The Wrath of Truth

Sionne, I want to first thank you for at least breaking your silence. I’m sure that it took a lot of strength and gumption, and for that if nothing else I applaud you.  I am aware of the passing of your father and you have my sincerest condolences as I cannot imagine what it is like to loose a parent. I could speculate as to how what transpired in your attack affected the timing of his death, but because it is not my story I will leave you to do that when you are ready. However, I find many of the claims you are making in your statement released on September 12^th to be extremely problematic. First, Sionne, I harbor no sentiments of contention in anyway towards you. Notice my tone in “We Should All Be Ashamed” was one of compassion and love. I want you to know that hasn’t changed. However, in love, sometimes we have to do what is uncomfortable, tough and even harsh in our pursuit of holding our loved ones accountable. I love you enough to tell you, woman to woman, you are wrong.

In “We Should All Be Ashamed” I acknowledged the fact that the silence we are being asked to observe (now publicly by you) isn’t merely on the fruition of those accused of silence in the article, rather it is a request they were simply carrying out on behalf of your wishes. I realize that fully and entirely. My question is WHY?

I have to be honest and say I was completely shocked when I read your statement Sionne. I was equally as shocked by the forewords your friends and colleagues were attaching as a symbol of solidarity with you. Jessica Horn, Namata Musisi, Nana Akosua Hanson and Nana Sekyiamah you are all womens’ activists and feminists with some of you making a living off of espousing such politically charged assertions. Yet we have a clear instance of where your activism is needed the most and instead of you coming together to strategize about how you can seek justice, on behalf of the survivor Dr. Neely of the assault by Mantse Aryeequaye, you attempt to silence and attack the credibility of the author of the article exposing your scandal. Ladies, this is dangerous. This is very, very dangerous and I will break down why.

You all have made a very unsuccessful attempts to subvert attention away from the issue at hand, which is the brutality committed by Mantse Aryeequaye against his partner Dr. Sionne Rameah Neely. You have concealed yourselves away from answering my question in the first article “Why is this abuse being shrouded in secrecy”. This is the erasure you all speak about. I can check any one of your social media profiles at this very moment and see evidence of your feminist proclamations regarding erasure, silence and domestic abuse, and here you all are with your feeble attempts to silence me. It really is a shame. Nevertheless, let it be known, Sionne Neely, Rita Nketia and co., you cannot silence me, nor will you calm the ripples that have been created. Jessica Horn, you should understand what it’s like for someone to attack you in such a way given how you cowered in your recent social media bout with Mantse’s shadow Nii Ayertey Aryeh (which you have since deleted from your Facebook timeline).

Ladies, you are implicating yourselves. You are exercising dogma, the same thing you admonish when exercised by religious fundamentalists and right-wing populists. Demanding that others are held to a standard you yourselves have no intention of adhering to– unaccountability – is the key ingredient of being corrupt. The message you all have sent to the public and even to Mantse his self is that we should not seek justice if it involves people whom are close to us. We should only seek justice and accountability when it’s Bobi Wine, Mensah Otabil or Bill Cosby. If this is the case what do you really believe in? If this is your definition of feminism and activism I want no part in it because with this mindset you are all useless to its cause. Where do you ladies stand? Is it on the side of justice, which is rooted in truth, or on the side of preserving a false image with the motive of “playing into a populist narrative merely for the sake of notoriety and profit?”

Silence, especially when your silence is obstructing justice and allows a violent criminal like Mantse Aryeequaye to be on the loose, is a crime in itself.  Sionne, it seems you and your posse, are merely offended by truth. You haven’t denied that you have been beaten and brutalized only that you are offended someone made it public and your friends are only concerned with the fact that they have been accused of silence. You were all given the opportunity to address the issue at hand, which is abuse, but instead of making strategic use of that space you all merely chose to try and discredit my efforts. That was a very bad move. What your responses merely prove is how you prioritize your self-image over what is right and what is fact. You, Sionne, claim (you make a lot of claims) that you are concerned with healing and truth, but you’ve yet to address truth. The same can be said of your friends. They want to save face and discredit someone who truly wishes to see a criminal put away for his crimes and I cannot allow such loose talk to go unaddressed.

