A tragedy occurred in Osu, Ghana, in the murky light of a streetlamp in the humid center of Accra, where the city is alive with vibrant marketplaces and highlife music. In the alley outside a well-known chop bar, Kofi Mensah, a thirty-two-year-old cab driver with a fast smile and tired eyes, stood shakily. Years of holding the steering wheel had hardened his hands, which now held a kitchen knife with a crimson-slick blade. Adwoa, his three-year lover, was at his feet, her bright kente dress darkly soiled, her screams fading into the darkness.
In the past, Kofi and Adwoa's love had made their partners jealous. Over the roaring waves, he heard her laughing when they met at a beach party in Labadi. However, Kofi had been plagued for months by rumors about Adwoa's nomadic nature. Her phone was guarded like a fetish priest's shrine, and she had become aloof. Kofi witnessed the reality last night at a friend's bar: Adwoa was standing close to a svelte businessman, her hand on his leg, and they were laughing at him.
He was simmering with rage, but her casual denial was what finally got to him. When challenged in her little room in Osu, she had snarled, "You're too small for me now, Kofi." His pride was pierced by the remarks, which were as keen as a cutlass. He snatched the knife from her counter in a daze. Her eyes opened in disbelief, then dimmed, and then there was another push. Her last scream was absorbed by the alley.
Kofi was now still as the knife fell out of his grasp and clattered on the uneven sidewalk. The metallic flavor of blood blended with the aroma of fried yam from neighboring booths. Voices came—night vendors, maybe, or lovers looking for seclusion. He was in a panic, yet he was immobile. Her deception had transformed his intense love for her into an uncontrollable venom.
While distant sirens screamed, Kofi muttered, "Adwoa, why?" There was no response from the stars above. Their love story concluded not with a dance but with a terrible reckoning in the colorful pandemonium of Accra—a tragedy that would reverberate through the streets of Osu for years to come.
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