Sat, 28 Jul 2012 Feature Article

To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute ( 7)

Uncle Tee,
I love you
but I am not
proud of you –
in the not-so-dim past,
I used to both love
and feel proud
of you;
I used to love
and feel
very proud
of you,
till you stooped
so abjectly low,
you became
a virtual valet
for Jato Patapaa…
that was when
I first espied
the sickness
that eventually
took your breath
and life
away…
some cynics
among the thuggish lot
choose to call it
your rare and
near-unique
humility,
but I prefer
to make it real
and true,
I prefer
to take
no hostages
or mince words,
for I am
the vintage breed
of a man,
a real man,
a brave man,
so I choose
to call it
abject
servility,
the way
I have come
to know
and see it…
alas,
with the cheap
and fart-gilt seat
of the presidency
dangled before
your goggled eyes,
you sold
your soul
and dignity
in the name
of humility,
the sullied breed
so luridly
associated
with the Chihuahua,
and so you quickly
became the butt
of jokes
and abuse
by hooky-playing
thugs –
anyway,
Uncle Tee,
what kind of
humility makes
a complete fool
of a brilliant
and respectable
House-Speaker
like Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes?
I know
you suffer from
acute selectivity
of your memory bank,
and so pardon me
to refresh it
with a spray
or two
of my memory-jogging
lavender –
Speaker Sekyi-Hughes
was the cousin
you so callously
dragged before
the parliamentary
ethics committee
and painfully charged
with furniture theft;
we both know
your Cousin Hughes
was no thief,
not by any stretch
of your Woyome scam-artistry…
this is why
I told you
at the beginning
of this tweet
that inasmuch as
I dearly love you
with all my
heart and
soul,
you still
have to give me
one good reason
to feel
proud
of you,
Uncle Tee…
7/28/12

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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Comments

Yankee Boy | 7/29/2012 6:24:00 AM

I wonder who awarded this idiot Okoampa Ahoofe ugly personality his so called phd. If you think you're being funny with this said tribute, it's all good. I thought you're one of those Akans with deep thoughts not knowing you are a shallow thinking individual and deserves to be called a nincompoop. Please start using your thinking faculty effectively...Kwasea!!!

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To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute ( 7)

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