AA: My name is Abraham Adu and I come from Ghana.
AA: Yes, OK yes, I’m an Ashanti Man.
JW: Born when in Ghana?
AA: Oh, born when in Ghana - born as far back as 1976.
JW: So tell me something of the very earliest perhaps happy memory that you have as a child of being in Ghana.
AA: Oh loads of them - fortunate to come from a nice family. As a child brought up in a so-called decent environment back in Kumasi, being, living nearer to - you know in Ashanti we have a King so close to Kumasi where - where we are closer to the King who was Otumfuo - currently we have a Osei Tutu it’s like being closer to Buckingham Palace in the UK so I had a very privileged decent upbringing during my childhood. There are a lot of good memories I mean schooling, going to play in the Chief’s garden and stuff, plenty of them - yes.
JW: Describe the environment for me.
AA: I’m not very good in describing nature but put it this way, green grass, big garden with nice trees but not having waterfalls but with nice people and stuff like that.
JW: So how big was your family?
AA: Oh my family are only three.
AA: Only three - a brother and a sister. I’m the middle one.
JW: You’re the middle child?
JW: OK. What advantage does the middle child have?
AA: Well I don’t know if I have any advantage because they all pull me. You know. The older one says you’re not doing enough and the younger one will say you’re pressuring me so I don’t know if that is an advantage of being - I don’t see a particular advantage of being - I look at it this way where I’ve got a brother and I’ve got a sister but advantage-wise I could say because my brother had been through things that I had not been through it’s like transferring life skills to me so some mistakes that he made he thought that I would not be repeating them but you never know.
JW: So you’re sort of implying that you’re close to your brother?
AA: Yes very, very close. We are very, very close and tight family.
AA: Very, very close to each other. My brother is in Canada but we stay close and communicated, we communicate most of the time through Whatsapp and through the local telephone. And my sister who is in Ghana who is currently in charge of my printing business so we are very close.
JW: Good. Yes. So what were your - your activities during your more formative years, around your teenage years?
AA: Around my teenage years, wow, I was very, very, very, very naughty and, the environment that I was brought up in, I remember that after school the sort of activities that we use to do was play football and it’s like when you’re in Hull going to play football say in Driffield but we don’t have means to, Driffield is too far. Let’s say Brandsholme. So we don’t have means to transport because we were young at the time so we would walk and go and play football. When we are coming on our way home, we being going to sneak into people’s gardens and plucking their mangos and stuff and dogs would be chasing us and stuff like that. Yes, there were various activities that we used to do in after school activities. I remember there is, I, trying to become it’s been a long time to remember the names of some of the local names for some of the activities, - it was similar to cricket where they have a basket in the middle and throw balls into it and somebody would be standing there trying to prevent them from going in, we call it ‘chaskilly’.
Chaskilly what we do is we take a, like a, the left over from a milk can, then we crush it and it becomes very smaller, so that we use that to throw it into the bowl, the bowl’s in the middle and somebody is there with a long stick preventing it from going in, so that if the person prevents it from going in then that means the person has won but if the one who throws it goes I then that person has won. So there are various activities that we use to enjoy back in Ghana and there one of the traditions that we use to do is - my mum, my dad was an old man, he was 110 before the passed away, may his soul rest in perfect peace - I remember after school, he didn’t go to school anyway but he would call us and give us stories. He had a name that I’m very ashamed that I don’t remember we had a name for it where he called us in the night after the meal and then he would give us these stories before we go to bed and stuff like that, stories about our tradition about the Akan clan about our family, what they have done and what is the expectations of the family and stuff like that.
JW: What where the expectations of the family?
AA: One of the expectation is that because they didn’t get the advantage of going to school part of my family went to school those who didn’t go to school are farmers and my dad happened to come from those who are traditional farmers. The aspiration was that those who were farmers have to educate, have to train their children, you know motivate their children to go to university. At least if you finish university then one of the expectation is that along the way, you don’t impregnate any woman because if you do impregnate any woman, they would not accept you, you’ll be rejected. It’s a tradition that has been instilled, that has been held up to this time. I remember my brother never had a child until he was thirty-three years that is after he had married and I have to do likewise. Yes so those are more or less the expectations, that you are expected to achieve as a child from my family.
JW: OK, so you said you were a bit of a naughty lad, but you weren’t that naughty then?
AA: I was naughty, naughty in the sense not, you know, there are stuff we do as children that we don’t tell our parents, that’s right.
