The day Nkrumah returned

How would  Limann and the four Johns who have been presidents of Ghana in the fourth republic give account of their stewardship to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should the Osagyefo return to demand  it?

This and other interesting topics of national interest were what patrons at the National Theatre last Thursday were treated to when the play, The Second Coming of Nkrumah was staged.

Spiced with humour, music and dance, the play tells the story of how Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other leaders struggled for the independence of the country and the events that led to Ghana’s attainment of freedom from British rule.

Amazingly, after toiling through sweat and blood to gain freedom for his country, Nkrumah, on his return to Ghana realises that all that he had worked for had been in vain. The country is divided along both political and ethical lines and also suffers poor leadership. 

In the quest to find out what might have accounted for Ghana’s underdevelopment after 57 years of independence, Osagyefo is bombarded with the use of unfamiliar slang such as pink sheets, tweeaa, the boom , all die be die, dumsor- dumsor, waa waa, woyomisation of the economy and edey be keke even in the face of economic hardship from of a “free falling  cedi”.

The Presidents, Hilla Limann, Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufour, John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama trade accusations at each other for Ghana’s woes.

One fascinating aspect of the play was that,  the characters played by the former Presidents didn’t only act but looked and spoke like them especially the one played by Jerry John Rawlings won the admiration of the patrons with his charismatic and “no nonsense” character on stage.

The play provided a delightful platform not just for entertainment but for Ghanaians to be educated on important historical issues which seem to be recurring in recent times.

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The play was written by Latif Abubakar, known for other plays like Romantic Nonsense, You May Kiss the Corpse, Gallery of Comedies and Thank God for Idiots. Directing was handled by Jojo Quantson and produced by James Gbedemah. 

The cast included Ecow Smith-Asante, Benjamin Alcorn, Ofori Bismarck, Pearl Darkey, Paul Quarcoo, Richmomd Anaman, Christopher Seveh, Leslie Wallace, William Agbeti and Alexandra Bailey.