THE BUSINESS OF DYING – AND THE UNPLEASANT POLITICS INVOLVED IN BEING BURIED IN CHRISTIAN GHANA!

In a nation full of Church-going hypocrites, I can think of no fate worse than being finally laid to rest, by those who whiles one was alive, were secretly ill-disposed towards one – and are forced to don mourning clothes, and put up with the nuisance of trudging around the offices of various state institutions, in order to secure the necessary documentation needed to enable them bury one: because of their ties of consanguinity with one. It is the ultimate humiliation and the final indignity suffered by those who are deemed as "failures" by their family clans – because during their lifetime, they committed the unpardonable crime of not accumulating vast fortunes: which would have made them the financial backbone of their extended family.

Since many Ghanaians do not consider the difficult cerebral undertaking, which any really meaningful writing entails, as a worthwhile use of one’s energies and time, it is consequently not a really well-respected occupation, and full-time writers seldom accumulate any wealth: as precious few Ghanaians read in what a writer friend describes as “this land jam-packed with philistines.” As my writing has failed to bring me riches, I decided, years ago, that to avoid the fate reserved for family “failures,” I would donate my body to the Pathology Department of the University of Ghana Medical School – and avoid the humiliation of being mourned by those who would never have lifted a finger to help one, if one had ever been so foolish, as to approach them for some form of assistance, to enable one survive some crisis whiles one was alive. I see no reason why I should give any such individuals the opportunity to show me the ultimate disrespect at the end of my life on this earth.

The question is: Why do so many Ghanaian families treat family members deemed to be” failures” so shabbily, during their lifetime? Surely, we cannot all be successful and wealthy individuals – and is good character not also something to be cherished in a blood-relative, even if that person fails to accumulate any wealth during his or her lifetime? Is it any wonder, then, dear reader, that so many people who lack the strength of character needed to inure one to the ridicule of shallow minds (who despise others simply because they are not “successful people“), end up becoming corrupt individuals, whose lives are underpinned by a “the-end-justifies-the-means” ethos: that ghastly nation-wrecking building-block of corruption, which is responsible for the rampant siphoning-off of state funds, which goes on across our homeland Ghana, on a daily basis? Perhaps one ought to end this piece with a prayer for the souls of all those who, as we speak, are being shown unwarranted disrespect in their death, whiles awaiting their burial – by callous family members who regard them as abject failures they are glad to be finally rid of, for good. One hopes that their souls will enjoy peaceful rest in their final resting places. Hmmm Ghana - eyeasem oo!

PS To those who consider me a "failure" in the family, this is proof-positive that I am indeed a failure: These are pictures of what, in their prosperous eyes, is probably just the shack, which poor old Kofi Thompson is forced to live in: because of extreme poverty, Ghanaian-style!: