An Open letter to Shatta Wale

Dear Bandana,

I don’t even know if you still respond to the name Bandana anymore, but I had to use it to make a point, to let you know that, I have been around from when you stepped on the scene with Moko Hoo  till now.

From the time you dropped your first single featuring Tinny, which made waves on the Ghanaian music scene, stopping everyone in their tracks, a lot has happened in-between. You have been in the news for everything but good reasons. You are either caught up in a video smoking weed which is usually not a Hi-grade or insulting Event Organizers and any other perceived entity standing in your way in the full glare of the public.

It is time to focus on the man in the mirror because the only person you hurt is you and your future, as long as your music career is concerned. Nobody will contract a perceived irresponsible icon to be their brand ambassador, which is bound to affect their image and reputation nor support your cause. It is good identifying with the grassroots but isn’t that typical of anyone who is not at the top yet? It is time you look at the bigger picture.

Honestly, Apart from your hard work which is not usually acknowledged by the larger audience, I must say you rose to prominence because of the empathy many of us had on you after your rants and raves at the aftermath of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards. Some of us thought you deserved some acknowledgement to serve as a platform for you to work harder, but I think the little recognition which could be assumed as fame has gotten into your head.

The earlier you realize that you are in a competitive world and playing by the rules of showbiz (show business) the better for you to start pulling your acts together. It is high time you realize that you are in a competitive world with scarce resources where no one will dole their money to manage or produce an ailing and non-performing artiste; an artiste that is so cocooned in his own world without being mindful of the values its society holds dear.

How many people do you expect to buy and play a song that has pussy, suck your morda and other unprintable words in them? How many brands can you become an ambassador for, let alone talk about being a model for the upcoming artistes? 

Maybe, your management is not helping enough, but it is time to build a brand. It is time you build a brand that has the potential of convincing everyone that, you are a work in progress. Many of us believe in your raw talent and hail you as the self-acclaimed Dancehall king that you are, simply because you have paid your dues to the genre. When others were swaying to play other genres, like Afro Pop, Azonto and Alkayida, just because it was what was in vogue and bankable, you remained faithful to the genre.

As much as beefing in showbiz is a thriving force for record boost and sales, your beef with Samini Dagaati, the Music man, is needless and uncalled for. It is probably making you lose sight of the main act which is how to brand and present yourself to the public. Your presentation is very necessary as long as the business part of the show is concerned. 

I know you are in business. I know you need some money to defray your cost, to build a brand and to probably start recording in platinum studios. Fact that, you don’t play your gigs in orphanages and on the street alone shows that you are not in a charitable venture but business. You have to take yourself serious.

It is undisputed that you are now the acclaimed Dancehall king “inna di whole Ghana’ not necessarily because of your hits but fact that, it is all you have known and represented, but you really need to relax and learn one or two things from Samini, who is nationally and internationally known, versatile and appealing on all fronts. Samini has worked with a lot of musicians which eventually has given him an in-depth experience and exposure you can tap from and make it to the very top. Sit back and sift through the comments and opinions of the very masses that will make or break you and tailor your game according to their needs. 

However, I must congratulate you for making it to the levels of Samini. Fact that you are being compared to him on the big stage alone is even a feat you can bank on. It means, the people have recognized your efforts. It means the people are divided on who to support. Do not make Samini your standard, work on the contents of your song, your image and personality as far as the public is concerned and you can become the official poster child for Dancehall in Ghana.

Shatta Wale, we love you for your perseverance, we love you for thriving against all odds. We love you for whipping a renewed enthusiasm in the music industry and for bringing the Dancehall genre to the fore. Once more, we love you for making the music scene vibrant again. Shatta Movement for life!

Your Biggest Fan 

The beauty of writing

I know a lot of people who knew me some two years ago would have noticed an apparent change in me and it is even remarkable how they have not taken the pain to ask or pass a comment on the evolving me, but I reckon they are also working hard to finding a balance between their evolving selves. Perhaps, they don’t have time to spare. Maybe, they just don’t care or I can even die for all they care. We all have our devils to deal with.

