The Beliam's fuzz

Power struggle

The power struggle. Why is it so? It takes away the humanity of a man and corrupts it with ideas as evil as they can ever get. Friends become enemies. Our loved ones start hating on us. We question ourselves and our neighbours all the time. That is what power can do. Look around you. Just look around. See how they are all so much antagonizing themselves. A few days ago, they were friends and neighbours. Now, just look at them. I stood out there with so much pain in my heart and tears in my eyes. Isn't there any other way? The casualties were increasing and blood was spilling all over. I was frozen in the square. My legs crumbled and my eyes kept strolling to the left and the right. I've never witnessed anything as agonizing as the one I saw at the Sunkwaa-koff.

The fight between my brother, Afrifah and my new attachment, Oppong was on. Both parties were pretty determined to win. Both sets of family members were on the edge of their seats, cheering and roaring. The place was covered with screams of pain and cheer. The king sat across the other end of the gathering. I could sense some sort of disagreement from how he gazed at what was transpiring. The king had never been the favourite of the Sunkwa-for, and why should he? He believed that a fight should never be among his people. He believes that your enemy isn't the one who lives across the other end of the street. He has pushed to get rid of the Sunkwa-Kofo but customs required a unanimous voting which just wasn't going to happen.

The rule of the fight is that to emerge victorious, you need to put the back of your opposition on the ground till the referee counts up to three. The referee of the bout is mostly the commander of the king's army, called Agya Sarfo. He was known for his famous fight with the bear. History has it that, he came home from hunting with the teeth and tongue of a bear when he and three of his friends went on a hunting expedition. He hangs the teeth around his neck almost every day. He was feared by the lots that reside in Sunkwa village and even the neighbouring village. Rumours have it that he is the reason why villages are afraid to attack Sunkwa-village. He led the famous fight that brought me into captivity and s*****y. They also say that the king brought him to the village when he was a little boy as a slave through one of the sieges of the king. He has since then risen to the highest ranks as the king's commander in chief. This was quite a motivation to myself and the many slaves that resided in Sunkwa village to push on and try to change fortunes to our advantage.

My brother, Afrifah looks like he had the upper hand in the fight. He was very much angered by the incidents that led to the bout. Suddenly, a burst of energy and agility emerged in his muscles of Oppong and he was in control of the fight. I watched on with my heart divided into two. One half is geared towards my family and the prestige that comes with and the other half wanted to see my new attachment emerge on top.

I looked at both of them with pity. Their muscles look weak and it seems they couldn’t continue anymore. I was so scared that one of them might end up losing their life but none of them was willing to give up. They could hardly stay on their feet. They were bleeding all over their faces and I couldn’t watch anymore.

At this point, all I wanted was for whatever is going on to end. I couldn’t care less about whoever won anymore. I just wanted the pain to stop. Just when I was lost in my thoughts, I heard a loud cheer from all cardinals around me. I turned to the square and saw my brother, Afrifah on top of Oppong with his back to the ground and the referee ready to give a count. “One, two …,” the crowd cheered together with the referee. Just when the referee was about to give the third count, something happened. Someone from the crowd interrupted the counting that drove a large stir of emotions and anger

Paa Kwasi is the junior brother of Oppong. As he saw his brother about to lose the bout and his family about to lose what looks to be their birthright for ages, he threw himself into the square and pushed my brother Afrifah from on top of Oppong. This ignited a fight between my family and Oppong. The other families joined in and supported the fight. The uproar that evening was palpable. They started hitting each other with literally anything they see. They just weren’t ready to let that pass. They fought for minutes until the king’s guards were able to stop the fight and drove everybody out of the palace and back into their homes. They made sure that the two families took separate paths to their houses. That was by far the most bizarre moment I’ve ever seen in my life. My heart was beating rapidly and my anxiety was getting hold of my conscience.

I heard my name from behind me and I turned to see that it was Afrakomah whose face looked like she had been bitten by a lion. She looked anxious and sad. The look on her face made me ignore what I was feeling. “Look, Afrakomah, you are bleeding,” I shouted as I looked at her leg. “Don’t worry, it’s just a bruise,” she replied. “Come and let me get you some leaves to stop the blood,” I chirped in. I entered the small bushes around and took some leaves and placed them on her wound. “Let me get you home Afrakomah, mommy might be looking for you,” I said. I took her hand and placed it on my neck as we both galloped along the tinny trails to our house.

Many are they that went back home with mild to severe injuries on all parts of their body. If there was any comfort from that, it is that no life was lost on that day. That gave me much personal relief.

The power struggle, from what I saw today, is the most dangerous thing that can ever happen to humanity. I was scared to death and I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened. They were all friends some few days ago but just look at them now.

The thoughts kept coming back at me until we got home where a lot was happening already.