Who Are These "Akyem Friends"?

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I have said it time without number, but maybe I need to repeat the same - I am in no way, whatsoever, affiliated with any prominent and/or influential Ghanaian politician; and neither do I take my marching orders, as it were, from any Ghanaian of any ideological stripe or suasion. But, of course, rascally political opportunists like the notorious "treasure-hunting" Orangeburg, South Carolina, goon have every democratic right to label yours truly as "a chartered member of the Akyem Mafia," just as I also have a bounden obligation to relentlessly expose him, for the NDC-Nkrumaist mole that he veritably is and root him out of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as he urgently deserves to, if the party is to fare triumphantly at the polls, and before he morphs into an albatross for the Danquah-Busia-Dombo Traditionalists.

Well, I am writing this rather short article because in the wake of my publishing a piece titled "Foh-Amoaning Doesn't Get It," in which I frontally took on the notorious albino-Ghanaian anti-gay and lesbian crusader, somebody by the name of Derick Asamoah Boadu responded to me in an e-mail message thusly: "I must say [that] am very disappointed with your write up[,] full of insults to [sic] Moses[,] even if he erred in his submissions[.] I imagine you would probably [have] be[come] an adviser or minister to Nana [Akufo-Addo?] if he had won. If this is the thinking of some of our Akyem friends[,] I had better go follow Alan [Kyerematen?]. [It] is a shame."

Well, my terse and automatic riposte to Mr. Asamoah Boadu was simply that, perhaps, he needed to visit the Manhyia Palace of the Asantehene and find out from either Otumfuo himself or his court historians, whether I am a stranger from Barekese, Dwaben, Amuana-Praso, Mampong and Asiakwa (and, of course, Nkronso) who deserves the insolent and parochial calumny of my culturally illiterate critic. Perhaps an even better bet would be for Mr. Asamoah Boadu to go to Asante-Dwaben (Old Juaben) to ask about my radical moorings.

Anyway, in my response to the critic, I also underscored the forensically verifiable fact that the bulk of my writings are fact- and logic-based. I don't truck with the kind of "Meta-Tribalism" or "Atinga-Trokosi"-like alliance that Mr. Asamoah Boadu so facilely presumes for me. But even more pointedly, my socioeconomic fortunes do not depend on the political fortunes of any Ghanaian politician and/or political party whatsoever! The fact of the matter is that I am not looking for a job. I am perfectly content with where I presently find myself, even while my bounden moral and emotional nexus and obligation to the land of my birth compells me to discursively participate in its affairs, in toto, because when all has been said and done, my destiny, reputation, image and stature within my adopted country - the United States of America - are also inextricably interlinked with my congenital Ghanaian identity and culture.

At any rate, nobody can begrudge Mr. Asamoah Boadu of his "Akyem friends." But all means, let him count me out of such temporally convenient and patently opportunistic faux-ideological bunk. I don't carry water for anybody; I did it for my maternal grandfather, Rev. T. H. (Yawbe) Sintim(-Aboagye), (1896-1982), and avidly enjoyed it. But it is about the extent of it. I am fiercely independent in my thinking and ideological choice(s), and I intend to maintain it that way.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 15, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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