The majority of readers I intend to reach are thousands of miles
away from my roots. They are in the Eastern part of the United
States of America, Europe and of course everyone that would
love to read or is reading this book. I pray to reach you all. I
also pray that most of my beautiful people will develop the
habit of reading stories and decide to read my book.
This story
is about all of us; every person that has been yearning for
advancement, change, newness and greener pastures. I ask for
sharity not charity.
Basically, all that I want to share with you are simply how
beautiful I really felt about life in my childhood days and
aspirations of moving to Boston soon. Perhaps, a little bit
different from yours but I bet you by the time you finish reading, you will appreciate a connection to your story. If you
realize that I am talking about you, don't be surprised, we all
truly have something in common.
Please do keep in mind that I respect and admire every race,
country, religion and all manner of people. Therefore, I do not
intent to use my narrative, in any way, to degrade, insult or
humiliate any group of people.
This is purely fantasy, regardless the authenticity of my story.
I believe that every nation, race, religion, or the rich, the poor,
men, women and children are respected by God and have every
right to every good thing in this world of ours.
So after pretty much on-screen experiences of the US, Boston,
Massachusetts is, for many reasons, the city that caught my eye.
My first loved cities were New York City, Philadelphia and Los
Angeles, up until, one famous young environmentalist said
that NYC smells. I still want to go to NYC though, Brooklyn
precisely. Yes, Brooklyn.
I really want to see the Empire State building, which is almost
appearing in all Hollywood action movies. I want to visit
Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty's
Island and the New York museum of "borrowed" artifacts. Just
kidding.
Who doesn't love America? Everything is super-sized and
super fast. Countless entertainment platforms and sports. But,
frankly, there is something America isn't good at, at all. And
that, I'm sorry to say, is soccer. You can't play ball at all.
Well, Adam Sandler said he hated soccer so it makes sense. You are allowed to hate what you're not good at. Perfect sense.
I hope you know Adam Sandler though. Well he's one of my
favorite American comic actors based in California, or not.
I love people, and I believe these are the channels I can be very
good at to reach lots of them often.
Allow me to introduce to you the very wild fantasies I had
growing up. I was probably about seven years old when I had to endure
these pile of mysteries. They may sound funny now but I got
troubled as they kept repeating in my head.
First fantasy;
Growing up as a little boy, age seven, was a shy,
timid, quiet, bright boy with wild mysteries. Everything I
thought to find answers to was definitely too big for me but I
set up my own research department to solve them. I didn't want the easy way which is asking adults like my teachers, my mom
or older friends. Somehow, I also thought they wouldn't give
me the answers I wanted. So I set out to find answers for
myself.
There were many obscure things that baffled me ~ an obscure
little boy from Old Suame, and I proved my way to unravel the
mysteries. One of my many obscure things was the word,
'abroad'. I didn't really grasp the meaning before throwing it
around. Please blame my Primary 3 teacher. I also had other
mysteries surrounding airplanes and white people.
To me, at that age, I always thought 'abroad' was a word
referring to all Caucasian populace. Then, I later unraveled the
mystery and found out that 'abroad' basically means, beyond
the bounds of a country. In other words, every country is 'abroad' as long as it is outside the borders of my country. I
didn't grasp that well at age 7. Pity me.
Again, don't only blame my primary teacher, also blame
"Greetings from abroad'' ; the first Ghanaian International link
show on GTV which Nana Adwoa Awindor, the host, toured
and invited Ghanaians living in the UK, Germany, the USA,
the Netherlands, France, Belgium-so basically 'white people
land', to send greetings and best wishes to their families in
Ghana.
So unfortunately, she never toured and allowed any greetings
from Ghanaians living in Nigeria, Togo, Libya, Somalia or
even Ivory Coast. My guess then was right; they were not
'abroad'. I really loved that show though. South Africa for instance had me confused a lot of times. Up
until I saw a couple of white folks speaking what seemed like
native African language (Afrikaans) in some of their TV series,
then I concluded that South Africa perhaps could qualify as
'nearly abroad'.
Once upon a time, my mom was talking to my uncle on the
telephone and I always knew he was abroad. But I never knew
which country so I asked my mom which country my uncle
was living in. My Mom answered and said, "Your uncle is
South Africa". I busted out in laughter and told her that SA
isn't 'abroad'. It just right here in Africa. She then laughed
hard at me and got me upset.
So "abrokyire" in Twi, abroad in English, they sound nearly
the same, right? Basically, Togo, Nigeria, even Libya wasn't
'abroad' for me. My God, some clueless genius dummy little
boy I was.
Then tragically, the obscure little boy I was, I thought the
'abroad' was in the skies. Yes, my teacher never explained to
me or perhaps I didn't grasp the ideology that the earth was round. Also, that the whole world wasn't just Africa.
(Somehow we only had an African map poster in my
classroom)
So, another mystery unraveled thus Caucasians lived up in the
sky. Airplanes on the other hand, connected the dots for me.
I always saw airplanes go up then came to the conclusion that
the airplanes landed there. People traveled 'abroad' by
airplanes and it landed there, up in the skies, yes. 'Abroad' in
the skies. It all made perfect sense to me then, very funny right?
Just look at it from my obscure little self standpoint. I'm on
earth. I see airplanes fly high up into the skies then gradually
disappears. I never saw an airplane up close before let alone
travel by it. It therefore made perfect sense to me.
Then came the mystery surrounding Caucasians or better yet
White folks. Americans especially perplexed me a lot. The
Caucasians have extreme light skin tone. Africans have very
dark skin tone. So I wondered how that happened. I therefore
unraveled the mystery and came to the conclusion; the
Caucasians are up in 'abroad', Africans are based in scorching
hot Africa. So we get burned and they get snowed. Trust me, it
made perfect sense then.
I'm Charles. I come from the richest country in the world,
located in the richest continent in the world. Yet, I can't wait to move to Boston. The reason is very much clear. From day
one, we have been collectively lied to. I have always felt bad
because Africa is always presented in a negative light and the
spreading of these preconceived notions of Africans needing
the help of the US and Europe is actually quite egotistical.
Almost every precious mineral on this rich continent has been
bargained on colonial barter trade, even as of today and
exported to Europe and the Americas.