Rawlings “Arkaahs” [Archives] Mills In The Slave Castle

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

ACT ONE: PROLOGUE – THE PRECINCT OF SLAVE CASTLE

And the Slave Castle bell rang and rang and rang

Tin ton tin ton ton tin tin ton ton tin tin ton

Ko oh ko; ya oh ya; dzo oh dzo: move to the Jubilee House

But Uncle Mills thought that the bells had boomed

In his other ear, the Castle bell boomed and boomed

Uncle Mills groped around for the light of day

And gasping for much needed Osu air

He whispered wow the King of NDC is back

In stupor, he grabbed his cheek and twitched it

And knew he is in for a four-year long dream

He hit the ground and became the Fante tortoise

And already Fantes are wailing for Fante dokono

Kejetia seamen can’t go to sea in Kumasi

Alavanyo mechanics lack tools to build Ho-made buses

Teshie fishermen now look up to the Densu River

Salaga farmers compete with AYARIGARIZED tractors

Kaneshie street-kids have no dog chains to manufacture

Circle prostitutes have grown three breasts to survive

Haunting dreams still dey hunt the Slave Castle

Ekow Arkaah’s soul dey rest in Guan Winneba

But his ghost dey haunt the Slave Castle of today

Like all Africans who tasted pugilistic enslavements

ACT TWO: MILLS DREAMS ABOUT JUBILEE HOUSE

Dreaming Uncle Mills in a state of ECOMINI lapses

Jumped over the violent walls of the Slave Castle

And tumbled headlong chanting ECOMINI, Okom ni

Medze okom aba oh, Ghanafo eh okom ni oh

Ghanaians, I have brought hunger oh

But I have my tea, bread, and margarine

And some already have tractors and diapers

Then landing like a strange tortoise in Kotokoraba

Uncle Mills held dearly onto his priceless possessions

His tea cup, tea spoon, saucer, and manicured bread

And fell onto the gates of the Jubilee House

He saw the precincts of the Jubilee House

Yes, it was not built by Ghanaian architects

It may be expensive like Akosombo and Motorway

But it was built for all Ghanaians, for posterity

The jubilee House is built for our Heads of State

This one eno be tractor for NDC

Not for the NPP, CPP, PNC, DFP

Not for the DDT at Ridge Palace Junction

That could not even kill Ridge mosquitoes

ACT THREE: NDC KILLS NKRUMAH’S DREAM

Jubilee House dey like Flag Staff House oh

The empowering and conscientizing sacred site

Where Nkrumah seeded our liberation from slavery

Where Nkrumah harvested the seeds of decolonization

Nkrumah, the seer of African freedoms

Never used the slave castle as his office

Even did not want Job 600

The site of postcolonial Pan-African Congresses

To face the Slave Castle of our collective enslavement

And suffering from the depredations of colonialism

The Castle the seat of our enslavement and colonization

The fortification built on the blood of enslaved Africans

The final pathway of de-Africanization

The avenue of our collective dehumanization

The route to our collective humiliation

Was popularized the NDC King as hunting grounds

Where he fed on blood from broken-bottle haircuts

It became a boxing cemetery for old old old Arkaah

And his tears were digested by coward NDC Ministers

And Uncle Mills has never said no to such teary abuses

And where Ms. COTTON who grows Aveyime RICE

Used her inner pouch as a rice desert to bring hunger to Ghana

ACT FOUR: KUFOUR’S ESCAPE FROM THE CASTLE

Kufour fled the Slave Castle of dehumanization

By building the Jubilee House for all Ghanaians

Nkrumah didn’t build Akosombo for the CPP

Kufour didn’t build the Jubilee House for the NPP

It is another Keta Sea Wall eventually built by Kufour

It is Tetteh Kwesi Circle eventually built by Kufour

ACT FIVE: RAWLINGS BARRIDACES JUBILEE HOUSE

The Philosopher King is still howling and baiting

He didn’t build Ridge bungalows, but he has them all

The Philosopher King schemed against the Jubilee House

And the NDC’s cacophonic chorus drowned the Jubilee House

In a lake of demonization with its Kingly watershed in Ridge

All have made Uncle Mills a foreigner in his own home

He is the owner of the house, but is still homeless

He is like a poultry-farmed chicken living in a chop-bar

To the NDC the Jubilee House is not in Ghana

The one house that the NDC King never built for himself

And he envies Kufour for building it for all Ghanaians

ACT SIX: EPILOGUE - MILLS AT THE RIDGE JUNCTION

Uncle Atta Mills works from the Royal Ridge Palace junction

Where our Philosopher-King in his booms sanctions

That one Ghanaian, one toilet

That one Rawlings, nine toilets and still counting

That if you no build Jubilee House, you no go use am

That if you no build Ridge Bungalows, you fit use them

That Slave Castle symbolizes perpetual enslavement

But the King says if so let us be perpetually enslaved

Let us all sing the Rawlingsian Hymnal Animus

Do Re Mi Toli Toli Toli

One Ghanaian, one toilet Toli Toli Toli

One Rawlings, nine toilets and still counting

Na Rawlings no built Jubilee House

Thus Uncle Mills is barricaded in the Slave Castle

Where he is tamely dredging Arkaah’s cloying blood

So let all Ghanaians remain slaves in the Slave Castle

Until Kwame Nkrumah’s Second Coming frees us again

**Akadu N. Mensema is a Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral historian

and sociologist, and is a Professor in the USA. She writes what critics have

called “populist hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at

akadumensema@yahoo.com