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The evil that men do ...
LIBRARY PHOTO

The evil that men do ...

Kwabena, a meek and obedient boy, lived with his stepmother, Auntie Hannah, whose biological son was Kodjo.

Their father died leaving all his properties to Auntie Hannah to administer on behalf of the two boys so that when they grew up, they would take over their administration. Unfortunately, Auntie Hannah wanted her son Kodjo to have everything, so she started to maltreat Kwabena in the hope that it would drive him to his early death.

She constantly beat him, sometimes with metals which left serious scars on his body. Worse still, she was hardly bothered about taking him to the hospital whenever he fell sick.

Hardly did Auntie Hannah buy any new clothing for Kwabena. While she purchased designer wears for Kodjo, she bought a few cheap rejected second-hand clothing for Kwabena. Even in the payment of their school fees and provision of educational materials, she discriminated.

She adopted various tricks to cover up her crimes. For instance, she enrolled Kwabena in the same school as Kodjo. But as fate would have it, Kwabena turned out to be a very brilliant student while Kodjo was a dull and lazy student who did not put in any effort to better himself.

Since Kwabena was good and they were in the same class, one would have expected that Kodjo would rely on him to assist him at home with subjects and topics he had difficulty in, but he never did. Instead, he watched television and played video games throughout the night to the extent that sometimes, but for the pressure put on him from school and at home to do his homework, he would not do them. 

Instead of Auntie Hannah ensuring he did his work, she rather condoned his behaviour. Sometimes, she even forced Kwabena to do Kodjo’s homework for him. As for doing chores at home, the least said the better.
Kwabena, who did not know the evil plot his stepmother had for him, went about his life the normal way. He did whatever thing he was asked to do without complaint and sometimes went out of his way to execute tasks which had to be done but  had not been assigned to him. He was also very religious and prayed to God in everything he did and that helped him overcome many difficulties in life.
Soon, it was time for them to be registered to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Auntie Hannah paid for the registration fee of only Kodjo, yet she told Kwabena she had paid his, which was not true. On the deadline set for the payment of the registration fee, it took the benevolence of one of Kwabena’s teachers to pay for him. Kwabena did not take all those to heart but continued to pray so that God would touch his stepmother’s heart.

On the morning of the day they were expected to start the BECE, Kwabena made sure that his pen, eraser, pencils, ruler and other things needed for the examination were set in his bag before he left for school. He got to school and entered the examination hall only to realise his pen and other things he would need for the examination were missing. He searched for them frantically but could not find them.

The examination had also started. When the invigilator turned to issue some instructions to the candidates, he saw Kwabena still looking for something inside his bag and so asked him why he was not seated. That was when amidst sobs, Kwabena told him he could not find his pen and other things he had put inside his bag.

Unknown to Kwabena, Auntie Hannah took the things from his bag so that he would not be able to write the examination.

The invigilator knew how good Kwabena was so he quickly made an announcement for anyone with a spare of those items to give them to Kwabena and in less than two minutes, the students responded. With those items, Kwabena was able to write the examination. Kodjo, who had everything he needed, struggled to write the examination.

As greedy as Auntie Hannah was, she ensured that Kwabena did not get any of the properties. She and Kodjo took everything. That, therefore, saw Kodjo waste money on frivolous things. In the end, Kwabena passed with good grades to the extent that he won a government scholarship to study abroad and upon completion, he gained employment in a reputable company.

As for Kodjo, because of the way he was raised, he ended up not making it in life. He started using hard drugs too which became an embarrassment to his mother.

Even though he was an adult, Auntie Hannah had to work and fend for him. She later regretted raising her son that way. She realised that indeed, “the evil that men do lives after them”.

Haneef Abeiku Forson,
Best-Way Grammar Academy,
P.O. Box 16695,
Santa-Maria.

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