Sakawa Cars Under Fire

The bloody thirst for money through the sacrifice of vital parts of fellow humans for ritual purposes by the youth of today has started causing ugly problems to young and hard working people who drive relatively expensive cars.

Results from interviews conducted along the streets by a team of The Heritage reporters have revealed that eight out of 10 teenagers who driver expensive cars in parts of the capital are booed by people on the streets. The reason is simple; the perception is that “they killed people to buy those cars.”

Paul, a 20-year-old man, narrated his ordeal to newsmen. According to him, the Ford he drives belongs to a team of volunteers from the United States of America, who contracted him in August this year to drive them around.

“But, on more than three occasions, people have said to me ‘You are Sakawa man, God go punish you,’ he laments. According to him, when he is alone in the car and “especially, when I am playing music to ease off some stress; I get so angry and always reply them with an insult.”

Most of the teenage drivers interview on the Accra-Circle, 37-Airport roads re-echoed Paul’s experience. “I don’t know why people think some of us are Sakawa boys; I worked hard to buy this vehicle I drive,” was how Frank Adu, a businessman, put his frustration across.

The Heritage Newspaper rounds also revealed that not only are teenagers who driver private cars subjected to unfair verbal insults on the streets, but some landlords deliberately refuse to rent their premises to them. A classical case involved a 23-year-old final year student of the University of Ghana who narrated that his uncle living outside the country instructed him to find a three-bedroom, self-contained apartment for rent.

He said an agent led him to a house at Labone suburb of Accra, but on realizing that he drove there in a green Astra that belonged to his family, the landlord refused to negotiate the price with him on suspicion that he might be a ‘Sakawa’ man.