What Would The Dead Have Us Do?

I am thinking about death and the dead. Not that I can help it. The Story of late president Mills on the airwaves is a constant reminder. Either the man on the flute is playing dirges or a group is discussing the late president’s life’s history, character and good works interspersed with tribute songs by various musicians. The late president’s pictures are rolling in the background on TV all the time with a little insert that says Ghana mourns President Mills. All programs, radio and TV alike are almost always dedicated to the president’s memory or begin with some reminder that the country is in mourning. So I really can’t help it if I am still talking about the dead!

There are 3 strands to the storytelling; what kind of a man he was; how like someone we know, the late president literally laid down his life for country and underlying these two, the third; what the late president expects from us, the people of Ghana. The first 2 whether you agree with the substance or not, are relatively straight forward, as they are things about which the late president’s words and actions, and the unsurprisingly flattering memories of those that knew him provide insights and direction.

It is the question of what the late president expects from us that I find intriguing.  

On the question of the burial place which thankfully has been resolved, there were some very passionate cries against the Jubilee House as a possible location. “Please don’t’ bury him there, he (President Mills) will be unhappy. He never liked that place”! Yep I agree he would have if he was alive but he dead.

Then when some party bigwigs went to town complaining about President Mahama’s vice presidential nominee (who by the way has just been sworn in; Go Ghana!), the rank and file quickly bared their teeth on radio call-ins. Their message, “our big men should stop the in-fighting. This is the time to close our ranks and win the December polls for President Mills”. They also admonished their top politicians to stop haggling over positions in the party as “the late president would not like that”!

Many state officials, influential persons in society and indeed many on the streets also agree on one thing; that the country’s greatest honour to president Mills is to hold peaceful elections because “that is what he would want”.

And did I hear someone say that the Olympics team to London 2012 was going to do the best they can to bring back medals because that would please the late president? From the look of things I have a fair idea what sort of motivation this ... is not.

I know I am a bit of a skeptic so I am betting the dead seldom declare their wishes from whence they may be. Otherwise I am pretty certain all those weeping, wailing, pouring their hearts out and claiming some significance in the scheme of things (including me who is relentless in my mourning clothes) would be running helter- skelter at the sound of a ghost, even if it’s that of the humble, peaceful Asomdwehene.

So I take it, we really want to say it is in our interest to act in the ways we imagine will make the late president happy.  For the last time, he dead!

Can someone tell that boy’s uncle that his dead brother would be displeased if he continued whittling away the boy’s inheritance?