The Ewe Heritage Defined (Part Seven)

THE PARABLE OF KUMRAHN’S LAMB

BY SAMUEL ADJEI SARFO

1. On the twenty-first day of the first month , three years after the jubilee of my people, the spirit of my ancestors carried me to my homeland where I lay on my bed in the city of the homegrown trees, on the eastern front of the coast once called gold.

2. My spirit was sore afflicted on account of the events of the times, all pointing to the hypocrisy, greed and wickedness of the tribal priests, the teachers of the lore and law, and the self-appointed poets of the land.

3. As the blanket of sleep was about to descend on my brow, a vision appeared before my very eyes:

4. I looked, and lo and behold, ten winds approached from the provinces of the land, bearing the beautiful rainbow of our people.

5. They met in a whirlpool of the Great Spider’s land, in which all the citizens were trapped in some sort of catatonic stupor.

6. Then lifted by its own strength, ten winds rose and disappeared high into the evening skies, carrying with it the great beauty of the rainbow. Then was my heart distraught, for I could no longer see the rainbow.

7. Then the rainbow re-appeared from the crest of the skies, bearing a mat of pure gold on which sat a starving lamb.

8. On the head of that lamb was a magnificent crown made of different precious stones, all representing the tribes of the land. On his belly I spied the symbol of Kumrahn, and the insignia of a new nation.

9. The rainbow now surrounded the lamb, and made his glory wondrous to behold. In his mouth I saw a scroll made of papyrus reed, on which was inscribed the words of all the martyrs of truth, those who preached unity in the land, and were beheaded for the offence of their truth.

10. Tied to the tail of the lamb was another scroll, on which was found the falsehoods of the Cave Dwellers, their rituals and misinterpretations of the books of the Great Kumrahn, and their hatred for the unity of the tribes.

11. And as I looked, lo and behold, three tribal priests, clothed in the priestly order of the Great Divider, and with the sword of the swastika inscribed on their breasts, emerged from the deepest pit of the earth, and prostrated before the lamb on the golden mat, surrounded by the beautiful rainbow.

12. But the rainbow caused their eyes to go blind, so they used salted water to disperse it, until they could see the lamb in the way they liked.

13. After thus worshiping the lamb, they approached the golden mat, all the while mouthing platitudes to the name of the lamb, as if to lure him to sleep.

14. As I looked, lo and behold, these tribal priests knelt before the lamb with great ceremony and false humility, and declared their love for the starving beast, promising never to harm its name.

15. Then with intense sorrow and fear, the lamb cast his eyes on the tribal priests, as if to sway them from their intended mischief, but these remained set on their purpose, and had no mercy for the lamb.

16. One of the priests held the lamb on the forelegs, below the magnificent crown of different stones. The other priest grabbed the lamb on the hind quarters where the scroll of the Cave Dwellers was tied. Then the third priest knelt beside the lamb, close to the symbol of the Great Kumrahn, and grabbed with roughness the breasts of the starving beast.

17. The tribal priest then squeezed the breasts of the lamb until thick blood poured into the big calabash which the priests had set below the breasts, for the lamb’s breast had no milk, only blood.

18. The cries of pain of the poor lamb went unheeded, and when the pitcher was full to the brim, the tribal priests let go of the lamb, and nodding and winking at each other, they drank the blood from the breasts of the lamb, until they became drunk with his blood.

19. Then the tribal priests picked up three Atenteben, one after the other, and blew into them an ancestral song, proclaiming the lamb to be the symbol of all the tribes. .

20. Then they took the message of Kumrahn the great, the one that bore the emblem of the enlightened one, and burnt it as incense on the altar of Ethnocentrism.

21. As for the message of the Great Divider, they untied it and shoved it into their breasts, from whence they proclaimed ethnocentric hatred for time, times and half time.

22. As I looked, lo and behold, three hairy pairs of hands emerged from the belly of hell, and pulled the three tribal priests back into the deepest pit of the earth.

23. And by the message of the tribal priests, many in the world were deceived, and many followed the tribal priests into the belly of the ground.

24. Then to my great astonishment, the wounded lamb drew near me and spake in the language of my people, in a voice full of strength.

