SONA

It soothes her precarious heart to know she is a desire

Naïvely she feeds on the love of another

Although she has her yearning soul to offer

All she pleas is a man of her own, her treasure

She ignores her doubt, the skill of a wanderer

Hoping to cross that bridge when she gets there

Fear finds her head a temporal shelter, where
Her hope is lost and found by a fortune hunter

All through her misery I feel her pain

She is the only one that will by me stay

Although she may be a prey

Nothing but Sona I'll take away

A TWO-FINGER WAVE OF LOVE

It was a Saturday and she had come to pay me a visit for the first time at my parent's house. Unknown to me, my Grandma who was mostly seated at the front of the gate had her wait for a brief interrogation as to how she knew me like they will do a suspected terrorist at an airport checkpoint. She was not bothered, she answered all the questions rather unconsciously because her consciousness was concentrated on stealing a glance at me through a little opening in the gate. Although I was expecting her I didn’t notice her presence at the gate because all I heard was the usual free counselling sessions my Grandma granted to both interested and uninterested passersby. With a mirror in one hand and a hair brush in the other, I straightened my hair in a style that even charmed me anytime I looked in the mirror. I was impressed, I was not looking bad at all for a first date with my crush. When my Grandma had ended the interrogation I heard the best combinations of words in my entire life “I’m here to see you.” With all the courage I had gathered per the image I saw as my reflection in the mirror my heart still managed to skip a beat with my pride falling to her feet like a rag at the sight of her. She was a beauty and it explained why I had longed to see her.  She smiled at me and I smiled back showing my entire set of teeth like a comedian would when he cracks a bad joke to a well-built (macho) man. In my mind’s eye, I could see her run to me with her arms wide opened for a lasting embrace but in reality all she did was smile even more. A few seconds after, I gathered the pieces of my broken confidence and uttered a “hi” so low that I needed a microphone to make the word audible to my other ear. I dragged my feet lazily to the gate to begin what I call a long walk to freedom.

We had walked a few meters away from the gate but I still could not find my speech. When I began to get hold of my consciousness I asked her an obvious question for a start; “What did my Grandma ask of you?” but unlike every other person who will seize this opportunity to lecture me about the disadvantages of menopause and old age and how he/she even had two or more of a sort at home, she rather gave me a reassuring answer “Your Grandma and I just had a friendly, let’s focus on us”. You can imagine the way my face blotted with smiles. I had just found a good wife this young. We skirted around the area chatting and laughing and for the first time throughout my stay on earth I was experiencing a movie scene manifest in real life.

She finally grew tired of walking and I may have been too but I just couldn’t feel my legs, it was like I was walking on an aisle. We decided to rest awhile at the front of a deserted building. I spotted a flowery plant a few steps from where I sat and I quickly reached out to pluck a flower so I can present to my lovely lady. This time around I didn’t get lucky, the movie scene didn’t play out well, she rejected it on the basis of hygiene but it elevated me to another height of her compassionate love where she took my hands and opted to clean out the dirt I had on my hands with her handkerchief. And right there my hand remained in hers till we got up again to continue our aimless but lovely walk only this time hand in hand.

We had gradually gotten to a nearby beach where we sat to engage ourselves in what I call the phase two of our encounter; proposal of love. The sun grew dark and my proposal was still stuck in my throat although I needed her desperately for a girlfriend.  It was almost night time and as she was the “DB” type and had to get going. I had to propose love to her by all means but my mouth still suffered a fair share of speech-dumsor, it refused to let out the mysterious three letter word ”I love you.” She couldn’t tell the struggle going on in my mind by the mere look at my face because I wore a mask of courage to hide the cowardice that had dominated my bloodstream.

This time around daddy’s girl who had to get home early was already late. We picked a taxi cab but like I see in the movies, the love story does not end with a drive to the door but with a walk to the door; a possible opportunity to re-sit my proposal exams, so we alighted at the junction before her parents residence. I knew I had wasted the opportunity and knew I had been a coward by all standards but I still had an excuse; that the environment had not been conducive for a proposal per my definition of conducive. How conducive did I want the situation to get? I asked myself sincerely, knowing very well there was no time to propose love to her than now. As I kept wrestling with my thoughts I noticed a sleek green colored car pull over where we stood. She jumped and screamed the word “Daddy!” at the sight of the car and without saying goodbye she leapt into the vehicle and waved at me but with only two of her fingers. I wasn’t hurt because a coward like me deserved only a wave of a finger so to have had a two-finger wave was indeed a success story I had planned to tell my grandchildren someday.

My head grew heavy of disgrace and my legs weak of stress as I dragged myself towards home. Was this the conducive I wanted? Where happiness turned into sadness? But like a famous country musician said in the lyrics of his song; there is silver linen behind every cloud, I had obviously experienced the cloud but the silver linen was nowhere to be found.

Lo and behold I found the linen, not of silver but of love when she called to apologize for her actions. Now the courage in me seized the opportunity to ask her a question that indirectly carried my proposal to her in a much more Shakespearic manner “If I were your Romeo, would you have left me outside in the cold?” I asked and she answered “I thought you already had a Juliet”. “Yes I do now and she is you, so please do not leave me alone in the cold any longer” I replied. There I was proudly sitting on my bed like I had just been appointed as the first Ghanaian to be President of the United States of America. 

DIVERGENT - Going Against the Tide of the 21st Century Culture

DIVERGENT - POETRY

Why do we live with the perception of the unbelievers

As though we have no God to answer to

Dressing and living to conform to the varied demands of this century

Making merry with talents for our own pleasure

Proudly exhibiting resilience to the Good News offered us

We desire to worship Christ but to please men while we do

The ‘21^st century’ we all call it, only precedes the 22^nd century

Let us however not live with the perception

That the 21^st century is a priceless treasure that will exist forever

It is a season and will pass as did the centuries before it

Let us also not go against the tide of the 21^st century,

To live in the 19th or probably the 22^nd or any other.

One may then ask, If every century precedes the other

Does that mean all centuries will pass?

The answer is simple, clearly written in the Scriptures

All things shall pass away

But my WORD shall and will never pass away

So I present to you the best and only option

Live in the WORD, coz as the WORD shall never pass away, so shall you

DIVERGENT - SPOKEN WORD POETRY

THE FIRST

Let the charismatic wind blow into the new era

With so much joy and gladness

Let’s come together to celebrate our Lord Jesus

Ranging from hymns to musicals

From drums to instrumentals

Poetries and dramatizing

Let all the young adults, lift up voices in praise

This is a time like no other

A ministration going farther

From the footstool of God our maker

To the heavenly realms of his Kingship

This is a charismatic wind blowing into the new era

Wait till you see the ministration

THE SECOND

Start counting fingers

Coz you have to be ready to feel this great presence

The sick would be healed

Curses broken

Times and ordinances changed

Hopes reborn

Faith established

Financial chains alleviated

Countless issues will be solved

God’s dominion is descending

This is going to be a life changing experience

This is a charismatic wind blowing into the new era

A spirit filled demonstration

THE THIRD

If I were you I won’t let it pass

Coz His presence is definitely going to be felt

And I invite you to be a part

Clap when we are clapping

Dance like never before

Jump when the Spirit says so

Scream louder till your breathes fade

Let the Holy Spirit control you

I can feel Him so greatly

Waiting for us to lift our voice in praise

This is a charismatic wave blowing into the new era

From countless generations

THE LETTER

This wave is the young adults union of Christ

A sweet voice that is echoing from the wilderness

To all the ends of the world with loud angelic voices singing

“He is worthy of our praise!"

Embrace this charismatic wave.

Coz this is DIVERGENT 2016.

Jehovah be your guide as you go against the tide of the 21^st Century

Garbage In Garbage Out - Technology And The Social Media Are Not Ungodly!

“Is that your Bible?” A pastor asked a member of the congregation who had an iPad in hand with bible software downloaded and installed on it. Paying less attention to the myriad benefits derived from having bible software installed on the member’s phone, the pastor sought to create the impression to the congregation that technology is ungodly; not to sound judgmental but I am expressing my honest sentiment on the matter. We live in a technologically civilised and a fast changing world which requires its constituents to be equally versatile.  Consider the benefits we will yield if we use technology and the social media for its sole purpose, that is, to make life easier and access to information faster.  In our everyday lives however, we tend to prefer especially as Africans to commune physically for meetings even though the social media is an obvious and capable option. Let’s analyse this scenario to paint a clearer picture of what I am seeking to communicate;

An employee in Ghana wakes up as early as 5am to begin his/her day. This employee spends approximately 9 hours of his/her day at work if he/she resumes work at 7am and ends 5pm. It is most likely that he/she per the current economic predicaments he/she faces in Ghana may be working as part-timer elsewhere. Majority of these part-time jobs are flexible and can be executed after work and/or on weekends. That notwithstanding, he/she may have a few roles to play as a member of an association or group for example a member of a Church committee which I must admit requires  much commitment and is a divine task. This employee will have to attend these meetings to facilitate the growth of the Church or whatever group/association he/she finds himself/herself. With respect to meetings, I strongly believe per my experiences as a member of a committee that, the thoughts of individuals on the bone of contention are the sole purpose of such meetings aside meetings that fundamentally require physical presence and effort and applications inluding WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook among others are capable mediums we can employ to hold such meetings. This is to say that, the physical presence of the individual is more or less irrelevant in this regard. This employee however is required to transport himself/herself from his/her current location to commune physically at the meeting place in order to satisfy the requirement of the meeting; that is, the physical presence of the individual plus his thoughts on the matter. What time does he/she have to rest? When does he/she prepare for work the next day? If he/she has children and a family, when does he make time to spend with his family?

This has been and still is the norm in our society especially in the Ghanaian setting. That is explains why it is common to find individuals in the working class boycott such meetings and associations not for the sake of its relevance but for the mere sake of its nature.  Not to discriminate but with respect to societies elsewhere especially the western societies, technology and the social media is employed in the growth of their economy not only for pleasure.

In recent times, individuals become millionaires overnight by just posting a video of their talents on social media; Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter who turned out to be a celebrity after a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2007. People even enroll on online schools to read programmes after which a degree of equal gravitas as those who commune physically is conferred on them.

In our society;

Skype – is used to communicate with relatives oversees

WhatsApp – is used to track the failures of our contacts judging from the pictures they use on their profile and most importantly to overcome boredom

Facebook – is used for defamation and propagation of false information in addition to individuals desperately looking for love and to scam.

You tube – also used to follow up on videos of trending talents at the expense of our undiscovered talent

A substantial amount of our time and money is basically used to assist technology and the social media to waste our lives as it were. Be mindful of the fact that the social media in itself is not ungodly and it is solely our decision as users to use this platform as a medium to propagate evil. I doubt that the intention of the developers of such superb applications was to breed immorality and insecurity as against making life easier.

To cut to the chase, the physical presence of individuals pertaining to meetings that involve brainstorming and sharing of ideas does not add anything to the existing knowledge of the individual, it only conveys the person, from his/her current location to a rendezvous, the mind and its thoughts are the ingredients for the growth of every economy regardless of the physical location of the individual.

As usual we are again sitting, this time rather comfortably on a gold mine and naively raising undue judgements against technology and the social media with no idea of its actual worth.

As a writer and an avid technologist, I leave you with our fundamental principle; GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out.

Enjoy the weekend!

Atsu Dogbey of the Dogbey League

‘MEN’ OF THE HOME EXPERIENCING REALITY- MOTHER

A mother’s love is what we call it, a love that knows no boundaries when it pertains to the well-being of her children. A mother shares a God-given bond with her children and the umbilical cord is but a physical representation of this unbreakable bond. This love does not discriminate between her truly-born child and an adopted child or in some rare cases her step-child, as she continually ransoms her pleasure to instill the right set of values in them. It is true that a man is the financial pillar of family but as he boastfully says “I take care of my children because it is my responsibility”, a mother will however soothingly whisper to herself “I do all these because I love them”.

