Korle Lagoon Mosquitoes as Professors in Ghana

**By Akadu N. Mensema Ph. D.; Post-Grad. Dipl.

PART 1: SHALLOW PROFS

Professor banza eh!

Yes Sir/Madam, I know my ABCD!

Yes Sir/Madam, I have my ABCD!

But Prof. Banza can you soar above EFGH?

Our emerging half-baked professors

Wearing bogus titles of professorship

Strutting as giants of mushroom academies

Titles plucked from the eaves of the academy

Titles unwarranted by a dearth of scholarship

Titles unwarranted by a dearth of teaching

Titles unwarranted by a dearth of service

The killers of the dream

And of the realities of knowledge

They are Korle Lagoon mosquitoes

Hostile mosquitoes in our ears

Professing noise as knowledge

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Banza Professors eh!

Who have nothing to profess about

Who can’t ask new questions

But have affinity with decaying ideas

Who can’t do fruitful research

Who have not published in any reputable journal

Who have not presented conference papers

Who don’t know how to face students

Who may have self-published 20 pamphlets

Pamphlets they alone understand

Hollow professors

Who pluck titles from the eaves of the academy

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Banza Professors eh!

They are among the THIEVES of our time

Who can’t read their own names

But are able to craft schemes to steal from the state

Who can’t read their own Ph. D. dissertations

But can craft ideas to steal from the state

And who are all over the airwaves

Mounting tempestuous political platforms

Like rabid dogs in heat

They are like Korle Lagoon mosquitoes

Hostile mosquitoes in our ears

Professing noise as knowledge

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PART 2: ROLL CALL: LUMINARY PROFS

Before our academic sunset

We had cultivated well-deserved professorship

Professors who studied the horizon

And minted kaleidoscopic knowledge

Professor George Benneh

Professor Francis Agbodeka

Professor A. Adu Boahen

Professor Kwame Arhin

Professor Ama Atta Aidoo

Professor A.A. Kwapong

Professor K. Wiredu

Professor G.K. Nukunya

Professor Christine Oppong

Professor F.K. A. Allotey

These and numerous others

Who published peer-reviewed articles

Who published celebrated magnum opus

Who published timeless books

Who gained global distinction

Known by their first names around the globe

They were the intellectuals before our sunset

They made Ghanaians proud

They are the signposts to knowledge

They are road-maps to progress

But they are not Korle Lagoon mosquitoes

That breed in filthy academies

The hollow intellectuals

The shallow intellectuals

Those who shout the loudest

Those who spit the crudest

Even when their tongues are trapped

By their decaying uncut intellectual teeth

They are like Korle Lagoon mosquitoes

Hostile mosquitoes in our ears

Professing noise as knowledge

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**Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema 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