Houseboys in Jail & the Woyomes are Free

Houseboys in Jail & the Woyomes are Free to Loot

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema

“An Accra circuit court, presided over by Ms. Wilhemina Hammond, has sentenced a houseboy, Stephen Blankson, to six years in prison for unlawful entry and stealing. According to the facts of the case, the convict is a house boy staying with his master, the complainant in the case, at North Dome in Accra. On June 15, 2013 at about 6 am, the complainant and his family left the house for their store in Accra. Soon after they had left, the convict capitalized on their absence and broke into his master’s bedroom and stole two flat screen television sets, jewelry and wrist watches, as well as $200 and an unspecified amount of cedis” (Ghanaweb, September 13, 2013).

Bogus Judiciary

Partisan judges

Preachers of inequalities

With their rhetorical grenades

Grenades that unleash toxicity

Like Korle Lagoon mosquitoes

Whining with captivating eloquence

Lofty rhetoric of self-righteousness

Of theologies of inequalities

Classist judges

Classist pen-armed robbers

Who cuddle the WOYOMES

Who eat with the WOYOMES

Who drink with the WOYOMES

Who share the WOYOMES’ loot

Bogus Judiciary

Partisan judges

With malignant rage against

The lower class

Artisans

Drivers’ mates

Laborers

The unemployed

The uneducated

Bogus judges

Partisan judges

Who jail houseboys

Partisan judges

Drowning in colonial gowns

Pen-armed robbers

Pen-armed robbers called my Lord

My Lordship

Lord-shipping systemic inequalities

Lording for the WOYOMES

Locking up houseboys

Praying for the WOYOMES

Preying on houseboys

Preying on housegirls

Preying on the marginalized

Preying on the disempowered

Preying on the impoverished

Preying on the backwatered

Bogus judges

Partisan judges

These clowns in colonial gowns

With their deceitful declarations

With their vacuous speeches

The killers of the dream

The killers of equality

The killers are mummified

Mummified in colonial gowns

Patterned with classism

In the postcolony of Ghana

Big wo/men steal

They are free

Houseboys steal

They are jailed

Big wo/men rape

They are free

Laborers rape

They are jailed

Ah! This postcolony

Of systemic inequalities

Of systemic classism

Nurtured by our Lordships

The sages in colonial gowns

The killers of the dream

The killers of equality

Oh! These pompous troubadours of inequalities

**AKADU Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in Pennsylvania with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college in Maryland. In her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com. Her poems and essays on Ghanaweb and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in part for any academic or scholarly work without her written permission.

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