Features
Kaka and piopio
Six strong men raped her but the 16-year-old girl pleaded with her mother not to report the matter to the police. The distressed mum will not listen to that nonsense. She dashed straight to the police station and reported the case.
The police invited the poor girl to give a statement, following which a man-hunt for the culprits would begin. The girl surprisingly started laughing at the policemen. She asked them to forget about the case.
“We want to jail the criminals,” the Inspector said, pleading with the girl to give her statement. “They won’t get anything less than ten years.”
“I enjoyed it,” she finally said curtly to the Inspector who opened his mouth in utter surprise and disbelief. Maybe he didn’t hear well.
“What exactly did you say?”
“I said I enjoyed the game!”
The Inspector now stared at her, gaping in wonder. Was he dreaming?
“You are virtually asking us to close the case? This is a criminal offence!” he said pleadingly. “Forget about the case. After all, I enjoyed it.”
PLEASURE
When the girl’s mother heard her daughter’s admission of pleasure instead of pain, she nearly collapsed. She couldn’t believe that her daughter could say she enjoyed it when six men took turns to ravage and tear her apart. There might be something wrong with her.
In the Inspector’s fifteen-year experience in the service, he had never encountered a case as intriguing as this. Well, if the girl said she enjoyed the three-hour session, then technically the case was closed. Whoever charged someone in court for giving pleasure to another? If there should be anything at all, the rapists should be congratulated on a good job done. Docket closed!
But the docket did not close on the girl’s sexual adventures and misadventures. She was asked to go and live with her auntie and her husband. It was there that she proved she enjoyed the gang-rape. And if she did, then her auntie’s husband was in big trouble.
This girl tempted the 45-year-old man in so many ways until he fell from grace. His wife caught him too doing something to the girl in the bathroom. She was not exactly a witness to what took place when the shower was on for 45 minutes. But the fact that it was her loving husband who was enjoying the shower with her niece offered a vivid imagery of what transpired.
It did not need anyone to do a video coverage of the bathroom event to find the two guilty of taboo. But before anybody could offer rituals to cleanse them, the girl now 18 disappeared and reappeared in Accra. She promptly got married to a prosperous young businessman.
The man was visibly excited. The girl was fair-coloured, sexy and beautiful and he thought he was blessed with such a dazzling Madonna.
“This is God-sent,” he openly admitted to his friends.
Two months later, he came back home to find his loving wife frantically sucking the huge phallus of his close friend. The sight nearly made him develop stroke. The friend started pleading for forgiveness.
“She begged me to have sex with her,” he said.
The marriage ended and the girl was distraught. She loved the man but something within her would just not keep her from seeking pleasure extra-time. Oh! What exactly was wrong.
CATECHIST
She ended up in a charismatic church. She realised she needed deliverance and sought divine help. “I’m suffering from kakapiopio!” she told the resident pastor. He had never heard of such a disease and asked the catechist to find out exactly what was happening to the young woman.
Before the catechist could diagnose the disease, the girl stripped him of his clothes and stooped before him. Her buttocks were presented full-plate and the man of God could not resist the temptation. The quality of the girl’s body required that the Bible be put aside for a while. Later on, he could sort out matters with God.
The girl nearly tore the church apart because she also put the choir-master to the test and nearly brought down a few deacons. She now headed for the pastor himself. | If it had not been for God’s intervention, this girl would have made the pastor crawl on all fours legs like Nebuchadnezzar.
After leaving the church in disgrace, the girl (now woman) got married and delivered two children in quick succession, She decided to settle down to family life. The husband, fat plumpy man soon began to slim down. It was not as a result of HIV/ AIDS. The woman just would not allow him to sleep.
SHOWDOWN
He was forced to fulfil his marital obligations before sleeping, again around midnight and finally and most auspiciously at dawn. The dawn showdown was normally quite hectic and by morning the man was virtually a wreck, a раthetic shadow of himself.
After four-years on the sex job, the man decided to proceed on pension. He could not perform his nightly duties without collapsing. And his wife would not stop forcing him to go and go. She was insatiable.
All his energy was sapped; divorce was the only option if he was to save his life. Moreover, he had heard from the grapevine that the woman was also servicing a good number of people in the neighbourhood.
What was most annoying was that she was doing so for free. At least if she were bringing some money home, her misconduct would have been justified on financial grounds. He quit the marriage.
A few years after that, this sex-machine of a lady got down with a deadly disease.’ That was when she told her story, still not knowing that she was afflicted with a disease called “nymphomania”. It is a psychological condition. Nymphomania is the uncontrollable desire to have sex. If you have it see Dr. Asare!
Features
Old folks and human suffering
The aged
Grey hair is an honour from God, says my uncle, Kofi Jogolo, whose moustache the world admires. Unfortunately, his moustache is not grey. However, my dear, uncle who is a petty bourgeoisie is greying at the temples, which according to him is a sign of wisdom, reverence and honour. To me, it is also an indication that he is gradually nearing ‘home’ to render a comprehensive account of his life to his Creator.
Indeed, the principles of accountability and probity transcend grey hairs and moustache, and wind up in St Peter’s Heaven.
Anyone who is getting close to the age of 60 can rightly claim the grey hair status. But in Sikaman for instance, to be a living member of the grey hair fraternity is a privilege and not a right. This is because the average life span of humans today is 49 years, and the average in Third World countries is much lower. Poverty alone can kill you at 27.
It is also of interest to note that journalists have the lowest average lifespan vis- a-vis other professional groups, according to a proven research.
In any case, the human species are better off than insects and animals. A mosquito lives for only six days and decides to call it quits. Most birds live for five years; and when a dog lives up to 10 years, it automatically becomes a liberal democrat. Why? Because it becomes so weak that it can no longer be a leftist watchdog of its master’s home. The poor dog becomes rather liberal to thieves and burglars.
So is it with human beings who clock 65 and above, especially when they have not eaten good for over six decades. According to the Bible, the human limit which has been divinely decreed is three score and 10, that is, 70. This appears discriminatory when we consider that Methuselah for instance lived for 969 years before agreeing to die.
CURSE
Back to Sikaman, anyone who flies past the age of 65 is considered an old- man (woman) whether he is well- nourished or takes ‘quarter’ on a regular basis.
To many, however, to be called an old person is rather a curse than a blessing. And of course nobody wants to be a pensioner for obvious reasons. So you see workers who are clearly over 70 years claiming to be 50 just to avoid retirement and its associated money palaver. But somehow, they are justified.
Fact is that, these days, nobody cares for the aged, and so they have to care for themselves. It was the quest to avoid this unfortunate situation that the HelpAge Ghana was formed last year as a voluntary organisation aimed at promoting the well-being of the aged and ageing in Sikaman.
When the second HelpAge Week was launched last weekend, I felt so sad to see on television, old men and women, some of whom could hardly work their rickety heels to help themselves about. Some really had to be assisted to walk.
HelpAge has come so timely, at a time when no one respects or cares for the aged. In times’ past, old folks were regarded as useful members of the society, imparting knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation, telling Ananse stories to enliven the evenings of little children.
But today, old people are regarded as nuisance. They are accused of being talkatives, always complaining of kooko, waist-pains, constipation, diarrhea, chronic catarrh and lack of good diet.
Their physical and mental infirmities associated with senescence, coupled with the high cost of fending for them, makes them unwanted in a rat-race society where man must live by sweet.
Some people really want their aged relatives to die quickly to relieve them of the burden of caring for them. They can’t afford to be feeding them every day like that! So unfortunate.
PROBLEMS
In the developed countries, however, because of problems that go with caring for the elderly in society, homes for the elderly are established in many communities, where the aged can live comfortably to enjoy their last days on earth. They are cared for, nourished and entertained.
In fact, there is a branch of medicine called GERONTOLOGY which is concerned with the processes of growing old, and there is what we call (GERIATRICS) which is the medical care of old people. Scholars are specialise in these fields because their society cares for the welfare of the aged.
HelpAge Ghana is a laudable idea and Sikaman natives must be awakened to their responsibility to the elderly. Those who also handle their pension claims must avoid the unnecessary delays. I remember, my old man had to go up and down for months before he was put on his rightful scale.
Now, instead of wishing our aged mothers, fathers and grand-parents to die so that we can get enough money to drink beer, let us contribute to HelpAge Ghana to get it firmly instituted.
That way when we are lucky to reach the three score and ten mark, we could also benefit from it. No one knows what the future has in store.
Sometime last year, I was privileged to attend a get-together of pensioners of UAC and management staff at the Ambassador Hotel. I am not a pensioner though. It was quite an interesting scene to see old men and women all over chatting animatedly, and reminiscing their good old days.
I was also quite impressed with how some of them attended to the gin, brandy and beer at the reception.
In contrast to this, it is so pathetic to see many old people in the capital of Sikaman begging for money to buy kenkey. They look dirty and unkempt carrying aloft their grey hairs. Let us find a means of helping out these elderly folks so that when our turn comes the good old Lord will have mercy upon us.
This article was first written was on Saturday October 6, 1990
Features
The anxiety of parents
I had a call from my daughter and addressing me in her rather unusual but affectionate way, by my official name as usual, she greeted me and asked about how I was doing and I responded and we exchanged the usual pleasantries.
Then her next statement caused my heart to start pounding. She said “Daddy, I am going out on a date.” This is one of the moments every parent becomes filled with anxiety. It is just like when your adult child comes to tell you that “I have met someone I would like to marry”.
I then started asking about when she met him, how long she had known him etc. Then she said “Daddy, I am just pulling a prank on you” and I heaved a sigh of relief. Every parent will tell you that one of their fears is who their children will marry in future.
Fear of the unknown, is the issue that brings the anxiety. Will this man be a good husband to my daughter? Is there a terrible hereditary disease in his family? What are his parents like and would they be caring in-laws to my daughter etc. etc.
Most parents do not worry too much when their child is a man as opposed to a female child. Furthermore, boys do not bring pregnancy home so if they go out and come home late, parents do not worry too much compared to when Maggie or Agatha or Lucy goes out and comes home late.
Our culture makes it easier for men to opt out of relationships so parents do not worry too much when a male children come to introduce their would-be spouses to them and there is no need to add that spouse here refers to a female, since our culture does not tolerate the insane antisocial behaviour affecting some societies including African ones.
Marriage must be between a male and a female, a man and a woman, as God who instituted and ordained it. The girls fall in love easily compared to the boys who mostly walk into love. I have not conducted a survey but I strongly believe that females suffer from heartbreaks more than males because of their emotional nature.
Another dimension to this anxiety of parents is the issue of mental problems which in some instances can lead to suicidal tendencies. Mental cases resulting from mental breakdowns abound in our communities and the victims are mostly female.
A woman I met while walking with a friend was a victim of a mental breakdown. The friend I was walking with, exchanged pleasantries with the said lady and it was apparent that they knew each other very well.
My friend, after we had parted company with the woman, narrated how her husband was engaged in womanising which compelled the woman to take a revenge on him.
She decided that the best way to also hurt her husband’s feelings was to have an affair with the husband’s driver. The affair became known to the husband and she was divorced. The dress she was wearing and her general appearance when we met her on the street showed clearly that all was not well mentally with her.
It was so sad and as a parent I started praying into the future of my children that they would get the right partners, God-fearing people to marry.
Another anxiety of parents is the character of their children’s life partners. Would they be kind people? Will they be people with bad tempers? Will they be wife beaters?
Domestic abuse is common in our society and you will be surprised at the calibre of the perpetrators. Some are well educated people, nicely dressed, when you meet them in public places you will never suspect that they are wife beaters.
Some are even pastors and yet they ignore the teachings of the Bible and maltreat their spouses. It is not only men who abuse their spouses but some women are abusers as well.
May God grant us and our children the gift of spirit of discernment so our children will make the right choices for us to also endorse.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah