BY Kwadwo Poku

For the past week many have gone over chapters, verses and through the synoptic to deify a man who obscured his deep seeded hatred towards non Ewe's by his academic achievements, and they have done so knowing little or nothing about Kofi Awoonor. Even the BBC of all institutions have burnt over and somersaulted backwards to portray this tribal bigot as one who wined and dined with the Lord and as such must be venerated and "doxologized". What a shame. ln fact it is even generous not to label him a criminal given what the BBC wrote about him in their bid to massage his political philosophy. Before I expose him, please read the following quote from the tribute paid him by the BBC.

"When then flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his coup de' tat on Dec.!981, Kofi Awoonor joined the revolution with all his feet and hands to borrow a Ghanaian phrase. If the truth be told, Kofi Awoonor did not know how to do anything in a half-hearted manner. The quote continues by saying in the heady days of the revolution he wrote a book entitled The Ghana Revolution, in which he appeared to be arguing the case for Anlo hegemony, leading to the most cosmopolitan man being seen as a chauvinist" end of quote.

If one should lend credence to what we now know about the tribal bend of Prof. Kofi Awoonor, then a deduction can safely be made that he had a hand in the dastardly killings of the three Justices and retired Major Sam Acquah based on his friendship with Rawlings and his PNDC membership. When Rawlings usurped the will of Ghanaians on Dec. 31st 1981, he told the nation he had come to clean house and will subsequently hand over power back to limann in 6 months. A few weeks before the three high court Justices were brutally murdered, they had surreptitiously demanded that Rawlings returned the nation back to civilian rule after it became evident to them that Limann wasn't coming back due to the non existent transitional period, and as history tells us, on June 30th, 1982 exactly the time Rawlings had promised the nation to hand over back to Limann, they were killed.

Now, If Kofi Awoonor was a member of the PNDC at the time of the murders, had supported the overthrow of the elected president as an intellectual by joining the revolution which comprised of semi illiterates compared to his scholarship and argued the case for Ewe hegemony, it is therefore an insult to all Ghanaians in my humble estimation to "Mother Teresarize" him who by all accounts qualified for the status of a criminal if the vituperate expletives of Ken Agyapong could constitute a treason charge in a democratic dispensation. I dare anyone to rationalize how an intellectual powerhouse like Prof. Kofi Awoonor could support the overthrow of President Limann, support the suspension of the 1979 constitution as a result and join the revolution if he wasn't a proponent of Ewe dominance. It is even fair to say that the diplomatic appointments he had under the PNDC were not on merits but tribalism and cronyism.

Folks, let's not forget that the Ewe hegemony was also an idiosyncratic view held by Rawlings prior to the Dec 31st, 1981 coup, which then beggars asking whether it was Kofi Awoonor who floated the idea of eliminating the Justices after their demand for civilian rule since they were perceived to be obstacles to the PNDC regime. I know I will be ripped to shreds for even daring to dent the supposedly pristine autobiographical record of this chauvinist which is shambolic at best but you see, the record of this man needs to be set straight but as it stands, it is a crooked one. He was a great poet there is no denying but he was also the epitome of a microcosm of a racist which I have coined Tribal Bigot and deifying such a person in a tribute is an insult to all Ghanaians.

Kwadwo Poku N Y