Almighty Volta: Let us Adore Her Kinship Valleys

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

**Submitted on December 12, 2012

Seeing your estuary in Ada
Far from your Voltaic home
I opened my mouth in awe
I praise you, I salute you
Almighty River Volta
As you crest in flow
As your bubbles glow
As your bubbles meander
Serenading Ghana
With your harmonious flow
Solemn flow of networks
Flowing tenderly over us
Caressing Mother Ghana
From the great North
Linking the great South
Reconfiguring Ghana
With your natal watershed
Of fish, clams, mollusks
Your pristine flow at dawn
Summons the sun to stand still
To rise at night and still Ghana
Your eternal architecture
Configurations of your valley
With the White Volta
In the Upper East
With the Black Volta
In the Upper West
With the Red Volta
In the Northern Region
Your flow of symmetric flow
That reconfigures your banks
Ah! It creates soothing earthquakes
Splashing water along your levees
Splendid crucible of your symmetry
Ah! Your ontological flow
Flowing in your pristine valley
Falling over falls of ancient eras
In the midst of political storms
Ah! Volta you flow in stride
Along your luxuriant shores
From the North to the South
You provide for them all
Your tributaries
Your inhabitants
Ah! Rich Volta
Ebullient bubbles
Your estuary is kinship
With poise
With gallantry
With braveness
With a sense of purpose
You have it all in flow
Rich, supreme Volta
Your flow provides all
The best drinking water
Ah! Best roads
Ah! Best schools
Ah! Best jobs
Ah! Best homes
Supreme Volta
The richest valley
The most developed valley
The most urbanized valley
You are regal in your flow
You flow anywhere and anyhow
Ah! You flow all the way to Accra
Flood Accra in search of your son
Your saintly son Woyome
Your greatest son
Volta you can flow in space
Gallant Volta is gallant than all
Gallant than Densu and Birim
Volta you can imagine all
If your neighbor Birim
Brimming with hubris
Had changed course to Accra
To hail Kwasi Opoku
To hail Yaw Ofori Atta
There will be tears
Sorrow, sadness
Brimming Birim
Will flow no more
Ah! the world will end
Volta you are cresting
You have the right to flow
You have the right to solemnity
You have tributary networks
Buttressing your regular flow
Regular flow in the dry season
Regular flow in seasons of anomy
Even in seasons of anomy you flow
Volta rises and flows
Flows across Ghana
Volta has done it all
Volta always delivers her people
From poverty
From underdevelopment
Volta is always flowing
Renewing the flow of faith
Renewing the flow of devotion
Renewing the flow of loyalty
Renewing the flow of kinship
Renewing the flow of constancy
Like the sun at noon
Volta always warms her people
Mighty Volta, I salute your unity of flow
Mighty Volta, I salute your unity of purpose

*Akadu Ntiriwa 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 My poems and essays on Ghanaweb
and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in part for any academic or
scholarly work without my written permission.