The Metha & The Negotiables.

The Metha & The Negotiables.

NTOABOMA—Traditionalists identified two main things about a society: (1) The Negotiables, things they can do away with and (2) The Non-Negotiables, things they cannot do away with lest they cease to exist. To this point the Non-negotiables are key to understanding any society: they are existential.

Take for instance, the Ewes of Ntoaboma: (1) certain foods like Korn (or Kormi, Kenkey or Dorkuno) were Negotiables. Ewes do not need Kenkey in their diet to be fully Ewe. For the Ga-Dangmes, on the other hand, Kormi is a non-negotiable, perhaps. (2) Akple among the Ewes of Ntoaboma is a non-negotiable (the stew or soup is negotiable, perhaps), and so is the Ewe religion of Vodun.

We used to say in Ntoaboma that an Ewe man and his pot – to pour his libation and to prepare his Akple – together with the musical form called Dugbadza (or Agbadza) is the ultimate symbolic representation of his non-negotiables! (This is not to say that there aren’t other Ewe non-negotiables). Another way to put this is that when a society loses the non-negotiables, they cease to exist as such. In this way, many of us from Ntoaboma do not actually admit that the Ewes of Accra are, in fact, Ewes! (This is my view—they can’t even speak Ewe!).

In this way, the Asantes had their non-negotiables, too. The golden stool in Asante is a non-negotiable. Another way to put this is that all Asantes are supposed to lay down their lives for the stool. In other words, Accra’s Asantes are not truly Asante! (This is my view—none will die for the stool). The Ga-Dangmes have their non-negotiables. The Mamprusi have theirs. The Dagomba, the Yoruba, the Igbo, the Hausa, all have their non-negotiables!

But, the Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors (the Metha) are not like so. They are The Negotiables. Everything and every aspect of the Metha’s life is negotiable. The Metha can be a Vodun priest today, and tomorrow he is happy to be a Catholic nun! The Metha may swear by his Osu sea-faring boat and yet, with a smile he would gladly relocate to a deep forest in Sweden. The Metha may sit on a golden stool and yet happily accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal savior!

This is the Metha—everything about him is negotiable. And for this reason, the Metha exists in one instant, and then he ceases to exist in the next; then he reappears, dipping in and dipping out of all things. He is everywhere and nowhere. He is here and over there. He is the president of a nation and then he is, at the same time, the servant of a low IQ Catholic priest. He is the commanding officer of a Vodun Asafo, yet all his Agbadza songs are about Jesus Christ and forgiveness.

Something is wrong with people, any people, who are this airy—they are everywhere and nowhere. And you wonder why their children suffer? You wonder why their grandchildren will suffer and die?

Ghana, and for that matter, most of our Motherlands are led, ruled, controlled and influenced by the Metha. That means, they are ready to sell their own Mothers! They sell our forests, our seas, our rivers, our lakes, our coasts, our beaches, our lands, our labor, our expertise, for everything else but for any useful thing. Hell, some even give up our irreplaceable resources even for free—for nothing.

The Metha, and that includes the Afrosaxons and the Afrogauloises, are so dangerous for this reason alone—they themselves are The Negotiables! They are like the chaff that the wind drives away. And if you let them, they will reduce you, your people and your nations, too to chaff! Do not let them—refuse them!