Living in Ghana - The insane world of Compound Houses in Ghana

Before we ended up settling in self-contained houses like this we had the privilege of living and growing up in these houses these big houses in the center of Kumasi e second largest city in Ghana commonly referred to as Kumasi and in this video I show you some interesting facts and how it felt to live in a compound house in the center of Kumasi Ghana It's going to be an interesting one Stay tuned My name is Mickey Keep watching This is Amakom Stadium in Kumasi Ghana a place my wife and I consider our roots If you were born or raised on this side of the neighborhood you likely grew up in one of these Massive urban structures locally known as Kumasifiye or a compound house Come with me and my lovely wife as we walk through memory lane on how it felt to live and grow in one of these houses So when I say compound house it is a big house with lots of rooms All the rooms as one family So we have over 10 families living in one house So I'm going to Show you A typical compound house will have an entrance like this and I want you to see this meter I was so terrified by this because to me it feels like a lot of power comes in So all the The power going into the house is measured here and that's how the bills were calculated And normally the bills were calculated by was it the number of appliances you had Yeah The number of appliances you had So every appliance was a point and that was how we did it And this is one of the rooms and it would be one family This is why we call it a compound House because most of it will have a courtyard in the middle like that This place used to have doors used to have doors but we've commercialized it so we've blocked it all off and they've turned it into shops and things like that Then they will have a communal area chen I'll show you upstairs So at the top will be a communal kitchen and then those a The bottom will also have a kitchen over here And when I was growing up we only had one tap And this is where everyone came to fetch water So you need to be very strong if you live upstairs Because this is where you come when you're going to take a shower and then you get your tap The first fact about these compound houses in my opinion is that they were built by coa farmers Yeah mostly it was built by coa farmers My grandfather was a major coa farmer and he hated it Formal education It was all about farming and he managed to the coa farm managed to build around this area he managed to build that one the yellow one over there and then this one He's also built another one at Afropanta which is about a 10-minute walk from here Yeah coa farming was a big deal it was the main source of income Back then Yeah so every household had a coa farmer and it was kind of Families and they used to do them with their wives some did business So in Ghana there is This slow season which is in June and July when sales are a bit slow That's where they move to When it's getting to December and that's the coa season then they move back Yeah and normally having a big family would help you because you get it cheaply but that's why In Ghana especially among the Ashantis they used to have large families They would marry two women And then get a lot of kids and they use them for coa farm just to build these houses for us The next fact is normally the house will be named after the person who built it e village they are from or the famous child who lived in that house So some of the names This name was Mr Oponifye so Mr Oponifye's house My house is Donyana Oponifye Because they were from Donyana Then we have Achi Villa and Achi House And then if you have a kid who is very famous in the area they will say Koyamesa Mufio go to Yamese's house and Mampo Mufio go to Mampo's house because my wife used to be She was once very famous and that's where she lived We will tell you a love story about that The next fact is the communal living that we had over here It was cool Yeah the first one was the shared facilities shared toilet shared bathroom shared kitchen The toilet one is a problem because if you wake up in the morning and really need to go right And I'll tell you my dad used to take pictures so we called it a newspaper We didn't have YouTube We didn't have your phone or social media so he would take a storybook or a newspaper And it was the norm you know And he would stay there for an hour So my mom used to say "Your dad" He's leaving come on go quick before he goes in So that was one of the things And the fact tha Your mother will keep your food in the cupboard and then when you come the neighbor will show you Your mother said your food is in the cupboard so go check It's in the green bowl and the white plate Your food is there Or sometimes they will give your money your chop money your afternoon money Lunch money Yeah they will give it to you We used to call it an area seeker Your mother will give it You give your money to the neighbor and then when you come back from school he gives it back to you Your mother said you should use it to go and buy something Sometimes they are giving like that was Thousands They take 500 and leave the rest And he had no choice Then what about the shared one Kitchen The fact that we had about eight foods going on at the time And then when you are pounding Downstairs you tell Auntie Efianez to look after your soup for you Yeah it was That's what I'm Saying Looking back it was it may sound strange today but looking back that was the norm I It was okay No one poisoned anyone We never had anything like that And no one changed anything And even sometimes if your fridge developed a fault or something you actually want to keep it Your food in your neighbor's fridge And when your neighbor has the same problem they bring their stuff to your fridge So they fix their fridge before they come But we live together And then one thing was if your mother is cooking a meal you