Pen-Armed Robbers Kill Komfo Anokye

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“Doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital are refusing to admit patients in

critical condition due to broken down life-support equipment at the Intensive Care

Unit. They are threatening to suspend operations outright until management fixes the

faulty ventilators, which have been down for the past four months… under-cover

investigations at the ICU reveal five people have died within the last four days as

a result of the malfunctioning equipment” (Ghanaweb January 6, 2012).

Oh! Komfo Anokye Hospital

Sod-cut in 1954

Planted in Anokye’s precinct

Anokye’s eternal abode

The Immaculacy of Okomfo

Eternal place of Anokye

With a sword of flowers

Glittering with the sun

Bathed in pristine dew

Wombed by Asase Yaa

Oh! Komfo Anokye Hospital

Sod-cut in 1954

Oh! Today our death trap

Trappings of robbers’ cars

Pen-robbers in cars, tractors

Cars instead of equipment

Cars trawling in potholes

Cars that evokes it all

Of materialism in decay

Of pigs wreathed in suits

So we go to die

In Komfo Anokye

In Korle Bu

In Tetteh Quarshie

In Effia Nkwanta

Komfo Anokye Hospital

Sod-cut in 1954

Poised for greatness

Nursed by Nkrumah

Pruned by Nkrumah

Nkrumah’s child

Of health

Hope

Healing

Our second largest nest

Of health-delivery

Of hoping hope

Of life over death

For the whole Asante Region

Referral for Brong Ahafo

Referral for the “North”

Komfo Anokye Hospital

Sod-cut in 1954

The decade of hope

Poised for healing

Healing from slavery

Primed for healing

Healing from colonialism

Predatory seasons of anomy

Komfo Anokye Hospital

Sod-cut in 1954

Prosopography of aspirations

From all and for all

Even from Korle Frogs

Even from Paga Crocodiles

Winds of hope

From Aburi to Alavanyo

From Tamale to Tarkwa

Of Africanizing aspiration

Ah! Imposing Okomfo Anokye

Charismatic kaleidoscope

Horizoning statehood

Holding the wand of health

Anchored on eternal firmament

The royal grounds of unity

Elegant structures of renewal

The graceful hill of hope

Ah! Okomfo Anokye

The balm of health

The solace of the sick

The consolation of pain

The tranquilizer of sorrow

Okomfo Anokye is famished

Murdered by murderous elites

The postcolonial elites

The pen-armed robbers

With a cargo-cult of cars

Putting self before nation

Our tragedy of dreamlessness

Of losing nuggets of hope

Like elephants on the Sahara

Of celebrating mediocrity

Like vultures dancing on prey

Our riotous clarity of greed

Precipicing our rudderless state

Adrift in decay, death

Adrift in decline, disgrace

Squalid like Korle Lagoon

Oh! Our moment of excellence

*Akadu N. 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