My Story
I was born on 03 March 1984 in Tamale, at the M.R.S Military Hospital in Kamina Barracks to Staff Sgt. retired Yakubu Moro a soldier of the 6th Battalion of Infantry (6BN) and Madam Hawawu Yakubu who was a teacher by profession. As child born in the military tradition and also with a mother who was a teacher meant a young man trained by two disciplinarians. The family values are a mix of military, and teacher training disciplines, and also an inculcation of Islamic values, combining all this meant pressure of always expected to be the standard and best-behaved child.
I had ten (10) siblings, five (6) girls and four boys, and I enjoyed the company of having a big brother and big sisters who always looked after my welfare and protected me always. But due to various accounts of nature and Allah our number now stands at six (6), death as they say is inevitable and that “every soul will taste death” Quran 3:185. Like many families losing your loves ones has it own way of affecting us as individuals, and I must say, I have suffered great losses in my siblings and their memories will forever live on. Someday, I will tell you more about my relationship with my lovely siblings, indeed we as humans we all belong to Allah, and indeed to him we will return.
Rabbi innee limaa anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqeer “O my Lord! Truly I am in need of whatever good you bestowon me” Quran, Surah Al-Qasas, verse 24.
My Cosmopolitan Family (Mossi, Wala, Kassena and Ga)
RT Staff Sergeant Yakubu Moro
My Dad Retired Staff Sergeant Yakubu Moro was born in Navrongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana 1945. He went to school in Teshie Accra Municipal Council (AMC), Tesano Adidrom primary and later attended Abrepo stand 1 and 2 at Adabraka in Accra.
Dad joined the Ghana Army in 1962 and was posted to the Gonda barracks in the Bantama district of Kumasi, then One (1) Recce. He was later moved to 3 Battalion of Infantry (3BN) was a combination of both the 66 & 67 platoons of the Ghana Army. Later after the 1963 he was moved to the Liberation Barrack in Sunyani in the Brong-Ahafo Region after the 1966 coup in Ghana that saw the removal of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In 1967 he posted to Tamale as a Military Instructor and retired from the Ghana Army in 1987.
While on pension Dad joined the Civil Defense Organization as the Commander in Yendi at the time the National Commander was one Col. Antwi. Dad was later posted to Boli and finally to Tamale as the District Assistant Operation under the Command of WO1 Abu Sadick who was his Unit Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) in 3 BN.
The Moro Family (Father’s): My great Grandpa was called Ibrahim Yamba and descendant of two great empires the Songhai and the Mali empires. The family settled in the Upper Volta today’s Burkina Faso and subsequently after the birth of my Grandpa Moro Ibrahim he later migrated to Navrongo in the Gold Coast now Ghana. Navrongo is a town and the capital of Kassena-Nankana District in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana, adjacent to the border with Burkina Faso.
Late RT Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Moro Ibrahim
My grandfather Moro Ibrahim later joined the Ghana army and rose to become Ex Warrant Officer Class 1 and the first ground Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) of the Ghana Airforce. Grandpa (Baba) is from the Mossi tribe his ancestors were from the Songhai Empire, a state that is said to have dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. The Songhai was the largest state in African history and they derived their name from the leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai. Some of the common languages at the time were Songhai, Malinke, Mandinka, Fulani, Bozo, Soninke, Hausa and Moore. Moore is the language spoken by my ancestors the Mossi, a gur language of the Oti-Volta branch and one of two official regional languages of Burkina Faso, closely related to the border in the Frafra language spoken just across the border in the northern half of Ghana and less-closely to Dagbani and Mampruli farther south. The Songhai empire dissolved 1519, and later came the Mali Empire. The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa ranging from 1235 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and become renowned for wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa.
Baba’s home town is Navrongo, and he married Grandmother Hawa Kuka and they gave birth my father Yakubu Moro. Baba later got married to a second wife Grandmother Adiza and the had 10 children. Grandmother Adiza was a form the Ollenu family in Accra.
Late RT Army Corporal Sadick Dauda Wala
My (Mother’s) father and mother are both from the Royal family in Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana. My mother’s father was Army Corporal Sadick (Dauda) Wala who served in the 3 Battalion of Infantry in Sunyani. Grandpa comes from the Tagara Yeri Jamatutujaga in Wa the Dinor-pong, Hajara Sumani (Grandma) also belongs to Wa Naa Yiri (House of the King). There are four (4) Royal Gates – Jon’yohi, Yi jehi- Dboya (Fanci Naa Jaga, Pelpu jaga), N jare, Naa kpaha