CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE, THE HIGHEST MEDAL FOR EXCESSIVE LIQUOR INTAKE [TO THE GRAVE AT LAST]

When pepper falls on the forehead, it’s a sign of danger to the eye. And when fire catches the hair on the head, the beard begins looking for water. These are popular wise sayings of the Kassena people of Navrongo sued mostly to explain that, death is a warning to the living. But is there any such thing as respectful death?

Author of this article is Fuseini B. Adivila

These days, we have drinks like “lacquer, undertaker, striker,” and all the deadly heavyweight fighters for human consumption. Why won’t the youth be dying while the aged that inherited pito [a popular local Kassena beer] from their great grandparents, continue to live? 

Growing up as a youth in Navrongo, there used to be a lot of popular “pito bases” [places where pito was usually brewed and sold] all over the town. And after every market evening, the competition as to which pito sold better depended on largely on how good the pito was brewed. The standard of measurement during those times, was usually the taste and not alcohol content.

People did not fancy beer at that time, except retired teachers and civil servants [with all apologies] even though, there were also a few drinking spots. The poor, however, mostly prefer “akpeteshi" [100% alcohol] because of its affordable and which easily gets one drunk. 

Navrongo at some point in time actually had an “akpeteshi" tester [mind you, this wasn’t the regular laboratory set up for testing with installed equipment] but rather, a human being had to consume it in order to verify the quality of the drink. This is the 100% alcohol which is not sold anywhere in the world for direct human consumption, except in Ghana.

I learnt recently that human tester, popularly known in the Navrongo township as Company is dead and gone, and as of now, I don’t know if they have found his replacement or the practice is no longer in existence. Also, among certain people, it’s used as an appetizer to clear the way for meals. Hmmmm!

However it is worthy of note that, “pito” and “akpeteshi” were often used for funerals and for service to people rendering services to a neigbour or friend on the basis of communal labor [unpaid service/help] and also, the aged would often take several sips to relax after a hard day’s work in the farm. Most of the youth hardly drank “akpeteshi” back in the day. But sadly, the trend has changed dramatically. The devil, they say, finds work for the idling hands. 

A lot of drinking spots nowadays even do credit record keeping; write your name down, you ask for any amount of alcohol and pay at the end of the month or if you like “when moon die".😂

If the rate at which drinking spots increase in the Upper East Region of Ghana could be translated into the setting up of for instance, Non-Governmental Organisations [no matter how small], a lot of the youth would’ve been millionaires if not billionaires by now. 

However, teachers, nurses, contractors, market women, farmers et all have all resorted to the opening and operation of drinking spots in every nook and cranny in Navrongo and I dare say, in majority parts of the Upper East Region as a whole. And the rule to hook up with people and to make new friends is “if you don’t drink, you don’t have a friend”.

To drum my point about the devastating effects of alcohol on people especially, the youth, please permit me to share this beautiful anonymous write up about alcohol and alcoholism titled: “OH ALCOHOL!”

Alcohol, we have been friends for some time. I enjoyed your friendship all this while. You gave me courage to speak in public. You gave me appetite whenever I have none. You were always there to help me distress. Even you helped me wake my sleeping libido.

Oh alcohol! You are so magical and smart. You changed me from introvert to extrovert. You changed me from timid to confident. You made me outspoken from my shyness. You got me many friends and loved ones.

They followed me because I have the key to you. I have money to call you in bottles and in gallons. I am the only one you answer to whenever I call. You never disappointed me in the presence of my friends. We had agreement that my earnings are yours. But you must be available every time all the time.

I have all the years kept to the agreement. You have also kept your part of the agreement. We have been great friends, so I thought. But of late I have realized something.

You are not a great friend after all. You are a deceiver and destroyer. Where is my wife and my children? You gave me strength to abuse them all. You have destroyed my once beautiful family.

My brilliant children dropped out of school.

You took their school fees from me. Look at my once beautiful wife now. She has gone through pain, shame and abuse. Every night and day, she cried her tears out. You have become her bitter rival. 

You took away her legal husband all to yourself and refused to share. Her husband breathes and spit out alcohol. He urinates and shits alcohol. He even sweat out alcohol. Scent of alcohol fills every corner of her house. She breathes in alcohol like a fuel attendant does fuel. She endured the vomits of an alcoholic for years.

Oh alcohol! You have rubbed me of my health. Eight of my beautiful teeth you have claimed. My nice black lips, you have turned red. My dignity and respect, you have taken away. I now know that you are a wicked greedy friend. Every good thing I had, you have taken away.

I have learnt my lesson.” What a beautiful poem!

To conclude my dear readers, when one signs a covenant with alcohol, there comes that point in time, that your liver starts to deteriorate, your stomach swells, your eyes become yellowish, your urine smells like that of a donkey, you lose all your weight [looking like that of a paper]. You become timid to every creature. That’s the point at which death is staring you directly in the eyes.

And you’ve been awarded with the highest medal that humbles you to the grave.

It’s also at this point that, soothsayers and other spiritual leaders will attribute it to your house’s and family’s innocent old men and women as being the cause of your own predicament. But at the end, it’s chronic liver disease you have actually ended up with. Period. The liver has to work hard to eliminate excess alcohol from the body system and so if you give it too much work as in the case excessive intake of alcohol, it will definitely breakdown and your days, very numbered.  

Remember death is inevitable, and once you die, you never know you ever lived, but again like I asked from the onset, do we have any such thing as respectful death?

Your guess is as good as mine. 🤝

AUTHOR

Fuseini B. Adivila a.k.a Ras Vilas-Man

[Email: anefuzzy@yahoo.com]