Ghana News
‘I May Have Inherited the Power to Become a Jaguar’: Dutch Author Traces Family ‘Curse’ to Ghana’s Kormantse Village
Raoul de Jong was 28 years old when he received an email that would change his life. Written in capital letters, it read: “I’M SEARCHING FOR MY SON RAOUL DE JONG.” It was from his father—a man he had met only once before, when he was two years old.
They arranged to meet under the big clock at Amsterdam Central Station.
“I immediately recognized him. That was the weird thing. I could immediately see, oh, yeah, of course, there’s only one person on this planet that is my father,” Raoul recalls in a BBC podcast.
After that first meeting, they lost touch again. But when Raoul decided to travel to Suriname—a former Dutch colony in South America where his father was born—to research a book about his roots, his father reappeared and told him something that would send him on a seven-year journey across three continents.
His father, a devout Christian, warned him about a family curse. One of Raoul’s ancestors, brought as a slave from Africa to Suriname, had practiced Winti, an Afro-Surinamese traditional religion similar to voodoo or Candomblé, and could transform himself into a jaguar.
“But this is very bad,” his father said. “This is like a curse for the family.”
The Quest for the Jaguar Man
His father advised him to stay away from the curse. But Raoul, driven by curiosity, could not let it go. Who could this ‘jaguar man’ be? And what did his powers have to do with him?
“I wanted to find out what are those powers and why is my father so afraid of them. And what do they have to do with me?” Raoul explains in another podcast Dutch Studies University of Sheffield.
He knew very little about Suriname—“as much as the average Dutch person, which is almost nothing,” he admits. He went to the biggest bookstore in his city and asked for books about Suriname. They had just one, written by two Amsterdam students.
“I was like, ‘Ah, that’s not what I’m searching for. I want to know what is beautiful about Suriname,'” he says.
He searched for voices like Maya Angelou or James Baldwin, writers who looked like him or his father. The bookstore said they did not exist. But Raoul was stubborn. He eventually found a book from 1934, written by Anton de Kom, a black man from Suriname. He had to go to the library in Rotterdam every day for three days to read it because he had not paid his library fine.
“It was a really weird and magical experience to read that book,” he says.
De Kom’s book explained the history of Suriname and how deeply it was intertwined with the history of the Netherlands.
“For example, as I would find out later, the owner of my family, my enslaved ancestors, was the founder of the Dutch bank, the National Dutch bank,” Raoul reveals.
He realized that enslaved people were not allowed to learn to read or write.
“That was one of the ways they turned people into slaves, basically. So then at the beginning you might think, oh, so that means they did not use their voice. But then after a while, I understood that’s not true. They still spoke. They just had to learn to talk in a way that the master didn’t understand that they were talking,” he explains.
They did it through clothes—using color codes in fabrics to refer to African deities. They did it through music and rhythms that could call certain spirits.
“These rhythms, we still hear them every day. Those are the rhythms that we dance to when we let ourselves go in the discotheque. Or even in Justin Bieber’s songs, you can hear certain rhythms,” Raoul says.
The Kromanti Spirits and the Ghana Connection
As Raoul delved deeper, he discovered the Kromanti—the name for seven spirits that accompanied his African ancestors as they were brought to Suriname on slave ships. One of these spirits was a leopard, which, once in Suriname, took on the form of a jaguar.
“They called upon these spirits when they had to go through these terrible punishments on the slave plantations,” Raoul says.
His research eventually led him to Ghana. He visited a coastal village called Kormantse. Like the seven Kromanti spirits, the village had seven families, each represented by an animal.
Many people had been taken as slaves from this village. One of them was a powerful warrior whose symbol was a leopard. Was he Raoul’s ancestor? And had his name always been remembered as the spirit Kromanti?
Raoul believes this spirit guided him—first to Suriname, and then to Ghana.
“I think you know that as well as I do. It’s time to take stock, to put our cards on the table. All right, I will start. This is not a story about white or black, the Netherlands or Suriname, the old world or the new. And it’s not a story about my father, even though it involves all those things. This is a story about you, Jaguar Man,” he writes in his book.
The Curse That Was Not a Curse
For seven years, Raoul researched, travelled, and wrote. He filled 20 notebooks with notes and recorded countless hours of interviews. He spoke with spiritual leaders, visited archives, and travelled to the rainforest in Suriname and to Brazil, where the Dutch had also been present.
He realized that the “curse” was not what his father had believed.
“People were taught to be afraid of their own beauty, and their own powers,” he says.
The Kromanti spirits and the jaguar man were not something to fear. They were sources of strength that had helped enslaved people survive the horrors of the slave trade and plantation life. Raoul’s book, Jaguar Man (published in Dutch as Jaguarman in 2020), became a temple for these silenced voices.
A Father’s Gratitude
After the book was published, his father called him. He thanked Raoul—for not listening to him.
“After Raoul published his book, called Jaguarman, his father called and thanked him – for not listening to him,” a BBC report notes.
The book was published two months after the Black Lives Matter movement gained global momentum. “If it would have been published before, it would have not done the same thing. People were ready for this story to be told,” Raoul says.
