Features
Monsieur’s daughter —(Part 4)
By the time he returned to Ghana, David had gained solid financial muscle. With his wife as project director, he established Plant Warehouse, a company which rented out equipment to construction and mining companies.
The head office was in Accra, but most of their equipment were based in Kumasi and Tarkwa. With solid links with firms in Germany, he had no difficulty mobilising equipment, and clients were pleasantly surprised at the range of machines available, and the quality of service.
Although he had become quite wealthy, he kept a low profile, spending most of his free time with his wife and two daughters. In addition to taking good care of his parents and numerous relatives, he did quite a few charitable works in his hometown, Aboso and other parts without drawing attention to himself.
He donated computers and a pick-up truck to the Aboso Senior High School. And of course, he donated books and audio-visual materials for the study of French. He insisted that no publicity whatsoever be given to these donations, apart from the formal handing over to the Regional Education Director.
His two daughters, Abrefi and Adaawa, had more than compensated for the treachery he suffered at the hands of Gladys, the woman with whom he had had that unfortunate false start in life.
Regrettable as that episode was, it had given him the momentum to relaunch his career. He had closed that chapter, as his parents had advised.
Once in a while he was tempted to reflect on the daughter that was quite clearly his, but he stood on the declaration made by his father, that if she was truly his, God would take care of her and she would return to him. So far, there was no sign of her. Well…
After the company was fully established, Adoma stopped participating in management to concentrate on managing the home, and providing effective support to the children.
But she established good rapport with the company’s drivers, technicians and other technical workers. Very often, she would go to the offices to support her husband.
As they were retiring to bed one evening, Adoma raised the issue of their past at Aboso.
‘I sometimes wonder what would have happened to me if you and Gladys had enjoyed a peaceful marriage’.
‘A very handsome young man would have met you, taken you to Germany, raised some capital and returned with you to start a company, and a family. And you would have enjoyed a very peaceful marriage’.
‘And who would that man be’.
‘He would have been called David’. She collapsed with laughter’.
‘I used to wonder whether I did right by leaking information about Gladys to you’.
‘I would certainly have gotten to know. You know the kind of revulsion people feel when a recently married person gets involved in a scandal, especially in a small community like Aboso.
Some of our colleagues knew, and were about to tell me anyway. I would certainly have gotten to know. And I would have taken the same action I took. I certainly didn’t deserve to be treated like that. And as to whether I should have attempted to take Sarah away from her, that woman would have done anything to make my life miserable.
She could have moved her from place to place to prevent me finding her, and she would have refused to cooperate with any agency we reported her to my parents’ advise was the best’.
‘I wonder, though, whether we should make some effort to find out about how she is doing. After all, she is your child. Of course, we should do this very carefully. I don’t think she has forgiven you for leaving her’.
‘I’m sure she hasn’t, but she did it to herself, didn’t she? What was the guarantee that she wouldn’t be seeing him later in our marriage? That kind of behaviour is often repeated. I don’t regret the decision I took, at all.
I would do the same thing today, given the same situation. And don’t forget, you and I were destined to be together as man and wife. It should have happened earlier, but it still happened. Thank you very much for marrying me’.
‘I’m also grateful to you for marrying me. But before you fall asleep, shall we take some careful steps to find out about Sarah?’
‘Yes. You know, I’ve been receiving snippets of information every now and then, but I’ve forgotten to update you. You already know that she’s in JHS three in a school at Koforidua, Research Basic and Junior High.
It’s quite a good school, run by the research institutions in the Eastern Region. She’s doing quite well in class, from what I hear, so hopefully she will qualify for university.
Gladys and Simon are still married, and they have two children, so Sarah will be growing in some kind of decent family situation. I hear though, that all is not going well with Simon’s job, and the marriage is not a very strong one. I hope they are at least managing to take good care of their kids.
I will certainly make a direct effort to contact Sarah after she’s completed JHS. She would be old enough to make a decent choice, and I hope that in spite of whatever feelings she has against me, Gladys will realise the financial advantage of allowing me to take my child’.
‘I’m happy she’s doing well in school. But I hope we can get some inside information on her emotional status. Unstable marriages often have a significant effect on kids, especially stepchildren’.
‘You are right. From what I have learnt, Gladys is the one who runs the show in the house, so I don’t think Simon will get the opportunity to mistreat Sarah. But as I said, I will start sniffing for more information’.
‘We do have to start preparing for the possibility of her joining us here, sooner or later. I’m not talking about material stuff. We can certainly take care of her. But she needs to blend well with her siblings. I’m glad we’ve already told them about her’.
‘Many thanks for that. We should have another discussion with them quite soon. I’m sure we can integrate her smoothly. There may be difficulties, but we will overcome them’.
‘One very final thing, David. Shouldn’t we speak to Lawyer Acheampong, just in case one or two legal issues arise?’
‘Yes! Of course! How come I never thought of that? I will call him first thing tomorrow. I don’t think any such issues may arise, but it will be wise not to take precautions. Thank you, sweetheart’.
By Ekow de Heer
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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