Controversy Unlimited: Snake In The Monkey Shadow…

Calus Von Brazi

During my secondary school days, many Chinese films abounded, taking the Ghanaian video center scene by storm, the same way that the Nigerian film industry has virtually sent the Ghanaian alternative to the school of self-evaluation, so that today we are starting to witness a resurgence of more professional films. With the possible exception of Kwaw Ansah’s well-acclaimed masterpieces, what we brewed in the Ghanaian film pot was to say the least, a pile of substances better managed by the likes of Zoomlion. Notwithstanding the fact that Ghana had droves of trained and unskilled actors and actresses alike, we seemed to have resigned ourselves to a fate of mediocrity, glorifying very low-rate films as “a good start” and with that, facilitating temporary rise to fame and (mis)fortune for the wannabes of the actors and actresses nemonklatura. Is it any wonder then that with the passage of time these people, who appeared to us like an angry snake, meandering through our television screens faded away like limp rags, dejected, disappointed and torn apart by the very industry that gave them temporary moments of fame?

When the Chinese made their incursions into the film industry here, Ghanaian youth took on new nicknames and titles ranging from “Shanton”, “I Trust My Leg”, “Killer Aziza”, “Killer Teipo”, “Drunken Master”, “Killer Asala”, “Baby Face” and of course “Chinese Lapor”. Of these, Chinese Lapor happened to be the most interesting, for he was a shrewd rumour-monger par excellence, sneaky at all times and going to tell others what had been planned against their persons or families. Chinese Lapor never got himself involved in any fight; what he was adept at doing was craftily calculating the likely outcome of an encounter and thereafter situate himself in the place of glory: who does not like to be a friend of victory? Of the countless Chinese films I saw at the time, I remember “Ten Tigers of Shaolin” and my very best “Snake In The Monkey Shadow”. That was when an orphan, made it out of drudgery by understudying a master Shaolin to become the best of the best, and with that, make amends by exacting revenge on the very person that made him an orphan to begin with. Starring “Killer Teipo” and “I Trust My Leg”, “Snake In The Monkey Shadow” is in all truth, a classic account of how to profit from inadvertent opportunities and deliberate manipulation of desires for one’s own fame and if possible fortune. In the final analysis, by fighting as a snake, but displaying monkey skills on the field of combat, “I Trust My Leg” was able to outwit “Killer Teipo” despite his spiritual powers, tied in his hair but kept in his crown jewels. Revenge and truth when they finally came, manifested in ways that the young “I Trust My Leg” had never envisaged even in his wildest dreams.

Why have I recounted this long forgotten issue at this time that Ghana is basking in the glory of what is supposed to be a sweet victory over the Brazilians who have managed to defeat us jointly and severally on many an occasion at various levels of international football encounters? While it is proper and indeed honourable to give thanks and praise to the almighty God for seeing us through to victory, some self-appointed mogul, nay self-declared “prophet” of God, with no known training under any man of God or from any school of religion, bible or doctrine would have us believe that once again, when Ghana was seemingly at the crossroads, it was his vision and prophecy that helped, nay, made us make the grade. This might touch raw nerves but all the same I ask: are we a stupid people? Are we so gullible that due to our cravings and desires for aggrandizement of all sorts, we easily believe the old widows fables that the book of Timothy so deftly addresses? I am now beginning to understand why the good book says in Luke 16:8 that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light”. Christians who should know better, who the spirit of God himself has instructed to test all spirits are ready to override that edict and with that succumb to the whims and caprices of the occultist from my great-grandfather’s land simply because he is alleged to have prophesied and seen the outcome of the match between Ghana and Brazil. Question: are the people of Brazil not the children and creation of the self-same God of Heaven? Or as for them, they were spawned by a sedimentary rock with no breath of life breathed into them by the Creator of all creation? You my dear reader are not supposed to answer that. What you are supposed to answer is what happened when Moses was sent to get the Israelites of old out of the land of Egypt. Is it not the case, that with the sole exception of the killing of the first-born sons of the Egyptians, every single miracle that Moses performed was replicated by the magicians of the court of Pharaoh?

