Sperosa

If you had the privilege (some may call it a misfortune) of spending your senior high school (SHS) years in a Ghanaian classroom (especially a single sex school), you would be familiar with the school alliance concept. I do not know the history about how such unions began, but I know, ever since I started schooling in a boys’ SHS, that every boys’ school in Ghana is linked to its female counterpart; vice versa is also true.

 Being a senior high school student taught me that Mfantsipim School is associated with Wesley Girls High School, that St Augustine’s College and Holy Child School have a bond, that Opoku Ware SHS and St Louis Girls’ SHS are joined by strong strings and that there is a chemistry that works like magic between St Peter’s Boys SHS (Persco) and St Rose’s Girls’SHS ! Being a student in SHS also taught me that these alliances have names : MOBAGEYHEY, APSUHOPSA, AKATASLOPSA and the famous SPEROSA. Many other alliances exist.

While some of us may look back at our senior high school years and laugh at these unions we once were very proud of, it could be quite shocking to know how real some others were about it. Some BECE candidates actually consider the kind of alliances they would love to join before making their choices in school selection!

St Peter's SHS boulevard

I completed St Peter’s Boys’ SHS in the Eastern Region of the country. My school was affiliated to St Rose’s Girls SHS, and we were proud to refer to them as our ‘girls’ school’. It was same with them. I am sure our alliance was the most popular (and still is) especially because many girls I had known from other schools during my SHS days confessed that our union name ‘Sperosa’ was one of the sweetest names they had ever heard. Now I am sure someone reading this now would want to disagree, but those would be those who never heard the ‘true stories’ as I was told.

St Peter’s rests on the Kwahu plateau, Nkwatia precisely. St Rose’s is also situated at Akwatia. The similarity between the names of the two towns misleads strangers into thinking that the two schools are pretty close. The distance from Nkwatia to Akwatia is not as close as the names are. The kind of roads our girls school plied in order to visit us was one that extended the duration of journeys. Despite this, Sperosa remained as real as air and the sight of the two schools meeting together never ceased to be beheld. Sperosa trips produced sights that were delightful to behold.

I didn’t know much about Sperosa before I got admitted to Persco, but before I left, I was sure whoever established that union must have been a very good planner. There was something exclusive about this alliance that I am sure happens nowhere else. Upon admission, freshers from both schools are given friends in the other, what is known as a ‘Sperosa link’. Some get to meet their Sperosa links during Sperosa or other inter-school programmes. Some get to meet theirs at home. Others only get to meet theirs during the annual final trip for final year catholic students in the Eastern Region—the
Grotto pilgrimage. It is during such events that Sperosa flames burn so bright that boys from Pope John’s start to wish Krobo Girls’ SHS were a catholic school (because that’s the girls’ school they are affiliated with). 

Memories of Sperosa invade my thoughts almost anytime I leave my mind to wander into days spent on the Kwahu plateau— days in St Peter’s. It reverberates memories and creates a mental gallery of nostalgic photos of St Rose’s Choir’s annual visits, the Drama Fest programmes our boys graced, the annual trips to Japan together and the Ghana-Japan Yosakoi  Festivals at East Legon. The Sperosa days during vacations cannot be left out. How could I forget the St Thomas Aquinas day trips made together and how beautiful it was when it fell on Valentine’s Day (as it did this year).

I believe a wireless bond links the Nkwatia Plateau to the Akwatia valley, because almost everything that was of St Peter’s was of St Rose’s, too and no matter how many times that link has been threatened, it is strengthened the more when the two schools meet.

And…lest I forget, I have witnessed Sperosa weddings, too—several of them. You’ll know you’ve attended one when you hear someone respond “In a class of our own” to the shout of “Sperosa!”

AFTER PERSCO’S EVICTION FROM THE NSMQ, 2014

 

“Tell them when you get to school… tell Abuni… tell the SP’s… tell the teachers. Let them start learning the ‘nonfa’. It’s serious…” Those were the words of Jeffery, the ASP 2 (Assistant School Prefect 2) of St Peter’s SHS (PERSCO) for the 2014/2015 academic year. I had met him a few hours after arriving on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon, a day after PERSCO’s eviction from the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ). He, alongside some of the ‘quiz boys, were returning from the ‘N’ block, where the contest was being held.

 He complained bitterly about PERSCO’s inability to win the contest the previous day, letting Opoku Ware SHS make mincemeat of us, ditto Keta SHS. “The quiz boys are not trained right from the start,” he lamented, attributing our eviction to this.

 Also, following, as part of the long procession from the ‘N’ block to the Night Market area, were some students of Mfantsiman Girls SHS, to whose school PERSCO had suffered defeat the previous year in the semi-finals.  Jeffery beckoned me to have a shufti at them, then, said, “These are form two students like you”. He resented the fact that PERSCO boys always started training when the competition was a few weeks away and not right from form one. Other schools bring junior students whom they hope would contest in the nearby future to observe proceedings in order to be conversant with what actually happens in the quiz room.

 As we walked, I was not fully buried in the chat we were having, but one eye of mine always strayed to check whether any vehicle would pass by, with the conductor shouting “Achimota”, so that I’d leave to board it. I caught a glimpse of my Elective Maths teacher, who had sacrificed his time to be with the quiz boys; who by so doing, had cost us our lessons on Trigonometry, but who, would have to return in vain. 

 I mused on PERSCO’s inability to claim the title for the third time, being runners up four times! The last time the boys had been at the finals was in 2006, when they were beaten by PRESEC, Legon, by five points.

 The passers-by continued their seemingly orderly procession, and I spotted one of PERSCO’s representatives, who had suffered defeat the previous day, from afar. I recalled one university student asking me, that afternoon, about the reason for our abysmal performance, after seeing the badge on my breast pocket. I resent the disgrace, though I did not show it. But I still believe the quiz boys did their best. It is up to the school to do the same. PERSCO must win!