Is that hypocrisy or plainly telling me in the face that I can go hug an ECG transformer which is bound to kill me anyway? I doubt if that’s really what the case is, because I probably may have been a part of the deadlock thus making it quite difficult for a few who could have broken through the territorial shield. 

Sometimes, I like to refer to this change in attitude as growth. I feel it is just me trotting ahead of the big run. Yeah, just like you, I also get skeptical, knowing that this big run may never come off, but I don’t give a mind as long as the trot is making me build momentum. It’s good as long as the trot occupies me and leaves me no luxury of time to sit with hands clasped in my lap. That is me growing out of group-think. That is me biding goodbye to playing to the gallery. That is me being practical with this rationality thing.

Shouldn’t things make sense to me?

I haven’t become uptight; I just cracked the code. I just chanced upon the blue print that keeps you busy all night around the round table. I am now privy to the game plan even though it threatens my very existence. I just stopped saying yes, when the answer should be a bold no. I only stopped laughing at your lame jokes. I just stopped dabbling in frivolities even though you think my absurd situation has just worsened. I know you know that, so let’s keep it on the down low.

Well, Check out if I have changed that much? I haven’t been in Church in a while and same applies to school, even though I would give anything to return to both sooner than later.  Never really been scared of death in a while, because all it does is to take my loved ones away from me. I have also taken a particular interest in how money works now, because apart from death, it is the second most factors to have scattered family and friends abroad and also because it can help me make a rippling positive impact on my generation and probably beyond.  It has simply denied us those positive vibes we used to share, but not by any means necessary.  

I haven’t read a book in a while neither have I swum in a while because I dreamt I got drowned.  Do not be too quick to conclude that I’m being superstitious. I call it trusting my instincts. Let’s just say I trust it because it is the only significant other who stays here with me through it all.

Dear Reader, before you start wondering what I’ve been up to lately, with those times and resources, then let just say, I have been finding a continual equilibrium between the old and new  me since it is being run on pilot basis. Talk about the gains and losses, the times and its related experiences and the need to delve into the nothingness; the void.

 All I do is to take a kingly ride through my Utopian alleys and rat-runs. I also like to watch the wind whirl around, while i wait for my time. I just bask in my comfort zone and watch the world go in slow motion while i ride alone in the fast lane. <cackles> I’m over speeding again.

Why do I heed if it doesn’t make sense to me?

Why do I agree if I actually disagree?

Why am I being compelled to keep appearances?

Is the unnecessary interplay between power a means to prove superiority or dominance?

Humph!

Sometimes, unnecessary thoughts such as, would we have made this stride as humanity without democracy, which prescribes the vital few to speak and eat on behalf of the masses? Thoughts like, are we ever going to have a revolutionary sort of a President who would crack the whip and save the gullible and the dying? Did Bandana have to demonstrate that unnecessary drama to be acknowledged and accepted in the Ghanaian Music Industry and beyond? Why are the Officiating Pastors still asking the newlyweds to recite same old epitaph of a wedding vow which becomes an albatross on their necks when they can actually be allowed to say a word or more to express how they actually feel before the trusting congregation? I also wonder what Rick Ross means when he says “I fuck her good”. Yeah, I keep wondering if Rick Ross could actually fuck that well and tell it to the whole world. Progressive, right? 

The aforementioned and other thoughts occupy my mind and leave me no space to even think about productive things. They make life intriguing for me. They make me want to scream. They make me want to get lost. They make me want to have power to at least, stop some of these absurdity and positively so, they make me yearn for enough wisdom to understandably navigate through this labyrinth of a life. 

As long as the fool will still be thirsty in the abundance of water and the rich man’s wealth being the center of attraction in the city, we as a people must face the truth to make life a lot easier for us. If we can stop the charade and come together as a people fighting a common enemy, and as a people synergizing to overcome our overwhelming woes, we would forever remain a hateful lot. We would supple in idiocy by rewarding bootlickers with high economic returns or even social praise. In other words, let us call a spade a spade.

