Criminal As You

In an absolute frankness, the writer deciphers into the role of Rastafari in the System. Extensive coverage of what slavery was in the Caribbean & America is also addressed in the book.

The Man recalls with anxiety Africa's past and some African Heroes who came in the Middle-passage. Ras Tanko hate 'The Slave System' - as he calls it - but he offered possible solution to his Black bothers and sisters all over the world how to beat 'The System' with African Unity as a main.

It is a life account of what we need to do next. It is all here in Criminal As You: "Only a criminal can judge a criminal."

For the sake of his controversial novel, I‘ll placate the true origin of this young African writer. Tanko was born Kwesi at Tatale - a growing town along the Ghana/Togo border in the Northern Region of Ghana - to Onanjiri Tasiri of Ghana and Maabi Onanjiri of Togo on the 6th of March 1973. He attended and completed Tatale Elementary School in 1987. He then moved to Accra the same year where his parents live and finished his Ordinary and Advanced levels within a short period of five years instead of the normal seven.

During his childhood and boyhood days at Tatale, Tanko tried to play truancy, as common among the Hausa youths from that part of Ghana. (His best friends who almost converted him into the Islam religion without success, but succeeded in changing or adding Tanko to his names. Some of his household still knows him as Kwesi.) Unfortunately for The Man, Tatale was a small community then, where nearly everybody knows everybody. At any time his absence was notice, his teacher called on his guardian to find out what kept him from school that particular day. To add insult to injury, some teachers lived in houses owned by his family. When he absconded school, I insisted he received twenty-four lashes the following day.

His wisdom and maturity started at the early age of Nine. He began narrating tales, riddles and quoting proverbs that led many adults in the Tatale Township to call him ‘Tiyaaja’ in his native Konkomba language, meaning ‘Our Grandfather.' I could detail out several instances in school that he was called upon to re-write his assignments in class because his tutors taught he did his homework at home with help from educated elites in his family. He always went through this test with ease.

Into two years stay in the capital, Tanko started writing articles for publications in several Newspapers in Ghana anonymously. Some articles were almost prophecies. For example, his article with the title, "SADDAM HUSSEIN; THE MAN, IRAQ & THE FUTURE" where he signaled the world of the fragile peace between Iraq and Iran. Alerting that Saddam was not mollified, led to his invasion of Kuwait the subsequent year. In another article in the summer of ‘89, Tanko -who claimed Charles Taylor stopped him on a bike around Accra High School and offered him a good wage to fight for him- postulated that Taylor was a dangerous fellow and such the PNDC Government shouldn’t set him free. (Charles Taylor was imprisoned in Ghana about the same time when he came to solicit for help from Ghana to topple Samuel Doe in Liberia. Taylor has since displaced Liberians and murdered nearly half of Liberia's population.)

Tanko’s fascination with Rastafarianism, which he clearly addresses in his novel, is something he was born into. In 1988, barely a year after his brutal assassination, The Man wrote; "I REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE THE DEATH OF PETER TOSH." In this article, he consoled Tosh numerous fans and factual out that his listeners should see Lucky Dube as another Peter Tosh. The article was polished up three years later under the Heading "THE DREAD IS ALIVE." This one appeared in a South African Weekly, the birthplace of the second Tosh. Growing up on the hymns written and performed by the Mystic Man, we all thought Tanko would become a musician - a third Peter Tosh. However, destiny has other plans for The Man.

Unfavorable factorial conditions kept the toad inside the pond otherwise, it will also be outside jumping like the frog. Some thought provoking articles by Tanko were refused for publication in foreign Newspapers and magazines because of their militant contents. They bore the following headings; "NON-ALIGNED SURPASSES THE UNITED NATIONS," "WATCH OUT FOR PRESIDENT BUSH CARNAGE IN AFRICA""BROTHER ‘Q’! WE RESPECT THEE! "(Where ‘Q’ is Qadhafi Muammar), "AMERICA AND FRANCE: Another Sodom & Gomorrah,""LEAVE SADDAM HUSSIEN ALONE "and "OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING: America! Reap what you sow."

Tanko, who is never seen without a storybook plans to travel abroad for further studies in the Fall of 1992, when The Man had just completed Sixth-Form. He was so intelligent that I recommended Canada. Instead, he found himself in the beautiful resort Island of Antigua in the Winter of ‘93, where he was in habitation for two years. It didn’t surprise me when in 1995 he met me at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, with his second novel. He had earlier sent me a script from Antigua titled; "SLAVERY DAYS IN ANTIGUA" for publication, but it was tossed aside for reasons unclear to me.

Possessing a maturity far far beyond his age, Kwesi, Tanko, The Man’s greatest wish is to see Africans in Africa and Africans in the Diaspora united in his lifetime. He claims that is the first step toward building a United States of Africa. This is currently happening. This much is certain: "Criminal As You" is Tanko’s version of what took place in Antigua. There were other Africans who probably saw a different side of Her. As he said to me over the phone the other day; "Me really lub Antigua you know! Antiguans were very nice to me. The political ‘shituation’ in the country that has external influence is what I detest. My partner is Antiguan and I will more live in Antigua than any so-called Developed Nation." Well, I asked The Man why he left Antigua since he claim her people were very nice to him; "Uncle, when you are summoned before a chief and won your case, you don’t stay longer in that palace. Sooner than later, the chief will start finding faults with you."

The Man is very jovial. He has a habit of cracking silly jokes that made him likeable by many if not all who‘s been in contact with him. Though some contents in his book might sound weird; that is not his person. Let us give him all the necessary encouragement to bring out what he was sent to earth to do. "I came here to elevate my people who have been oppressed and suppressed by a system designed by Satan," says The Black Man without guile. To my cousin Ras Tanko, I say more grease to your elbows. In the words of R. Kelly; ‘You are not alone.' Jah is with The Man.