Dear Namata, just as I have told Sionne I want you to know as well that I harbor no ill sentiments in anyway toward you. Any critique I offer you henceforth is only for your betterment as a self-proclaimed activist and a woman as a whole. You have potential to do a lot of good, but it certainly cannot be realized in the manner in which you have been voicing your positions as of late. Please take time to heed my forthcoming advice. The statements you made in your preamble on Facebook were unnecessary and out-right wrong. For one, I cannot fathom what is a more epitomizing example of “performative activism” than your recent display at Black Star Square. Next, have you personally shared the news of Dr. Neely’s attack with anyone outside of those she confided in herself? If your answer is yes, you have no right to demand anyone else not do the same. If you do, you are a hypocrite. This is nonnegotiable. Last is your statement about creating non-toxic societies where a Mantse Aryeequaye cannot exist, proliferate or thrive. What then is ACCRA [dot] ALT? It is indeed a micro-society where Mantse continues to proliferate, am I wrong? How can we ignore what already exists and insist we should instead focus our energy on building a prototype without said toxin? What’s to stop this person and others like him from infiltrating any society they choose if they have not been held accountable for their actions in their own society? Don’t you think it’s a better use of our energy to rid our current civilization of the toxicity and filth that currently persists in it? Namata, your responses tell me a number of things about you, but one in particular is that you simply, in this instance, do not know what you are talking about. Just listen for a while.

Before I explicitly get into addressing Sionne’s statement I want to make a point to Jessica Horn, Namata Serumaga-Musisi, Nana Akosua Hanson, Nana Sekyiamah and others, YOU ALONE ARE NOT THE GATEKEEPERS OF SIONNE’S JUSTICE! By the virtue of activism WE are ALL responsible for seeking justice for one another and specifically with seeking justice for a woman of our community. Did Trayvon Martin’s parents or Sandra Bland’s mother have to give us permission to rally behind them seeking justice for their murdered son and daughter? No! We all did it lovingly and willingly because we know it was the right thing to do. For those of you so keen on admonishing Mensah Otabil, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer and R. Kelly for their despicable acts against humanity, where is your passion for seeking justice for this cause? Just consider the famous quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Namata, do you see how your prescription to simply creating a different society is problematic and purely will not work? Your good friend Dr. Sionne Rameah Neely has been brutalized by her partner Mantse Aryeequaye and does not want to speak up about it, have any of you women unambiguously asked her WHY?

Now, Sionne, these are the wrongs made in your statement that I will address below.

You start your statement by introducing yourself and stating your purpose for writing the piece published on medium.com. The very first accusation you make is “there was no sincere consideration about my story, circumstances, personal and professional life, and relationships.” Dear Sionne, so many of us have stood by and silently watched as Mantse Aryeequaye would speak down to you, belittle and undermine your voice in meetings and social settings in Accra. In fact, we are all at least acutely aware that this now very public instance of physical abuse is not the first of its kind; perhaps the most brutal and detrimental of all, but certainly not the first. You think we cannot see? You think we do not hear? Sionne, “We Should All Be Ashamed” was written with the utmost consideration for your life. We have all stood by for far too long as Mantse Aryeequaye has preyed on you and others around you and we are tired and we will not allow him to prevail again.

Now, this brings me to another point in terms of consideration for your personal relationships: how many of your close relationships with women in the community were brought to an end because of sexual harassment by Mantse Aryeequaye that took place right under your nose? Furthermore, how many women interns and young creative people have been exposed to the violent and malicious behavior of Mantse, as you too sitteth at his right hand in the ACCRA [dot] ALT workspace? Are you willing to make the statement that you were unaware of what was happening in the space that you helped to create? If you dare, we all know that you would be lying. Don’t you think it’s time you stop covering for this sick and sadistic man? WHY are you covering for him Sionne? What is in it for you? Even if you believe you do not owe me an answer to my questions, you do owe an answer to the public especially those who have taken you at your word all this time and never thought to question you. You owe an explanation to the many young women you, in a sense, mothered as they worked for you and your cause at ACCRA [dot] ALT. If you still insist you do not owe us anything we will all know you are just a fraud. I want you to understand something; my only purpose here is justice! If your professional and personal relationships take a toll because the truth is finally being brought to light, you should ask yourself what type of people these are that you have befriended and engaged in business with in the first place. If anyone has a problem with a community seeking justice for violence committed against a woman in their community, they are not the kind of people you as a women’s activist should be dealing with anyway.

