Conflaluge – The Dark Wednesday  

'Humpty - Dumpty's theory of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation … for instance, take the two words 'fuming' and 'furious.' Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first… if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'frumious'.

Lewis Carroll: 'The Hunting of the Snark' on Lexical selection

IF I HAD THE WINGS OF A DOVE was a musical piece written by Bob Ferguson in 1958; it was sung by Joseph Spence. In 1960, it was recorded by Ferlin Husky. It was later sung by such artistes as Dolly Parton and Bob Marley.

The song recalls the story of the dove sent by Noah from the Ark during the deluge (Genesis 8:6 – 12). The dove returned with an olive leaf in the first instance; then in the second instance, it did not return at all—confirming the great expectation that 'the waters had abated from off the earth'.

If I had the academic or professional capacity of Professor Naa Afarley Sackeyfio, or Kari Dako, or Kwesi Yankah, or (Mrs) Dadson, or Opanin Agyekum, or I.K. Gyasi, I would coin a word for the cataclysmic episode of the deluge and conflagration which occurred in Accra on Wednesday, 3^rd June, 2015. I would call it 'conflaluge' or 'confluge' (conflagration and deluge)

A 'portmanteau word' is a case of two meanings packed up into one word. 'Portmanteau' itself is formed from two French words 'porter' to carry and 'manteau' a cloak.

The word 'portmanteau' was first used by Lewis Carroll in 'Through the Looking Glass' where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in 'Jabber wocky' with 'slithy' derived from 'lithe' and 'slimy'; and 'mimsy' derived from 'flimsy' and 'miserable'. It involves the truncation of parts of the stems of the 'blended' words. Thus, whereas 'starfish' is a compound word, the portmanteau word, hypothetically, speaking, would be 'stish'.

English language is flexible to the point of allowing for creativity and inventiveness. The automobile invented by Ford was derisively backronymed (acronym– after–the -fact) to stand for 'Fix or Repair Daily'.; chillax (chill / relax) means behave, calm down; cocacolinazation (Coca - Cola / colonization) stands for the aggressive introduction or pervasive influences of American Consumerism on other cultures; edutainment (education/entertainment) educational material presented in a way to attract patronage with its entertainment value; infotainment (information /entertainment) information packed to attract patronage with its entertainment value; frenemy (friend /enemy) a supposed friend whose actions and /or behaviour are characteristic of an enemy.

One may be familiar with 'brunch' (breakfast and lunch); 'electrocution' (electricity and execution); 'motel' (motor and hotel); 'motorcade' (motor and cavalcade); 'rollicking' (rolling and frolicking); 'smog' (smoke and fog)—the result of common local usage.

In 1964, Tanganyika achieved independence with Zanzibar, and adopted the name Tanzania. In 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts politically contrived re-districting and the perimeter of one of the districts resembled a salamander. This led to the term 'gerrymander', and now 'to gerrymander' is to manipulate the boundaries of a constituency in order to give an unfair advantage at an election to a particular party or class. 'Oxbridge' represents Oxford and Cambridge, and 'Eurasia' stands for Europe and Asia.

'Deluge' (French: deluge or deluvie)is a great flood or rain and is synonymous with 'tornado', 'inundation', 'tempest', 'pestilence', 'thunderstorm'. Conflagration (first used in 1600 from Latin 'conflagrare') is a large destructive disastrous fire. It is synonymous with 'holocaust';'a blaze' or 'an inferno'.

Wednesday, 3^rd June was a sad day in Ghana. It was not red-letter day, in the sense that there was nothing to be happy about. The area in Accra that got most flooded was the GOIL filling station, at Adabraka. That was where in the 1960s, the Kumasi– Accra Peugeot (£1 -£1) used to have its station—the final destination and embarking point. Passengers from Kumasi would disembark at the Aams Hotel, opposite Ernest Chemists, Kokomlemle. At that time, the Goil filling station was remote—distant from the centre of Accra.

Some of the people were seeking shelter from the precipitation (rain), besides those who had made the area their place of work. As the events were unfolding, some of the radio stations were monitoring and relaying the horrendous news. It was hellish! People who were running from the rain and seeking solace in a filling station got trapped and overwhelmed by the floods. They were later consumed by the fire from the filling station. Was it safe to get drowned or to be consumed by the inferno?

It was ironical that the Accra Chief Executive, Oko Vanderpuye who delights in calling himself 'Mayor' was being crowned the African Mayor of Mayors like the Abyssinian 'Negus Negusti' (King of Kings), the floods came to over whelm everybody. The guests had learnt from Accra the lesson to work more and talk less. Good work was done by the military, police and fire officers.

The official death toll was about a hundred and sixty, that is in reference to those who could be seen - but it could have been anything ranging from two hundred and fifty to three hundred, including those missing. People had to abandon their vehicles and walk through the flood in order to save their lives. Perhaps they were the lucky ones. One could not afford the agony of seeing a woman with her child dying from burns, clung to each other.

But what caused the flood and the fire? Was it the result of poor development planning? Was it the outcome of poor drainage? Was it the effect of people building in waterways? Was it the reward for our own poor disposal of garbage -with plastic containers and plastic bags commanding the rot profile?

Those who rushed to the assistance of the flood and fire victims have done commendable work—the military, police, fire officers and NADMO. The President of Togo Faurre Gnassingbe was in Ghana to commiserate with us; so also was a representative of Cote d'Ivoire President, Allassan Ouattara.

What has happened to the storm drains which have remained un-desilted for a long time now? And what has happened to those which have been blocked by the Brazilians who are working on the Circle overpass?

One cannot easily forget the Tohoku Earthquake of Japan (the Great East Japan Earthquake) and the flooding which occurred on 11^th March 2011. As many as 16,000—19,000 people lost their lives, and property estimated at $235 billion was lost. The Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan remarked piteously: 'In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and most difficult crisis for Japan'. For Japan, it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit that island. Nor can one forget the Banda Aceh earthquake and tsunami of Sumatra which killed 230,000 people in 2004. Incidentally, one of the earliest calamities was recorded in China in 1556, and 820,000 people perished. But we do not need to compare figures. Disaster is disaster, especially when it is avoidable. No need for panic measures, which includes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and filling stations

As Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana said at the Osu Presbyterian Church on 10^th June, 2015, 'Never again shall we allow such a national catastrophe to occur by our actions and inactions'.

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By Africanus Owusu – Ansah