JW: Just between, just between the two of us.
So I got kicked out of that school because already I’m not supposed to be there so when that break-up happened that is when my naughtiness began. And at that time even though I had been given some expectations to achieve, I didn’t take it that seriously. I thought I could play around because I was intelligent, I could play around and last minute then excel.
JW: Still get the work done?
JW: So where did your intelligence take you. Did you get to university?
AA: At the international level, we had what you call Common Entrance, it’s a certificate that I still keep which is called Middle School Leaving Certificate, we were the last batch. I had a very good results and through that I went to secondary school. When I went to the secondary school, on my first week I got a prize and that prize was, we had a quiz where it’s a stage quiz and anybody who excelled - the one who come on top also called a game we call Bash where we count 1, 2, 3; 1, 2, 3; 1, 2…3 and the 4th person we say “BASH” - so it went on and on and on and you should know your multiplication table before. It went on and on and on and at the end of the day I won. And part of that achievement was that during the secondary school and year 3, we call it, Form 3, at that time, because of the naughtiness as I said from the earlier on, I followed some group and found out that I didn’t get the grades in Form 5 where we did the O’Levels, I didn’t get good grades. I failed totally, and when I came home and I showed my certificate to my mum, parent who was my mum, showed it to my parent who was my mum, and she was like “so this is what you have brought eh?” and I said “yes”, “and after all those school fees and stuff” and I said “yes”, “so where do you think this will take you to? I’m not saying anything, just go to your room and think about it”. I went through and I found that I made a mess about myself because my best friend had the distinction and I didn’t, the grades that I had we call it ‘nine in chains’, it’s where failure throughout so my mum told me that I should go and think about it. I went and thought about it and I said, “OK mum you don’t do anything, I know what to do”. I went to the Methodist book depot and got a book, two books, came home, sat down and wrote it the following year and I passed and when I was doing my O’levels I was doing my A’levels because there was a change in the education reform where we were moving from O’levels to Senior Secondary School Level - it’s a different variant. I passed and I went to university and then as part of, as you asked what I achieved, one of my achievements was that I got a scholarship from the Chief which is Otumfuo Osei Tutu. That is that they give you, they pay you some grants as part of your, of your school, university education. So it was good to achieve that and thereafter when, we finished our secondary university and I came to the UK to do a Masters. After I’d done my Masters as part of the achievement the Economic Social Research Council sponsored my PhD. So what my mum taught me after my failure and the rest, is how to turn it to be positive.
JW: Turn it to a positive?
JW: So why did you choose to come to the UK to further your education? There must have been a whole world - why choose the UK?
AA: Yes, it was a simple decision at the end of the day because in my second year at university I started travelling to England. During my summer break I’d come to England for a couple of months and then I go back. So when I was coming and going several time, I said to myself that I would not do my Masters in Ghana because one of my, teaching assistants who was teaching us economics was doing a PhD at that time. Instead of three years he spent about eight years in doing his PhD so I said to myself “no I’m not doing that” because our system is favouritism so I prefer to do it in England. And one of my lecturers who was also finished his Masters at Hull University was part of the motivation to do, to come and study in England. Yes.
JW: Tell me, what were your thoughts and feelings, you know, was it a shock to come to the UK that first visit that you made?
JW: What were the differences in culture? What really struck you at the time?
JW: The size of your jacket?
AA: Yes, because of the size of my jacket and how I was carrying myself because there was nobody who came to meet me at the airport. The one, the family member who was suppose to meet me was working so I, she gave me directions.
JW: So you arrived in Heathrow. Did you then come straight to Hull, or…?
AA: No. I arrived at Heathrow - that is terminal, is it terminal 3 or something like that? - the international terminal - went to stay with them in London for a couple of weeks before I came to Hull.
JW: Right, OK. So what was London like? How old were you then?
AA: Oh. That was a long time ago. So 2005. I’m now going to be forty so you do the maths.
JW: Life begins. I’m hopeless at maths Abraham, hopeless at maths. Well that must have been quite a shock when to come to a great big multi-cultural, very diverse, very energetic city such as London. What were your feelings?
AA: Well when we, in London, it was a shock as you put it, you rightly put it, it was a surprise at how things are organised. Different from where I’m coming from. Were you’re told to put your seatbelt on, and stuff like that. I mean when you finished eating you’re not supposed to throw things around but I found it fascinating also for seeing, a lot of Black people also in London, particularly in the area of Tottenham and stuff like that but the development, the structure how things are designed, I was very, very fascinated about it in London in particular, yes.