25. I fell on my face and cried to myself: Woe is me, for my reasoning has fled away from me; I can hear a lamb spake in the language of my forebears.

26. Then the lamb on the golden mat sayeth unto me: Fear not, he born of a woman, for I have a message for thee, which thou must of needs proclaim to the world.

27. Consider all that have been revealed to you today, for the day cometh when lies will change into the truth and the truth to lies. Then once again the truth will change into lies, and the lies back again into the truth.

28. I am the spirit of the tribes of the coast once called gold, whom Kumrahn brought together to forge the new nation, and what you have seen concerns the scholars of the land, those that have deviated from their duty to unite the people, and are now breaking the tribes apart with their lies.

29. But I appoint you the gatekeeper of the truth; revive the message of Kumrahn the Great which was burnt into ashes on the altar of hate. Lo and behold I have inscribed it in your heart. He who will deprive you of it must first burn you at the stake.

30. Then said I to the wounded lamb: Behold, I am of homely countenance and somewhat slow in speech and crude in manner. The people will mock at me and call me mad, or much worse, kill me.

31. Then the lamb said unto me: Speak the message without fear of death. Thou art no minion of thy race: indeed your heart is made of pure iron, and no man can smite ormbreak it. But thou knowest that for the truth, he that dieth shalt forever liveth.

32. And be thou not concerned about whether the people listeneth to thee or not. Thou art a teacher of thy race, a reader of the law and lore.

33. Thy work is to teach and hope for the best. If the people refuseth to listen to thee, it is a matter between them and their Gods.

34. Then I besought the mercies of Kumrahn’s lamb further, and remonstrated that I should be given an army of great unifiers comprising three hundred men and women, since the work of gathering the tribes was beyond my human strength.

35. Then Kumrahn’s lamb smiled and said unto me, “Fear not, Sarfo the Black, son born of a woman, for there are one thousand uniters in the land who have not squeezed the breasts of Kumrahn’s lamb, and three thousand others who have not drunk of his bloody milk, and seven thousand others who have not mangled his message nor danced to the tune of the Atenteben in mockery of his pains.

36. Gather all together and preach the truth to the tribes.

37. He that has ears, let him hear what Kumrahn’s lamb sayeth to the son born of a woman and interpret the abomination of the tribal priests, for they have scrambled the breasts of a starving lamb, drunk his blood in wanton revelry, and mangled Kumrahn’s message with haunting glee.

38. One is of the Banana Tree, one is The False Warrior with deceptive beauty. One has been burnt but still lives..

39. Instead of truth they preach lies. Instead of unity, they preach division. Instead of compassion they are filled with hatred. They flaunt the emblem of their tribe in sacrifice of all tribes. They were nurtured on Kumrahn’s wealth, but they bleed his lamb of all succor.

40. They take where they have not saved and reap where they have never sown. They grab too much from posterity, and yet give nothing back to the generations.

41. My anger is therefore upon them, and I will leave them no heritage for the day of remembrance, only their greed, shame and calumny will remain with them.

42. As for you, Sarfo the Black, Sage Of Your People, my spirit will be with thee till the end of thy days.

43. After these words, I looked and lo and behold, the rainbow took the lamb high into the clouds, until my eyes could see him no longer.

44. This is what I, Sarfo the Black, the son of Akua Sarpomah, the daughter of Yaa Mansa and Kwaku Dua Panin, of the Aduana clan of Akwamufie and Adudwama; and I who also am the son of my father Kwasi Agyei, the son of Kuragu and Yaa Abayewa, descended of Owiredu Panin, of the Biretuo clan of Asante Mampong, Kwaaman and Abetifi..…This is what I saw in a vision while reposed in the spirit in the land of my forebears, in the coast once called gold.

45. And I rose and committed all these mysteries to my heart, and wrote these down on two scrolls of papyrus reed, that by happenstance people might read, and commit themselves to the message of Kumrahn the great.

46. May the Gods and the Ancestors restore the message of unity to us.

47. Amira!! Amen!!

Samuel Adjei Sarfo lives in Houston, Texas. You can email him at sarfoadjei@yahoo.com