The lifelong love of Kwame Mainu
Comfort Opokua was the liveliest girl in school; a natural choice for class captain, and voted her most popular girl of the year twice. Perhaps she was not the most beautiful, she was certainly the most vivacious. Like most boys, Kwame was captivated, but he felt that he had little chance of winning Comfort’s friendship. Thinking of her kept other thoughts at bay and calmed her mind to study, but her casual greeting from her as they passed on the street could make her heart pound for an hour.
After leaving school, Kwame looked for a job in Suame Magazine, Kumasi’s huge informal industrial area. He set up a business selling market carts that prospered for a few years but declined in the mid-1970s. Sitting under a neem tree behind his neat row of elegantly painted carts, reading a newspaper, Kwame’s mind wandered. he snapped when he heard a familiar female voice say, ‘Hey, Kwame, what are you doing here?’ Looking up, he was surprised to see the sight that had enchanted his schoolboy dreams: Comfort Opokua.
In February 1980, Comfort gave birth to their daughter, Akosua, and a month later married Kwame in a traditional ceremony in their hometown of Konongo. Kwame earned an engineering degree in June and worked at the University of Kumasi while looking for a way to further her education. Entering the University of Warwick in England in 1985, he earned a little extra money as a translator for UK authorities investigating a Kumasi-based drug cartel. Although she began to build a house in Kumasi, Comfort grew impatient for faster material progress and disliked Kwame helping foreigners against her own people. ‘Look at you, Kwame Mainu! You are 31 years old and you still don’t have a house or a good job. You have no ambition for your family. You can never make up your mind about anything. I’m tired of giving you excuses. I’ve been talking to your mother and she says you’re just like your father. She was forced to give up such a useless person and I must do the same.
After leaving Kwame with Akosua, Comfort went into his shoe-trading business and managed to acquire an impressive residence in the posh Garden City suburb of Nhyiasu. It was there that Kwame met her again eight years later and began to dream of a reconciliation. One day, arriving early and waiting for Comfort to come home, Kwame started reading a shoe catalog. ‘Which pair are you planning to buy me?’ Comfort must have entered quietly, and leaned over his shoulder, enveloping him in her scented aura. He leaned further forward to point to his favorite shoe and Kwame was electrified when his hair brushed his cheek and his soft chest pressed against the back of his neck. “I like that style,” he said.
And no man could refuse you! she whispered in his ear.
Calm down, Kwame Mainu, or you’ll ask me to come back.
I never wanted you to go.
“It was a big mistake and I’m sorry.”