Anton de Kom’s book, written in 1934, became a bestseller 86 years after it was written. The Dutch government made apologies to his family. Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized in 2022, and King Willem-Alexander followed in 2023.
Jaguar Man Goes Global
Now, with the English translation of Jaguar Man, Raoul is reaching an international audience. He has connected with readers from Jamaica, the United States, and the Caribbean—people whose ancestors, like his, were part of the same African diaspora.
“Suriname would be more powerful. All these suppressed people would be more powerful if they united with each other instead of always having the regard at the oppressor,” Raoul says.
He believes the story of the jaguar man is not just Surinamese or Dutch. It is a story about humanity.
“Just like I don’t have to be white to learn something from Ernest Hemingway or enjoy Ernest Hemingway,” he says.
As he writes in his book:
‘Dear Douw, who art my forefather, for these past few years you’ve been playing a game with me. You send me signs and I follow them from Rotterdam to Paramaribo, from Rome to Recife. But every time I came close to treading on your tail, you sped away. We cannot go on like this forever.”
For Raoul de Jong, the journey is complete.
The jaguar man has finally been found—not in the Amazon rainforest, but in the history of Ghana, Suriname, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Ghana News
From Rain-Fed to Year-Round: How Ghana Is Using Solar Irrigation to Power an Agricultural Revolution
For generations, farming in Northern Ghana has been a gamble against the skies. With erratic rainfall and a long dry season, smallholder farmers could only plant once a year, leaving them idle for months and vulnerable to food insecurity. Today, that reality is changing thanks to solar-powered boreholes.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), in collaboration with the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and with funding from Global Affairs Canada, has completed the installation of 25 dry-season mechanised solar irrigation borehole systems across agricultural communities in Northern Ghana. The milestone was marked at the closing ceremony of the MEDA GROW2 Project at the Modern City Hotel in Tamale, where stakeholders gathered to celebrate a new era of year-round vegetable production.
Speaking on behalf of the Northern Regional Minister, Ali Adolf John, the Mayor of Tamale, Abubakari Adam Takoro, emphasised that the infrastructure, combined with targeted support for women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has strengthened local agricultural value chains and expanded inclusive financing for smallholder farmers.
The Scale of Investment
The initiative, carried out under the Greater Rural Opportunities for Women 2 (GROW2) Project, represents an investment of approximately GH¢8 million. Each solar-powered borehole system is equipped with solar pumps, water storage systems, and irrigation tools, and is designed to support approximately 50 acres of irrigable land, serving at least five farmer groups of about 25 women each. In total, more than 3,100 women farmers across 11 districts are directly benefiting from the intervention.
The beneficiary communities span the Northern, Savannah, and Upper West regions, including Tamalgu, Salankpaang, Zhieng, Bakundiba, Kpanshegu, Jindabuo, Chapuri, Domwine, Ketuo, and Sakai. With these systems in place, farmers can now cultivate high-value crops—tomatoes, onions, peppers, leafy vegetables—throughout the dry season, unlocking a second harvest season that was previously impossible.
Beyond Irrigation: A Holistic Package
The GROW2 Project has not stopped at water. In addition to the solar-powered boreholes, the initiative has provided improved seed varieties, modern processing equipment, and motorised tricycles to streamline the transportation of farm produce to urban market centres. These complementary interventions are designed to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain—from seed to market—and ensure that the gains from irrigation translate into real income for farming households.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Myriam Montrat, described the initiative as evidence of a strong and enduring partnership between Ghana and Canada in driving agricultural transformation. She noted that the irrigation systems would increase agricultural productivity, facilitate new harvest seasons in drought-prone areas, build resilience to climate change, raise incomes, and strengthen farmers’ contribution to value chains and trade opportunities.
Complementing National Priorities
The Mayor of Tamale noted that these interventions directly complement the Government of Ghana’s agricultural priority initiatives, including the Feed Ghana and Feed the Industry programmes, which aim to increase farm productivity and provide raw materials for domestic industry.
The Feed Ghana programme has emerged as the centrepiece of Ghana’s agricultural modernisation agenda. Under this flagship initiative, the government aims to bring 400,000 hectares of farmland under solar irrigation by 2028, with plans to install 3,500 solar pumps during that period. The first phase of this larger programme involves the deployment of 400 solar pumps in 2026, with the ultimate goal of covering 1 million hectares with solar irrigation by 2030.
The urgency of this push is underscored by a stark statistic: only 3% of Ghana’s cultivated land—totaling nearly 7.4 million hectares—was equipped for irrigation in 2022. This over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture has long been a source of production instability and a major challenge to achieving food security. Solar irrigation offers a sustainable path away from that vulnerability.
A Budget Aligned with Ambition
The government has backed its irrigation ambitions with significant financial commitments. The Ministry of Finance has released 85 percent of MoFA’s approved 2026 budget—GH¢1.677 billion—to accelerate food production, with GH¢110 million specifically allocated for irrigation infrastructure projects across the country. This is in addition to international partnerships, including a €154 million investment from the Government of Italy to develop a 10,000-hectare irrigated model farm for the all-year-round cultivation of rice, maize, soya, and tomatoes.
