vegetable farmers who soon realised a more sustainable way of improving their incomes.
Since the farm lands were being lost to encroachment by both the lagoon and the sea. Many farmers' children had no other prospects of attending the limited schools or tilling the land so many youth left the area to furtherest parts of the country. They found jobs in Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern regions to work as labourers on cocoa farms to the detriment of furthering their education.
From the early forties, mid to the late fifties was also a time of political uncertainty as the area was governed by various entities, colonizers; Germany, French, the British. And international organisations; especially the United Nations (League of Nations) precluding what the future will hold for the area and it's people, was a situation that further prompted disunity and further migration into the Gold Coast.
He soon had his eyes set on uniting all the people after the political divisions that existed before the May, 1956 plebiscite to be part of Ghana. And his solution was to establish a secondary school in his hometown that way all shades of the populace throughout the district and the modern country of Ghana can have a common aspiration of a prosperous nation.
He was employed by the British colonial government as a technical officer in the Ministry of Agriculture. He worked in mainly in the cocoa growing areas and research stations throughout the country to stabilize the cocoa production post the blight of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD). The disease was discovered in Ghana in 1936.
I remember him mention towns like Bunso, Tafo, Suhum, Koforidua, Jasikan, Kpeve and his last post was Fumso in the Adansi District of the Ashanti region.
I am quick to add that if there was any uncompleted project of Dad, I would say there was none. But the only thing I wish to mention is bringing sustainable livelihood and economic stability to the impoverished Anloland. Also the extension of his new successful coconut hybrids that he developed against the Cape St. Paul Wilt Disease (CSPWD) that had devasted coconut plantations throughout the coastal areas of Ghana since 1932.
He married mom Beatrice Aku Amedzro (Mrs. Doe) and together they had 9 kids. His benevolence saw him host numerous members of his family at different times of his life. His love for kids was almost biblical like, “do not stop them, to them belong the Kingdom.”
He co-founded Anlo Senior High School (ANSECO) April 10, 1959 at the age of 33 years with two compatriots. He quit the public service work at the Ministry of Agriculture to seek better education for his kids to return to the capital city of Accra after serving for seventeen years, seven months and seven days. So he moved back to Accra in 1965, to Kpehe a suburb on the Accra–Nsawam road 5 miles from downtown Accra capital.
Upon invitation by the owner; Mr Millet (Milaad), he took up a job with Millet Textiles Corporation Limited which was a company owned by his former landlord when he first moved to Accra. He worked in various managerial positions, first as a personnel manager and later the sales manager until he voluntarily retired from the company at the age of 50 years.
He was among the few who embraced poultry farming and dressed chicken processing by supplying to grocery stores; Farisco, Kingsway, etc., and restaurants like Commodore, Ebony, etc., in the city of Accra. It did not take long that he became the foremost entrepreneur in the poultry business until 1986.
Many farmers at the time were trained by him after which he gave them free day old chicks to begin their trade. I remember after high school he made me the manager of the; at the time a medium-sized poultry farm in charge of raising and marketing both broilers, cockerels and layers.
Live broiler birds which sold for Ć2.50p (two cedis and fifty pesawas) were a popular sales items during Christmas and eggs at 10 to 25 pesewas each, were also available for sale throughout the year.
Buying poultry feed from producers in Ofankor; MUUS and ACME FARMS, sometimes the search for poultry feed took me to other feed manufacturers in Tema and Osu (Pomadze) and Kpehe-Accra (Pomazde at the premises of Michiletti Plotti furnishing Company currently, a metal works limited liability company, near Avenor), Tema, Adenta and Madina became my major routine.
To the extent that before Darko Farms owner Reverend Darko started his poultry farm in Kumasi he used to meet me at MUUS to inquire all about poultry farming. Which I was so eager to tell him all about the intricacies of poultry farming that I learned from my Dad.
When the June 4th 1979 revolution broke out and all senior military officers around the country were ordered to report to Accra Gonda Barracks for their own safety, his nephew a Major obliged.
So Major John Sorkpor traveled to our home in Accra from Takoradi in the early hours of one morning. Dad loaned him his Volkswagen Beetle car to go to Burma Camp the following day.
It turned out that the Major was detained and the car was impounded. While the military wanted to know how he got the car and demanded my father the owner to come to the Military Camp to get the car.
So Dad left home very early one morning without eating any breakfast to report at the military barracks. Apparently, immediately he arrived he was detained for questioning and did not return until the following dawn about 2:00 am.