Sometimes the careful and creative stringing of my real or imagined experiences plus the ability to say everything there is to say, just by creating a character makes me write these stuffs. It’s just one of my insane thoughts I would like to table before your sane mind to ponder on.

I have read some beautiful stories in my life and no matter how fictional they were, I was bound to relate to a lot of the scenes in the real world which only leaves me appraising their writing styles. I wonder how they do it so well and easily. To me, it is the flair with which they throw words about, devoid of conventional writing styles and the outstanding oddity is what becomes the icing that gives it that extra oomph which leaves the reader in admiration. It is that edifying moment when you realize that there can be endless possibilities. Even though I really wouldn't know if I was able to captivate your thought and imagination thus far, but without further ado I would like to say I was just practicing a writing style.

Sex, Custom and the Law

Life is hard on all fronts trying to create a peaceful co-existence between fellow humans and to make ends meet, but trying to find balance between our biological needs which is almost a necessity and what should be, according to some group of persons can be more complicating and stressful. 

I have a penchant to sleep with a lot of women everywhere and every time my biological and emotional needs have to be satisfied, so as to create that homeostasis my body needs to function well in this crazy world we continually strive hard to complicate every day, but boy, do I get to make manifest my wild imaginations and desires?  I just bottle them up and I know that pretty shortly, my senses will explode and leave me in many tiny fragments.

Needless to say but, just like each of you reading my thoughts right now, I desire and lust after women almost so well that, it feels like a second nature. The ease and flair with which the underlying pervasive trait comes to the fore is even exhibited well when I meet a lady who likes my style. 

In the not too distant past, one of the singular acts among others that made men manly was having two or more sexual partners designated as wives,  but fast forwarded to now, it is a taboo and in most cases, a violation of the criminal code to have more than one sexual partners and the progress we have made thus far only makes you want to ask for the memo that mandated the smooth transition and initiation of the emasculation process. 

It may be a conservative way to see it, but I believe nothing happens in a vacuum. Everything has antecedents and it would be a fatal mistake if we as a generation, would consciously break part of the chain, probably because it is perceived as the weakest in the link. History, as a summary of antecedents has informed us about times and generations past, which is how come we will also be stringed together in the chain of happenings when our descendants take over from us and if the aforementioned paragraph is justifiable enough, then please, help me list the names of all the great men like King David, King Solomon, Abraham, the Pope and your forefather who all have had more than one woman or sexual partners at one time or the other?

Basically sex is for procreation, so why does it necessarily come with all these warped emotional leanings? Have we complicated the sex idea? Sometimes you realize that it is not even an issue of the number of times we have sex or the unavailability of it as depicted in the situation where the married are almost always cheating on their spouses. This and a lot more factors begs the question”why is it difficult for the married to simply stay with their spouses” since there is that natural pass, according to social norms and other statute laws. We are also told that, married folks are supposed to drink from their wells till they run dry, so what has happened? Issues!

Granted that I was married to just one of the numerous women who could have freely allowed me to do a thing or two with them, I am still very sure that, there would be days where my beautiful wife would decline my call to commune for so many reasons, among which would be tiredness, emotional instability, the need to enjoy serenity, the need to be with one’s self or probably out of sync, coupled with my annoyance and same would have applied too, if I was just picking women at random based on attractiveness, the need to cling and to feel accepted. 

However, no matter high the probability for one out of ten women who could have wanted to have sex with me on days where my ‘wife’ becomes inaccessible, I still guess that, the deal to even have a one-night stand is non-negotiable and a no-go area in our society. it is even funny when She is not ready to have sex or probably sick and indisposed, or may have traveled or all the aforementioned factors may still be applying, but the mere mentioning of something weird, such as that alone is enough to spark the third world war so you probably have to do is to resort to masturbation or praying. E hard o!

How many days, months or years should the willing spouse wait should all these prevailing conditions linger on? I sometimes shudder at what can become of us should our thought processes develop in the direction it is headed to, but I still believe in humanity to find a balance therein.