don't like and the neighbor is cooking e one you like you are at peace Because what we used to do was share food So auntie Efianez will cook say dokuno And then we will cook fu And we will share And then the next one I will cook rice Then you share Usually it's between about three two families Two families The ones you get along with Yes What about raising children together I have a story about that Anyway there was a day I didn't even know about There was a day right I saw someone do this And then I was downstairs and I did that Please don't come to Ghana asking people can you give me A pen Can you give me a pen It means something different Well it's got your mom and it's got Her private parts in it That is how far I will go Anyway I did that right And Sisi Mr Labi's wife Who used to live here saw me I thought I hadn't done anything wrong And she kicked the living daylights out of me Anyway so when my mom came it was unacceptable It was unacceptable But the thing is she didn't wait Until my mom came She didn't wait She scolded me and told my mom what I did When she came When she came back That was the norm right It was I mean in today's terms In current currently it will be something that is unacceptable Like you going to you know Reprimand another person's child But during our time it was okay If someone was misbehaving Outside the elderly one will do whatever they want any punishment they deem fit and then come back to report you to your parents So you were careful Even when your parents were not around Because you knew someone was watching So but today it's quite different The next fact too is that all the rooms were named after either the father or the popular kid who lived there So and this one used to be our room Mickey Mickey Mudan And coming here actually makes me sad because this is the first time I've been here since my mom and dad That they passed away It's nostalgic you know So my mom and dad lived in this room this house And we had a balcony We were the only people who had a balcony so it was good And they stayed here until they passed away So this used to be Mickey Mudan so Mr Labidan Mr Kunidan Ima Mudan Sister Jane Sister Jane Mudan So that is another fact for you Another amazing fact about a compound house that I love so much is the fact that it provided many people with opportunities in urban areas isn't it So what happened and what will happen is that people will say someone will come and rent a room here Bring their cousins from the village to come here and learn a trade And this a vocation A vocation And because they were normally it was like the same it's a single room but it's go Families Yeah So those coming in were like teenagers and young adults so they couldn't stay like sleep in the room with them So they opted for the outside space So this used to be somebody's bedroom Every evening people would sleep here with their mattresses Then in the morning they would go and learn their trade And some of them now have built houses isn't it Yeah with time Even one went on to Become an assemblyman Assemblyman yeah So that's one good thing Sometimes we sit down And it was normal because you can't come to the city come to the city and then leave all your siblings or your cousins in the village room It was uncalled for You have to bring at leas One person or two people And when they It was like a cycle When they came they also learned their trade and then they started their own lives too They also go to bring People from the village So the cycle continues My grandmother brought all her siblings to the city and now I Should I say I'm proud of my grandmother Because you usually say something like "you were saying that my granddad could have built something small for himself and his new club family " But look at the number of lives tha ave been touched including himself And transformed And transformed because he never rented a house He built this compound house Imagine if he was in there And it was like kind of Should I say He gave people in the rural area a sense of urban life And then when they came and the They saw or I should say that took over those times The luxuries the televisions things like that Some would just come for holidays and decide not to go back Not to go back And then they make it They make it Yeah I know some of the people who were sleeping on their veranda who owns Their own mansions right now And their companies Yeah and companies Their businesses I'm going to take you upstairs And about the downstairs How many rooms are we talking about We're talking about 10 rooms Yeah on average 10 rooms All of them will have only three toilets And when I was growing up it was only two of them that I was working So I'll tell you about that I have a story about that Then we had the staircase going upstairs This is where you will have to greet everyone when you come back from school So I will stand here and greet everyone And then they will also respond Let me show you Again we have another room here And if those people like there are some of the families who Also be okay to have their own meter So you have some of this the person who was living in this room It will have this meter and that meter will be for him Or sometimes shared with other tenants as well So that's another room That's another room There's another room over there And there's another room here Yeah that's another room And this is where all the gossip happened All the gossip used to happen This is like the vantage point You stay here and you can see every girl that goes town And we will talk about them You can see everything that is happening over here And when there's a match here Because there's a national sports stadium here You can see And normally they will hold concerts or you know musical concerts They will have big ones Games And this is where you stand And then you also enjoy the crowd and the atmosphere Now most of these rooms are single rooms But if