*By Akadu Ntiriwa. Mensema, Ph. D.
I. SALAGA & NORTHERN SOCIALISTS
Northern Socialists
Fine minds, brilliant minds
Talented theorists
Radiance from the North
With revolutionary pedagogic sparkle
Brave, spirited
Never “tribalistic”
Always victims of “tribalism”
But ashamed of Liman’s kola
Attracted by JJ’s magnetic coke
Mortified by Liman’s “whiskey na ma fe fe”
Accepted JJ’s seductive narratives of panic
That seeped into Weija to poison us
Cascaded into Akosombo as shock therapy
Our lethal absorption of JJ’ therapy
Killed Liman’s soul
Northern Socialists
Joined the Rawlings’choir
Sang for Rawlings
Sang about Rawlings
Sanctified Rawlings
Framing new politics of Salaga market
JJ the Salaga slave market messiah
The non-Akan
Savior of the North from Salaga market
Salaga slave market of Greater Asante
New Salaga politics of slavery
In the postcolony of South and North
Of effusions of apparitions of history
II. VANISHED NORTHERN SOCIALISTS
Northern Socialists
Have vanished
Vanquished by JJ Rawlings
Now filthy rich on behalf of the poor
Northern Socialists
Who choired in magnetic names
Names lost in our traumatic histories
Of vanished host-kinship with JJ
The hand of death set them up
On course not to set in the west
But like Liman
To set in the backwater north
And so as we remember Liman
As we evoke Liman
We murmur about
Afraid to know about
Afraid to know of
Afraid to even whisper
Their lost windy names
Of fine minds, brilliant minds
Of Northern Socialists
Of Nicholas Atampugure
Chris Atim
Seidu Bawumia
Garibah Shaibu
Aloysius Denkabi
Sakkua Agambila
Huudu Yahya
Sgt. Alolga Akatapore
Corporal Halidu Gyiwa
Corporal Aliu
Corporal Matthew Adabuga
Corporal Issaka Braimah
Sgt. Matthew Awal
Of Northern Socialists
Were put on the road to Manhyia
They missed Kumasi
But found the old Salaga slave market
Choiring silently to the north
The setting of Liman
Is also their ultimate leave
Compassing junctions of oblivion
Mapping JJ’s fissures of belongingness
Bearing the regalia of the vanquished
III. EPILOGUE: POOR LIMAN DIED
Call them selfless nationalists
Northern Socialists
Amok with labyrinthine Rawlings
Selfless Northern Socialists
Used
Then shown the way to the North
Like Liman
The North is a bird without a nest
Not in the south
Not in the north
Liman
Made penniless in the South
Not in Kumasi
But in Anloga
Died painfully in the North
Died the poorest of the poor
Died among the Korle-Bu poor
While JJ went overseas
As Paul Gyamfi not Papa Yao Vi
Not empowered Yao Vi
Of JJ’s pet project
Projectiled by Kofi Awonoor
And so JJ went overseas
Taunting overseas doctors for more delusions
Of oxygen tanks of delusions of grandeur
While Liman’s oxygen of life ran out
Liman was not a JJ, never a Kufour
Liman went the way of the poor
Ghanaians don’t celebrate poverty
We celebrate those who make us poorer
Our gift
Poverty of our politics is our paradox
Our precipice of hope
Souls of the living poor Ghanaians are dead
And so poor Liman died with our souls
Filmic signification of our pathetic politics
*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
