Agony Of A State

Oh man who walks          -narrator (while actions go on on stage)

You came as far into the premises  (a ghost roams the stage badly

But you lay behind the fence to sleep (dressed like a slave, outcast etc.

Like a commoner   (although at home but none sees him/her

Like a slave

Like an outcast

Though the name of the clan

Is tied to your navel

Blessed be they                                     - Narrator

Parents, family and friends they forsook

to search a land

this land promised of old

promised by the ancient of days

to bless them, those they left behind

on their return

Oh this I see under the sun   -Narrator (scenes of frustrations in life

Once I read it         - bad harvest, dressing like a pauper)

Twice I have seen it         - (preparation for a voyage,)

How our sweat yielded naught -(using unsafe route through, sea,

How the seed time passed       -(road the desert)

And the time of harvest followed

And still nothing in hand to show

Oh this I have seen and more

Did he bid the heavenly gales?

His boat awaits him on the shore

Horses and chariots brought him

Him so high

To set sail on a journey

Another I have seen

Through the desert storm they gathered to thread

Washed by the dusty winds that blew

Smelling of the hot sun’s water brewed under the skin

Oh tattered clothes that speak of him

Who entered with bare feet?

Speeding while on the asphalt

Behind the wheels

as if the end time is come

Life flies into an oblivion

An endless pit irretraceable

Leaving along the curvature of its sphere

Sour bitter sweetness.

An aftermath of the afternoon’s whirlwind at Bongo Tankui

Cooled by the breeze that the opened windows can’t contain

Unless one sits at the door way at lartebiokorshie.

Off the town of Kpon    -Narrator ( search for flood victims in tears)

A place called Kpoi ete I see                 (others are consoled)

In tears, broken and shattered

They call the god of the bees

to vomit out the body of a clansman

all those the flood waters took into the sea

all those the waves have swallowed

and settled in the deep

and now in their bellies full

                                Dance 1

On the sun deck I cannot see                                      -choreography
At those who wave me I weep
Along the shores waiting and wishing
My honey comb to fall, in a sack sweet.
Their words the waves swallow
Their sight the tides hide
Till their efforts and strength subside.
Yet will I soar with the oars
My honey comb in hand across the seas
The rays to trace till my sun sleeps.

Where are our graves?                                                  - ghost

We bid them farewell

In the name of fortune

We have been led on

Without asking the fortune teller

Our bodies float on the waters

Approaching the shore of la Padusa.

Horses that threw down Ananse                                           -ghost

Intikuma now sits on.

The mouthpiece of the god’s

Are now stitched in silence

As if they wear a mascaraed

And none wants to go near them.

Dance 2

The scary nights under the moonlight    -Choreography-(Frightening 

My cries that never went home                  sound from a flute) 

Only fishes came near

And their belly whales full.

We counted the many nights before the single day

We sang our own dirges waiting to perish

We fought not but hanged on to the only tune while it lasted

the beat of the gun shots we heard

and the swift dance of the whales we saw

when will it be our turn we asked?

We were all dead

Dead Before our bodies got to the shore

The cries of the tones of blood

Which drained into the mighty ocean without a trace, I hear.

It is calling

Calling but who hears?

With bait they caught us into their net

And took us all out one after the other from their catch

like fishes to descale like silent sheep to the slaughter

migbooee abahere miee

who will tell the story                                                     -ghost

of how I also sank

as I stand close to my home

I entered its boundaries

But could only lie behind its mud walls

Oh take me home

To sleep with my fathers.

The head of the cat I never took                                        -ghost

When it was served in my calabash bowl

So should I suffer this fate?

I touch my motherland                                                     - ghost

But empty feeling

Not knowing am already gone.

Still waiting my return

With a sack of gold like I promised

And a plough to mow.

               

                Dance 3

A return in vain                                         -choreography

A return from where the sun has set

Only darkness oh cold unbearable

Only phantoms oh dissipating shadows.

I appear in their dreams at night                                              - Ghost

They forget to tell when awake

Let alone for the clan to act.

They cut loose the raffia that held the living and the dead

They disown their priest and burn their wooden altars.

Who will tell my tale,                                                                - Ghost

My remains to be brought back home

While I languish in la Padusa and Kpoi ete?

Far away from home                                                                 - ghost

I yearn for my fatherland where Nii was buried

Far away from home

Taken away by the flood waters

Circle , alajo, faanofaa, caprice, kaneshie, pamplome, abossey okine

who will take me home?

                Dance 4

who will dip his finger into water - Choreography (ghost who have 

to reach me in this arid realm                       lost way home) 

while my tongue thirst in torment?

who will go to the witch at Egendi?

to pierce through the veil

and show me the way

for I must lie with my fathers

not behind their walls?

who will enter into my sphere to console

while I stand here alone in tears

(Poem Bleoooo, song)

(Ye ma mu osee, song)

The night gathers at la padusa                -Narrator (while actions

Reveals men at shore men carrying their wares       (go on on stage) 

Never leaving the shore but dissipating into the night

Before the morning comes.

Full of strangers their market places are

While they sit at the bars at night not to purchase drinks

I see one dressed as on a journey, kids and luggage too I see

Thicker the night filled with fear and grim

When another I see at the bus stop at dawn

 Chatting while empty busses call

               

Dance 5

He knew our lot       -Choreography (Flash back)

He had no choice

Many the waters that perforated through our hands

When we went to the waterside  with a cracked pot.

Many the effort of men

Many the spoils of the enemy

When we lost the fight

We ran to fight again someday
Like today

I your king, prophet and priest                         -king (flash back)

I’ve led this host more than Fernando did of old

Or Alexander the great.

Oh shining star that speaks of men so great.

You showed your light in my firmament

What of the night?

Why leave me in the middle of this great ocean and the devil?

Oh tomorrow we shall go                     -King (change of countenance)

Tomorrow will not pass me by

Tomorrow cannot be if I go not

Swift went the king swifter fell the enemy         -Narrator

We saved the empire and   -servant (in scream from the battlefield)

More than eyes have seen or tongue counted before  -Servant (eye 

Tasted the savour of this royal branded steel    (witness from the battle)

While the bloodbath dripped from his mighty right arm

More than a thousand broken limbs went down with him too

we lost a king           -servant (servant breaks down in tears)

He might lie behind the walls but will he rest there?  -narrator

That night he said                   -Narrator (Flash back)

I bid you to swear                                             -King

Swear like the fathers ever did

When the heavy boughs of death lay on their broad shoulders

And could no longer they carry

we swore by the God of our fathers                         -Servant

By the ancient God of old

Who led our brothers to walk through the sea on dry path

After the river turned red,

That your bones rest in the belly of the earth and not burnt;

That should you even lie behind the walls of our fathers

When none could raise your bones across the rivers,

We will leave your bones facing our home

(Gbonyobu mli nyeko be jen  song)

Carrying his remains across the river -narrator (while action 

He slept with his fathers                       (goes on on stage)

Within the walls of their sacred abode like we swore

Dance 6

This is the day                      choreography display
Today the noise of battle ends
The victory song fills the air
The old warrior’s name sinks into our ears
But nowhere to hear them chant it

Today there was something in the sky

The clouds were dark and moon red
The warrior knows best 
But to give his people a leader

Today all our cream of soldiers fell
With him a thousand broken limbs
With the scream and shouts
Today gives his people victory

Today his achievements float on the earth
Today his body sinks below the earth
Today his soul joins the heroes
Today the heavens open for our hero