Rawlings’ funeral, Ewe traditional leaders and the fight for basic decency

Recently Madam Desoso claimed to speak for Ewe traditional leaders in an attempt to insult the widow of the late President Rawlings regarding his funeral and pretending as if for some ethnic reasons it could somehow not be the privilege of the widow to bury her husband.

The late Mr Rawlings was half Scottish and half African.

The late mother’s origin is a matter of discussion and some claim she is Togolese, but this is irrelevant; she is obviously an African. Rawlings, therefore, is of mixed race, as such Ewe Chiefs have no claim on him in the same way as the Scottish have no claim on him.

There is, therefore, no basis for racism, ethnocentrism or tribalism, nor can any of these dangerous ideologies be the basis for any “right”.

Rawlings has a family, that is Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, his wife, and four children. In modern Ghana and the entire civilized world they and they alone decide about funeral arrangements, not some irrelevant chiefs living in far away Anlo area of Ghana, trying to steal the limelight and attention from a dead man by pretending to have the moral right to even have an issue.

Apart from that, when have the chiefs ever cared for the Rawlingses?

Where were they, when Rawlings found himself in difficulties during his coup attempts?

Can Madam Desoso tell us Ghanaians the legitimacy of these chiefs to determine about his burial arrangement?

Rawlings is not true Ewe. He is also not true Scottish. He was an African and thus a Ghanaian. This Anita Desoso should desist from insulting the mourning widow Mrs. Konadu Rawlings.

The next time she insults Mrs. Konadu Rawlings she should meet us all in Accra high courts.

Apart from that, Mrs Rawlings is an Ashanti Royal. All Ashantis shall support her against unjustified attacks from envious Ewes. The first thing Ashantis will do is ask these people to leave the Ashanti Kingdom.

The People of Ashanti do not care a hoot about these insignificant chiefs.

So these are the claims that first let us frown and then leave us appalled:

“We have left the funeral to Nana Konadu”, Anita Desoso writes.

Who is this “we”?

Who is it?

Who is it, who lacks this basic decency?

Who is so self-absorbed to even think, let alone state publicly, that it is someone else, anyone else, who can give, hand out, or “graciously” leave the right of burial of any deceased father, husband, son, or just any human being to the widow, the children, the family?

It is not yours to give!

Find me one civilized culture on this entire Planet, either present or four-thousand years old, that will not squirm at these barbarous claims:

“Nana Konadu is just a wife.” or “The Ewe people are supposed to be leading this funeral.”

You will not find any. If any Ewe person would support these statements even for a second in his mind it would disqualify this tribe from being anything but barbaric, disruptive and evil.

From the funerals in the Old Testament to the burial of Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy, from the most private to most public, from ancient times of the Bronze Age to the Age of Internet it is always, always, always the wife, the widow, the family, that follows the coffin, that allows others to organise, help and support, that invites guests or disallows them.

Since ever and forever, laying claim on the deceased carries its own curse.

Where is the legitimacy for the Ewes to involve themselves in a private affair of the Rawlings’ true family?

What shall the world think of us Ghanaians as they take notice of one of the longest-serving heads of state being buried and this woman rose to become the chairwoman of the NDC with this mentality?

Then it is true. Then this party, the NDC, is the Tribalistic Party of Ghana, dominated by Northerners and Ewes. Then it shall be banned in Ashanti.

Perhaps the people of Ashanti shall form their Ashanti National Party to govern the brilliant Ashanti Nation. No-more NDC in Ashanti.

My advice to Mrs Rawlings is this:

Please, ignore this woman but take note on who denounces her and her statements. She is envious of your respected family to the point of utter indecency.

Who knows? Perhaps there is still hope for NDC, if you took over again, continue the legacy of your late husband and purge the party of corruption, tribalism and barbarism? Who knows.

 

Columnist: Dr. med. Edward K. Poku