The Loss of Honest Dr. Liman: Rawlings & “Northern” Socialists (2)

*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