you can afford it a lot of people can afford it And it turns into a chamber So they will turn two rooms into a bedroom And then a living room for one family Another fact as well When you think about it We have different Families over here They are not related But they live in one place Like family But they are not family So what happened was a lot of romantic Matches were made in this house Including ours So basically this is the compound house where my My wife lives here And I live here too And what I would do is go and stand But we are not talking to you I will show you I will show you where I used to stand So normally I would be standing over here And she will be standing over there And she will be acting all shy And I will just be spying on her Intimidating her Fast forward And we are here A match made in a compound house So one thing you couldn't avoid in a compound house was the fact that some neighbors were Should I use the word It's troublesome It's not a clash of characters So there were a lot of family feuds Different people from different backgrounds And what I usually do might upset someone What the person sees is okay It might not be okay with me But then someone might go and say something That would really upset someone So we had a lo There have been many fights here A lot has happened at the water area Yes When you go to fetch water Yeah That's where the action was You know So you know it's my turn to go get it It's my turn And then there will be a lot of fights Or maybe the kids will go and then they will have an argument And sometimes what happened was that during the daily cleaning in the compound houses You do the daily chores What do you call it So another fact is the cleaning of this place It's a big house It's a huge house so it was done on a daily basis So it was done on a daily basis But it was done in turn It's like a rotation but from room to room and family to family So the first family will go and then the next family will go And one day it was like when it's a family's turn they will like to buy all the laundry detergents And things like that Then they will do a nice cleaning job And then another family comes before that You know You know that kind of thing So the others will feel like they've been cheated They'll go and confront them And then it will turn into a fight Or something like that But the thing is we never dwell on it for so long You have one or two people who might dwell on it for a long time but we never dwell on it And then you sort it out And you move on As you can see from the downstairs when I showed it to you We didn't have enough indoor rooms to play so everything we did was outside Outdoor space And then we had a lot of fun A lot of fun Yeah Play football And then we had the privilege of We had the hero's park The hero's park Because it wasn't walled off like it is now It was a Saturday like this It would be like a football match between this lane and that lane Star lane Then City Hospital lane Or this Tefya lane And then we play What are some of the games we play Ampe Skipping Chaskele Bilolo The Bilolo is like literally hide and seek Hide and seek Yeah basically all these games And then we had competitions too including dance competitions And one thing is that all of these games were physical You had your cardio done during the day So when you went to sleep you slept like a baby And now that I'm doing this job I'm Supposed to be fit And it's turned out that I'm just naturally fit because of the games that we They played over here on the streets And then we What happened was we didn't have that large room to accommodate them What do you call it Every individual or every child having their own bicycle Yeah So we used to go to the school park That was it Then we played 50 cities No it wasn't 50 cities Yeah well it used to be 50 cities But not like now Now it has to be the old 50 cities That's about 5 pesos Five pesos is roughly that Then you just walk around You walk around the school two or three times Then they give you Jara Yeah so they call it Jara It's like an extra way to say thank you It was popularly known as So that was our Saturday And then the children's park was also in swing So we gathered ourselves and then we decided that this Saturday we are going to the children's park It's a shame It's not relevant What about the fact that you didn't have space and if you were having a Exam at school How did you study We went to I think were lucky We had facilities like the Calvary Methodist Library And then the security manager used to open some of the classrooms for us So it helped It really helped Looking back I think it was good It was good It makes you tough innit Yeah And one thing I will confirm is that you are pushed to do better because the end-of-term examination is also In a way it becomes a competition So if you don't do well your mother will bring it up Yeah And another thing is They will always compare you to the best-behaving child in the house Well the child that they think is the best He was the best behaved I hated that Yeah And my cousin I don't know if he's watching right now Caleb Was the person who they always thought My mom would say "Oh don't you see how Caleb does things " You need to learn from him And then in a low-key way the parents were like you know if you did well in school They are proud Yeah But if you don't do well you know And they always compare It's a compound ouse Every parent wants to see their child do their best So in a way it pushed you It pushed You to learn And then when the results like the national results like the BSE the SSE the WASE That's you know it's how do I put it It's a neighborhood something like that Then we are curious our ears are all over the place you know So it kind of pushed you It pushed you and I think it has helped It has helped a lot What you just saw is the gossip that goes on The juicy ones Well you've got abou 10 families Nearly 