Asantehene & Co in Potholes: Accra-Kumasi Road

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

Ah! Accra-Kumasi road
Fifty years after freedom
Still worse than the British left it
Worse than the colonialists left it
Africanization of ineptitude
Of canonizing incompetence
Of ritualizing fountains of greed
Of cargo-cults of the wretched
Of democratizing corruption
Of putting self before all
Putting self before nation
So we have it all
But still have nothing
Like dead flowers
Dead flowers by the roadside
We fetishize the squalid

The Accra-Kumasi road
Ah! It remains a monstrosity
Ah! Eyesore
Ah! Blemish
Ah! Disgrace
Ah! An abscess like Korle
Fifty-plus years of neglect
The road has seen it all
Presidents swim in potholes
Who can’t see or feel them
Asantehene in a Rolls-Royce
Who laughs at potholes
Okyehene in a Mercedes
Who laughs at potholes
Kwahuhene in a Jaguar
Who laughs at potholes
Ga Manche in a BMW
Who laughs at potholes
The road has seen it all

The Accra-Kumasi road
Fifty-plus years of neglect
The road has seen it all
Accra-Kumasi road
Trucks carting exports
Trucks carting imports
Ah! Gold
Diamond
Bauxite
Timber
Cattle
Goats, sheep
Cocoa, kola
Cassava
Cocoyam, yam
Where does the money go
Into the bellies of graft

The Accra-Kumasi road
Fifty years of our narrative
Of iconic potholes on roads
Of celebrating accidents
Of fetishizing incompetence
Our cognitive incongruities
Affront to merry truth
Our ineptitude
It is not about a phenotype
It is about courage to dream

Accra-Kumasi road
Eternally bruised road
Made labyrinthine
Made tangled
Crossing
Junctions
Intersecting
Primeval forests
Pristine communities
Eternal rivers

Ah! Accra-Kumasi road
After fifty-plus years
Our most significant road
The royal road
To Asante & Asante-Akyem
Kwahu & Akyem Abuakwa
The artery of our economy
Is a like diseased artery

Accra-Kumasi road
Neglected since independence
Our patented failures
The road of mayhem
Of accidents
Of potholes
Of parked disabled trucks
Of dilapidated bridges

Ah! Accra-Kumasi road
Fifty years after freedom
Still worse than the British left it
Worse than the colonialists left it
Africanization of ineptitude
Of canonizing incompetence
Of ritualizing fountains of greed
Of cargo-cults of the wretched
Of democratizing corruption
Of putting self before all
Putting self before nation
So we have it all
But still have nothing
Like dead flowers
Dead flowers by the roadside
We fetishize the squalid

*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