I always feel myself reveling in a claustrophobic world where I can’t live my life. There is so much limitations and dictations against all odds and in a supposedly liberal world which allows men to have anal sex but other men can’t have one or more sexual partners and it kills me to continually conform to some one time emotionally imbalanced and transient thought of someone’s utopia. Why do I keep fighting between the need to gratify my sexual desires and the need to conform, which is continually conflicting anyway?

Can Science answer how many times a man should or can have sex? I am just being hopeful it does for me to be a lot more hopeful because I know it can also provide the answer to how many sexual partners we are mandated to have. 

How can I forget that a society without highly esteemed laws that are so valued is soon thrown into a state of anarchy, but did we actually pass a law which binds one man to one woman even long after their desire to cohabit, procreate or just mate for the sake of it has ended? Evidently, no one person can satisfy our wants by being everything we have ever wanted in a mate or spouse, so why can’t we allow ourselves to arrange it in such a way that, a man can go for one woman who is blessed with exceptional culinary skills, another one endowed with a great sense of fashion, and the other with great sense of humour and oratory power and another with very delicate and beautiful features like that of an Akuaba doll?

Wouldn’t this make up for what we want rather than the compulsion to stick to one clueless life partner even after the realization that our fore decisions requires a little altering? What happened to the age old wisdom of only fools sticking to their earlier illogical decisions? I know we are living in dangerous times; times when it is easier to say we are all angels than to say we are fools and ill-willed, but why these unnecessary theatrics? 

How long are we going to arraign the numerous men and women before our guilty selves for having consensual sex because some group of people decides to call it scandalous? Ridiculous! So many great men and women have been publicly shamed and chastised regardless of their good deeds and attributes simply for having sex they practically consented to. Such a hopeless situation where those with sin are the first ones to be casting stones at the accused.

How long are we going to look on for homes to be disintegrated just because one fallible man or woman could not maintain a one-time balance between societal ethics or values and their primal biological needs? We move heaven and earth to encourage the not-caught-yet spouse to break away from the sinful other and where do they go, to marry another person and live happily ever after, no?

How about imagining an utopian society where the need to marry one or more wives or keeping other women otherwise known as concubines would be an individual choice based on some conditions rather than a collective one? Alcohol consumption is legal for everyone above eighteen and lower than that threshold in modern and extreme cases but it is not everyone who consumes alcohol so how different would it be when it comes to marriage. It still would be dependent on some factors like handsomeness or beauty, attitude, the ability to take care of multiple partners among others. We claim differences with regards to orientation, bloodlines, and environmental influences and still compel ourselves to do things the same way. Are you not tired of living in a cloned society where diversity and the need to be one’s self is always preached but not adhered to or I am just an incorrigible deviant? 

Dear reader, I hope you are not just yet judging my asking all these rhetoric, when all you can do is to take off a little time of your busy schedule that does not allow you to ask these kind of questions let alone come by answers to help me find answers to my questions and I just may stop indoctrinating those who are probably nodding and siding with my expressed thoughts. 

Alright, enough of the cynicism. I am sure the need to marry and stick to the one-man-one-spouse project is to create a just world where one’s partner would be the most beautiful thing that has ever beheld their eyes and also become the panacea to their numerous relationship and sexual needs. These spouses would always be there for and with us where bonds of varying degrees would be formed which we also refer to as, over-dependence. They would be everything ranging from that hairy-chested man who dresses to kill and at the same time, the most God-fearing person you have ever known. They would also be that hard working guy who would also have time to spare walking you through the park and still have time to work out their six-pack and tone up like the Vitruvian man. 

The question however is, is the one-man-one-spouse program working? Do we have that trouble-free and just world full of lovers who understands the very purpose of their being together? Sex can pass for one of the many causes that have killed men the most yet it is always met with closed-lips, uncanny attitude and funny postures.