 “Nine months is easy!!” “You just have to push and that’s all it takes!!” they say. Women mock at these statements because they are mindful that experience is the best teacher and men will never grow wombs to carry a child making their efforts unappreciated. Mothers go through sleepless nights of child fostering, appetite loss, lonely hours at night rocking the child to sleep, long prayers targeted at the child’s success and safety among other things. For every mother, it is always her children against the world. It explains why a woman single-handedly manages a home as she caters for her children even in the absence of a man either by rejection, divorce or death. Even as we celebrate mothers, I will want to share with you an intriguing story of a young writer Donn, who in writing a mother’s day message expressed his actual feelings about the day in an interesting piece with a rather captivating caption ‘ A charade called mother’s day ’ He wrote;

As I write this piece I wish I could tell a lie. Tell you how my mother is the best mother that ever walked the earth. Tell you how we are two peas in a pod. Tell you about all the love we shared. No! My conscience would not let me. I think we are all tired of hearing this lovey-dovey story in the media and on-line. I want to tell the other side of love. The side that still holds on when all hope is lost. When the fights reach a crescendo, when you are at loggerheads with your mother for a whole year and still she performs her duties to you, or should I call them responsibilities. Let me tell you how my love affair with my mother began, I spent ten months in my mother’s belly. It should tell you that from the onset my mother knew that I would be a little different from my siblings. I was born on a Wednesday like my dad, so there was the thrill of having a baby the same day as her husband (my dad). I spent my formative years with my mum so I generally have a bond with her as compared to my father. Very early in life I felt that I wasn’t really adored by either parent as my siblings were. So naturally I felt that since I wasn’t anybody’s favorite I could at least be a favorite of myself. I virtually clung to the “love” of my colleagues and friends and their approval meant much more to me, to the chagrin of my mother. You see, since my dad passed on I have learnt the bitter lesson of loving someone despite their faults.

Let me digress a bit, I had a much worse relationship with my dad as compared to my mum. We went months on end without saying a word to each other. But on his last days on earth I felt much remorse and guilt, not the type you feel when you steal from your mum or tell a holy lie but the type you feel when you hurt someone whose hands ends up in a cast (p.o.p.) after playing soccer as an innocent kid. Believe you me, now I know better . . . I really do not feel like telling a lie tonight but you know what been honest is quite difficult. I had to suppress feelings of anger, frustration and guilt to transport her to church despite the every other negative feeling throughout the week. You see, loving someone when everything is right is perfect and easy, but loving the person when you have problems with is what makes it mystical. Today as I write this article, I have had major rifts with my mother, and so do my siblings so this mother’s day is a bit difficult for us to celebrate but you know what is amazing? I have been thinking of the way Christ loved us despite everything, and the prodigal son’s parable expresses this succinctly.

Today however, I would like to tell my mother that despite the fact that she annoys me majority of the time I would like to tell her that despite the differences I love her pretty much. So you know what, today I lay down my weapons and darts that I use in piercing her heart my whole life. But honestly won’t it be nice if I celebrated mother’s day today and every other day . . . .  My Grandma would gladly welcome this cease fire. . . . But on second thought what would Hearts be doing in the league without Kotoko? Aluta continua, victoria acerta . 

Signed with love

Donn.

Julius, a young music director also in observing this day wrote “This day brings to mind a pool of memories considering the many mothers I had per the circumstances of my life” as he recounts a series of events in the growing phase of his life where elderly women mostly mothers played a vital role in his upbringing, ranging from the administering of aids in the forms of shelter, food and payment of school fees to the fervent prayers they invested in his life. This brings to our notice an important aspect of motherhood which includes recognizing women who played important roles in our lives as mothers and celebrate them accordingly.

Let us together with Julius and a rather controversial but honest Donn, join in the celebration of mothers not only for the sake of our biological mothers but all the women who at some point in our lives assumed the role of mother.

We refer to them as ‘Mother’ but I choose to call them the ‘Men’ Of The Home Experiencing Reality (MOTHER).

Happy Mother’s Day! To the all the actual ‘Men’ Of The Home Experiencing Reality. We love and appreciate all mothers.

Originally written by the Members of the Dogbey League

A Special thanks to Julius and Donn for sharing their experiences with us.