EVEN IN OUR DIFFERENCES THERE’S A SIMILARITY

Do not say my language fails & do not say it is primitive. They say sweat too is water, with different names. Like Accra & Hohoe, both Ghanaian towns but different names. The sun is great here but only produces waste water. PDS has been tweeting about where there’ll be power cuts next. Thank God We’re Not A Nigerians, said the FoKN Bois. Nigeria & Ghana, sweat & water. Someone says the difference between Ghan’s economy & Nigeria’s is Buhari. I think of an equal sign, I think of the subtraction sign—I drift back to Drobo when I was taught these signs but never understood. I still don’t understand why Ghana & Nigeria do not add up. Sweat too na water abi? Let the Chinese come for the bauxite at Atiwa & show us how to fetch sweat for distillation. Na only sweat we dey get from the sun o, but we shun the solar energy. Or sweat be wonna solar energy? Ra, we know—the God of the sun. But who is the God of solar energy? & where’s Ghana’s God of the sun?

THE FEAR OF A THING IS THE BEGINNING OF A SEARCH

As a child, I loved to jump & run in the rain—we had nothing to boast of but joy. I loved to walk in the rain, I learned to cry in the rain so no one sees my tears. It isn’t that bad if you can boast of people, of joy. Father & mother had us—we had them. Sometimes we used buckets to fetch the water dripping through our ceiling. In Hohoe, the rain enters my room through the windows, I love the cool breeze of rain but not the water in the room. I still do not mourn when it rains—I mourn when it is cloudy in Accra, I know someone is about to go—I know someone is about to be homeless. I want to imagine the silence after rains in Accra, fear brings silence—fear for the loss of the loved. Fear brings chaos too, fear for the loved, fear brings wailing—fear in search of the lost. I want to know if Ghana has a God of rain, of water, of flood? Is it Ototrobonsu? Is he related to the God of love or the God of death? 




(POEMS FIRST APPEARED IN THE CHAPBOOK "REVOLUTION OF THE SCAVENGERS")

BIO:
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Henneh Kyereh Kwaku is a poet from Gonasua in the Bono Region of Ghana, who graduated from the University of Health and Allied Sciences with a Bachelor of Public Health (Disease Control). He’s the author of Revolution of the Scavengers, selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the APBF New Generation African Poets Chapbook Series. He can be found on Twitter @kwaku_kyereh