Ghana After Obama

By Isaac Karikari (bkkarikari@yahoo.com)



When on our horizon

Africa’s son rose

For once, all things froze

It’s been over a week

But Obama is not gone-

The pictures and sentiments remain.



After the kenkey, shito

And tilapia from the grill

He proceeded

To give our strongmen a drill.



Oh Obama, how can you eat our chow,

And treat us so?

Some might have thought.



Anyway, was he wrong?

Should there be pain b’cos he was plain?

Is it the shito that made his words prickly

Or b’cos the truth by nature is/can be prickly?



Do you really think,

He needs to do some reconsideration?



Do we need some reminding,

That the very letters that make hurt (h.u.r.t)

Can be found in truth (t.r.u.t.h)?



No Hidden Agenda:

He didn’t come for oil

But they talked about oil-

Talks about technical assistance and experts.

So, what should we expect?



They talked about oil,

But he didn’t come b’cos of oil.

Barack wouldn’t soil his image,

When he has a reputation as a sage

Of a different class and breed.



But he also didn’t come to butter our bread.

Get your act together,

Let’s put our heads together

Let’s stand together

Was the message, the mantra and the creed.



It’s not just the Obamas

Who stepped into Cape Coast

It was all of Ghana too.

A much needed plunge

Into our past and early beginnings.

A necessary step, as we lunge

For the future.

We need to keep our roots

As we lay routes

To a new era of progress.



As the Obama tide subsides

All that which got submerged

Will by themselves emerge.

-the diapers (maybe), the tractors, the Indian rice

Et al.



Obama’s visit -

The “Downsides”:



Did you see all the gimmicks,

State protocol’s faulty calls,

The ministers’ airport clicks,

And Double Jay and J.A.M’s parliamentary jam?



I saw JK and Double Jay,

Together, in several pictures

But let’s not be deceived into talking of wholeness

B’cos there are several fractures.



It is an open secret,

He said he’ll be discreet.

And he was. Though he “can’t tolerate that guy”,

Double Jay forced a smile,

But Nana let her hair down

She was spotted without her crown.

But not without a scorn and a frown.









Obama is gone

But we remain in the spotlight

Into which we’ve been thrust.

All of Africa is ready to give us their trust.

If an able leader we prove to be.



Prez Mills, the ball lies in your court

It’s for you to call the shots.

Hope there will be a censure

Of all unnecessary seizures

Hope there will be no Pontius Pilating

Hope there will be no Golgotha moments,

And no casting of lots

For some seamless cloths.