. Part one

BY DR. SAMUEL ADJEI SARFO

1. At the dawn of the depressive year, two thousand and thirteen years after the demise of Issa the Enlightened one, when the nations had made my continent a theater of their wars; when the priests and the prophets and the scholars demanded gold in place of righteousness; when my people’s heads were examined for a smidgen of intelligence where none was found; when doom and gloom beset the nation because of division among the tribes, and the scholars of the land smote deadly sin upon the masses and nasally propounded abstractions as their lessons in life.

2. Nay, even in the times of recklessness and hopelessness, when the leaders divided up the resources of the motherland among their kindred; when the tribes were smote asunder by those who thought they knew but knew nothing, when everything was full of grievous ennui and when the great land had been laid to waste by the monsters of pessimism and teachers of division, and when all appeared lost to us the little people:

3. I, Sarfo the Black, thinker, leader, scholar, writer, speaker, a man of lore, law and folklore , the sage of the land, great benefactor of my people and philosopher of eternal truth, I was deeply troubled by the abiding waste of the land, and therefore rose to proclaim prophesies upon the nation and to give instructions to my people, that they may turn away from the path of self-destruction and tread the glorious path of self-preservation.

4. For one score and five odd years traversing half of my entire lifetime minus a season, I spoke passionately to the people, teaching them the ways of strength, the path of unity and oneness as a means of existence. I spoke of love and honesty; I spoke of patriotism and altruism; I spoke of sacrifice that must be performed on the altar of our nationhood; I spoke of the evils to come should we be found wanting in the virtues; I spoke of all these things and more……….

5. And yet the people did not listen to me and called me names; some even proclaimed me mad and prepared a fire for my burnt sacrifice to their gods of lust. Some spat upon my words and called me the great impostor, and others threatened a curse upon my lineage and forged arms to wipe my descendants off the surface of the earth.

6. Until one day, my patience wore out, and in disgust, I climbed the mountain Obuotabiri and hid amongst the rocks for forty days and nights, eating nothing but wild mangoes and roots scratched from underneath the thick forest. Thereafter, I emerged to see whether the land and the people could be saved. But darkness still hovered upon my people, and in no corner was any light seen.

7. Then I stretched my hand upon the land in anger and made ready to pronounce a prophecy of doom upon my people, to make those in the light stay in the light, and those in the dark forever remain in the dark. Yeah, I Sarfo the Black, Sage of my people, even I made ready to condemn the land of my people!

8. At that instant moment, there was a great noise in the firmament, and a fiery chariot driven by Zarathustra-the great prophet from whom Issa received his message- descended upon the mountain-top, and my feeble eyes were blinded by the power of his light, until I fell in a deep slumber, as one in the womb of my mother.

9. Then Zarathustra lifted me up and seated me by his side in the fiery chariot and flew me into the depth of the firmament, landing finally along the shores of the great ocean forming the boundaries to the south of the coast once called gold, amongst a people that spoke a familiar tongue.

10. And from the belly of the great sea emerged great confusion, and amidst deafening thunder and blinding lightening, and at the crest of a wave the height of a mountain, a ten- headed beast appeared from the sea with great confusion, knocking its head about, eating its tail and scratching its head.

11. The beast had twenty hands, and in each hand was a deadly sword, and in each mouth was a flaming tongue, from whence came abominations gratuitously uttered against each other head. Furthermore, the beast was in a struggle against itself, brandishing swords in an attempt to cut off the other heads or in failure thereof, to smite the common stomach.

12. Then Zarathustra, the teacher of the faith and the Master of Issa, poured oil on the storms of the sea, and for a moment, calmness befell the ocean, and the grotesque beast lay in sublime supplication at the feet of Zarathustra!
13. Whereupon Zarathustra closed the eyes of the monster, and proceeded to perform surgery upon the beast.
14. El que tiene sabidura, pidala a interpretar el simbolo de la bestia, por su anagrama es Anagh, y sus cabezas representa la confusion de su gente.
Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Doctor of Law, is a private legal practitioner in Austin, Texas. You can email him at sarfoadjei@yahoo.com