Fri, 03 Aug 2012 Feature Article

To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute (14)

Uncle Tee,
you wouldn't believe this,
but there are a few
of your nephews
and nieces
who seem to be recovering
the use of
their thinking caps;
the smartest one
amongst them
wants a library
of failed leadership
erected in your name –
this is amazing
because she was always
the village idiot
all the while that
I have known her;
you guessed right,
she is the one
who has been
dogging me
all over the place
in bikinis
and hooker-boots
trying to snatch
a piece of
my peppermint
pie,
but I refuse to
budge;
she is too brazen
and uncouth
for my taste;
and besides,
she is such a whore
one begins
to wonder
if one of your sisters
hadn't practiced
that ancient trade
in Lagos Town
or Bukom Square;
there is no man
in the land
who has neither seen
nor touched
her buns;
oversized lips,
devil's tuft grass
of hair,
flat and
hirsute chest
and all,
she still claims to be
the belle
and pride
of that rat-hole
of a town
from whence
she hails…
but I am not
budging;
and if I decide
to give her
a split-second's
playtime,
I may have to
cover and shut
my eyes hard
and think of
a pretty
dame
I used to
date,
or I would
have to throw up
and wash
the entire ordeal
down with
whisky-on-rocks…
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 (14)

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