It was an early Easter Monday morning drive to the Osu market to grab ingredients to make Abom for breakfast . I drove into the market glad to see the market women at work despite it being a holiday and after 15 minutes I drove out pissed at no one in particular. The source of my pissed off mood? Blame the GHC 10 garden eggs nestling in the black rubber bag on the passenger seat. 5 pieces of garden eggs for GHC5 which meant one was for GHC1? ‘ Yes oh! It’s because there was no rain for sometime, that’s why’, explained the market woman. ‘Don’t worry eh, the rains have started so it will get better.’
I was almost home. I was about to turn into a street when I noticed little clusters of people staring in one direction (towards my left which I was about to turn into) and vaguely wondered what was attracting their attention. My vague wondering mind now came to full understanding of what had caught their attention. Two men were in the middle of the road and were engaged in what seemed to be a slight scuffle. Well, the bigger man in a red t-shirt seemed to be winning at whatever scuffle it was.
I blew the horn to separate them. Interestingly, it rather served to move both parties in the samedirection with the bigger of the two; Mr. Red Tshirt hotly following Mr. White Tshirt up-close-and-personal shooting indiscernible angry spats at his opponent. Someone had eaten Kenkey this morning.
They passed by on my left and before I was out of hearing, I saw Mr Red Tshirt raise his hand and a resounding smack met the sakora head of Mr. White! SMACK! ‘KAA FEE BUULU! ONU?’ shouted Mr Red Tshirt at Mr. White Tshirt.
Mr. White was either too drunk to respond or was wise enough to know that Mr. Red was definitely bigger in size and any fight he indulged in would see him at the receiving end of proper blows. Smart man.
I was sad for Mr. White. What was his crime? Had he stolen Mr. Red’s money or wife? I saw two young men lounging on a rock at the junction having a laugh at the unfolding drama.
People are frustrated. Food prices are extremely high, fuel prices keeps skyrocketing. The least wahala you give someone can evolve into a fight. Dont play with people's emotions kwraa.
Kaa Fee Buulu ‘Don’t be a fool’ is a popular strong threat or warning amongst the Ga’s. I have heard it spoken several times in my Dad’s family house in Adabraka where we would be left for weekends to get to know our relatives. I hated it. Every morning, I would wake up to the roughest and strongest of Ga insults which till today I blush to repeat. ‘Kaa Fee Buulu’, an Auntie would shout to a stubborn cousin who’s doing what he knows he shouldn’t be doing. He either got a smack in the head like Mr. White or a resounding knock on the head.
Maybe it’s timewe say Kaa Fee Buulu to some leaders in this country who are obviously running this country to the ground. Leaders who should be working to the growth & development of Ghana but rather ride in expensive 4WD’s forcing tax-payers off undercover tarred pot-holed roads.
Maybe it’s time you respond ‘Kaa Fee Buulu’ to anyone who tries to get you involved in corrupt practices at work or asks for sexual favors before giving you a job for which you rightly merit to have.
Instead of us keeping quiet, we must voice our anger at the corrupt, the rotten and the thievery going on in Ghana. So I ask you, ‘Ofee buulu alo?’