*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The Golden Jubilee House, which was constructed by the Kufuor administration
amidst criticisms from the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC),
now has Flagstaff House written in front of it” (Ghanaweb, October 3, 2010).

NDC political hoodlums
Think like herds
Hierarchizing Jubilee & Castle
Toxins unleashed by Rawlings
Serenading us with divisiveness
Let JJ rebuild his FIRED Ridge
Then rename it JJ FIRE STAFF HOUSE
Ghanaians, NDC & NPP
Shed your mental slavery
Unshackle your mental slavery
From the Slave Castle
The bloody seat tied to Mills
Let us use the Jubilee House
To liberate shackled Mills
From JJ’s morbid slavery
JJ rabid anti-Kufourism
Has shackled Mills to the Castle

NDC political hoodlums
A parrot is never a vulture
A rose by any other name…
Call the Jubilee House
Call it by any other name:
1. Flagstaff House
2. Rawlings-Resented House
3. The House JJ Never Built
4. The House P/NDC couldn’t built
5. The house JJ couldn’t FIRE
6. Poultry Farm
7. Museum
The fact remains
Incontrovertible
Kufour used eight years to build it
It is his monument
One of his stellar achievements
Let JJ rebuild FIRED Ridge
Then rename it JJ FIRE STAFF HOUSE

Nkrumah’s Akosombo was not for the CPP
Nkrumah’s hospitals were not for the CPP
Rawlings’ chain was for all Ghanaians
Rawlings’ FIRE at Ridge affected us all
Kufour’s Keta Sea Wall is not for NPP
Kufour’s Jubilee House is not for the NPP

NDC political hoodlums
Yes, turn the Jubilee House
Into a poultry farm
Museum, archive
Rawlings’ hunting grounds
Rawlings’ FIRE-ing grounds
Do all you can
Jubilee House is Flag Staff House
Empowering and conscientizing
Sacred site
Where Nkrumah seeded our liberation
Jubilee House by any other name
Is Kufour’s monument
The house JJ couldn’t build
Couldn’t FIRE
Yes, close to Ridge
He couldn’t FIRE

NDC political hoodlums
Let us shed our mental slavery
Unshackle your mental slavery
You wear it with grace
Formality
Dignity
Solemnity
Not ashamed to use the Castle
The bloody bondage of our history
Is now our seat of liberation
Where we parade our independence
Our postcolonial self-gratitude
Tied to our bloody past dehumanization
Where our leaders receive dignitaries
Dignitaries of the African Diaspora
Whose forebears tasted indignities
Indignities in the Osu Castle

NDC suffers from JJ’s diseases
Envy, jealousy, grudge
Childishness, pettiness
Greediness, gluttony
Bastardization of politics
Ideas framed in idiocy

NDC political hoodlums
Turn the Jubilee House
Into a poultry farm
Museum, archives
Rawlings’ hunting grounds
Rawlings’ FIRE-ing grounds
Do all you can
Jubilee House is Flag Staff House
Empowering and conscientizing
Sacred site
Where Nkrumah seeded our liberation
Never used the slave castle
The Castle
Seat of our enslavement
Of colonization
Of pathways of de-Africanization
Of avenues of our dehumanization
Of routes to our collective humiliation
Was popularized by the NDC King
His hunting grounds
Of Amedeka death squads
Of broken-bottle haircuts
Of Arkaah’s tears

NDC political hoodlums
In the grip of anarchy
Shed your mental slavery
Unshackle your mental slavery
Tied to mummified Mills in the Castle

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained
oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in
Pennsylvania with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college
in Maryland. In her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist
hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com