FAMILY SHOCK: “At a Point I Felt That My Grandparents Were My Parents” — Ameyaw Debrah

For years, Ameyaw Debrah believed the elderly couple raising him at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region were his parents.

It was only when his biological parents returned from the United Kingdom that the young Ameyaw began to understand the truth about his family.

The Ghanaian media entrepreneur shared the childhood memory during an interview with broadcaster Kafui Dey, recalling how his parents’ absence had made his grandparents the centre of his world.

“I think I also remember maybe when I was younger, when my parents went to live in the UK and they left us with my grandparents in the Eastern Region, Nkawkaw,” he said.

Ameyaw said he was about five years old when his parents returned and the family moved back to Accra.

By then, he had become so accustomed to life with his grandparents that he assumed they were his biological parents.

“When they came back, because I think at a point I felt that my grandparents were my parents,” he said.

Meeting his biological parents left him confused and surprised as he tried to make sense of the family arrangement he had known as a child.

“And so when my parents came back and I actually met them, I was like, ‘Ah, so all the things I was getting, it was coming from some people, and these are the people. I thought my grandparents were the ones,’” he recounted.

A happy childhood in Nkawkaw

Ameyaw said his parents had travelled to the UK in search of better opportunities, with his father leaving first and his mother following later.

“I think perhaps greener pastures, and they went to work there. My father first, and I think my mum. I don’t even know how it happened, but what I remember at that point, both of them were not there,” he told Kafui Dey.

Although he was separated from his parents, Ameyaw remembers his childhood in Nkawkaw fondly.

He grew up in a communal home surrounded by uncles, aunties and cousins. That environment, he said, exposed him to different personalities and ways of thinking.

“It was a place where uncles were there, cousins were there. At that time, we didn’t have that many cousins. You came much later,” he said.

“We had uncles, aunties. So it was a communal home, and I like that because you get different perceptions of people. Everybody’s different. You pick different traits from different people.”

Living with his grandparents also helped ground him and introduced him to a way of life that differed from what he later experienced in Accra.

‘Grandparents pamper you more’

Looking back, Ameyaw said grandparents often give their grandchildren a special kind of affection.

“I think grandparents pamper you more than your parents,” he said.

He said he has observed the same bond between his son and his own parents.

“And I feel it also with my son, that the grandparents pamper him more than we do,” he added.

“They spoil you rotten,” he said, while acknowledging that grandparents can still be strict when necessary.

Ameyaw’s grandmother remains an important figure in his life. Although she now struggles with her sight and hearing, he said she still has an impressive memory.

“She remembers everybody’s birthday, her own birthday. She remembers everything,” he said.

His grandfather has since passed away.