To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute 11

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Our clansfolk

have a saying that:

“When you plant plantains,

do also plant bananas

for a rainy day”…

This is where

I have my

chunkiest beef

to crunch

with you,

Uncle Tee,

for as you grew up

and got comfortable

with your decent lot

in life

as an adult,

you also became

so haughtily

self-assured

in your newly-acquired

born-again Christian

principles and practice,

you became snooty

and cavalier

with the sacred ways

of your forebears –

once,

you even summarily

stopped

a prayerful libation

in its tracks

at Independence Square…

and I also hear

as well as

Bukom Square….

Ebeii,

Uncle Tee,

what is our world

coming to,

and what version

of the Bible

do you read –

it is almost

as if

you never heard

the real

and true

Prophet Iesu Kristo

command us to offer

unto Caesar

what belongs

to Caesar and,

in your rather

peculiar case,

what belongs to

Babalawo

Temitope

Tigare

Balogun,

the meddling

faux-prophet

of Lagos –

Uncle,

you ought to have

reminded Chief Shit-Bomber,

your successor,

you cannot eat

your Ofam

and have it,

too;

that a man

who claims to be

too big

for his knickers,

and too disdainful

of the ways

of our sires,

ought not be mourned

the customary way,

for he has broken

bonds of kinship

and thus

no longer

belongs

with us…

and so come

Tuesday,

the first week

in the wake

of the laying

of your ghost,

I shall not wear

black,

taupe

or red;

I shall not libate,

neither shall I

fast;

rather,

I shall pray

you never return

your wayward self

this way

ever again…

raw grief,

sadness,

pain

and all,

we did not raise you

to grow taller

and stronger

than most of us,

so you could convert

our pates into

talking-drums…

the bitter truth

must,

once again,

be told you

even in death,

as was told you

at dawn

that Holy Friday

of your birth:

there is water

and then

there is liquor,

even as the globe

rotates

and by turns

shares sunlight

and nightfall

among our kinsfolk

and other

Earthlings –

you were no exception

to the natural order

of things,

and that is the way

things ought to be…

7/30/12