His whereabouts was not known the whole period he went to the barracks. He narrated his ordeal about how he was hit many times on the chest with the back of a machine gun.
He had no food the whole day and had been manhandled for several hours after his release he had to walk from Gonda Barracks, through Cantonments, Osu, Kanda, Nima, Kokomlemle and got home way after midnight, around 2:00 am.
Everyone in the family kept wake until he arrived. Whereas his return home was great relief to everybody and we rejoiced. It soon dawn on my mom that he had sustained serious injuries to his chest.
So the whole time since his arrival after a meal my mom had to nurse his pain pain by placing warm towel on his chest, then smeared with mentholantol ointment (Robb). He then took some painkiller and anti-inflammatory pills and left to rest.
This whole episode even after receiving treatment in hospital had caused him persistent coughing the rest of his life due to the weakening of his lungs and chest muscles after his encounter with the Ghana army.
Otherwise, dad was not known to be a sickly person. We can all confidently say that he was generally a healthy individual. He was even not scared of malaria.
Because he often joked when mosquitoes landed on him and were sucking his blood. Saying, "let the tiny insects have a feed." He was never bothered and told us not to hit it since the mosquitos do not have parents to feed it, he was okay.
Also he knew he was basically immuned to malaria parasites. He never had malaria that I was aware of. Probably he was among the twenty percent of Ghanaians who will generally not fall sick of malaria due to their natural or acquired immunity of some sort.
Mr Doe after retiring from Millet Textiles Corporation (MTC) could not be left alone. Dad's retiring at the age 50 years, he told me was a long term plan of his, and very novelle of his time. Certainly, unimaginable in today's economic conditions and impossible for many generations to come.
He was re-hired by the textiles company for his advanced skills in Agriculture to develop cotton plantation in Asutsuare to meet the then government policy of self-reliance demand on all textiles factories to produce their own raw material of cotton for processing into yarns. He led a successful production of cotton in this regard.
Then when the factory was expanding and restructuring and needed a bigger space he brokered the lease agreement of land between the Ga Chief responsible for the La stool lands and Millet Textiles Corporation to relocate under a new company name of SPINTEX in 1980.
Hence, the Spintex road became the new sprawling business and shopping district in the city of Accra. This is where the first ever shopping mall; Accra-Mall in Ghana was situated at the mouth of Spintex road close to the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout and Kotoka International Airport; KIA's airport enclave.
This time the company's main production was to be the supply of yarns from the cotton plantation to all textile factories in Ghana, West Africa and subsequently the whole of Africa. Hence, this area in the suburb of the city of Accra derived it's name from the factory that was later established under a new name.
This relocation of the former MTC caused the opening up of the whole new area in the city of Accra to flourish as a business hub and real estate development opportunity, which brought in companies like Manet, Regimanuel Estates and later the establishment of Accra Mall.
A change in government meant a new policy in place and the abandoning of the demand for factories producing own cotton led to Dad signing his final departure from a company he represented.
Later on the separation of assets between the two brothers after the demise of their father, this pivotal Levantine family business that started in 1958 became PRINTEX (1997) with a new focus of weaving just Ghanaian and African fabrics.
PRINTEX later won a major contract from the Ghana Government (GES) to produce all materials (the fabric) for school uniforms for Ghana Basic Schools as it exists today. This became a major shift from the old school system; the "CYTO" to the Junior Secondary School, JSS system, as a result the current school uniforms were adopted to match.
Then from the mid-eighties and nineties, Papa ventured into fish farming briefly as me and brother Emmanuel engaged our youthfulness to dig out two fish ponds to breed tilapia.
This project was shortlived as it was against the odds of being very labour intensive. So the dugouts had to be filled back in. After this though was a more successful piggery project and processing of the meat into sausages, this venture lasted for a better part of the nineties.
Some of his hobbies were gardening and reading, he was also astute in discussing current affairs.He is the man who in his wisdom was good at analyzing of international events.
Papa was noted for having a subtle strength in predicting socio-political, economic, international affairs and many other outcomes many years before they occurred.
Notably among those was how in his dicussions with us, his relations, friends and especially international visitors including those from the United States he predicted an African will become president of the USA decades before President Barack Obama even became president. A feat of his conviction he witnessed in his lifetime.
