*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

On 10th June, 2010, Forbes Magazine issued a report on Ghana, titled “Ghana Ranked 9th Worst Economy in the World” We believe that the report is being done with 2008 and 2009 as the reference years. If this is the case, then most of the data and information used have a lot of factual inaccuracies (Ghana web, June 25, 2010)

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Live in its hell of junk economics Keep digging its right-wing hole Into their paradise of glory lost Of unequal freedoms & violence Of their miragic displays of wealth

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Don’t ever say”We believe…” Debunk negative categorizing Tell them our sun also rises Tell our delirious foes Those who feel good When they put us down Who only want our gold Diamonds, Bauxite, oil Yet happily demonize us

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Let us criticize our government(s) But let us discredit hegemony False categorizing by foreigners Our hegemonic delirious foes Forbeses of this unequal world

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell That we have come a long way Along pathways of slavery Depredations of colonialism Predatory neocolonialism In a Petri-dish of globalization Of unidirectional globalization That privileges the West That disempowers Africans Africans have come a long way Unique achievements in 50 years Only 50 years of independence Stellar achievements denigrated Being marginalized by the Forbeses

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Hell holes of Western societies To apply their junk economics In Western dungeons Of social depravities Of economic downturns Of moral decay Of urban violence Of provincialized incests Of Western hegemony Of exploiting Africans Of demonizing Africans Of Western duplicity Of self-righteousness Of global inequalities Of global terrorism Of gun-toting domestic violence Of urban-knife-wielding violence Of patriarchal violence against women Of crimes celebrated by the media

Ghanaian government The good people of Ghana Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Don’t allow Forbes to define us Imputing bad things to us Africanization of all bad things Africa as the global dustbin All the worst things in the world Of HIV/AIDS Of political violence Of underdevelopment Of corruption Of decay & putrefaction Of being brutish beasts

Africans must sit up Ghanaians must sit Let us empower ourselves African Journalists Ghanaian journalists It is time to ask new questions Rethink the framing of Africa Cast in immemorial terms By the Forbeses of this unequal world Demonizing, patronizing Africans Exploiting our rich resources While they sanitize the West Tell Forbes Magazine to go to hell Live in its hell of junk economics

*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