A burial church service went dead silent when Pastor Chris Baah-Nartey of a Presby church in the Manya Krobo area asked the congregation who was likely to live beyond the next 50 years. These days needless factors have forced people to cross the rubicon so easily and early, but at least, this reporter has spotted two obituary notices that indicate the most advanced ages ever to be attained by citizens of Ghana. Anything which surpasses them may have to project itself out of the latent chamber to make history. Two women who died at the ages of 130 and 120 had their posters between Klikor and Agbozume in the Volta region. In Nkoranza in the Bono East region, two obituaries displayed the celebratory ages of 130 and 110, again both were women.
These enforce the impression created in some quarters that Ghanaian women have the longest lifespans following the 2021 revelation on the local language-based Onua TV that a female Ghanaian by name of Amodzie had attained 198 years but was not in Guinness World Records. This pleasant surprise was by self-attestation.
In the Central regional town of Gomua Potsin and at Bawku in the Upper East region funeral posters revealed men with the advanced age of 102. In Bolgatanga, a deceased male was found to have attained the respectable age of 100. When it comes to longevity, the men have catch up to do.
The late, Mr. W.G Nartey, a native of Old Ningo in the Greater Accra region made a triumphant exit from the land of the living in 2018, at the age of 103. He was a very rich man. He was a millionaire in the 1970s and sustained that status despite going into exile in the heat of the 1979 revolution. He might have died only due to old age, for he was upright, lived well, and had the wherewithal and the appurtenances to nourish both his physical and spiritual being. Aside from that, Mr. Nartey had responsible children who monitored and supported him, even though he was self-made. Wealth is a security but not a guarantor of eternal life. Money wilts under the force of mortality.
The opening paragraphs throw up the question about life expectancy in Ghana, and reportedly the average figure is 65 years. This means that the given examples of long years are few and far between. A majority of Ghanaians might have died at their ages anything between the newborn’s first day and the official figures in the life expectancy rate. Reports say, between the genders, if any is able to attain 70, a good number of them go all the way to their 80s and more. This projection is empirical and evidence-based.
Generally, the average life expectancy at birth in females is 8 percent higher than in males. The Ghanaian figures are consistent with this convention.
Factors accounting for mortalities in Ghana include neonatal mortality, accidental deaths, murder, lifestyle diseases, and gender-specific illnesses such as cancers peculiar to each of them. Some of the youth had shortcuts to the land of the dead through excessive intake of hard liquor (alcoholism), and hooliganism which tend to be bloody as well as sheer ill luck in circumstances beyond control.
Some elderly persons only dropped dead because life is not eternal. Prior to their passing, they had lived by healthy dietary standards, had made conscious efforts to live above stress, were fortunate to have families that were responsive to their needs, and most importantly, it could have stemmed from the divine ‘s extraordinary favor.
That most men give up the ghost when they are in their 60s, points to stressful conditions arising out of pressure to fend for their families. Men go through anxious moments as they are constantly faced with life’s complexities in their quest to survive or succeed.
Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia have some of the longest human lifespans in Africa. On the world stage, Monaco and Japan are atop.
By Napoleon Ato Kittoe
