Short Story: THE THIEF OF THE NIGHT

This story is based on the poem "THE THIEF OF THE NIGHT". Click  goo.gl/LRyVZa to download the poem

TO begin with, Asare was a weird fellow; there is no doubt about it. He had only one friend who was also as weird as him; there is also no doubt about that too. The only doubt people had about him (Asare) was whether he was human or ghost.

People asked this question because he built his house at the graveside and was in the habit of visiting the cemetery at night placing roses on every tomb he saw. People used to say they saw him talking to “unseen” spirits and perhaps that was where he belonged. I used to think so till the ghost in the graves decided to return his visits.

The spirits visited him on the eve of Christmas, with the view of celebrating the festivity with him. He was the only friend they had, he had been bringing them roses and had been telling those stories about how nice ghost were. They didn’t inform him of their intended visit; no, not at all, they wanted it to be a surprise; something that will make him happy.

So as usual, after he had come to visit them and brought them roses he left. On the entrance of the graveyard he blew them a kiss and said “See you soon”. Immediately he turned his back to the road, he heard a reply “See you soon”. He turned to see if he could find the person who responded but quickly assured himself “Oh, it’s just an echo, let me get to the house.”

Surprisingly on that day, no matter how hard he tried, sleep still eluded him. It was as if they had become arch-enemies. As he was lying on his bed, he heard leaves fall from the tree he had planted in front of his door. Due to his insomnia, he decided to take a walk around his house. He wore his shirt and put on a Knickerbocker shorts but as he was about to open the door, he saw a shadow pass by his window and he instantly became afraid. He leapt on his bed and covered himself with his blanket.

“Who are you, show yourself before I kill you. I have a gun, it’s in my wardrobe!”  He screamed. The reply was a ghastly laughter and a rogue response “Why would you even think of killing your friends?”

“Gyamfi, its 1 o’clock mid-night! Go home and come in the morning. What happened to your voice?”

“It’s not Gyamfi. It’s your friends from the graves”

“Stop this nonsense and go home” Before he could say more, the door had opened and there stood a monster; he was lanky and had no flesh on him, he had only three teeth and they looked as if they had divorced their brush. He wore ragged of clothes and had this ghastly smell which nearly choked Asare.

“Asare, aren’t you happy to see me? We came to celebrate the Christmas with you?” he greeted.

He began to shake and sweat. The ghost touched him and he became as cold as ice. He passed his hand on his chest again and said “You have a hairy chest. Reminds me of when I was alive. Although I am dead, I am so happy that I could die!”

“Please tell me what you want? I have a fat treasure hiding in an undisclosed land, will give it to you, please leave me”

“I have a feeling that we have offended you”

“When you say “we”, what do you mean?”

Instantly the door opened and more monsters entered and gathered round his bed. He looked at the clock in his room and it read 6:30pm. This was impossible! Its battery had run down.

He tried to recall a verse in the Bible to ward off the ghosts. Yet hard as he tried, it was as if his memory was blank. He thought “it was a dream, on the morrow, I will wake up and it will be over.” Hard as he tried to wake up to his defined reality, it seems there was no awakening. 

With all the strength in him, he shouted “Get away from me!”

It worked! He looked around and there was no one but himself! His clock was now working (apparently). The time read 3:00am and he was happy. Two more hours to twilight and he couldn’t wait to narrate his story to people but then he chuckled “Apart from Gyamfi, who is obviously not interested in ghost stories, who can now narrate this story to?”

There and then, he heard a knock on his door again, this one somewhat louder than before and he began to scream. The knocks however did not stop, it became incessant and a voice greeted “It’s Gyamfi, open the door, I have something to tell you”

“Go away, you ghost, don’t deceive me anymore”

The door opened and truly, Gyamfi stood in the doorway holding a dagger. The dagger looked vaguely familiar! It was that dagger they had used to slaughter the sheep when he was celebrating his birthday!

“Gyamfi, what are you coming to do?

“I am about to kill you!”

He blinked, he was petrified and this did not however stop Gyamfi. He came closer and closer with a devilish smile on his face and he raised the dagger.

Read More

FAMILY GAME

THE GAME THAT KILLS

At the heart of human survival and existence is entertainment. What I have come to learn as a human being is that we (humans) will kill, will destroy the environment, we will do all sort of things in the name of entertainment. But then do we think about the consequences of these actions?

I grew up in a generation where most of my friends were game addicts. I have come face to face with people who have destroyed their lives because of "family games". When I was young, I remember that there was this game center where children frequented to play games. I was very naive when I was child, I thought the children went to play it for free. As a child, I was a little bit of an introvert( and still I am) so I never frequented such areas. Secondly, I had a lot of game cartridges in the house so I didn't find any motivation of going there. One day, a friend, Bright Tieku and I decided to visit those places in order to get acquainted with those children and also find out whey these children always spent most of their time in these gaming centers. So one day after school (we used to close at 5PM everyday, so we didn't have much time to play as a kid, it was always learning and learning) we decided to pass through one of these gaming centers before going home. What I saw really disgusted me; the children in there were dirty, they were gambling and they were a bit abusive. We had to give all the money we had on us and run back home. This was I think happened in 2000. I remember the year very well because it was that year that they were too much of the Y2K madness.

