Our good friends and fellow YSA missionaries were heading home. We decided to have an outing to celebrate our time working together. We traveled one and a quarter hour, 30 miles to Shai Hills Resource Reserve to see the sites. The reserve was the ancestral home of the Dangme-Shai between AD 1000 and 1892. These people migrated from Nigeria, dividing into four clans, Sayo , Manya Yo, Adwuku and Hieweyo. They were reliant on the land for food and the hills for natural defense against invading enemies. Each clan was able to maintain their lifestyle until they were expelled from the hills by the British army in 1892 for not paying British taxes, involvement in tribal wars, and invading and trapping people who used their trails for barter trade.
The Reserve has zebra, ostriches, baboons and snakes. I’m sorry that the elephants are gone.
Mogo Hills is an isolated hill that was used by the Shai tribe for camping their young ladies who were of age to go through puberty rites. History has it the, young girls camped for six months on this hill. Note the shallow, oval indentations that have been carved into the rocks. These may be ancient remains of places where the Shai people ground or pounded their cereals and spices, but no one knows for sure. This savannah terrain is unusual for this part of Africa. Imagine elephants roaming in this valley! Also, find the baobab tree at the foot of the rock.
Sayon Cave was the home of the Tribal Chief of the Shai. The cave has three chambers—stone arrangements, Chief’s Palace, ancient bedroom (now inhabited by bats).
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