Manasseh Awuni Azure eulogizes Jerry John Rawlings in a collection of memories

I had never been denied an opportunity to meet Rawlings anytime I requested to meet him. I met him three times between 2016 and 2019, and we had conversations. Each time I left his Ridge residence, however, the same question rang in my head like an ancient church bell:
“Is that J.J. Rawlings I just met and sat down to have a conversation with?”
Some things are always unreal no matter how many times you encounter them. Familiarity does nothing to reduce some shocks. And for people of my generation and many Ghanaians, meeting Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings and having a conversation with him was certainly one of them. Many years earlier, a combined prophecy from Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ about that possibility would have left many in doubt.
Rawlings was the most charismatic and influential political figure in Ghana apart from the country’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah. He was Ghana’s longest-serving head of state. But to many, including me, he was a mythical figure, the kind of superhero who could only be encountered in wild fictions. Indeed, as children, we encountered him in fiction.
I grew up in Kete-Krachi, a peninsula community far away from the national capital, Accra. There was a fisherman who had a small private boat he used to commute from one fishing community to the other. The horsepower of the outboard motor that propelled the boat was much bigger than the size of the boat. So, whenever “Abiba’s Power”, for that was his nickname, was on the lake, the speed of his tiny boat cut through the placid lake like a knife. It was an unmistakable public spectacle.

But there was more to the spectacle that drew attention to the man. There was a painting of Rawlings on the wooden boat. As children, we were told that the outboard motor had been given to him by J.J. Rawlings.
What had he done to win the favour of Rawlings?
The story had it that J.J. Rawlings once visited Kete-Krachi, and unknown to his hosts, he decided that he would pass the night on one of the islands. He sneaked out of the government apartment, and Abiba’s Power was the fisherman who ferried Rawlings to the island and brought him back before sunrise the following day. The powerful outboard motor was Rawlings’ token of appreciation to him. This was one of the many mythical tales we believed about Rawlings.
Whenever he visited Krachi for a party rally or a government function, farmers would not go to the farm. Fishermen would abandon their fishing canoes and nets, and schools would close. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of him. The following day in school, only one topic prevailed – the visit by J.J. Rawlings.
Party posters with Rawlings’ face were a priced possession every household adored. We the children would steal those at public places and use them to cover our exercise books.
This was the Rawlings I was sitting down with.