Features
MAAME AMA’S COFFEE SHOP
Many friends have preferences for different foods depending on the times they become free to feed themselves or when they feel hungry and wish to consume some amount of food to get more energy for their work.
In terms of food preference, kenkey, banku, ampesi, rice, yam and others may be made available to food consumers. However, in early times of the day some people prefer to take in coffee before consuming other kinds of food.
This is what made Maame Ama’s coffee shop popular and widespread. The coffee shop is located at a place close to a taxi rank at Abeka Lapaz. The location made it easy for many people to be attracted to the shop even for those whose preference may not be for coffee but for something else.
Customer service
The truth of the matter is that Maame Ama was well versed in customer service and will do anything she can to attract any visitor to her shop. In spite of the description of her place as a coffee shop, she was involved in selling all kinds of food namely red-red, kenkey and others.
Thus, the coffee shop was a place of a kind that dealt with all kinds of foodstuff. About three months ago, one man, attracted by Maame Ama’s pleasant behaviour, went to her shop to buy coffee and ended up taking in more than necessary to his discomfort. Since his stomach was empty except the coffee which he took, he began to feel very uncomfortable and so asked for kenkey which could make him heavy for the morning.
“Heavy food man”
In the course of eating the kenkey he began to throw up, soiling his clothes and, in a way, embarassed himself since there were some ladies around. The truth of the matter is that he was not a “coffee man” but rather a “heavy food man”, meaning that he was the type who was used to taking in heavy meals rather than light ones like coffee.
It means that we should not force ourselves at any time to take in things that do not match our taste simply because we want to please someone.
The young man concerned here is Abubakar whose behaviour in this direction is very common though not good for his personality. Instead of standing for what he prefers Abubakar would be easily influenced by people especially pretty young women just to satisfy them.
“Do you take okro?” a friend asked him one day at a food joint at Kasoa. “Yes, I do”, Abubakar replied even though he was not used to taking okro soup. On that occasion, too, Abubakar started vomiting the content of what he took after a few minutes to the disappointment of his friend who took him there.
The truth of the matter is that we need to be bold enough to insist on our preferences rather than taking in things we may not like just because we want to please other people.
Here the lesson in life is that we should always be prepared to do what is acceptable to us rather than “killing” ourselves as sacrificial lambs to please others.
Hard liquor
This behaviour put up by Abubakar appears to be a trend in his family. One of his siblings, Joseph Dabo, underwent a similar experience about a year ago when he also decided to consume about half a bottle of hard liquor known locally as “Akpeteshi”. Joseph Dabo pretended he had great capacity for the local liquor. After consuming about three glasses with others who were with him, he fell and collapsed. Here again, three of his friends who went with him had to carry him home after anxiously pouring water on him several times to revive him.
On waking up, Joseph Dabo realised that he had nearly destroyed himself with the local gin. He was advised to keep away from “Akpeteshi” from that day, an advice he obediently kept to himself until another time when he decided to take in three bottles of Beer mixed with Guinness together with some friends who had greater capacity for such things.
Loss of fiancée
But going back to Maame Ama’s coffee shop, Abubakar who had vomited at the shop was also carried away home and made to take his bath. This behaviour caused him to lose his fiancée known as Namoale. Namoale is a very pretty lady who lived and behaved in accordance with her name. Her name in Ga means “who knows tomorrow”.
She was influenced, many people believed, by the meaning of her name. Having tolerated Abubakar for two years for his ugly and unacceptable behaviour, she became fed up and decided to stop the relationship and move on with her life even though she did not find it easy to do so since she was in great love with Abubakar. After leaving Abubakar, Namoale concentrated on her petty trading for nearly a year when a young man about two years older than her, met her and expressed interest in her.
The young man took her to Maame Ama’s coffee shop from time to time. The two would usually go for beverages like coffee or porridge and top them up with some other food. They go there at weekends when each of them is free from work.
Made for each other
The two partners appeared to have been made for each other, fighting hard and jealously to protect the interest of the other. It, therefore, came as no surprise when two years after they had met, they decided to unite in marriage. They were not very religious, but their lifestyle was pleasant. This also raised another question on the lips of their neighbours that whether it is religion that influences people’s morality, or whether it is the moral nature of people that results in good behaviour.
Unpleasant behaviour
Various opinions can be expressed on this issue. However, one thing that is clear is that by nature a person should be morally upright in order to find him or herself attracted and acceptable to others. Being religious is good but if the religiousness of a person who is by nature immoral, makes him or her put up unpleasant behaviour then such persons will not be found to behave well in society even if they live with the Pope in Rome.
The point being made is that keeping to the tenets of religion such as Christianity, Islam or any other religion may be good, but the moral nature of the person concerned is equally important. In certain parts of the country, many religious people can be found all over yet it is difficult to understand why at the least provocation they engage in fighting even though they are generally inter-related as a people.
Everyone concerned should be morally upright and be involved in the fight against squalor and deprivation but not engage in things that may lead to the destruction of life and property.
Good example to everyone
Maame Ama’s coffee shop should serve as a good example to everyone. Being a polite and well-trained person, Maame Ama had shown the world that you can attract all kinds of people to your shop if you exhibit an open heart and also demonstrate that you are prepared to move with everyone irrespective of where they come from. Our society must learn from this to make the country peaceful and attractive to all.
The coffee shop owned by Maame Ama is comparable to an island of good behaviour in a world of
confusion but it is never too late for everyone to change and follow Maame Ama’s behaviour so that
together, Ghana can become a great country to the glory of God.
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
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
