Ghana

Agoo!

I am the Royal Town-crier,
I am the Queen of my Poetic Woman-Queendom,
I am the goddess of Poetic African Savannahs, Jungles, Rivers and Oceans,
I am the Lioness, the Tigress and the Ghanaian Mermaid,
I am The Matriarch of modern Poetic nations,
I am Poetry Incarnate
And my pen fears no sword, no man, no woman, no coward, no beast, no plague…

Forget the muse, for I am the Muse!

I found out that I was pregnant, last month.
I did not plan for it.

That afternoon, the Hausa Koko that I had had for breakfast rudely shoved my tongue aside and forcefully ripped my jaws apart; then it flew out of my gaping mouth and sort of did a dance on the floor in front of me.

That evening, my brain foolishly led me to scrape the frosty ice from the walls of my refrigerator – then I shamefully ate it.
Then last week, my nose began to round out and shine like a ripe mango.
And each breath had been transformed into a laboured gasp.

I found out that I was pregnant, last month.
I did not plan for it.
But I embraced it…
My mind, body, spirit and soul were prepared for it.

I am fine, but I am not fine.
I had a miscarriage, this morning.
The contents of my swelling womb poured out of me, in the shower.
No warning, no mercy, no consideration.

I am fine, but I am not fine.

“I deserve to be a self-sufficient, educated woman!” – She would say…

She knew where she had come from:

Her family had made many sacrifices for her to get an education.

Her siblings stayed at home, because her parents could only pay school fees, for one child at a time – a dire situation.

And she could not prove her uncles and aunties right;

Sending a girl-child to school is not a waste of meagre family resources, for a fruitless effort towards future economic liberation…

Then Free SHS came; they all went to school, but they still had to buy school uniforms, provisions, sanitary pads – things which were still a difficult novelty, for their parents to afford in their state of desolation.

Yet,

“I deserve to be a self-sufficient, educated woman!” – She would say…

She worked hard, when she was in high school…

She earned seven A’s and one B and she was certain that she would be able to become the first person in her family to obtain a University degree.

But there is no money…

So, what would it take to become a self-sufficient educated woman?!

• Hawking on the streets of Accra?
• Working as a kayayo, with the possibility of being cheated by selfish customers by day or raped by ruthless predators at night?
• Or having to depend on the benevolence of a rich man, in return for the currency of her lady parts?

“I deserve to be a self-sufficient, educated woman!” – She would say…

But self dignity, self confidence and self-sufficiency cannot come from a mere dream of having big, expensive certificates of education.

[E no be certificate we go chop!]

I am the helpless fish
Frying in your bowl of cooking oil
You lean against the kitchen wall
Smiling with the thoughts of coming feasts
But nature in time will call
You’ll render account squatting on your heels
Your hunger returns with new demands
And I will not be there to
Feed the needs of
Recurrent appetite