Ghana After Obama

By Isaac Karikari (bkkarikari@yahoo.com)

When on our horizon


Africa’s son rose


For once, all things froze


It’s been over a week


But Obama is not gone-


The pictures and sentiments remain.





After the kenkey, shito


And tilapia from the grill


He proceeded


To give our strongmen a drill.





Oh Obama, how can you eat our chow,


And treat us so?


Some might have thought.





Anyway, was he wrong?


Should there be pain b’cos he was plain?


Is it the shito that made his words prickly


Or b’cos the truth by nature is/can be prickly?

Do you really think,


He needs to do some reconsideration?





Do we need some reminding,


That the very letters that make hurt (h.u.r.t)


Can be found in truth (t.r.u.t.h)?





No Hidden Agenda:


He didn’t come for oil


But they talked about oil-


Talks about technical assistance and experts.


So, what should we expect?





They talked about oil,


But he didn’t come b’cos of oil.


Barack wouldn’t soil his image,


When he has a reputation as a sage


Of a different class and breed.





But he also didn’t come to butter our bread.

Get your act together,


Let’s put our heads together


Let’s stand together


Was the message, the mantra and the creed.





It’s not just the Obamas


Who stepped into Cape Coast


It was all of Ghana too.


A much needed plunge


Into our past and early beginnings.


A necessary step, as we lunge


For the future.


We need to keep our roots


As we lay routes


To a new era of progress.





As the Obama tide subsides


All that which got submerged


Will by themselves emerge.


-the diapers (maybe), the tractors, the Indian rice


Et al.

Obama’s visit -


The “Downsides”:





Did you see all the gimmicks,


State protocol’s faulty calls,


The ministers’ airport clicks,


And Double Jay and J.A.M’s parliamentary jam?





I saw JK and Double Jay,


Together, in several pictures


But let’s not be deceived into talking of wholeness


B’cos there are several fractures.





It is an open secret,


He said he’ll be discreet.


And he was. Though he “can’t tolerate that guy”,


Double Jay forced a smile,


But Nana let her hair down


She was spotted without her crown.


But not without a scorn and a frown.

Obama is gone


But we remain in the spotlight


Into which we’ve been thrust.


All of Africa is ready to give us their trust.


If an able leader we prove to be.





Prez Mills, the ball lies in your court


It’s for you to call the shots.


Hope there will be a censure


Of all unnecessary seizures


Hope there will be no Pontius Pilating


Hope there will be no Golgotha moments,


And no casting of lots


For some seamless cloths.