Rawlings “Arkaahs” [Archives] Mills In The Slave Castle

**By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.; Post-Grad. Dipl.

ACT ONE: PROLOGUE – THE PRECINCT OF SLAVE CASTLE

And the Slave Castle bell rang and rang and rang

Tin ton tin ton ton tin tin ton ton tin tin ton

Ko oh ko; ya oh ya; dzo oh dzo: move to the Jubilee House
But Uncle Mills thought that the bells had boomed
In his other ear, the Castle bell boomed and boomed
Uncle Mills groped around for the light of day
And gasping for much needed Osu air
He whispered wow the King of NDC is back
In stupor, he grabbed his cheek and twitched it
And knew he is in for a four-year long dream
He hit the ground and became the Fante tortoise
And already Fantes are wailing for Fante dokono
Kejetia seamen can’t go to sea in Kumasi
Alavanyo mechanics lack tools to build Ho-made buses
Teshie fishermen now look up to the Densu River
Salaga farmers compete with AYARIGARIZED tractors
Kaneshie street-kids have no dog chains to manufacture
Circle prostitutes have grown three breasts to survive
Haunting dreams still dey hunt the Slave Castle
Ekow Arkaah’s soul dey rest in Guan Winneba
But his ghost dey haunt the Slave Castle of today
Like all Africans who tasted pugilistic enslavements

ACT TWO: MILLS DREAMS ABOUT JUBILEE HOUSE
Dreaming Uncle Mills in a state of ECOMINI lapses
Jumped over the violent walls of the Slave Castle
And tumbled headlong chanting ECOMINI, Okom ni
Medze okom aba oh, Ghanafo eh okom ni oh
Ghanaians, I have brought hunger oh
But I have my tea, bread, and margarine
And some already have tractors and diapers
Then landing like a strange tortoise in Kotokoraba
Uncle Mills held dearly onto his priceless possessions
His tea cup, tea spoon, saucer, and manicured bread
And fell onto the gates of the Jubilee House
He saw the precincts of the Jubilee House
Yes, it was not built by Ghanaian architects
It may be expensive like Akosombo and Motorway
But it was built for all Ghanaians, for posterity
The jubilee House is built for our Heads of State
This one eno be tractor for NDC
Not for the NPP, CPP, PNC, DFP
Not for the DDT at Ridge Palace Junction
That could not even kill Ridge mosquitoes

ACT THREE: NDC KILLS NKRUMAH’S DREAM
Jubilee House dey like Flag Staff House oh
The empowering and conscientizing sacred site
Where Nkrumah seeded our liberation from slavery
Where Nkrumah harvested the seeds of decolonization
Nkrumah, the seer of African freedoms
Never used the slave castle as his office
Even did not want Job 600
The site of postcolonial Pan-African Congresses
To face the Slave Castle of our collective enslavement
And suffering from the depredations of colonialism
The Castle the seat of our enslavement and colonization
The fortification built on the blood of enslaved Africans
The final pathway of de-Africanization
The avenue of our collective dehumanization
The route to our collective humiliation
Was popularized the NDC King as hunting grounds
Where he fed on blood from broken-bottle haircuts
It became a boxing cemetery for old old old Arkaah
And his tears were digested by coward NDC Ministers
And Uncle Mills has never said no to such teary abuses
And where Ms. COTTON who grows Aveyime RICE
Used her inner pouch as a rice desert to bring hunger to Ghana

ACT FOUR: KUFOUR’S ESCAPE FROM THE CASTLE
Kufour fled the Slave Castle of dehumanization
By building the Jubilee House for all Ghanaians
Nkrumah didn’t build Akosombo for the CPP
Kufour didn’t build the Jubilee House for the NPP
It is another Keta Sea Wall eventually built by Kufour
It is Tetteh Kwesi Circle eventually built by Kufour

ACT FIVE: RAWLINGS BARRIDACES JUBILEE HOUSE
The Philosopher King is still howling and baiting
He didn’t build Ridge bungalows, but he has them all
The Philosopher King schemed against the Jubilee House
And the NDC’s cacophonic chorus drowned the Jubilee House
In a lake of demonization with its Kingly watershed in Ridge
All have made Uncle Mills a foreigner in his own home
He is the owner of the house, but is still homeless
He is like a poultry-farmed chicken living in a chop-bar
To the NDC the Jubilee House is not in Ghana
The one house that the NDC King never built for himself
And he envies Kufour for building it for all Ghanaians

ACT SIX: EPILOGUE - MILLS AT THE RIDGE JUNCTION
Uncle Atta Mills works from the Royal Ridge Palace junction
Where our Philosopher-King in his booms sanctions
That one Ghanaian, one toilet
That one Rawlings, nine toilets and still counting
That if you no build Jubilee House, you no go use am
That if you no build Ridge Bungalows, you fit use them
That Slave Castle symbolizes perpetual enslavement
But the King says if so let us be perpetually enslaved
Let us all sing the Rawlingsian Hymnal Animus
Do Re Mi Toli Toli Toli
One Ghanaian, one toilet Toli Toli Toli
One Rawlings, nine toilets and still counting
Na Rawlings no built Jubilee House
Thus Uncle Mills is barricaded in the Slave Castle
Where he is tamely dredging Arkaah’s cloying blood
So let all Ghanaians remain slaves in the Slave Castle
Until Kwame Nkrumah’s Second Coming frees us again

**Akadu N. Mensema is a Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral historian
and sociologist, and is a Professor in the USA. She writes what critics have
called “populist hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at

akadumensema@yahoo.com