Sanitizers or No-Handshakes in the City of Accra

Toyota Avensis – you know the first generation patterned after a plastic Parker pen case. I saw a sparkling, sienna-lacquered Avensis rolling along the Independence Avenue this morning. I was craving-curious to see who its cultivated handler was. You don’t like to hear this said, but it was a swain in a suit, whose mug-shot exposed where he was reared - a place without grace or finish. I was beginning to feel guilty about my prejudice when, at the Akuafo Intersection, he plunged his index finger up his nose and foraged around his nares. So, I repeat with warrant – he looked and acted like a barbarian.

(Picture Credit - zazzle.com)

Hearts and Kotoko – No Heart, No Bristles

They are no longer the prickly porcupine and humongous Oak tree they used to be. Things are the same, and yet they’re changing. The league games remain drab, humdrum – it’s more thrilling to watch an ice cube melt. However, there’s a shift. It’s like climbing the stairs upside down. Kotoko and Hearts are either at the rat’s-arse end of the table, or the building’s still wrong-way-up. Sometimes, when the Young grow, the Old should just give way to them.

(Picture Credit - myjoyonline.com)

Wikileaks – The Coming Swiss List

A few individuals must be jittery in several African states. They are flat-broke public servants (past or present) in beggared countries; but when Mr Assange casts the new list loose, their names will be minted in Swiss bank vaults.

Palimony – ‘Sleeping’ with Sense

Imagine living with a man or woman who you are not married to. Despite not being married, you contribute (in cash, comforts, emotions, time, personal sacrifices, etc) to the home, to property, to entertainment (including sex). Then you break up. If you were married, somebody would be entitled to alimony. Shouldn’t you be awarded a financial payment for your investment in the relationship, especially if your partner has become successful in life because you were there to support? You only get this money if there was a contract - written or oral.

Sleeping Around – A Western-Culture Import?

A woman is carnal with a mere-familiar in order to feed and clothe her kids, while her husband is away on an expedition for the good of the nation. What is wrong with that? My history-loving and traditional uncle said this to me. He says it is different from sleeping around, which is a modern-day, cosmo-city, western-culture import. I have no thoughts on this, beyond bewilderment. Do you have any?

Beautiful Africa – The Sidekick*

Before European acquaintance, the sidekick was big. He was different from the apprentice. He did not have to tread one pace behind his mentor. He strutted beside the priest or linguist or captain. He had a hero’s hand in all the drama and protocols. If the champion succumbed to the summons of the gods, the sidekick slipped sweetly into his sandals. Life went on. The early Europeans bullshitted the Africans that the sidekick was a slave because he was not free to go. These strangers to our customs could not discern that what kept the sidekick by his master-friend was a moral bond, and not manacles.

*Here’s something I will introduce to this blog from time to time – Beautiful Africa. I will share phenomena I consider beautiful about Africa. 

(Picture credit - showbiz.peacefmonline.com)

Masters Milking Maidens in Our Braineries

Comment doit-on commencer? Sex for grades? A ‘lil’ squeeze for a favour (like punishment passed over)? It’s wickedly wanton and widespread in our higher-learning braineries. The odd weasel wriggles out of the high-school box. But when the headmistress of Aburi Girls lays open to the media that some of her male mentors roll out the red carpet for the mademoiselles they’re meant to teach, in their rooms, then we have a pickle, no, a botheration! Besides, the crick is cranked up considerably, when the Principal admits that she once shielded the predators.