So if some counterfeit spiritualist, delves into the realms of the occult to make some smart connections to our football management team and together they embark on a spiritualist power-promotion drive on my balding friend’s Kokrokoo show, what do our own prophets, men of God and ambassadors of Christ say and display of their calling vis-à-vis what they know to be sacrilege and the invitation of God’s wrath unto this Land of Our Death? Can we as a people, not see through what is happening, for I hate to think that I may be the only one seeing what I am seeing? Take these scenarios into consideration: Ghanaians are brazenly and unrepentantly interested in two main things; politics and football. Whereas politics unfortunately deepens the fault lines of national division and divisiveness, football has somewhat bridged the gaps between our personal preferences and our national interest maximization as a whole. Thus, we have two diametrically opposed platforms on which we either divide ourselves or reconcile our differences as the nationals of our nation. If I am a foreign watcher of Ghana who wants to have influence within the Ghanaian establishment, what better place to situate myself than within these two realms of politics and football? Why do we think that the incoming communications behemoth prefaced its incursion into the Ghanaian communications industry by first sponsoring the premier league of this country and also the supporter’s union, openly bestowing a Toyota Landcruiser painted in its greenish company colours for maximum effect? Hello, is anyone there? Are those opposed twin frameworks of politics and football not the best places to derive the maximum publicity while promoting one’s own interest and courting even the chosen of God to spit on the name of the Most High God with such relative ease and unbridled alacrity?

If an occult leader of very questionable character can situate himself behind a telephone in the land of the Yorubas, Hausas and Ibos and select the players of our national team, allegedly determines who takes the first penalty kick, and instructs our coach on what to do, why do we waste our time having a government, a football authority and a team in the first place? I ask again, are we that gullible? How come the same Joshua never calls any of our white coaches to give such instructions? Is it because they are white and cannot, or have chosen not to be that foolishly gullible? Granted the answer to the previous question is no, why does he not do the same with Samson Siasia who coaches a team from the same country that he T.B. Joshua hails from? Why are we making such fools of ourselves and mocking God by making the thing called a brain that he gave us look like a mistake, or freak of nature? While at it, I thought that for pastors and prophets alike, there is no such thing as “luck”; only the handiwork of God crafted before the dawn of creation and manifested at the time and choosing of the Creator himself. So if Joshua instructs our equally confused coach to field a certain Dede Ayew because he is a “lucky boy”, does that not raise our collective antennae at once? Who are we fooling by deceiving ourselves that simply because we have won, it is all well and good to take any and everything for granted, especially when the source is said to be some self-seeking occult sidekick? Please, with all due respect, I repeat for the umpteenth time: Joshua is not of God and those who have started, or better still, acknowledged him as the best thing to happen since the sun was created better think, for when the wrath of God descends, it would not accept excuses and trumpeting of ignorance, especially when Jesus Christ himself said to us in Mark 13:6 “that many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many” Need I continue?

True it is that the Holy Spirit is at work, comforting the comfortless and giving us deep insights into the things of the Lord God Almighty. If we are creating the parameters for a certain Joshua to establish and entrench himself as a paragon of divine glory in the hearts and minds of Ghanaians, I say may the Lord God show forth his glory, power and might even if those who are called by his name have suddenly developed the initial Gideon syndrome of hiding when the Lord needs them to stand up and be counted. It is not enough to stand behind a pulpit and pontificate about why they would not “mention his name but you know who I am referring to”.

The Lord God Almighty, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth would have me inform you that woe unto you, all those who have been petrified by the antics of Joshua, so much so that you have suddenly chosen to look the other way as he misleads people away from the true path with his demonic powers, acquired from the very spiritual wickedness in heavenly places and the rulers of the dark. Judgment shall come upon you, for the souls of the many thirst for the truth, and yet, for a mess of pottage and few coins, you sacrifice the calling of Jehovah Rapha and thereby consign souls of the kingdom to the abyss of death and destruction. Jesus Christ did not hesitate to make a public display of the devil when the time came, difficult as it was when he confronted it. If he told us before leaving that “greater works than these shall you do, because I go to my father”, how dare we resign with a resignation when the son of the occult is working twice as hard, using our own institutional frameworks to increase the capacity and population of the kingdom of hell? Joshua has been rather smart, because unlike my cousin Dr. Adenuga who has wisely confined himself to the realm of sports, he has taken both sports and politics as his forte, messing with serious minds in this country and now supplanting himself on top of the football fraternity. If we still cannot see that Joshua is aiming at stealing and thereafter freezing the spirit and soul of this country, God in his mercies, which are new every morning, help us with his divine help!

Perhaps, we are all waiting for his occultic powers to erupt from the deepest pits of hell’s hellfire to inform us, that all the men and women of God we know are nothing but offspring of the mermaid and marine spirits; maybe that will be the time, our obviously frightened and clueless men and women of God would wake up, hopefully when it is not too late, for God would definitely ask us to account for our inability to do that which he has instructed us to do, moreso when he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. Jehovah Immeku be with you in these days of weird weirdness.