20 families living in one house People will talk about each other So Yeah there was one thing that happened a lot in this house and it happens in Cambodia everywhere The ones who are doing well The ones who are not They cheat The ones who used to cheat o eir wives Yeah they were the ones that we used to talk about and then when the wife comes It becomes a debate Who's going to say it Who isn't You know And then by the time you get to that po The wife has said it But nobody said it Nobody said it Let's go to the kitchen So these are some of the meetings I was telling you about This is another room This is for Mr Rahim Yes that's Mr And sometimes the corridors will be turned into a family room which is another room And then we come to the communal kitchen So this is a communal kitchen And when I was growing up We will have about eight cold pots And this is what we call cold pots where we put charcoal You put charcoal in it and then you fan it and it wasn't fun especially when you So we had a Hard charcoal and then we had a soft one We hated the hard one because it was so difficult to fan And then you fan that So we'll have We'll have scattered over here We'll have a cold pot Cold Pot Cold pot And we'll have about eight soups Eight different foods going on over here And they will take care of each other And then everyone Over here All the adults have shown you They will share this bathroom Sorry it's not the best But that's how we grew up So they will Share the bathroom That's what it is Then we brush our teeth And all these things that you They are seeing it right All these things It was when my uncle took over My uncle was looking after this ouse Because this house belongs to my granddad That is when he did this for us And made one of these for us So we stopped going downstairs The next amazing thing about the compound is that it has a large garden Houses are different during Christmas time Talk us through What are some of the things that From my observation When it's time when we're kids Your sisters will come Your brothers will come Back from the boarding house Yeah Everyone's coming So the house will get even more crowded You know Then you know it's Christmas And then it starts with general cleaning Like not that we Don't clean the house But there's Christmas when it's like all hands on deck Yeah So every Cupboards will come out of every corner And every room Every child Every adult Provided you You're not sick Yeah you come out to help clean And then from there what's next That's when you know That's the food cooking No it's the Christmas shopping Christmas shopping That's Where your mother takes you town Your mother takes you town and gets your Christmas stuff So you've been a good boy all year A good girl So you can get this one shoe That's what you really wanted And the dress that you really wanted And then you get to eat the special food Accessories And then the other thing is you go for a fishapa Yes So a fishapa is like going to the The next house to go and greet them And then you get money Do you know what reminds me of Christmas Halloween Yeah In a way We were going from house to house Collecting treats And yeah And then people gave money People gave what they had like Christmas cookies Coffee Juice And then we come together and share Come home and then we share among ourselves We take the juicy parts Another one is watching a sport A major A sports event on other people's TV Sometimes they brought the TV out You know Especially during the World Cup Our days were like that The ones I remember vidly were Ghana's football matches Ghana's football matches International matches And Azuma Nelson's boxing Boxing Yeah They usually I don't know I think it's a different time But they were Normally telecasted in the evening In the evening or at night At night Yeah So you wake up in the morning and there There will be a TV over there And everyone is over here watching It's not that people don't have one Their own TV They do have it It just feels so good It's like in the West you go to the pub to socialize Watch it We do We bring it outside in the middle of the house and then everyone comes Watch it But sometimes too When people were like you know people were coming People used to They came from outside Yeah they came from outside to come and watch it Because people's businesses were around And the number of times that we would watch TV through there as well The thing is you had TV but they had a They had a TV Call it TV Either call it TV or they had a video cassette deck So they would be watching You know Arnold Schwarzenegger We used to call him Commando Then Sylvester Stallone We used to call him Rocky To call him Rambo So you come and stay here And you peek through Peek through someone else's So that's Something we love too This is a typical Saturday in a compound house Laundry is drying everywhere Everywhere Everywhere That's it You can see it over here And then Saturday afternoon like this after the laundry It is being dried We do our chores You wash your socks and your shoes Because when you reach the age of adulthood Your parents no longer do it for you You do it yourself That's why we call it a compound house It has this compound We are standing where my wife grew up So she grew up in this house And I grew up in that one Well I'd always wanted to show this thing about a compound house Because it's a unique experience isn't it Yeah Have you enjoyed it It's been nostalgic you know I'm thankful It was nostalgic for me too It was nice going down memory lane If you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up Let us know if we left something out And probably you can share your experience as well If you grew up in Kumasi in the 80s and 90s The probability that you lived in a compound house is high Yeah so don't forget to subscribe To come on our journey of experience Thank you very much for watching and see you in the next one Bye