He also fondly remembered an Ewe genius Dr. Raphael Armattoe and one of his closest friends was, a very learned scientist; physics and chemistry, Mr. Kofi Amable. He was proud of the Japanese achievements particularly the work of Dr Hideo Noguchi in Ghana.
But was also quick to detest the A-Bomb devastation on the two cities in Japan; Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He believed in the political astuteness of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Papa could be called a political strategist but not a politician, and educationist but not a teacher.
Many will remember him by his motto; “truth and service,” to humankind. I do remember my own thoughts about him as these words ring in my ears, “hit the iron while it is hot,” and “study as if you are going to die and pray to live."
Dad's especially passionate about schools, such that he advised and helped proprietors of private schools get established in Accra. The few among them were DeYoungsters School; Nima, Barnes Memorial Schools (Institute) Accra New Town, actually started in our house at Kpehe-Caprice. What a small world!
All his life he spent his money providing medication for unfortunate families in every village that he was stationed to work, where he concentrated his efforts on "the Zongo," where children were most malnourished, suffered mostly from round worm infestation and common malaria. He was essentially concerned about undernourished and ailing kids wherever he went especially in rural areas.
His entrepreneurial exploits, caring and curative side permitted him to establish a clinic in Accra under the name Salvation Clinic. The general medical practice of the clinic was later on leased for a Dental Clinic to Dr Ani from Tutu in Akwapim.
He also established Dowotor Development Enterprises which was mostly a textiles (fabric; suiting and other materials, and towels) trading entity with clients coming from all over West Africa.
The Store was based in Okineshi-Accra, Accra Central located under the former headquarters of State Insurance Corporation (SIC) later to be known as Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). It was close to the pharmaceutical stores trading hub in Accra. It ceased to operate essentially due to the June 4th Revolution in 1979.
I would also say that he was very methodical and very meticulous in his love for the study of nature and the preservation of the environment. He grew seeds and gave out seedlings of almonds to farmers in Anloga and parts of the Keta District. This was at a time when salts saturation in the soils of the district was making shallot growing less lucrative.
Amongst his few friends, esteemed compatriot; the Anlo Chief Togbui Adeladze, neighbours and acquaintances were Mr S.W. Awuku-Darko and Mr Boni former ministers of State. There was the clinician nurse Mr Adjei who was always available for the family's health emergencies.
Others were Mr Fugah; a fisheries trawlers owner at Tema, Mr Boboli, a G.N.T.C. mercantile manager, Mr Morton an entrepreneur, Mr Dodoo a Mines executive, Mr Dwomoah (a Pharmaceutical entrepreneur), Mr Wormenor a poultry farmer, Police Inspector Thompson, Mr Nartey, a.k.a "Dzakato," a prisons officer.
It is also important to remember others who lived beyond Accra like Mr Tosafa, a cocoa researcher, Mr Opoku a government worker, Mr Abedu a cocoa producer and Mr Tsegah of Hector International Schools.
Also were unsang but closest acquaintances like Mr Kofi Agbemenya an entrepreneur, Mr Agudogo of Lands Department. Above all was his bossom friend Mr Cephas K. Fiagbe and 'brother'' Banini who was once a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) photographer.
He was an agriculturist, a counselor, an entrepreneur, a historian, a philanthropist, had a high sense of prophecy, a gift for languages and a pious man.
One of the things that in his whole life I have never seen him do is, he never drank alcohol; yes a teetotaller who loved to eat all fruits and every fruit, always after meals.
It will be equally wrong to also say that he was a bad cook. Because, he just never cooked! "I've never seen him boil even water." Dad never went to the kitchen and never cooked for himself nor anyone.
One of the reasons for his dislike to be in the kitchen has been traced to his dislike for sharp knives a condition known as aichmophobia, this is also linked to the fact that he had a natural fear of blood. Although this was just a milder form of hemophobia (AE).
To the extent that it is a scary proposition to let him alone, at home without making provision for his food needs. The impact on him will seem like someone traversing a dry desert unprepared, which no one want to see happen.
He is survived by James, Emmanuel, *Patrick, Robert, Michael, Bernard, Godwin and Angela, a wife; Beatrice and 12 grandkids. *My late brother Patrick too, though passed away through a drowning incident at LA Beach, Accra in 1988.
My parents also lost a baby boy (Korle Bu Teaching Hospital) born after him. This episode at the hospital was under mysterious circumstances.
He lived a truly fulfilled life. May his Soul Rest in Peace!