JW: Did that influence your academic route?
AA: Yes it did, it did change my mentality for sure, it did make me think that I can achieve if I work harder, if I work extra harder, yes it did, it certainly did, yes.
JW: So you mentioned that a fellow lecturer or student had been to Hull?
JW: Is that why you chose Hull?
AA: Exactly. That’s the main reason why I chose Hull University. Obviously I was coming to study in -in UK because I had admission at Leeds Business School, also had admission at Wolverhampton Business School at that time. I chose Hull because of her advice that most - that there are most prominent Ghanaians who had been to Hull University.
JW: OK. So how did that friend describe the city of Hull? Not necessarily the university. How did they describe the city to you?
AA: They say it’s a peaceful place. If I want a place of peace to study it’s Hull University but if I want a place where I can study and not enjoy the peace then I can go to say Leeds Business School because It’s busy. Hull is quiet but it’s not - I should look at the main reason why I’m coming to study. I’m not coming for the fun, I’m coming for the certificate so if Hull is peaceful for me to learn, why don’t I choose Hull and the quality of the education in Hull is also better and the cost of living is also reasonable than other places, than other bigger cities.
JW: Yes. I can tell by the glint in your eye that you’ve had a bit of fun too.
AA: In Hull, oh, no, not, it depend fun - it depends what you mean by fun.
JW: So when you arrive in Hull, what year?
JW: 2005. There’s actually been a huge change in the city hasn’t there since 2005 - what are they now 11 years on? - tell me something of the changes that you’ve noticed?
AA: The first change that I have noticed is that on my first day to Hull I was surprised and I was shocked at the train station. Because back then that train station and the coach station, they were fragmented. You have to, if you want a bus to go far, you go and pick a bus that was the first shock. But, the university was OK compared to Ghana standards. Ghana’s universities are huge, it was small but now I’ve seen a lot of development in Hull, I remember back in 2005 you can count the number of Black people that you encounter on the streets but now there are so many of them in the street - yes so the city has been a lot of changes to my city, to my understanding.
JW: What have you done yourself to sort of get under the skin of the city and to get more involved with the life of Hull. How have you engaged with the city?
AA: One of the ways that I would say is through my religious affiliation. I’m a Christian, going to church, at least, twice in a week - make allowed me to associate with different people from different cultures and different ethnic backgrounds in the city and also teaching as well, where I go to school, when I interact with different people.
JW: Let me ask you just a little bit more then about church life. You grew up a Christian I imagine, African churches are very vibrant, very close knit communities, very supportive of each other. Have you found the same sort of church family feeling here in Hull, in the UK?
AA: Yes and no. Because it would depend upon the church that you go to. I remember vividly with my eyes open that I went to church in Leeds and I slept in the church. Why because there were only three of us: the pastor, the wife and myself in a bigger church. So that relates to if I - that relates to different churches and how they would do their things. The church that I go to we have people from different backgrounds, different nations and stuff like that. If you go to a church like a Methodist church, they are predominantly, white and their interaction is presented as only white and whereas other churches like the Pentecostal churches that we go to which has got its routes in Africa so they have transformed some of these things here.
AA: Yes, if you go when I go to Pentecost, Methodist church they don’t play drums.
AA: But in these churches they have integrated some part of the culture of African into so they have kumka they play what you call kumka, they play drums, they play all African, most African instruments, yes.
JW: So that’s great that you’ve found a sort of African family through your church in Hull and they have sort of brought some African culture to church life.
JW: What about looking more widely outside of church, family life, work life, chatting to your neighbours where you live and the like? Have you been able to bring any of your African culture to those communities to share?
AA: Unfortunately no. To some extent, why?, because, there is a saying that if you go to Rome, do what Romans do. I am not an imposer, not a person who will impose my culture on people. We have to follow what the society is. So because of that I don’t, I interact with my neighbours, they come for a meal and stuff like that. I don’t want to impose upon them that - hey, there’s an African beat do you want to dance to it? No. Unless they enquire then I will educate them into it. And not to impose it upon them.
AA: In terms of that, that means we within my community or my neighbourhood - no.
JW: Tell me your feeling about national stereotypes - us white British perhaps we’re described as being stiff upper lipped. We keep ourselves to ourselves. We don’t show our emotions. Is that your view of people in Hull? People in the UK?
AA: You mean keeping themselves to themselves?
