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Click  here for Part 1  of Compound House Chronicles. It is a free show now with tenants peeping through their windows to see the faces behind the outrage. They know Kofi Maame will be involved and she is right there in the thick of affairs. She is second best to Auntie Maggie in the league of scolding and her razor mouth could break even the heart of iron. She is the encyclopedia of the house (has information about every single tenant) and is the ‘nicest’ first tenant who befriends new co-tenants as soon as they move in. Kofi Maame trades information about every single tenant in the house in exchange for new information and ‘something’ about the newbie. Gossip comes to her so easily. And like pictures on a TV screen, her friendship is just as fleeting. Currently she is not on good terms with at least four tenants in the house. Her type, is not so rare in houses like these. Her latest victim seems to be the younger sister of one tenant, with whom she has started a q...

Growing up in a compound house is an advanced study in deliberate provocation with topics in applied core values of patience, respect, sharing and caring. No one lives and grows in a compound house without learning and passing these core values. If one fails, that person may probably be the agent provocateur or the paragon of disrespect with extra traces of incurable impatience. Anger management skills and social psychology must be the next course for that person to pursue immediately. I lived and grew up in a compound house and I believe I have passed the core values with distinction. A compound house is a term used to describe semi-detached building structures where occupants share a common compound and utilities. Occupants in most compound houses and their guests share a common bathroom. They share a single electricity meter, and tap water. That which they are to share in peace and love are the objects of divisions, quarrels and acrimony. My life in the compound ho...

I was exhausted and heavily drained after work that Friday. It was so bad I could hardly get out of my car when I finally reached home. Finding my keys in my handbag was another stress altogether but I managed that and walked to the door. I could not wait to get that cold shower and the good night rest I needed so badly. But I noticed something – the light in my bedroom was on. It wasn’t as if it was unusual because sometimes in my haste to get to work early, I forget to put it off. But I was pretty sure I switched it off that morning because I had to go back to the room and put it off after I saw it on through the window. I reached out for the doorknob and before I could insert the key, the door flipped open. Then my heart skipped. “What is happening?” I murmured to myself and dropped my handbag right at the door. I was alarmed, I couldn’t have left my lights on and the door unlocked, especially when a neighbour had been robbed and stabbed a few days ago. The most likely gues...

The Pulpit is an annual Gospel reality show on TV which brings out evangelistic talents in children and excites a lot of viewers over the last few years. But in commercial buses that ply Lapaz to Kasoa, little kids do not preach for the cameras; they live what the other children do every year on TV, preaching almost every day in commercial buses, winning souls for Christ and taking money for it. It is not as if preaching in commercial vehicles is a new phenomenon in Ghana. It is as old as the buses that ply the Circle, Kaneshie and Odorkor roads, but when kids between the ages of eight and ten are quoting scriptures with authority in rickety buses and begging for coins after each journey then the battle for salvation has become even more keener. That is the story of some young ‘trotro’ evangelists whom I have decided to call Paa Nii and Yaw. Their story is one of determination to survive against all formidable odds and a zest to win souls for Christ. It was a Saturday trip to th...