I Swear, I Didn’t Set This Up!

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

I was, naturally, quite amused to witness Dr. Kofi Asimpi make an arrant fool of himself in the dubious name of a rejoinder to my article captioned “Michael ‘Trokosi’ Dokosi Is a Togolese Ewe…” (Ghanaweb.com 8/20/11). One theme that runs through the entire article, which presumes to thoroughly expose my supposed hypocrisy and inveterate prejudice against the Ewe is, of course, in the warped opinion of its “Divine” author, the inalienable right of the Ewes, particularly Anlo-Ewes like the fast-aging Prof. Kofi Awoonor, the ironic chairman of Ghana’s Council-of-State (remember Awoonor’s declaration of: “I am first and foremost an Ewe before a Ghanaian”?) to mordantly attack the Akan, especially Asantes, for daring to proudly answer to and staunchly uphold the cultural heritage and identity, bequeathed us by our great and astute nation- and kingdom-building ancestors!

And for his own personal edification, perhaps it may utterly displease the self-righteous Dr. Asimpi to learn from the Akan-hating Prof. Awoonor that, indeed, it was we, Akans, who taught the Notsie-originated Ewes the civilized art of Chieftaincy (See Awoonor’s Guardians of the Sacred Word 1974). Still, if he really wants to learn a little bit about where I am coming from, then, of course, it would definitely be worth his while for Dr. Asimpi to read Prof. Awoonor’s Ghana: A Political History which, upon publication, the notable and then-exiled Ghanaian journalist Mr. Baffuor Ankomah, I believe, sarcastically characterized as “a good exercise in tribalism.” I would simply describe Prof. Awoonor’s book as “the sinister blue-print of Mr. Rawlings’ anti-Akan revolution.”

And please, spare me that puerile bromide about Mr. Rawlings having an Akan wife and therefore being incapable of hating his own wife’s kinsmen and clanswomen. As my dear brother Eric Bottah (alias Oyokoba) wittily pointed out, some scholars and historians believe Adolf Hitler to have been half-Jewish; but, of course, this very fact, in of itself, would not restrain Chancellor Hitler from attempting to exterminate global Jewry.

Anyway, as one who has remarkably studied the history of the Jewish Holocaust, as a former member of my college’s Jewish Studies Committee and a scholars’ conference presenter, I have come across no evidentiary data suggesting the half-Jewishness of Mr. Hitler. What I do know, however, is that the morbid architect of the Holocaust had a longtime amorous associate and scholar by the name of Hannah Arendt. But, of course, his widely alleged torrid romance with Ms. Arendt did not the least bit serve as a “conscience retardant,” once Mr. Hitler decided to unleash his “Final Solution” on European Jewry.

In his rejoinder, Dr. Asimpi viciously and hypocritically pretends as if I write totally out of a vacuum and absolutely without any forensically verifiable record of abject Ghanaian-Ewe animosity for the country’s Akan majority. But, of course, even if this self-professing man of the proverbial cloth came across such evidence, he would be more than likely to chalk it off as a veritable figment of the blighted imagination of us Akan majority who have been virtually effectively rendered a political minority in the very country of whose 24 million population, we constitute a commanding 50-percent!

Interestingly, like most genocide-minded creatures, Dr. Asimpi roguishly claims that the Akan constitute a mere 45-percent of Ghana’s population. Really, what Dr. Asimpi means by the preceding spurious statistic is that the Rawlings revolution – did I hear anybody say “devolution”? – succeeded in exterminating at least 5-percent of Ghana’s Akan population!

Anyway, I have partially digressed because Dr. Asimpi’s article clearly contains no substance, besides the author’s overriding theme and adamant insistence that, indeed, Mr. Michael “Trokosi” Dokosi has an inalienable right to both libel and character-assassinate the Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and that we, the supporters of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, can only sit duck and endure such criminal savagery. Well, Dr. Asimpi, I have news for you: We the non-NDC Akan supporters of Nana Akufo-Addo intend to fight back with a vengeance! And I am not lamely alluding to such namby-pamby and mere chicken-shooing slogan as “All-Die-Be-Die!” (My profuse apologies to Nana Addo-Dankwa).

And, hey “Doc.,” you want to talk about war and real revolution? Be my guest! And by the way, do yourself some good by finding out about our two separate histories on the Akuapem mountains, particularly how the Kyebi and Akyem-Akropong boys pushed you like packed “tolo beef” to where you miscreants rightly belong – beyond the eastern flank of the Great River!

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of 22 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: [email protected]. ###