KETA – “The Sea Eats the Land at Home”

I left Ghana at the age of four, till then I had lived in the small coastal town of Keta, located in the Volta Region. Keta lies along Ghana’s southern shores, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for its beautiful beaches and lagoon, (Keta lagoon the largest in Ghana).

{Keta Lagoon}

Since leaving Ghana, I have visited Keta on two other occasions (last in 1998); this weekend I returned for the third time. This visit, however, was not at all like the rest where I would spend several weeks of my vacation in Keta; this time I only spent a night. I still have many relatives living there (it is impossible not to as in some way or another you are related to just about the entire town), but no-one of my immediate extended family (i.e. direct uncles, aunts, first cousins etc). In previous years it was for my grandmother (who insisted on remaining there) that we spent the majority of our vacations there. But she too has now been moved to Accra, where my uncles reside.

{Dzelukorpe Hospital - where I was born}

{Street where I once lived}


{Dzelukorpe Roman Catholic Church - where I was baptized}

{Ketasco - I had just started attending pre-school here, when we left Ghana}

{A well in the house where I once lived - we used to play under the coconut trees here}

Keta now appears to be a ghost town; deserted by her children, most of whom have left her shores in search of greener pastures. The town seems quite empty, compared to what it used to be and those who remain, wander around with a strange look of restlessness about their faces.

{Woman in the distance strolling past tree}

The Keta market which once served as the heart of the town no longer bustles with the same energy it once did. Now all the merchants (and their customers) have aged; they no longer frequent the market or have completely closed up their stalls. The younger generation who might have taken up their trade, are now too few in number to restore the life and vitality of the market.

{Lonesome tree outside Keta market}

The buildings all stand in a melancholic state. Their grayish, brown walls tell the story of their neglect – decades gone by without renovation. But stubbornly they remaining standing; strong solid structures, grand in style and stature. The architecture is closely European, reminiscent of the colonial era in which they were built.

{Random man who asked me to take his photo}

{Young boy mimicking me with my camera}


But throughout the years, the source of the Keta’s greatest sorrows has consistently been the Atlantic Ocean. It washed upon her shores the very first European explorers and thereafter brought in hundreds more to exploit her lands and people for several hundred years. And it was this same ocean that took away from her shores millions of her children across its waters to foreign lands where they would become enslaved and be treated as animals for yet another several hundred years.

This same ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, has also for several decades now been eating away at the town of Keta. We all marveled at the 2004 tsunami and the scope of its destruction. Keta has been experiencing something similar, only that it has been spread out over decades. It is common to hear stories of people having their entire homes washed away by the ocean. There isn’t a single family in Keta which hasn’t been affected in some way or the other by the coastal erosion.

{Once a very big school, over 60% of it was destroyed by the ocean. This is what remains}

{Another building destroyed by the ocean}


When my mum was in her teens her home was also taken by the ocean. She tells us stories of how they returned from church one morning to find all their furniture and belongings floating in the water, being washed out to sea. Buildings which once dotted the coastline; homes, churches, schools, forts etc have all been washed away. This gradual encroachment of the ocean onto the land has been going on for generations. My parents always tell me that the Keta I know today is no where near the size it used to be, and their parents before them also told them the same.

By the time of Ghana’s independence in 1957, over half of Keta had already been taken by the ocean. Today it is estimated that only a third of Keta remains; that is since the arrival of our ancestors during the 15th century after their dramatic escape from the kingdom of Notsie, when Togbui Whenya and his followers first laid eyes on the beautiful landscape and decided to settle there. Since that time about 70% of the Keta that they saw and fell in love with no longer exists. It lies beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Recently the Ghanaian government initiated the Keta Sea Defense project. Efforts from this venture have helped push the ocean back a bit, and some small strips of land across the coast have been reclaimed. But still the threat of further erosion remains.

Torwoli S. Dzuali © 2007

"The sea eats the land at home" - This is a popular poem, written by poet Kofi Awoonor, which tells the story Keta’s troubles with the Atlantic ocean.

The Sea Eats the Land at Home

At home the sea is in the town,
Running in and out of the cooking places,
Collecting the firewood from the hearths
And sending it back at night;
The sea eats the land at home.
It came one day at the dead of night,
Destroying the cement walls,
And carried away the fowls,
The cooking-pots and the ladles,
The sea eats the land at home;
It is a sad thing to hear the wails,
And the mourning shouts of the women,
Calling on all the gods they worship,
To protect them from the angry sea.
Aku stood outside where her cooking-pot stood,
With her two children shivering from the cold,
Her hands on her breasts,
Weeping mournfully.
Her ancestors have neglected her,
Her gods have deserted her,
It was a cold Sunday morning,
The storm was raging,
Goats and fowls were struggling in the water,
The angry water of the cruel sea;
The lap-lapping of the bark water at the shore,
And above the sobs and the deep and low moans,
Was the eternal hum of the living sea.
It has taken away their belongings
Adena has lost the trinkets which
Were her dowry and her joy,
In the sea that eats the land at home,
Eats the whole land at home.

{Sun setting over Keta}


More on Keta please read - "KETA - Returning Home"