Dear Kwame Red (6)

Naturally,
the Verandah Boys
are having a pretty
hard time of it,
they are throwing
tantrums and
wetting and
shitting
in their pants;
it is,
of course,
all about
your being
delightfully
run out of
town
at just about
the right time,
though sometimes
I wonder why
your pushout
had not been
sooner...
your elephant-kill,
as Uncle Ayi Kwei
called it,
had them feeding
fast and fat
and high
on the hog;
these buck-toothed
bumpkins
and warthogs
are having a fit;
once upon a
Cii-Pii-Pii time,
you had them
feeding
fast and fat
on our backs
and blood
without
remorse...
their word for this
was "revolution";
and sure
as hell-fire,
a revolution
it was
all right,
if one reckons
what they used
to eat and
where they used
to rest
their misshapen
heads
before your
epic
elephant-kill...
yes,
you had them
feeding
fast and fat
on the backs
of our cocoa
farmers
the price of whose
sweat and toil
you callously
slashed
by half
and piggy-
banked...
it was all
in the name
of one nation
one people
one destiny...
the joke
was on us
then...
one country
one monkey
ten baboons
and their Convention
Political Profiteers....
Kwame Red,
your visionary theft
of which
our sires
would have
no part,
robbing Akoto
to pay
Atinga...
that was no
savvy deal
at all,
oh no,
that was no
princely
bargain
at all
save sheer
servitude
on the baboon's
broad back;
the joke
was on us
all right...
these days,
they call it
GYEEDA and
SADA and
SUBAH and
JUBAH as in
AWIBA...
and,
of course,
a house
erected on
mischief
and theft
was bound
crumble
and
fall...
alas,
long forgotten
and promptly
disdained,
the great lessons
of Boston's
Tea Party....
Kwame Red,
you had
your fair share
of tea parties
all right,
if also
for the lifelong
delight,
pride and
memories
of those
innocents
who couldn't tell
a thief from
Santa Claus...
Busia would
do the same,
of course,
divvy up
Cadbury's
chocolate bars;
about time
the kids and
grandkids
of the producers
got a prime taste
of the fruits
of the sweat
and tears
of Enanom
and Agyanom,
the joy
of it all
when one reckons
real work
and the harvest
of happiness
that goes
with
the same...
Kwame Red,
you would have
learned better
and wised up
sooner and
promptly
if the joke
had been on
you and your
kind -
truth be told:
cocoa wealth
was no collective
wealth,
unforced labor
is fully-paid
sweat
and time -
independence
plighted on
theft and
deceit,
a nation
half-enslaved
ought to be
saved,
re-thought
and re-done...
this junk-talk
of self-rule
which was no
self-rule
at all,
but pure
mischief
in the name
of race
and shame -
chop-bar
visionary,
your dreams
must be coupled
with palm-blistered
work whose
sheaves
are pure
joy of
humanity -
2/20/15