Personally, I don’t cheat when I’m in a relationship which is almost all the time because I try to always make it up to them by playing the role they offer me in their lives. What I do is to protect their feelings by dishing out the right cards while holding the ace close to my heart. Yes, I do not cheat in a relationship; rather, I find myself sinning against God. If my religious inclination is still something to go by, then it is God, who has asked us not to fornicate or commit adultery, which I should be answerable to when it comes to the sexual institution and its related escapades. He is the one I have been ignorantly outsmarting, not my woman and I hope you got that? 

Mandating people to vow to keep to a spouse before all men or swearing the oath of celibacy, while keeping (other) women at the blind side of society is just not cool and smacks of hypocrisy. Even though I stand to be corrected, I think people should not be compelled to tow such hard lines which leave them scathed and insane. In other words and against the backdrop of all that has happened in the name of sex, we have to erode all the regressive and stifling laws or make some exemptions to allow responsible and capable people to satisfy their elevated animal instincts.

.

Youthology 101

A typical day in the ghetto

 Karl Kani, FUBU, ECKO, School of Hardknocks

We don’t care if they are original or rip-offs

Baggy cocaine jeans, waist sized forty-eight

Wild graffiti tees, XXXL standards, sosket!

Timberland boots, Nike Shock X, Dada Supreme

Gangsta grills, bling blinging, shining as bright as the sun

LED infused belts, nicknames crawling across

Multi colored sunglasses, we call them stunnas

Big pockets, small wallets, no dough, big swag

Gangsta walks, sometimes we fly to the moon

Techy gadgets, ipods, Playstations, jukeboxes

MTV, BET, Channel O induced, we nod to every tune

Gangsta rap, Westside Connection, Southern Flair

Gangsta talk, we speak street English

Got loads of baby mamas, players’ playa

The club bangers, the nocturnal beings, pot smoking, ganja extremists

Porn, action flicks, gangsta movies, you name them.

Wild hairdos, corn roll, dreadlocks, old school afro

The 9mm, The Smith & Wesson’s, The P89s, the Uzis, The Pump actions, The AKs

Geared up, ready for action, smoke a sonofab**ch out

We’ve got the block covered; we got each other’s back

To you it’s the streets, to you it’s the projects, to you it’s the Ghetto

To us it’s our home, our lair, our territory

Born and raised on the streets, the streets speak to us.

You call us misfits, deviants, bastards and other unwholesome names

To us, we are the product of neglect, tough nuts to crack, vigilantes, street-sweepers, assassins and marauders.

We are like the bile attached to the kidney; you need to remove us with great care.

When you go on your knees at night to pray; say a prayer for us

When our lives are taken in broad day lights, dead ends, police swoops, gangsta rivalry and robbery

We will have our fulfilled rest in gangstas paradise.

Where we will be singing hymns and lighting up the chalice.

- Qouphy Appiah Obirikorang, 2011.

(Youthology 101, is the first guest post to be featured on MYNAH blog. The writer who doesn't write much lately, happens to be one of the writer's writer around. Just watch out for his upcoming write-ups)

Feature: What is an all-Inclusive government?

"Africa doesn't need Strongmen, it needs Strong Institutions" - Barack Hussein Obama

There has been many calls from different political divides and some identified opinion leaders, all

proposing an all-inclusive government, to do away with the winner takes all governance that has characterized our fledgling democracy since its inception in 1992. The call to commune however, does not sit well with some of us because the timing of the call is misplaced. Simply, an

What is an all-inclusive government when Ghana is always run by an all Ghanaian leaders who are either elected or appointed to post? 

The politician, by his cunning nature will do everything within his means and power to win or amass anything that belongs to the people or where the booty eludes him, he will try to at least have a portion of what the other is enjoying. It is rightfully so, because Politics has become an economic or a commercial venture in which you invest monies, with 98% surety of recouping it, simply because, it has proven to be profitable over the years.

As a political animal who cannot escape my descent, I have keenly observed politics in our dear nation, Ghana, and I have realized that, all we practice here is Politics of Convenience. We do not really love our Country as we profess to and our posture is just a facade. We shift goalposts to assuage for our loss or to still be relevant in the political terrain. Even though, the onus of governance currently lies in the bosom of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), there is no gainsaying that, only two successive governments, represented by the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have taken turns to rule our dear nation, Ghana, for eight (8) years each in the past. 