JW: Yes. How do you find people? Have found people?
AA: Well that can be boring to some extent - whereby if we, if, people keeping themselves to themselves it can be boring because you need to have a balance. I mean there must be interaction to see what other people think - perhaps they may be going through some difficult things you don’t know. Perhaps they might be going through life changes or something like that that you don’t know.
I remember my neighbour as I was talking about this, my neighbour, I had a chat with my neighbour where I was talking to her about why doesn’t she allow - why doesn’t she live with her family like her children and stuff and she was like life in the UK is different because I’ve had my life, they also have to have their lives and I was saying that no, we need to transfer whatever you have put into them to you. They needed you when they were children, now that you are old, I think it makes more sense and economic wise to share a house and you can rent this and it can be invested for, your grandchildren’s education and stuff like that.
JW: Yes, what do you think your dad would be saying about your - your achievements and your style of life now? Would he be a proud man?
AA: I, mmm, I hope so - I hope so because - number one, like I say he never went to school so for the child to go to school completed in Ghana and travelling to a foreign land and still achieve success. I think, I think he would be proud and my mum is very proud of me so I believe that my dad if he was around would of course be very proud of the achievements even though I haven’t achieved what I have set out to achieve.
JW: Is Hull your long term home?
AA: That is a difficult question - is Hull my long-term home? For now, till now it has been so why not, why not, why not but it all depends on the policy changes in the local economy. If there are more investment here and retaining of people like us. I think we have contribution to contribute to the society so why not if, if things go on well. But not at the moment you don’t know what is going to happen the next day in the economy so.
JW: What would you offer to the city or the local economy then?
AA: To the local economy, interestingly I had a discussion with one of the professors about having an economic development centre at the Hull Business School, we had a chat about it because, if we have such a centre that can drive and can bring some investment and that centre would be able to educated people, educate the local community in terms of where to invest and how the economy is going. If they do this will it benefit the local economy. Not just looking at the general economy but looking at the local economy what is exactly needed. Yes.
JW: Mmmm. So you’ve ended up in Hull mostly because another student or lecturer friend, someone in academia said that this was the place to be for you?
JW: How would you describe the city to somebody you know back in Ghana looking for a university city in the UK. How would you sell the city to locals?
AA: I would sell the city this way, that Hull is a vibrant, local economy, so many years ago it was one of the vibrant cities in the UK and I believe it is getting back on track. If one wants to come and study here, the cost of living is very low, they have a high quality teaching staff, the people are very, very nice and you get to go to places and in fact as a joke, but seriously there’s so many free car parks in Hull.
JW: Is that City of Freedom?
AA: Well, even that I can save a lot of money you know if you are a student and you are driving. I mean the point is that if you are living in Hull you don’t even need to even to be driving all the time because of the buses and everything is closely linked: it’s not widely spread so there are so many positives if somebody wants to come and study or live in Hull. And, also next year we are going to be part of the city of culture so Hull is being put back on the map.
And also Hull City has come back to the premiership recently.
AA: If somebody like rugby, there are two rugby teams in Hull.
AA: So there are a lot of positive things going on in Hull and, well the gentleman who punched somebody where after being thrown an egg is also in Hull, our former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, is from Hull.
JW: So a role model?
AA: That is debateable. I had a picture with him so that is, he came to Hull University, we had a picture. It depends.
JW: You had an egg in your pocket?
AA: Oh, I didn’t have one. He was very close to me. I can’t stand his punch. He is a very - I think he is. It depends on your standpoint. He is to me - he is a good role model. Look at his background and what he has achieve in life from the context I think you can say he’s a good model and he is now also contributing to Hull Business School. Yes.
JW: Do you find parallels in your own life to what you have mentioned of John Prescott?
AA: Ooh, difficult upbringing but not that much, not that much but I think there are some links in there but I will not be throwing eggs around. Certainly not.
JW: So people listening to this interview, listening of your description of your journey from childhood in Ghana over to fairly successful academic career certainly other activities you are involved in the city. What would you want the listener to take from that story?
AA: It’s a story of aspiration, dedication and endurance. So because there - one writer put it as shoot to the moon even if you miss the moon, you would definitely land on a star.
AA: So if you have the ambition you can achieve whatever you want to achieve and Hull is such a quiet place that you can achieve, it’s like a flower when you blossom, people recognise you.
JW: That’s a lovely place to stop Abraham. Lovely to chat to you. Thank you very much.
AA: Thank you very much too Jerome.