THE UNTOLD STORIES

 Too many things have been happening in quick succession in Ghana, in the last couple of days. They follow one another at such a vertiginous speed that I am at my wit’s end trying to piece them together and make sense out of them. They continue to boggle my mind and I keep thinking about them everyday. Not that I have what it takes to find a panacea to them though. No. Far from it.

For those of you who may not know, I’m great lover of reggae and ragga musics, with a keen sense for the Patois lingo. One of my all time favorites is Buju Banton’s ‘Untold Stories’. As I sat at the train station this evening waiting for the last train home, the lyrics of that song made a quick parade through my mind. I started singing. In fact, I sang it repeatedly on the train back home; and in the process, many of the shadowy events in Ghana-my-happy-home became clearer to me.

The hardship, the price hikes, the senseless AFAG, (I hear, Akuffo-Addo sponsored) demonstrations, the Vodafone imminent (long predicted) thousand-man lay-offs, the silly politically engineered BNI arrests and harassment of former ministers of state, the suspicious Asamoah-Boatent (foiled) trips abroad, the thoughtless Police shoot-and-kill tactics, the shameful and stupid hijacks of keys to public toilets by disenchanted NDC youth in Cape Coast, the frivolous Attaa-mic expenditure on the Obama visit to Ghana, the shortage of premix fuel for the fisher-communities, the loose-canon holier-than-thou Kufour speeches, the yet-to-be-solved water problems; the list will never end; maybe not in my life time. All these became very clear as I looked into the crystal ball of Buju Banton’s Untold Stories.

I therefore decided to reproduce the lyrics and the link to that piece of music on Youtube here so that you my favorite listeners can also make some sense out of the genesis of our woes as a nation. Read the lyrics and listen to the music alongside. You are sure to come to the same revelation I got.

Indeed, all has never been told, not in Ghana nor here in the cold.

Worla 05-08-09

While I’m living
Thanks I’ll be giving To the most high, you know
Chorus
I am living while I’m living to the father I will pray
Only He knows how we get through every day
With all the hike in the price
Arm and leg we have to pay
While our leaders play
All I see is people ripping and robbing and grabbing…
Thief never love to see a thief with a long bag,
No love for the people who are suffering real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from getting out of control
Filled up with education yet don’t own a payroll
The clothes on my back has countless eye holes

Chorus
Could go on and on and full has never been told

Chorus
I say who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can’t…they will have to stay
Opportunity is a scarce commodity
In these times I say…when mama spend her last to send you to class…
Never you ever play
It’s a competitive world for low budget people
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim

Chorus
Could go on and on the full has never been told
Through this life keep getting me down
Don’t give up now Got to survive some way some how