We can’t rule out the possibilities the supposedly all-inclusive governance can reap for the nation, but how sure, are we that, the two opposing parties can work coherently to achieve the objectives of ensuring the welfare of our citizenry and the nation as a whole? Who then plays the role of checks and balances on the governing team?

Aside the over-arching constitution, we don’t even have national policies to guide the government of the day, so how are we going to go about the inclusion exercise? Are we just going to look around and call up members of the opposing political parties who can play ball or each party would be mandated to present a quorum to be integrated into the governing team?

Methinks it is another strategy to team up to rip our already touted lean coffers apart, thus denying the electorates what is due them. We all know that, the only bill that gets passed quickly in Parliament is the one that has to do with monies due our Parliamentarians, and that is an all-inclusive governance right there, so just do the math and tell me how our monies will be spent, should the all inclusive government be promulgated. 

Our Constitution clearly endorses a multiplicity of political parties in which the emergent Presidential hopeful forms his government, regardless of whether he obtained the right number of Parliamentarians or not. The system further gives him the right to appoint Ministers and their deputies from all over Ghana, especially those who made it to Parliament regardless of their party affiliation, so which all-inclusive government are we talking about?

Shouldn't we rather be consulting our Constitution which would help us put up strong structures to ensure that, the right persons are appointed by the President to work for us, rather than calling for an all-inclusive government that is already in place?

Since these calls started, prior to the election petition judgement, I thought the proponents of this all-inclusive government were making such calls just to massage the ego of the emergent loser or to bring about peace, but the incessancy of the calls from people who should know better has made it a worrying development which might not augur well for us as a Country.

To begin with, we were all Ghanaians until we decided to break up into different political parties, driven by our varied ideologies which is borne out of religious, Social and economic leanings. Then through the successive days, the individual and the political parties keep evolving through reforms which are dictated by the changing times, yet we still find it convenient being with our parties, because they embody our ideals. We also do this tenaciously because we believe in their governing know-how, so why would we cry wolf if our parties lose?

Just as I don’t expect to see or hear Chelsea Football Club soliciting for some of their players to be integrated into the Glorious Manchester United’s team to have a feel of what glory tastes like, simply because they have consistently won the European Premier League, I don’t expect to see any Political Party making such calls to their opponents either.

Being a good businessman among other things, includes your acumen to foresee what can befall your business and plan strategies to forestall negative occurrences, so I think failure on the part of an individual to see that s/he is not in a winning team should also be something the individual should dearly suffer for. Plainly, if you know or think that you have something to offer this Country, join the winning team to wrestle power and bring your know-how to bear or you sit and bid your time. You can still help from the fringes by suggesting to the government of the day, what should be done or where the government deserves some bashing, you give it to them constructively. 

After all, no one dines with their supposed enemy, because, that is what it is, per the governance in this country, as demonstrated over the years by both parties being at extreme ends of the pole. Any party which wins power is already an all-inclusive government because it is made up of diverse people with diverse backgrounds from every nook and cranny of our nation - so wherein lies the merit of the clarion call? 

Political Parties even in opposition, always have a government in place by appointing shadow Ministers et al; so, I think the call is just another ploy by the Politician to fleece us of our scanty resources.

Conversely, calling industrious Citizens who have a proven track record to join the government to help build the nation is welcomed but not the en masse integration of other party members who do not even believe in the ideals of the government of the day to start with and there is still an issue of trust. You may be finding ways to bring solidarity between your enemy and you, but trusting them with your business will be a tad stretching the already stretched lines.

While still pursuing our selfish ends through democracy, where only a few people create, share and loot at the expense of the populace, let us not lose sight of the fact that, Ghana is already practicing the all-inclusive governance as evidenced by the various representations from the Political parties in our Parliamentary system, so let us not push our luck further, because we might proverbially pooh like the lizard.