ROOTS is intended to continue the oral tradition of storytelling and my knowledge from previous stays and interviews from 1989 and 2019. There have always been close ties between me and my family: for Titus Kuuyuour, my adopted brother and translator in 1989, has always kept me informed about important events in the family. We both have a close friendship. He is my brother, I am his sister.

In 2019, I met Ernestina Zumeh on my first visit to the North West in exactly 30 years. She is Titu’s niece and I have been her “Aunty” ever since. I will involve her in the project from the beginning and she is keen to join me in the project. She recently graduated from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Even though she is a Dagara, she only knows her father Zumeh Kuuyuour’s home village from the 2019 visit, because when she was little, her father and Titu’s eldest brother migrated permanently to the Eastern Region. Here, farming was more profitable and farm income more secure. Ernestina grew up as a teenager with a foster mother to complete her schooling in an urban environment. She had not seen her parents for years, from 1999 to 2919, and only recently in Hiineteng. So I am not the only one who will ask curious questions: Ernestina, now 27 years old, wants to know more about her roots, her family and life in the village.