A Sustainable Future
The solar-powered boreholes are not just about water; they represent a shift toward climate-smart agriculture that harnesses renewable energy to power Ghana’s food systems. By reducing dependence on costly diesel generators and unreliable rainfall, these systems offer a sustainable, environmentally friendly solution that can be replicated across the country.
The Mayor of Tamale urged local assemblies, traditional leaders, and savings groups to maintain the infrastructure and business networks established under the project to ensure long-term sustainability and foster continued development partnerships in the region. His call underscores a critical truth: the technology alone is not enough. Lasting change requires community ownership and a collective commitment to maintaining the gains.
Ghana’s agricultural transformation is no longer a distant aspiration—it is being built, borehole by borehole, across the northern savannah. With solar irrigation, the country is not just growing crops; it is growing resilience, incomes, and a future where farmers are no longer at the mercy of the rains.
It is being described as Ghana’s most ambitious infrastructure project in decades. From eight grade-separated interchanges to 55 mainline bridges and an intelligent transport system, the Accra-Kumasi Expressway is designed to be a modern engineering marvel.
Engineer Francis Ahlidza, Managing Director of Accra-Kumasi Expressway Limited, has revealed the full scope of the project’s design, which promises to be a state-of-the-art, six-lane, bi-directional Class A expressway.
A Corridor Built for Speed and Safety
The mainline will feature a three-lane dual carriageway on a 36-metre standard roadbed, designed for a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Connector roads at the Accra and Kumasi ends will be Class B roads with a 60 km/h limit. The project covers approximately 198.7 kilometres between Ablekuma and Sewua, comprising 176 kilometres of new expressway and about 23 kilometres of upgraded connector roads.
Key Structures and Features
The expressway will incorporate eight grade-separated interchanges, 11 vehicle overpasses, and 55 mainline bridges, infrastructure designed to significantly improve road safety and ease traffic flow. The interchanges are planned at strategic locations including the Accra Hub, Adeiso, Asamankese, Akyem Oda, Ofoase, Lake Bosomtwe, and Kumasi. Three major bridges will span the Birim and Pra Rivers.
Smart Road Technology
The expressway will feature a modern intelligent transport system (ITS), supported by electromechanical works.
A total of eight tolling locations, one operating centre, and two monitoring centres will enable authorities to monitor traffic and respond quickly to incidents along the corridor. The route will also include four full-service rest areas where motorists can rest, eat, and attend to their vehicles, as well as a fire service station, an ambulance station, and three maintenance depots.
Engineering Scale
The project also includes nine at-grade intersections and approximately 200 reinforced concrete box culverts, underscoring the scale of the engineering undertaking.
When completed, the expressway is expected to reduce the distance between Accra and Kumasi by about 50 kilometres, cut journey times by 50%, and reduce travel costs by approximately 40%.
The Accra-Kumasi Expressway will be a fully integrated transport corridor. Its combination of high-capacity design, safety features, and smart technology positions it as a landmark project that will define Ghana’s infrastructure landscape for generations.
President John Dramani Mahama has confirmed that the new 198.7-kilometre Accra-Kumasi Expressway will reduce travel time between the two cities from the current five to six hours to just two hours.
The government’s promise of a two-hour journey between Accra and Kumasi is more than just a convenience; it is a fundamental reshaping of Ghana’s economic geography.
But what does this dramatic reduction in travel time truly mean for commuters, businesses, and the national economy?
The new route shaves off nearly 70 kilometers compared to the existing 270-kilometre highway, with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour that allows motorists to complete the journey even at a more moderate 100 km/h.
The Economic Multiplier Effect
The impact of this time cut extends far beyond the windshield. Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson projects the construction phase alone will create 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, with the project serving as a major economic corridor to facilitate the movement of people and goods. Economist Dr. Theo Acheampong argues this figure is conservative, estimating the project could support between 50,000 and 70,000 job-years, driven by domestic purchases of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in materials and services.
Revolutionising Freight and Logistics
For the logistics sector, the time cut is transformational. The expressway will create a faster, more reliable road link from Tema Port to inland hubs like Kumasi and the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal (BILT). This directly lowers fuel costs, reduces demurrage risks at the port, and slashes inventory holding costs for shippers and forwarders. The new alignment will naturally re-route heavy container traffic from older, congested roads, improving throughput on the north-bound route to Burkina Faso.
Communities Reconnected
The benefits will be felt keenly in communities long bypassed by development. Towns like Adeiso, Asamankese, Akyem Oda, and Ofoase in the Eastern Region will be transformed into modern agricultural logistics hubs, allowing farmers to reach urban markets in record time. In the Ashanti Region, communities such as Sewua and Bosomtwe will be linked to a fast-flowing economic artery, opening up the Lake Bosomtwe biosphere to domestic tourism. Urban commuters in Nsawam and Pokuase will also experience reduced gridlock as heavy freight is diverted away from traditional choke points.
The 50% time cut is not merely a statistic but a catalyst for economic transformation.
From the farm gates of the Eastern Region to the port terminals of Tema, the Accra-Kumasi Expressway is set to compress distances, lower costs, and unlock a new era of productivity for Ghana.
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