Devils in waiting

Asare Konadu

Description

A beautiful account of the strange and rather exotic cultural and social struggle of a man and a woman to fulfill a destiny in man's ceaseless struggle for survival in a world of conflict, passion, lust, love and piracy at its crudest heights. A presentation in situational development.

Sujets

• West Africa
• Ghana

Informations

• Publié par: Adaex Educational
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• EAN13: 9789988573805
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

DEVILS IN WAITING

ADAEX PAPER BACK

Devils In Waiting

Asare Konadu

ADAEX EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS LIMITED 2R McCARTHY HILL P. O. BOX AO 252 ACCRA

© 2021 Adaex Educational Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the author.

ISBN: 978-9988-573-80-5

First published 1990 by Anowuo Educational Publications

This edition published 2021 by Adaex Educational Publications Ltd. Accra Oïce: Weija, H18/162–163 O Accra – Winneba Road. P. O. Box AO 252, Accra, Ghana – West Africa. Tel.: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Website: www.adaexpubs.com

Regional Oïces: Monrovia, Freetown

Typeset in Ghana by Frank Publishing Ltd. P. O. Box MB.414, Accra.

TO AKOSUA PINAMAN whose heart is a little larger than her îst.

CHAPTER ONE

Chapter One

In those days, it was easier for a young woman to catch the eye of a young man by wriggling her body from side to side as she walked. Or by tightening her middle lappa over her blouse so that when she walked, everything behind her stood like yam mounds. Life was not so diïcult and men were able to choose and keep more than one wife. And a married woman could go on using her maiden name and be referred to as Auntie. The law, too, was exible about this, and while everyone complained about polygamous marriages, people refused to listen to married women who wanted to have complete monopoly over their husbands. To become a chief in those days, too, was looked upon as a great honour. The stools were not for sale and their occupants were the true sons of the founders of the land. And the female members of the royal clans were not for sale either, for the stool elders looked up to them to

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Devil in Waiting

supply the men required to occupy the stools and they were married when young, while at their best point in fertility, to young energetic men who, like drones in bee hives, could help them produce heirs to the stools. So when Akua Juliana Nyarko, a member of the royal Kenyasi Asona clan started to walk the wriggling walk, every one at Kenyasi visualised her hopes and desires and started a whispering campaign that she was in dire need of a man. But they were wrong. She wanted no man, and marriage, indeed, did not form part of her plans. In short, she wanted to become a member of the Women’s Council of State Monopolies, which was the highest women’s assembly in the area. And to seek a short cut to prosperity which she was soon to discover, like the domo mushroom did not grow on tarmacs. She stood a little over îve feet nine and had in every way all the qualities that many men demanded to grace their home — posture, big eyes, blonde thick hair, smooth blemishless skin and a good voice.

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Chapter One

Although her education was only up to class three in those days or stage three in these times, she thought she was educated suïciently to become a leader of the women’s group and, therefore, entitle to a seat on the ruling council. Her plans to achieve that status were many. They included character assassination, back-biting, bribery, gossip, false pretences, hypocrisy, îghting, talking at the highest pitch of her voice and above all, blackmail. If all these failed, she was prepared to use her body. Hadn’t she heard the leader say that when persuasion failed, use force? Yes, force but not the way the leader talked about. No. Use of force or her body for that matter was to make sure she could get to places where she could not get to under normal circumstances, to pursue her political aims. And that at times might include forcing, by marriage, her way into societies and groups where her qualiîcation as a post stage three student would not have allowed her. And here again her plans were many. They

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Devil in Waiting

included using her place in the church, in the singing band, nwonkoro group, her membership of Onua Fekuw and tribal aïnity. She could not write. Her knowledge of English as a language had passed the patios standard and although she could take part in conversations in English, she had to choose her words slowly and carefully. This achievement again had its beginning in circumstances shrouded in all sorts of mysterious stories. Prominent among them was one that she was arrested trying to enter an army barracks, dressed as a man. In addition was her numerous association with men outside the tribe, all of whom she eventually jilted under mysterious circumstances. About writing, the best she could do was to laboriously write “Juliana Akua Nyarko” which was her full name. But she found out that on many occasions, what was demanded of her was not her full name but her signature which she learnt to scribble fast and neat but unable to decipher when required to do so. She could not cry over that now. No, it was too late. At

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Chapter One

thirty-îve, she had realised that there were certain things one should have done early in life; like the worm, she had waited too long for a pair of eyes which never sprouted and she had to go through life without light. It was simply too late.And how she wished she had listened to her father who insisted that, Nyarko should go to school. Her mother was the cause of their present predicament, for she had insisted that she should discontinue school and stay at home to help her, for as she put it, “the place of a woman is in the kitchen”. If her mother were alive now, she would have told her the harm that she had done her. But she died before she was îfteen years old. “Well, there is a way out,” she thought. Instead of standing for election as secretary, she always went for the post treasurer in all her groups. Always she won and because the societies also had the oïce of înancial secretary, her main duty was to ensure that the money check was correct physically. She was happy to leave the accounting details which demanded

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Devil in Waiting

writing to the to the înancial secretary. I îrst met her at a cocktail party given by the Kenyasi Ladies Club at Ashanti Newtown. What was I doing among women, you are bound to ask. Well I was there as the reporter for the News Agency. We reporters enjoyed these parties because it was one occasion when we drank and ate a lot but worked very little. Speeches were short and rambled around progress of the society, its aims and objectives. I had earlier visited the president of the society in her oïce where she worked as a Town Planner and interviewed her on those points. So that at the party, I had a lot of time to meet and chat with the personalties. I was standing with my back to the door and chatting happily with an old friend when someone touched my shoulder. I turned. “Come Jack,” he said simply. This was Amofa, another reporter. I knew he was gate crashing because it was to me that the news editor had given the oïcial invitation. “Excuse me,” I told my friend.

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