As we were leaving, I was still thinking about these children. I was wondering how their future would be like. What was in this game that was motivated violence. These kids were destroying their lives in the name of entertainment. These kids were destroying their soul and everything that their ancestors had worked hard for. Indeed, this is/was a game that kills. Lately, I have met some of these kids (obviously they had grown up) and their lives are so messed up and one of the attributing factors is "Family Game".

THE FAMILY OF FAMILY GAMERS
The family of these family gamers are children of their own kind. They have a very similar attitude and mannerism. They are very rude and often skip school for "entertainment". Once you go into this family, it will be difficult for you to come out. Most of these children in this family had marks on their skin and I often heard it was the beatings that they suffered from their parents as a result of their going into these gaming centers and yet the pains were not enough to prevent them from going them. Some parents actually starved their children just to make them stay at home yet these children would not badge. This happened not to one or two but statistically speaking about 95% of the people who were found in this family. The operators of these "family game" joint got so much money (for their age) that they began to date women which I can personally think of dating when am forty. Yet "family heads" were none the wiser, they also spent their educational lives watching and grooming people to play games and how they could cheat to score a ball or win a race. At the end of the day, they were also doomed.


STEALING IN THE NAME OF ENTERTAINMENT

Have you often not wondered why children who engaged in this act often turned out to be thieves? These children will go through hell to finance their gaming expenditure. Sometimes, I wonder why they didn't save to buy themselves a console. At least, their parents could have bought their children one of these consoles. Well, when a good girl goes bad, she gone forever (in Rihanna's voice). These children steal from their parents just go to these gaming centers to pay games. These habits degenerated into something worse: the kleptomaniac. It got to a time that these children stopped stealing from their parents (because there was nothing to steal) to stealing from their neigbours and in no time they were on the streets stealing from anyone they could lay their names on. Because of family game, these innocent children are now professional armed robbers. From entertainment to profession! The power of entertainment.

THE LUCKY ONES
Don't get it wrong, it's not everyone who went to gaming centers to play video games. Some children owned video games in the comfort of their homes and they were called "the lucky ones". Children used to troop to their homes in numbers to entertain themselves. Their parents often got angry at their children and devised all sort of tactics to "eject" these children from their homes. They sometimes called their children in privy and tell them "Tell the children that you are about to do your homework". These children too will sheepishly tell them what their parents told them. As the children would be leaving, they would be cursing them under their breath. On the morrow, all the children would shun their company because they didn't allow them to play. These children often lost their friends and some become introvert as a result. It also affected their studies! They spent so much time playing video games that they forgot to do their homework and before long, some were trailing at the button of the class.


THE MAGIC IS IN THE PAD

The joy that these children exhibit when they hold the game pad is overwhelming! When they hold these game pads they forget all the worries in the world. Its like they are in a different world and they are Kings. They can hold these consoles for about 5 hours or more without feeling hungry. They can hold these consoles without feeling the need to go to school. They will do everything just to hold this device and feel alive again. According to social learning theorist, Albert Bandura, when children hold the game pad, it teaches them nothing apart from violence. Due to these violence, they suffer from one or more of these effects:

• Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
• Children may be more fearful of the world around them.
• Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.

Also research by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others starting in the 1980s found that children who watched many hours of violence on television when they were in elementary school tended to show higher levels of aggressive behavior when they became teenagers. By observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.

So when children hold these game console, all what they learn is nothing but violence.


THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY
I am positing that all children who play games become bad adult in the future. There are some who are able to escape these negative effects. They grow up to become good citizens in the future. I am one of the people. I stopped playing video games when I was 14! I don't know, I just lost the interest in them. The only game, I play right now is Zuma and I can only play it for thirty minutes (one hour tops). There are also children who play these games for the mere entertainment value of it. My concern is on those who have been negatively affected by these "family games"

Read More

HAPPY 57TH INDEPENDENCE DAY TO "RELIGIOUS" GHANAIANS

IN THE BEGINNING

"At long last, the battle has ended! And thus Ghana, your beloved country is free forever."
And yet again I want to take the opportunity to thank the chiefs and people of this country, the youth, the farmers, the women who have so nobly fought and won this battle.

