TRIBUTE TO A MARTYR OF CONSCIENCE

Oh what a wicked world... 

How can a whole community 

look on as spectators

For a young energetic lady

Calling herself a witch-hunter

Beat mercilessly a 90 year old grandmum to death?

My eyes are full of tears as I watch the video clip in a news commentary....

Yes in the full glare of so many people

Yet nobody made an attempt to rescue the suffering old lady, because somebody said the old lady is a witch..

Where is our proverbial respect for the aged?

What had this old lady done?

May her gentle soul rest in peace. 

How can you just accuse old ladies as witches because of a local drought?

Can witches really prevent rains from falling in a community? 

Are there not wizards too in the community? How could so called witches operate without the assistance of wizards? 

But why were only old ladies accused? 

You were killed because our system fails to protect the vulnerable so rest in peace Mama Akua. 

Out of 17 old ladies accused, Akua Denteh was the only one who stood her grounds that she wasn't a witch.

And so she had to be tortured to death!

And many people in the community consented to her death!

I learned four other ladies initially denied being witches but when the beatings began, they pleaded being witches and were spared. 

But you chose to remain resolute unto death, 

Rest well Mama Denteh. 

O Mama Akua Denteh, why did you stand on your grounds

In the face of imminent death?

When you knew no body will rescue you?

When you knew it was your own people who hired Fatimah to hunt and kill witches

So that there will be rains on the land?

Especially knowing very well that the only thing to save you was to confess being a witch?

Rest well, your murderers will one day appear before the Righteous Judge. 

O ye men of Kafaba.. how can you be so wicked?

Standing and watching two women kill an old helpless grand mum? 

When a similar thing happened to your kinsman Major Mahama,

we condemned those who did it for being so wicked. 

But you've done what is more painful to a poor defenceless weak old woman in her own community. 

May the soul of this old lady rest in peace. 

O ye men of Kafaba

How can you all sit down for Fatimah to travel all the way from Yeji to beat, humiliate your grandmums and eventually kill Mama Akua Denteh and ran away?

Or is it because no man was among the accused? 

Where were the assemblymen and unit committee members 

which these old women stood in the long queues

in the scorching sun to vote for?

Where were they 

When these wicked acts were being perpetrated? 

Your own sons have betrayed you 

So Rest well, Mama Akua.

Oh ye men of Kafaba 

So nobody could even give Fatimah a chase after the incident? 

Where did your Gonja warrior spirit go that you couldn't chase 

And apprehend wicked Fatimah? 

Men of Kafaba, if you are not the ones who asked Fatimah to commit murder, then you are a disgrace to your grandfathers! 

O Mama Akua, you died a martyr of conscience.

You stood your ground and never wavered in your convictions.

They said you were a witch; 

you insisted you were not a witch 

so they had to drag you 

Yes drag you to the street 

and torture you to death... 

in Ghana in this 21st century without anyone coming to your aid. 

Rest, rest well.

You've paid the ultimate price, Mama Akua Denteh

I strongly believe your death will pave a way for old ladies to live in peace

Because none will be allowed to go through that physical witch hunting again. 

All those who killed you will never know peace. All who stood by and consented to your death will forever feel the guilt.

You have died the death of a martyr. The Whole world will hear about your gruesome murder. 

So rest in peace

Ps BOACHIE-ANSAH

(28/7/2020)

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