Features
Waakye Girl – Part 2
It was another Friday night at the Executive Tavern, where a young group of graduates and businessmen who had started climbing the corporate and business ladder gather to make contacts, drink beer, link up with girls and mostly, show off.
After three weeks on tour in the regions with the Inspection Team of the bank’s Accounts Department, Aperkeh had joined his three friends – Kwabena, Edusei and Charles, had just met as they did every Friday.
‘So folks, how have things been? Any interesting office news, and any new girls?’ ‘On my part, nothing new,’ Charles said. ‘I’m still eyeing that girl at Procurement, but she’s not showing any interest. She gives only short replies to my questions, and hardly smiles back.
I will give her another two weeks, then I will forget her. She’s really sexy but she could also be very boring’.
‘She’s boring because you can’t get her? Why don’t you look at your approach, your style? Maybe she finds you boring so far? Do a little investigation, find out what her interests are. Talk to one of her close friends. You will get one or two useful tips’.
‘My brother, as for me, I don’t have time for CIA work o. If the girl is boring, I will just move on and try my luck elsewhere. There’s another girl in the same department. I will start looking her way. If this one doesn’t improve I will simply move over’.
‘I’m with you, bro’, Kwabena said. ‘Life is too short. At this stage in our lives we should be looking at the market, trying a few potentials and eventually making a selection. No need to waste time on one boring girl’.
‘Hey, Aperkeh’, Edusei started, how is Waakye Girl? What’s the plan?’
‘No change in plan. She’s still there. I will keep her for as long as I find it convenient, then I will drop her. I think I was a little hasty in moving her into my place. She’s certainly good-looking, and very helpful.
My parents kept asking me to bring her in because she’s from our town and all that, even if I was not going to marry her immediately, and her parents did not object when she started spending time with me. But I should not have moved her in.
She knows now that I have no plans of marrying her. In only a matter of time she will find her way out.’
‘But Aperkeh, shouldn’t you be a little careful there? She’s a beautiful girl, and she’s virtually living with you as your wife, cooking for you, keeping the house clean and doing all that a wife does? Would it be so easy pushing her out, especially when you are from the same town and your parents know each other? And what if she gets pregnant?’
‘I have thought about all that. But I’ve made my decision. I won’t marry her. The earlier she sees the light and moves on, the better for her. I won’t waste much sleep on this. Her parents and my parents will not be pleased, but what can they do? Listen, I have already located another curvy, elegant, pretty girl.
I gave her a lift just before I went on inspection. You guys will meet her in a few days. So forget Waakye Girl. Her time has passed’.
‘I think it’s okay if you decide to leave her and move on’, Charles said, ‘but don’t keep things hanging for too long. Some parents can make things difficult if they believe you have used their daughter and dumped her, especially in this case where the girl is not a street girl, as you yourself have said. Leave her and be done with her.
She and her parents will not like it but they will get over it. And don’t forget, a fine girl like that will get another guy chasing her in no time’.
‘Where will she get a handsome graduate with a great future like me? Somebody will certainly grab her and give her four kids in four years, but she won’t get very far. Look, why don’t we change the subject? I’m not really comfortable with this’
It was Monday morning.
David stopped the car and walked to buy waakye for himself and three others at the office. Stella served him and moved towards his car.
‘Good to see you again, Stella. I hope your weekend was okay’. ‘Well … I will call you when we close from here. How was your weekend?’
‘My weekend was fine. I will be expecting your call.’
‘Hi David. Sorry if I keep bothering you with my issues, but I appreciate the sympathy you have shown. The weekend was not great, at all. A girl came to the house to ask for my, er boyfriend, and when I asked her why she wanted to see him she said it was not my business, so I said I would not allow her to see him.
Eventually, he heard us exchanging words, so he came over and went to the entrance to speak to her, and I saw him giving her some money.
I had made up my mind to ask him why a girl should come to the house to ask for him, and also why he gave her money. But to my surprise he issued a stern warning that he’s not married to me, and I have no right to prevent him from seeing anyone. So I asked him what he thought of me, and what role he thought I was playing, living with him, and he replied that if I had any intelligence I would not ask him such a silly question. I have never felt so humiliated in my life. I have just given myself away to a man who has absolutely no respect for me.’
‘Stella, listen to me. You have done absolutely no wrong. Given the attention he was giving you, and the encouragement and even pressure from your parents, any young girl would have made that decision.
He’s from the same town, he’s a graduate, and he said all the right things. Fortunately, there’s more than enough time to change things round.
Don’t engage in any more confrontations with him. As soon as possible, if possible today, go and tell your parents what is happening.
Let them know the situation, and state emphatically that it is clear the guy has no plans for you, and wants you out, so you are moving out. If they insist on your staying, tell them you will go and rent a place to live in.’
‘Thank you David. Thank you very much. I will do that, today. I hope I can continue to call you.’
Of course you can. In fact, we can meet sometimes, even though I won’t advise it until this problem is solved. But I’m sure all will be well very soon.
Features
A focus on Mr Edmund Armar
Happy New Year to you all! Today, I am back with my narration of personalities and their accomplishments as members of the Ghanaian Diaspora in Finland with a focus on Mr Edmund Armar.
Mr Armar, affectionately called ‘Eddie’ by his peers, is a well-respected senior member of the Ghanaian community in Finland.
He moved to Finland in the early 1990s. He has lived in other places in Finland but now lives in Vantaa, a part of the greater Helsinki region.
Accomplishments and honours
It is important to recount accomplishments as part of the success stories of the personalities of Ghanaian descent in Finland to highlight their exploits both within the Ghanaian migrant community and in the wider Finnish society.
Mr Armar has been an active member of the Ghana Union Finland, which is a non-governmental organisation for the Ghanaian migrant community in Finland. He is always present at events organised by the Union and contributes to the various activities at such events.
Mr Armar has other accomplishments. He is the proud father of an adult (18 year-old) son.
Other unique characteristics
Mr Armar is a Ga from Accra. It may interest you to know that Mr Armar’s maternal lineage is traced from the royal family of the Ga Mantse. His late mother is a direct descendant of King Tackie Tawiah III.
On his paternal side, Mr Armar’s late grandfather was an astute and prominent businessman who also lived and was well-known in Calabar, Nigeria. Mr Armar also comes from a well-known family of educated elites. One of his uncles was a well-known mathematician who co-authored maths books used for schools in Ghana, approved by Ghana’s education services in the 1970s and 1980s as mathematics textbooks in schools.
Recently, I got to know that Mr Armar was a school mate of former Vice President, Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, whom he affectionately called Mahamudu.
They both attended Sakasaka Primary School, where Mrs Benefo served as the headmistress.
Working life in Finland
Mr Edmund Armar has worked in various companies in Finland. He currently works with the Post group, Finland Posti, where he has been for many years now.
He has risen to a high rank at his workplace and has helped others to find jobs at that place and others elsewhere.
His role in the Ghanaian community
As I have mentioned already, Mr Edmund Armar has been very active in the Ghanaian community. He is still very active in the Ghana Union Finland and other smaller Ghanaian associations.
Apart from being an active member of the Ghana Union Finland, Mr Armar was once an executive member of the Brong Ahafo Association.
He has been a counsellor and mentor who has guided many young Ghanaian migrants on their career paths and has also been part of helping them to settle in Finland.
Mr Armar lives in Helsinki with his teenage son, after the demise of his wife about nine years ago.
Dear readers, once again, a very happy new year to you all. Expect more of such interesting stories about people of Ghanaian descent in Finland, about Ghana immigrant groups/associations and their accomplishments in the Finnish society in my subsequent narrations. Thank you!
GHANA MATTERS column appears fortnightly. Written in simple, layman’s terms, it concentrates on matters about Ghana and beyond. It focuses on everyday life issues relating to the social, cultural, economic, religious, political, health, sports, youth, gender, etc. It strives to remind us all that Ghana comes first. The column also takes a candid look at the meanings and repercussions of our actions, especially those things we take for granted or even ignore. There are key Ghanaian values we should uphold rather than disregard with impunity. We should not overlook the obvious. We need to search for the hidden or deeply embedded values and try to project them.
perpetual.crentsil@ yahoo.com
By Perpetual Crentsil
Features
Prostitution in Sikaman (Final Part)
Behind any successful prostitution venture is a pimp. A pimp is the official public relations officer of a prostitute. He manages the prostitute, supplies clients, organises the trade to maximise profits from which he earns an income. Occasion- ally, he demands a sexual treat and he is not denied. That is his bush allowance.
Prostitutes hire pimps because the trade is a precarious one. You have men who want hot sex on credit basis. They complete the act, get satisfied, and pretend they have no cash on them, so payment be deferred.
But sex as a commodity cannot be compared with a ball of kenkey which can be credited on a carry-forward basis. So the prostitute informs her pimp to make the customer pay or face an Osama Bin Laden revolutionary action. The pimp, there- fore, has a dual role, one of which is that he is a debt collector.
The collection of debt from a client can sometimes require macho, so the typical pimp is hard-shelled akupa who may not be too intelligent, but has muscle. He can deliver a punch and cause internal bleeding.
So he tells the defaulting client to pay up or save his shoes and shirt and collect them back if he comes to settle. No court case!
Sometimes, the customer cannot accept the terms which include walking home barefoot and half-naked, so he must fight his way out, in the process he can lose an ear, his front teeth and end up in the home with a swollen nose. It’s all part of life.
In Sikaman, most prostitutes do without pimps. They consider pimps as parasites who batten on the income they derive from strenuous work. Fact is that some clients are not normal in terms of the size of their equipment. They can cause collateral damage to the reproductive organs of the human female.
Prostitutes who do without pimps are experts in street-fighting because they face problems when it comes to handling cheating clients. A client requires three rounds and it is granted. Later he says he can only pay for one. Wallahi!
The typical street prostitute develops long finger-nail, in case it comes to teaching a client where power lies. She can scratch your face red and fix a finger-nail into your eye. When you get home, you’re likely to tell your wife that you’ve got Yes, Apollo in one eye!
Servicing a client can take different forms depending on the type of prostitute and caliber of the client. Some do not like fore-play. It wastes time and is bad for business. So they get you on and order start work. They have subtle ways out of making you climax quickly. You settle your fee and make way for someone else. No messing up. No messing up. No extra time. Clients who delay in reaching orgasm are advised in their own interest to “come quickly” or get thrown off.
Clients who want romance pay more. Those who wear condoms pay relatively less than those who want to go ‘raw.’ It all depends on choice. There are some who are prepared to risk AIDS to get sexually satisfied. And they’d tell you, “All die be die.”
The trade in sexual acrobatics and gymnastics is having its toll on Sikaman prostitutes. Prostitutes are getting skin cancer because they use dangerous chemicals agents to bleach the skin. Others get syphilis, gonorrhea and herpes simplex.
By far, the most devastating impact on the flesh trade is the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) which causes AIDS. Go to Korle Bu and you’ll find them there. Some have had a stint in La Cote d’Ivoire and come back to Ghana to do some part time distribution of the virus.
Prostitution in Sikaman is becoming a death trade because it is an enterprise that flourishes underground. If it can be legalised and brought to the surface where prostitutes can be educated on the health implications of their trade, it would do the country a lot of good.
This is being done in Namibia where 23 per cent of adults are HIV infected. They are about to get prostitution legalised to help combat the AIDS menace.
Prostitution is an evil trade. But anyone can imagine what will happen if there were no prostitutes. Rapists would abound and the incidence of sexual attacks and defilement will sky-rocket. Many men who would otherwise have been raping women are making do with prostitutes.
I guess to legalise prostitution would raise problems bordering in the moral psyche of the nation. But its practical significance can also not be discounted.
This article was first published on Saturday, February 10, 2001
