Fri, 03 Aug 2012 Feature Article

To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute (12)

Chief Shit-Bomber
is the slick
smooth-operating
beneficiary thug
I have always known
and suspected him
to be,
though
listening
to the blokes
in his Amen Corner,
you would think
he was the finest
and sweetest
of gentlemen
since the discovery
of sugar;
but that
he is a thug
was fully brought
home to me
the week after
you slipped
and fell
on your duffs,
the week
you crossed
to the other side
of the fence…
Chief Shit-Bomber claimed
it was God
in His infinite wisdom
that saw it fit
to knock you off
your buns
so the torch
of leadership
could be passed
to the post '57 generation
of whom
he is the best
finest
and
greatest…
and so,
naturally,
albeit belatedly,
some of the stolid ones
and complete oafs
and clinical idiots
are beginning
to probe
the real cause
of your demise,
they are beginning
to ask questions even
toddlers
would have asked
confronted with your fall
a week ago;
I am also
beginning to understand
why a week
or two before
you slipped and/or
were bludgeoned
into the Paradigm-Shift
Chief Shit-Bomber claims
God wrought with you,
Mister “Coup-Plotter”
was in faraway
New York City
and
Washington, Dee Cee,
with a dear cousin
of mine,
plugging his book
on coups d'état
and Paradigm-Shifts,
slyly claiming to be
the most genius
storyteller
his country ever
birthed –
now
Chief Shit-Bomber
is huffing
and puffing
and desperately
fretting over
why you tarried
so long
foolishly trying to reverse
his providential
Paradigm-Shift…
the game
is getting groovy,
the shit is
hitting the fan,
and the smell
riptides
my guts,
and I am certain
you are enjoying
every bit
of it,
Uncle…
8/3/12

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute (12)

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