Sat, 11 Jul 2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades III

Kotoka International Airport

It is not that
Ghana has always had
the best and brightest
of the proverbial
cream of the leadership
crop;
not even that our leadership
has largely
or even mostly been
of the democratic stock;
just that some of us
have been brave
and courageous
enough
to be willing
to spill
our own blood
to ensure
the rest of our
kin and kith
live in peace
and freedom
with justice…

and so tonight
America's first
African son
shall touch down
on Ghana's earth,
the very sacred earth
selflessly soaked
with General Kotoka's blood
callously spilled
as this patriotic giant
was felled
by minions
of a tyrant
who would only have
Ghanaians and our
land in perpetual thrall,
at his beck,
whim and
lunacy…

ours is
indeed
a land
and people
in peace and
at peace with
themselves,
a people
in whose culture
are embodied
the noble tenets
of love
friendship
and
hospitality;
a land in which
the commonality
of human
destiny and
fate are embraced
with fellow-feeling
and liberal sharing
of whatever our
commonwealth entails…

Ghana,
a veritable
motherland,
as only
a mother
knows best
the primal needs
and desires
of her child,
a motherland
as only
a mother
knows best
what mode
of guidance
and protection
to afford
her son…

Ghana is
a motherland,
which means
like a torch
or beacon
of Liberty,
she welcomes
and accepts all
who make the trip
into her home,
providing warmth
and provender
for the haggard hobo
and unreserved comfort
for the penitent wayward…

Land of
generous mosquito bites,
Ghana,
fabled Kingdom of Gold,
bejeweled maidens,
diamond tiaras
and silver stools…

Gateway to
big-hearted Africa,
welcome,
Sonny Obama,
whatever I own
is also yours!

7/10/09

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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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The Obama Serenades III

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