People who know me personally slam me for having too wild an imagination but I can say without a shame or doubt that on 6th March, 1957 whilst Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was saying the words above, he was imaging Ghana as a country which will be having skyscrapers which will literally touch the eye of God, that Ghana would be having an economy so good that the Western world will literally beg us to "spoil our economy small". There would be job so abundant that managers will have to go round people's house begging them to stop their work in order for them to come work for his company. As Nkrumah said these words, he was smiling, the religious Ghanaian was also smiling yet wider. Both Nkrumah and the religious Ghanaian were imaging things but the imaginations of the religious Ghanaian were inversely proportion to that of Nkrumah; whilst Nkrumah was imaging all what I have described above, the religious Ghanaian was imaging how he would have successful packed about $1million in a Swizz Bank, he was imaging about how he could single handedly "chop" Ghana's money and leave the man on the street poor.

THE RELIGIOUS GHANAIAN
For the sake of this article, I will give an operational definition of who a religious Ghanaian is. A religious Ghanaian is one who on Friday or on Sunday wears the best of clothing to the mosque or the church and sing Halleluyah to the Highest yet comes back and engages in the nastiest of activities which includes (and not mutually exclusive): throwing rubbish around, engage in bribery and corruption, gossiping about her sister, stealing from his brother, engaging in nepotism among others.


3 MORE YEARS TO PENSION
Now having digressed let me continue with this article. Isn't it a shame that after fifty seven years of independence, we cannot construct a single road without going to borrow money from somewhere? Yes 57! Ghana is not five neither is she seven, she is fifty seven! If Ghana was a human being, she will be having three more years to pension. After all these years, nothing seems to work in this country. Nothing oo my brother. you can't take more than ten steps without regretting for being a Ghanaian.

THE RELIGIOUS DRIVER
Things are that worse. The religious driver will wake up four o'clock in the morning and commence his activities. He goes to the bus terminal and tells his conductor, let's go to TECH. His "mate" will shout "TECH TECH TECH" and people will rush to board the car. The driver will successfully drive to TECH and tell all the people in the bus to get down. Immediately they get down, his mate again will shout "OFORIKROM OFORIKFROM" and these same passengers will board the car and pay extra transportation fare to Oforikrom. At Oforikrom, all the passengers get down and the "mate"shouts again "LABOUR LABOUR LABOUR", now theses passengers angry will have no option than to board these same car again. At Labour, all the passengers will get down again and then the mate will shout "ADUM ADUM ADUM". At the end of the day, the transportation fare which should have cost GHC0.90 due to this "WAWA" activity will now cost GHC2.30.

THE PASSENGERS
Don't feel pity for these passengers yet! Not at all! These passengers will go to work and the way they will offer their services to you, it is as if he is doing you a favour. First of all, the passenger will get to work as late as 9 (sometimes far later) and begin to show his "Krachi" powers. He will make you literally beg him before he serves you. You may (it is not option but it is highly recommended) have to pass a brown envelope under his counter before he will do his job and do it properly. Go to places like ECG offices, some banks, ministers etc and you will feel sorry for not  knowing anyone around.


THE POWER OF MARKET WOMEN
The market woman will go and sit innocently on the pavement and sell her wares. After she has finished, she will leave the rubbish unattended to and expects the government to clean it. Madam, don't you know that all these moneys can be used to build schools, hospitals and other amenities to better the lives of people? Did I mention hospital? Yes I did. Go to the hospital and your ailment will just become worse! The nurse will look at you as if you are a mental case and shout the hell out of you. The doctor is so much in a worry that immediately you enter his office, the next thing he thinks of is you leaving his office, whether the medicine he prescribed to you will work or not, its not his business.

THE LAUGHING POLITICIANS
As for the politician, the least said about him the better. He knows all the solution to Ghana's problem during the election year but surprisingly he forgets all of it when he gets the power. When he is given power, he sends all his children to schools abroad, he takes a plane to the States when he is ill and through corruption spends the poor people's money.

THE SCHOOL MATRON
After the headmaster and his assistant have spent part of the money that is meant for the feeding of the student, the matron will in turn steals some of the food she will use to prepare food for the student. The kind of food she will prepare for the student, for your eyes only. The student will out of hunger eat the food like that, abi, the option they have now is; eat or starve. Asem oo.

THE STUDENT
The student who is supposed to be the future leader of this country will call his parent and tell them "Dad/Mummy, we have to buy so so and so pamphlet". The parent will send him the money and guess what, the student will use the money to do nkwaseasem. At the end of the day, he is broke. The kind of future leaders, we are training

SUNDAY COMETH
On Sunday, all the people above will dress up and go to church. As for me, I am a gossip, I listen to some of the prayers. You will hear some SCREAM "Jesus, my work oo", "Jesus, my aschool ooo", "Jesus, my visa ooo". For God's sake, how do you expect God to help you when you don't help your fellow man. I have seen drivers cheat passengers, surprisingly, almost all of them are broke. The worker and the police both take bride all day yet yamutu. Let me not spoil this day for you, HAPPY 57TH BIRTHDAY GHANA!

Read More