Village boy Impressions

Mother Africa, beloved mother  How glorious in bloom you lie,  Beaming in the early morning dew.  Silent, peaceful, enduring, content.  Though some have named you dark,  Ever brightly your dark skin glows!  To others exotic, distant, remote.  Yet to us, there is no place more home  Many have called you wild and untamed.  Yet none is more accommodating.   Quietly you birthed and nurtured a humanity   That turns round to call you ‘discovered’.   Ever your charm, grandeur and enigma.   Are these the joys of your motherhood?  Have You Read:  Village Boy Impressions - Topsy-turvy? From the chalky desert of Egypt, so ancient,   To the frozen peak of Kilimanjaro, so majestic.   From the simmering Nyiragongo, so feisty,    To the Devil’s pool of stupendous Victoria  Rightly did the enchanted Livingstone speak;  You "must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight".  From the colourful salts of the Danakil,  To the Table mountains of Cape Good Hope.  The vast plains, moors and fer

What agony to listen to the news in Ghana  What torment to hear the uneducated literates babble!  Televised news turns food into ash in my mouth.  Prejudiced narratives that only show the north,  As a people most incomprehensible; Skeletal mothers with drooping dry breasts,  Babies strapped with tattered rags to aching backs,  The distended bellies of bony orphans,  The starved faces of scruffy toddlers,  Desperate youth trooping out to survive,  People slaughtered  in senseless wars,  Forests razed to the ground, Poverty, hunger, disease, death.  So has the West defined and cursed Africa: One country, one people, one story And so we do to ourselves now. Have you Read:  Village Boy Impressions - The Joys of Mother Africa   Ghana, are you so gullible? To be so bogged down With such naivety,   Such thoughtless generalizations , Such vulgar labelling, Such single stories; That the whole north is but a village, Is too hot and far away, That ‘northerner’ must be a tribe, Unable to speak for

1.      A person who abuses others is hardly ever asked to stop. We don't want to stand up to the person doing wrong. Rather, we ask the victim(s) to tolerate the abuse. And if the victim refuses to accept our advice, we conclude that he/she is a bad person - not the abusive person. People who abuse others are like 'small gods' to be complained about but not stood up to. They are treated like victims to be understood and pitied and their victims are to be advised and praised for tolerating abuse. 2.       Praying in tongues is a shouting competition. A test of endurance. At the first Pentecost, we are told that the tongues (languages) of the apostles were understood by a multitude of devout men from 'every nation under heaven' (Acts 2: 1 - 8). In our time, no human being can understand the tongues we speak; an endless stream of discordant sounds emitted by people in seeming agony and disarray.  3.      We swat a fly with a sledgehammer but always attemp

I do my crying in the rain Shrieking with the thunder Howling with the wind So that my tears are washed away My sorrow is laid to rest awhile And peace returns to my heart But when the clouds are spent I wear a smile and walk around No one sees the tears in my eyes No one hears the pain in my voice No one marks the grief on my face No one knows the pain in my heart For I weep with the clouds And my healing is in the rain That washes and dries my tears With a million wet kisses I do my crying in the rain Not because I am strong But because I am alone Many weep on my shoulder I find no shoulder to weep on So I feign strength And wait for cloudy skies To pour out my grief in full He is strong, he is solid He can take it all, they say And know not that I am weak And poor and frail even as they But maybe not for I do not cry No, not open bitter tears as they Yet I too do cry I do my crying in the rain.

1.        Don't drive like a lunatic; you’re not the only one in a hurry to go somewhere, and can you please stop tooting the horn? It makes the whole place so noisy! 2.        Learn to buy made in Ghana goods – give the Chinese goods a break!  3.        If you work in the public sector, show up to work on time and whilst there, do real work.  4.        Don't church all week and all year round and hope God will solve your real life problems for you.  5.        Don't look down on everyone who isn’t dressed up in fancy clothes.  6.        If you're a police officer stop asking for and collecting bribes – you’re not the only public servant who’s poorly paid.  7.        If you’re a politician, know that your followers also have heads and hearts – they can think and feel, respect them. Read:  Village Boy Impressions: 6th of March 8.        If you occupy public office and mess up, do the honourable thing; please resign or at least learn to say sorry (Mr