• One of the popular Zongo communities Fadama has an interesting story
• The name Fadama is derived from a Hausa word
• This edition of People & Places puts the spotlight on Fadama
It is a popular Zongo community in Accra. In recent times, it has become more popular because the area houses the spiritual leader of all Muslims in Ghana, the Chief Imam, and popular musician, Kuami Eugene.
Largely a Muslim community, the area houses several families interconnected with a rich history.
What started as a community in the then flood-prone area was moved to a new area, what is now known today as ‘New Fadama’.
Chief of the area, Sarki Ridwan Muktar Abass, revealing details about the people of Fadama to GhanaWeb’s Wonder Ami Hagan on People & Places explained, that Old Fadama and New Fadama are two different places.
Fadama, he said, is a Hausa word that means ‘a water logged area’. The name was derived by the first settler on the land, one Abass, a trader from Northern Nigeria who came to Northern Ghana and later travelled to the southern part of the country to visit a relative.
“Fadama means a waterlogged area. A place where you will always find water – a flooded area.
“Fadama is pure Hausa. Most of the Zongos here have Hausa names. You go to Adabraka, it’s Alabarka but it’s been changed to Adabraka, you go to Shukura – we call it Shukula but it is Shukura, you go to Nima, they are all Hausa languages.
“When the old man wanted to buy that area, he was advised but he knows why he wanted to stay there then.
“He stayed there for a very long time. I can’t tell when Fadama started but I know from the indenture that it started in 1935,” he stated.
According to Sarki Ridwan, the son of Abass who later became the first Chief Imam, took over when his father got older and tried developing the area.
After failing to, majorly because of the state of the area and its flood-prone component, he, after deliberations with the then Nkrumah-led government, moved together with the people of the area, to a new land – the current area called New Fadama.
That’s how the name Fadama came to exist and why there now exists Old and New Fadama.
There are more details in the full interview below: