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Big catch – Part 3
Sabina was still fuming with anger when she got home, and her dad noticed and asked. ‘Dad, Tamara did not attend the interview, so I decided to find out why she didn’t, because she told me yesterday. So I went there, and her explanation was that Yooku had offered her a good package to stay on to manage the fishing boat.
Naturally I got angry, and I tried to tell her that I had stayed in that very job for one year without seeing any sign of progress, and I took her there because I thought she would make use of the few coins that fell her way, until something good came.
Now this bank job has dropped, and she says she won’t take it. As I was leaving, I noticed a Toyota car parked at the house, and she said it was a gift from Yooku, in appreciation for her loyalty. You see what’s happening, Dad?’ ‘You mean Yooku has either borrowed it or even come to some arrangement with the owner to use it to convince Tamara to stay on?’ ‘What else could be the explanation, Dad?’ Yooku is certainly a nice person, and I will always be grateful to him for getting us this job. But he can also be very stubborn. I kept telling him that the fishing business will fail, and I advised him to stay in the corporate job for a few years till he was sure of his steps, yet he left and started this so called publishing business with no profit in sight. Dad, I will call him in an hour or two and try to reason with him, to allow Tamara to do what is good for her. Hopefully he will do the right thing’. ‘Great. I think you owe it to your friend Tamara. She needs to get a job to support her parents’.
Yooku and Tamara had just ended a meeting with Ernest Asante, the owner of Ernestos, a ten-branch fast food business, and they had struck an interesting agreement. Yooku would supply a quantity of fish, which would be processed into a variety of products and sold at the ten branches. The company was young, so Yooku would provide the facilities required for the new venture, in return for a twenty per cent share in the business, in addition to a compensation package. The new products would go on the shelves in a month.
Over the course of time, they had drawn closer and spent more time in each other’s company. Yooku decided it was time to discuss his plans for their future. But just before he could start, the phone rang. It was Sabina.
‘Yooku, first of all, I would like to thank you once again for your efforts which have secured me the job. I will never forget it. My parents will also call you to express their gratitude. Unfortunately, I have to express concern about the fact that you are asking Tamara to continue managing the fishing boat, knowing very well that for the whole year that I spent at the harbour, nothing came out of it. My whole time was wasted. So I’m wondering what has changed in these few months to merit asking her not to take up the job. Please, think about her future, and think about her parents who sacrificed to educate her’. ‘Okay, Sabina. I have listened to your sermon for a while, so let me also explain. One of the main reasons why we were not getting any returns from the business was that the crew were stealing the fish. They would stop some distance from the landing bay, sell the bulk of the fish and bring only a small part to us. Many people at the fishing harbour knew this, but they never spoke to you because you hardly interacted with any of them, apart from the occasional greeting. I’m not blaming you for anything, but Tamara is simply a different kind of person.
She established a bond with them the day she started work, and they told her everything that was happening. So the following week, we caught them in the act, and changed the crew. Would you like to come and see our catch and sales records now? I can also tell you, madam, that we have just concluded an agreement with a fast food chain to process part of our catch into a variety of products. I bought Tamara a car, and offered her a generous package.
I am going ahead to give her half of the ownership of the company. So my suggestion is that it is great that you have landed a good job at the bank, but please stop preaching to me and Tamara. We don’t need lessons from you. Both our parents are firmly behind us. As I said, I believe you mean well for Tamara, but your approach is wrong. And let me also say, that I have heard a few things you have said about me, during our relationship and after the breakup. I am not a loser as you said, but I think over the long term. I have not regretted any of the steps I took. Apart from the fishing business, I have started selling some publications in French, and have received some royalty payment. So if you can’t wish me well, stop destroying my name. Goodnight’.
Tamara took Yooku’s hands in hers, and looked into his eyes. ‘You are right she means well for me, but her approach was wrong. And I think she didn’t know you. I always knew you were going to do big things in future. That’s why I joined you at work’. ‘Thank you so much for that. Wow. But are you only going to join me at work?’ ‘What do you mean by that?’ ‘Let me put it simply. We are spending more time with each other every day, and I would like us to do more of that. Would you mind if we took our relationship to another level?’ ‘Why don’t you stop the big English and say exactly what you want to say?’ ‘Tamara, will you marry me?’ ‘Yes, Yooku, I will marry you’.
Ekow de Heer
I have often been saddened by the condition of Sikaman musicians. Of course, some are not musicians. They are jokers who think anybody who can sing a hymn is a musician. And why wouldn’t they think so when people think that every man wearing a rasta hair is a reggae musician?
Well, these days, almost everybody is dreaming of becoming a musician, even some ministers and parliamentarians. And it is never too late for them to begin learning the solfas and composing songs like “If You Do Good You Do For Yourself,” after all, life begins at 60 these days. If you die three years later, that’s your luck.
For the jobless, becoming a musical star is an everyday dream. They think when you are a music maker, you automatically break alliance with poverty. They are often mistaken.
I know people who claim they are musicians but are always fasting not because they are devout moslems or are on a hunger strike, but because even one square meal a day is a perpetual wahala. And the only drink they can afford is the poor man’s holy whisky which has a thousand names including ‘Nyame Bekyere’.
Even most of the popular musicians we see in town claiming they are foreign-based stars are more of hustlers than musicians. When they tell you they are going on tour abroad, it is a careful way of saying they are going overseas to scrub the whiteman’s toilet or pick tomato or apples to save their neck from musical poverty.
When they are back to Sikaman, they appear quite flamboyant with chains hanging all over them. They change the few dollars they have scraped, spread it around and promptly get broke. Then they can organise another ‘tour’. In between tours, they struggle to release an album and that levels them up a bit on the financial balance.
It all points to the fact that the life of the average musician isn’t quite organised. He has no calendar, no programme and no concentration on the job. He has to wash plates, become a waiter, janitor and toilet scrubber while finding time to make music. No musician succeeds in life that way.
One musician I’ll always respect, who thinks deeper than the ordinary Sikaman musicians is Carlos Sakyi. He is not like the Kokoase guitar musicians who see the world just in terms of bitters, a willing girlfriend, constant supply of kokonte and jot.
Carlos, often loved for his percussive overtones in gospel music, and once a gospel-rock star, has studied the life of Sikaman musicians and has evolved a blue-print for a great improvement in their lives work, finances and comfort.
In short, he has simulated a Motown-style environment for musicians and his formula is working with accuracy with the five musicians he has started with. The blue-print is what has brought MEGASTAR into being. It was launched on September 15, 1995 at the National Theatre.
When it got launched, many probably thought Carlos was “too know or was dreaming more than he should and won’t think about himself. Anyhow, the MEGASTAR is now an institution musicians can look up to, a big phenomenon with lots of promise for struggling musicians.
Music business in the developed world is not the way we regard it cheaply here. A musician is never distracted by how his finances go; his contracts are entered, his engagements made, his interviews arranged, his personal security guaranteed.
Music is his business and that is where his mind is and his attention focuses. Other aspects of his life are programmed for him by his managers. They hire who has to light his cigarettes, massage him, drive his car and the one who will say “Good Luck” when he sneezes.
A bodyguard whose face is exactly like that of the devil is hired to scare off muggers, psychopaths and criminals in general. Sometimes his girls are organised for him.
So the only thing the musician does apart from sleeping and snoring is to concentrate on making music, and true to it, no one can succeed in any venture when he is distracted.
This is how the Michael Jacksons, Lionel Richies, Dolly Patons and Whitney Houstons have made it with dollars packed and over-flowing. They aren’t any better than Sikaman musicians. The only difference is that they know how to organise their lives.
I managed to corner Carlos Sakyi and asked him to tell me how MEGASTAR was doing. He is the Managing Director of Megastar Limited, a music company that has a board of directors and a chairman. Carlos Sakyi shares the proprietorship with a partner. Carlos himself was one great musician who played for a band that beat Eddy Grant on the charts.
“Megastar is in fact a concept born out of the idea that the future security of the Ghanaian musician which has always been in jeopardy can now be guaranteed. Artistes spend too much of their time doing things on their own, chasing money and not concentrating on music. So their full potential is never realised. Some are in fact producing at quarter-rate. That is why they aren’t making much headway,” he told me.
“Megastar is now giving them the chance of the lives. We handle the interviews of Megastar artiste, their press releases, costume, engagements and everything they hitherto used to do themselves. We get them exposed on M-Net and we have contacted BB to get on their programmes. We handle their finances pay them salaries and bonuses, so they only have to concentrate on music
“Most importantly,” he continued, “we do not make all the decisions. Management always meet with the musicians to take the decisions that affect them.”
But who are the Megastar musicians? One is the great Amakye Dede, a star from birth delivered onto the earth with music on his lips; he is the man who feeds hungry ears with musical salad and harmonic sausages. He is the recipient of many national awards.
Next is Naana Frimpong, a latter-day Carlos-groomed songbird with the voice of an angel. She sings to kill. Her beauty has charmed her audience and they stare and stare at her.
The sensational and fantalising Tagoe Sisters are the next. The twin music machine is one that has produced the cream, arguably the very best, of gospel music all these years. I hear they are inseparable; not even their better-halves can keep them apart. Are they Siamese? They dance, and when on stage, they move the crowd.
Then comes Reverend Yawson who is a known songwriter. He is imbued with the Holy Spirit, speaks in tongues and of course sings in tongues. He is God’s representative on the group.
What about my good friend and super-heavyweight, Jewel Ackah? He is a star figure. His appearance is awe-inspiring, his voice golden. A great delight to be-hold when at his best in stage-craftsmanship, he has beaten his contemporaries to it both on land and on sea.
They are the pioneers of the Motown idea. They are all releasing new albums this year. Let’s see how it all goes.
In recent years, the term “female rage” has gained significant traction, symbolising a collective shift in how women’s emotions are perceived and addressed.
This phenomenon is not merely a fleeting trend but a profound movement rooted in centuries of systemic injustices, personal betrayals, and societal expectations.
As women increasingly reclaim their anger, it is imperative to understand the multifaceted nature of female rage, its causes, and its implications for individuals and society at large.
The historical context of female anger
Historically, women’s emotions have been subject to dismissal, ridicule, and pathologisation. The term “hysteria,” originating from the Greek word for uterus, was used to describe women’s emotional states as irrational and uncontrollable.
This legacy of silencing and shaming has contributed to a culture where women’s anger is often suppressed or stigmatised.
However, with the rise of feminist movements, women are challenging these narratives, asserting their right to express anger and demand change.
The anatomy of female rage
Female rage is not a monolith; it is a complex and multifaceted emotion driven by various factors, including:
1. Societal expectations: The pressure to conform to traditional roles of passivity, politeness, and emotional labour.
2. Gender inequality and pay gaps: Frustration stemming from systemic discrimination in the workplace and beyond.
3. Sexual harassment and abuse: Trauma and anger resulting from pervasive violence and objectification.
4. Emotional labour and burnout: The unsustainable burden of managing emotions and responsibilities in personal and professional spheres.
5. Hormonal fluctuations: The impact of hormonal changes on emotional states, often overlooked or dismissed.
The power of anger: Reclaiming female rage
Far from being a destructive force, female rage can be a catalyst for change. When acknowledged and channelled constructively, anger can drive advocacy, policy reform, and resistance against inequality.
The #MeToo movement, women’s marches, and increased representation in politics are testaments to the power of collective female anger.
Addressing the Stigma: Towards a more inclusive dialogue
To fully harness the potential of female rage, society must address the stigma surrounding women’s anger. This involves:
1. Validation and recognition: Acknowledging women’s emotions as legitimate and worthy of attention.
2. Creating safe spaces: Providing platforms for women to express anger without fear of backlash.
3. Education and awareness: Challenging stereotypes and promoting understanding of women’s experiences.
4. Support systems: Offering resources and support for women dealing with trauma and systemic injustices.
Conclusion
The age of female rage is a moment of profound transformation, where women’s anger is no longer silenced but celebrated as a force for justice.
By understanding the roots of female rage and addressing the societal structures that fuel it, we can move towards a more equitable and compassionate world.
The journey is complex, but the destination-a society where women’s emotions are respected and their voices are heard is worth the struggle.
References:
[1] Chemudupati, P. (2022). _The Rage of Women: A Historical Perspective_.
[2] Traister, R. (2018). _Good and Mad:
By Robert Ekow Grimond-Thompson
