Lumba saga: Is Ghana a serious country?
Just when we all thought the Daddy Lumba saga had been put to rest following his final funeral rites last month, social media portals exploded over the weekend with news and chaotic airport scenes at the Accra and Kumasi airports heralding the arrival of Madam Akosua Serwaa, the music legend’s first wife, from Germany.
It had all the trappings of the arrival of a music or even political superstar - swooning, giddy crowds yelling their support for her, loud tooting of vehicle horns, brandishing of ‘Team Legal Wives’ placards, police struggling to maintain order - the works.
The e-flier announcing her arrival in Kumasi actually addressed her as ‘Her Excellency’!
At the Prempeh I International Airport in Kumasi, she waved from the top of a vehicle and blew kisses at her adoring, starstruck fans, whilst brandishing a large banner depicting a Ghanaian ordinance marriage certificate.
The message was as clear as it was defiant - she was the sole ‘legal wife’, no matter what the courts had proclaimed.
Mixed reactions
Trawling through the comments sections of various social media platforms, I got the sense that many were amused by the whole spectacle and expressed support for her.
To them, this spectacle was proof of the fact that we do find the time to laugh at ourselves and at each other.
Of course, many ‘Team Legal Wives’ supporters who turned up at the airport had never met the lady, did not get to catch more than a fleeting glimpse of her, and were unlikely to ever meet her again.
But they had made their point by turning up to express their love and sympathy for her.
Quite a number felt irritated and hissed all over the place, claiming this was ridiculous and absurd, and suggesting that those who thronged the airports to meet her were delusional and had too much time on their hands.
Some even cited security concerns amidst the noise and chaos of the arrival area to the detriment of other arriving passengers.
To them, this trivia expended on valuable policing hours and commanding public attention is proof, if any were needed, that this is not a ‘serious country’.
Making room for trivia
I happen to disagree strongly with those who hold the latter view.
Every functional society, ‘serious’ or not, makes room for all manner of trivia which may not sit well with many ‘rational’ people, yet these do not define those societies by any stretch of the imagination.
For instance, over the past few years, thousands have queued outside Apple’s flagship stores across many western cities for hours (many overnight in sleeping bags and unwholesome weather) just to be able to grab the latest iPhone on its day of release. Whilst living abroad, I never saw justification for the fuss, to give up my bed and go to such lengths just to get a phone.
In April 2011, thousands of royalists and well-wishers in the UK camped for days to secure a spot along the procession route for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, with police estimates of about one million people lining the streets.
People routinely camp outside hospitals to wish senior royal ladies well when they step out after giving birth.
Yet I doubt many would say that the UK is not serious because of this. Many other examples of what would be considered absurd by many Ghanaians pertain in Western countries touted for being ‘serious’.
Trivia and absurdities have their place in every functioning society and provide the space and outlet for citizens of all manner of backgrounds to express themselves as they please, to give a sense of a safety valve to express their amusement and thus breathe some vibrancy and diversity into that society.
It is a sign of a mature and confident society. We cannot all take ourselves too seriously all the time - that would make our society gloomy and dreary.
As it is often said, in relation to our fun side as a nation, all one needs is some data and access to social media, and laughter, that great tonic for the soul, is literally guaranteed.
Seriousness indicators
I believe the real indicator of a country’s seriousness or otherwise lies elsewhere.
A country cannot claim to be serious when almost seven decades after independence and with vast natural resources, it tolerates open defecation, open gutters, hopelessness at managing basic public sanitation, public schools in ramshackle buildings, crumbling public health services, poor roads, infant mortality, unbridled corruption and many more that actually impact adversely on its citizens, and lacks the ‘fierce urgency of now’, to quote Martin Luther King Jr, to even resolve these.
The narrative of Ghana vis-a-vis Singapore, Malaysia and others back in the 1960s compared to today, is a tired, pathetic and embarrassing one, but it is what it is - a hard, unvarnished truth that sums up the story of our nation over the decades.
That, rather than the harmless antics of a few hundred souls actually having fun at an airport whilst waiting for a woman they adore, is what defines us.
Beyond airport drama
Given Daddy Lumba’s status as a music legend, it is inevitable that his private life would engender public interest and curiosity in his death, just as it is with superstars everywhere. From this flows an almost voyeuristic inclination for salacious elements of that high-profile private life people identify with.
Inevitably, many see bits of their lives in Lumba’s rather sticky marital issues, which then informs their alignment with ‘Team This’ or ‘Team That’.
As someone rightly put it, ‘people are fighting their own battles vicariously through these two women and taking sides based on their own stories.’
A rudimentary poll I conducted the other day among my married female friends and acquaintances revealed an overwhelming support for Madam Akosua Serwaa, for obvious reasons.
Conveniently, their husbands tow the same line, even if they say so in order to avoid trouble at home.
What happened at Accra and Kumasi airports over the weekend cannot be dismissed as the absurd antics of some misguided citizens with too much time on their hands.
The two airport incidents collectively provide a mirror to the serious, deep-seated issues surrounding complicated Ghanaian marital lives in this country and abroad, post-death conflicts between extended and nuclear families, and even people’s perception of the judicial system and what constitutes justice to them, among others.
Lumba’s death and subsequent issues just constitute a conduit for these realities in the public space.
In the meantime, the really serious issues that define us as a nation continue to scream for our attention.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng (
