(1 of 3 Parts)

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema

PART I. AMPONSEM: THE FARMER
My Nana cocoa farmer
Nana Nkwantabisa Boa Amponsem
The veritable child of Ghana
Breaks his back to benefit all Ghanaians
Tirelessly labors on cocoa plantations
On plantain and yam farms
In the womb of Ofin River in Denkyira
In the navel of Densu in Akyem Odumase
Farmers
On lonesome fields
Desolate areas
Solitary regions
Backwater provinces of gloom
Devoid of the glamour of Accra
The allure of Kumasi
The beauty of Obo-Kwahu
The thrills of Tema
The charm of Ho
The hilly magnetic pull of Aburi
The savannah incentives of Tamale

My Nana cocoa farmer
Nana Nkwantabisa Boa Amponsem
Tirelessly labors on cocoa plantations
Diseased farmers
Calloused fingers from using cutlasses
Knotty joints from eternally bending down
Always bending down in rituals of laboring
To satisfy “greedy bastards” of elitist thieves
Educated, urban-based thieves
Whose riches are cocoa-foreign exchange
Farmers
Never steal from Ghanaians
Nana Nkwantabisa Boa Amponsem
A non-Christian, non-elitist
But religious, a true philanthropist
The cosmopolitan in the forest
The patriot of moral probity
The nationalist of accountability
Who idolizes Nyame Kwame (God)
Trusts in Asase Yaa (Earth) to deliver
Farmers
Are the repositories of wisdom
Skilled in the chirping sciences of birds
The dancing schedules of squirrels
Budding twigs are their ontology
Thunder is their initiatory observance
Rainfall is their ritual performance
And the fertile soil is their craft
Cutlasses are their epistemic narratives

My Nana cocoa farmer
Nana Nkwantabisa Boa Amponsem
You are the veritable child of Ghana
True child of Denkyira of Ofin, Densu
You are the sanctuary of sacrifice
And the archetype of hard work
A paragon of probity, transparency
Not like those who hypocritically shout
And scream one thief one toilet
But have amassed 10,000 toilets
Swimming in the smells of stolen wealth
Putrid smells that cloud their ontology
Farmers
Nana Nkwantabisa Boa Amponsem
The veritable children of Ghana
Tirelessly labor on cocoa plantations
That feeds elitist thievery
Of cocoa-foreign exchange
Elitist educated thieves
Educated elitist vampires
That feed on farmers’ blood

*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