Sankofa – Down The Memory Lane (1)

Jerry John Rawlings

This column was started when Mr. J.J. Rawlings was the President of this country. It continued when Mr. J.A. Kufuor assumed the presidency of the country. It has continued during the presidency of Prof. John Fiifi Ata Mills. During the period that this column has existed, which started with The Spectator , I have received many messages through the e-mail, telephone and on three occasions through rejoinders published in The Spectator .

Some of the messages have been positive and bordered on praises, appreciation and kind recommendations and encouragement. On other occasions, some of the messages have been very caustic. Indeed, as a columnist for The Spectator , I felt betrayed by the paper and its Editor when the first two rejoinders the paper published on my articles were all seriously negative until another reader rose to my defence with another rejoinder.  It has always been my stand never to answer back readers' rejoinders. However, I was forced to come out of my shell to respond to one of the two unfavourable rejoinders because it contained so many misinformation and personal attacks.

On messages received on the telephone, I still recollect some running battles with some NDC supporters who felt I had been unkind to them in this column.  These encounters happened during the presidency of Mr. Kufuor. Since Prof. Mills assumed office, I have never heard from those NDC supporters who used to call me to try to educate me.

Perhaps, they have now seen the wisdom of some of the things I wrote about. I have never had that sort of experience the NDC apparatchiks used to vent on me with any of other supporters of the other registered political parties. With the NPP supporters, it was a different ball game. At anytime I wrote something which some of the supporters felt uncomfortable with and they met me, they would question me where my sympathy belonged. When the NPP lost power and I re-produced some of the articles which I wrote about Mr. Kufuor's administration, I started receiving telephone calls from some NPP apparatchiks commending me for my stands. But then it was too late. Indeed, President Kufuor had a name for me: 'Social Critic'.

I must however state that but for a visit from an official from the BNI to have a scheduled friendly chat with me during the presidency of Mr. Kufuor, this column has not experienced any official sanction from any governmental quarters, except for the unilateral decision of the Editor of The Spectator to rest the column. This saw the relocation of the column to in November 2010. As a matter of fact, the BNI official promised to come back but that was the last time I heard from him. This column has lasted the time because of the factual, independent and objective principles adopted in writing the column. A lot of the time, the articles have also appeared futuristic in nature. After I had reproduced some of the old articles from the past, when the NPP lost the 2008 elections, I had a text message from a top and respectable NPP guru. It read like this: 'Dear sir, I just read your article in The Spectator . I can't believe you wrote before the election. It is so apt on the outcome. Congrats on such brilliant thinking and a gripping read. Thank you sir'.

About six years ago, I wrote an article in this column titled: 'Boom and HIPC - A Tale of Two Junctions'. I made a prediction in that article that Mr. Rawlings, the founder of NDC, was leading the NDC on a path of destruction. I was roundly condemned by many NDC supporters when the article was published. Some of them had a running battle with me on the telephone. Today, events in the NDC cast a gloomy picture for the party. In the past, the NDC had a special Rawlings Lexicon to explain and rationalise every 'boom' speech of Rawlings. Today, the situation has changed. The Revised Standard Version of the Rawlings Lexicon no longer works for the NDC. The front page of Daily Graphic of Tuesday, June 7, 2011 vividly captured the realisation of the prediction I made six years ago. For the sake of readers who have forgotten what I wrote and those who missed that article, I wish to repeat it here and now. Please read on and judge for yourself what I wrote six years ago.

Boom and HIPC - A tale of Two Junctions
As a patron and ardent lover of the performance arts, especially drama and indigenous high life music, it hurts me greatly that the death of live band music and the gradual extinction of authentic high life music are taking place during my lifetime. The days and era of Kakaiku, Onyina, E.K., Black Beats, The Ramblers, Noble Kings, C.K. Mann, Smart Nkansah, A. B. Crentsil, the Burger high life and the likes appear to have gone with the winds. Today, all one hears is the rap music. To add insult to injury, some of the rap musicians have even attempted to add their rap to some of the good old time hits by rearranging both the lyrics and the tune. Of course, some of the gospel singers are trying to maintain some semblance of sanity.

But the most serious worrying thought is the complete disappearance of live band music, only to be replaced by pre-recorded computer assisted background music. The popular high life dance competition sponsored by the former Kumasi Brewery Ltd. died long ago.

Now sharp entrepreneurs are trying to fill the vacuum by organising all sorts of award winning musical competitions. One such competition was recently organized and succeeded more in the controversy it created than the musical genius the competition was supposed to throw up. It was out of the controversy that I got to recognise Okomfo Kwaadee who was expected to win an award but failed to make the grade in the wisdom of the judges.

Graphic Showbiz had this to say on the front page edition of Thursday, March 18-Wednesday March 24, 2004:  'However many people were of the opinion that Kwaadee should at least have won an award. Shouts of Kwaadee! Okomfo Kwaadee! came from every angle of the Accra International Conference Centre where the event took place, an indication that a good number of people had come for the show with high hopes for this artiste who boasts of a unique style and lyrical prowess. As things turned out however, the awards did not prove to be a true reflection of the good works of this talented artiste'.

A lady who was so enthused by one of Kwaadee's songs first brought that particular song to my notice. The song is entitled 'Meyere Ne Mempena' (my wife and my girlfriend).  At first, I did not think much of the lyrics of the song. Then I recognised the close resemblance of the dilemma depicted in the song facing the main characters mentioned in the song, viz. a husband, a wife called Adwoa and the girlfriend of the husband, Yaa and that facing the country as to the character traits of the two prominent political personalities of the day: the incumbent and the immediate past presidents.

Adwoa, the wife, is seen by the husband to be old-fashioned, but well groomed and properly brought up; respectful woman and humble who wears dresses made out of calico.

He is seen as completely out of touch with modern trends; does not own wireless set and mobile phone. She is seen as a dull, old timer whom the husband sees as an old mother who is now weak. The husband would want the wife to start behaving like one of these modern girls, should start wearing some of the latest fashion; to go out to enjoy life When she uses goat to cook food, the scent stays on his hands of the husband for over four days.

Yaa, the girlfriend on the other hand, is one of these young girls about town who prefer to roam the streets wearing some of latest and expensive fashions, visiting nightclubs; spotting mobile phones. She does not possess any of the good qualities of the wife.

However, she is an expert in the bedroom. He cannot resist her demands for gifts; she does not know how to maintain the home. The mobile phone he bought for, she refused to use it to call him. She does not respect; she is only interested in extracting expensive lifestyle and delicacies such corned beef from the boyfriend. She is a plain spoilt child and he cannot resist   spending his   money on her.

The dilemma facing the husband is that he does not want to divorce the wife; on the other hand, he does not want to ditch the girlfriend either. While he does not want the lifestyle of the girlfriend, he would want the wife to change from the 'colo' way of life to a close one to the girlfriend.

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BY KWAME GYASI