Let Coach Milo Go! Let in Ghanaian Coaches

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

**Dedicated to former Black Stars players who are wallowing in acidic poverty.

“Coach Milovan Rajevac has quit as Black Stars manager and signed a three-year
deal with Al Ahly Jeddah, according to the Saudi Arabia press. However, Ghana FA
president Kwesi Nyantakyi told Goal.com his administration are unaware of the
Serbian’s new move and are yet to hear from him concerning his seven-day grace
period to sort out issues with his manager” (Ghanaweb Sept 9, 2010)

I. AFRICANIZATION ABORTED
Africans substitute hope with inferiority
Oh! Our seductive history of inferiority
Oh! Our lethal consumption of inferiority
Oh! Our psychic ally of inferiority
In this unequal world is our bane
Oh! Our cherished nursery rhyme
The BEST comes from the WEST
Our superiors on this Earth
Me Buroni, my white “man”
Now me Akyiaman (Chinaman)
Oh! Ghanaians
We love whiteness
Die for whiteness
Fear whiteness
Worship whiteness
Worship anything foreign

II. TIME FOR LOCAL COACHES
Ghana’s soccer is beaming
Yes, talented Ghanaian players
No, it is not Milo’s expertise

GFA and all
Pay Akwesi Appiah
Pay Jones Attuquayefio
Pay Silas Tetteh
Pay local coaches
Half of what Milo was paid
40, 000 plus dollars per month
A third of what he recently asked for
65, 000 plus dollars per month
Give local coaches pride & place
Give them government support
Give them popular backing
Give them refresher courses
And local coaches will deliver
Will never be angry when we win
Will never snub their bench
Like Milo with his racist mindset
Milo wouldn’t celebrate with us
He was sad when Ghana won
He snubbed his bench
Snubbed Ghanaian officials
He wouldn’t wave our flag

III. ICHERISHING WHITENESS
Foreign soccer coaches in Africa
Coach on white egg-shells
GFA is like our politicians
Like our African leaders
Like the moon giving way to the sun
Like a timid river captured by a lake
Our neocolonized leaders
Quarantined by whiteness
Of White masters
Constructed from hegemony

IV. BENIGHTED BY WHITENESS
Traumatized by slavery
Benighted by colonialism
Failed hopes in the postcolony
Serialized hopes deferred
The delirious foe of globalization
Genealogies of hopelessness
We weave tapestries of inferiority
GFA is like a housefly
Scrambling
Scuttling
Struggling
Stampeding
Like houseflies in an excreta-cave
Where decaying whiteness is superior
Ghanaian officials scramble
Stampede
Sprint
Yearn for white masters
Smiling & hoping
They see whites as a badge of honor
Honoring whiteness
Ghanaians like whiteness
White-used-underwear
Desaanaa (designer clothes)
Oburoni-hand-me downs

V. NKRUMAH IS WEEPING
Kwame Nkrumah is weeping
Neocolonialism is our bane
Our neocolonial mentality
Petri-dish of neocolonialism
Is our collective bane
The last stage of imperialism
Has come to stay
Has gone into our heads
Trajectoring ruinous paths
Oh! Ghanafo
Oh! Afrikafo
Rise up and be counted
Do away with prophesies of old
Of immemorial Africa
Of inferiorized Africans
Nkrumah is weeping
Neocolonialism is our bane
The last stage of imperialism
Has come to stay
Has gone into our heads

GFA and all
Pay Akwesi Appiah
Pay Jones Attuquayefio
Pay Silas Tetteh
Give local coaches pride & place
Give them government support
Give them popular backing
They will deliver
Deliver us from failed hopes

*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