In the next paragraph you make the assertion that my first article “has misrepresented a very complex situation and amplified my private life in public ways that distract from the critical work, finances and energy that I and others have contributed, for nearly a decade, to shaping ACCRA [dot] ALT and the CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival.”

What you are telling us Sionne is that what ACCRA [dot] ALT pretends to be doing is more important than what its founders are actually doing in their personal lives. And you really do believe it to be true. You think because the work purports to be critical (even though it’s falling short of the claims it makes) that what happens in your personal life is off limits and it’s simply not true. ADA itself is actually forming into a very dangerous space for women, artists and any human being who believes in respecting women and the work of artists. How many times have you all told artists who participate in the festival and others who helped build Chale Wote into what is today that there was no money and you couldn’t compensate them for the work they were doing? Did you not sit on an ACASA panel a year ago and tell a bold face lie regarding the festival asserting that you and Mantse entirely fund CW out of pocket? YOU WERE LYING! We know it, have it on record and as such can prove it, but all in due time. If you are willing to lie about how this festival is funded you are also willing to cover up this abuse in order to preserve your image and the image of your partner Mantse Aryeequaye for the purpose of advancing your professional career. This is ends now Sionne, with or without you! Damaging ADA could affect your livelihood and ability to make a living but is sustaining this avenue of revenue more important than ensuring more women are not hurt at the hands of this man? Is saving ADA worth the price of allowing Mantse to get away with such a vicious act against you that if involved someone else you would feel compelled to speak out against? Whose side are you on Sionne?

Let us talk about kokonsa (which means gossip). Here is what you wrote, “This writing does not bring me joy, solace or peace and has the potential to further deepen existing tensions within Accra’s small arts community by creating mechanisms of misunderstanding, kokonsa and chaos.” If what I am writing is a lie or settles as gossip, SAY IT! If Mantse Aryeequaye did not beat, brutalize and threaten you, Dr. Sionne Rameah Neely, SAY IT! And I’ll have no choice but to desist.  We’ll certainly all know you’re distorting the facts and settling either into a pathological liar or a calculated manipulator. This accusation I find particularly interesting because what you have done is to put your women friends in a very compromising position. Let’s go back to the seemingly insignificant Facebook bout between Nii Ayertey Aryeh and Jessica Horn (which has since been deleted by Horn). Ms. Horn shared your article with the preface:

“For those of you who read the Medium.com article “We Should All Be Ashamed” about the violent behavior of Mantse Aryeequaye and gender power in the Chale Wote space- here is the response from Sionne Neely.

And yes, some of us walk- more than we talk.”

Nii then responded with:

“…Respectfully I think you should adhere to the advise of Sionne; desist from spreading kokonsa (rumours/gossip – that have not been proven to be true) and chaos. Desist from ‘misrepresenting a complicated’ private matter…”

And lastly Jessica asserted:

“…This is not kokonsa. You will not silence me.”

Jessica Horn clearly knows there is great truth in what I initially reported and in her own right actually defended it. However, Nii Ayertey Aryeh was able to directly counter her with your very own words and because you have silenced her she is now defenseless. With this statement alone Sionne you have put the credibility of your close friend(s) and colleagues on the line and it leaves me to ask, yet again, whose side are you really on? If you tell me or anyone else you did not realize what you were doing or saying, writing and publishing that statement I’d say I don’t believe you. You are far too intelligent and calculated, as your statement would suggest, to be so frivolous with your words and actions. I am now puzzled as to whom Sionne Rameah Neely, PhD really is.

This saddens me more than I can possibly convey because I too believed in you Sionne. I too trusted you to be considerate of me in your powerful position at ACCRA [dot] ALT, however with your silence and your admonishing statement you are betraying us all. You are betraying the hearts and minds of all your women friends and supporters. More and more I realize this entire charade is less and less about your women friends, whom were really just trying to do what they thought was best for you, and rather it is about your highly manipulative and underhanded mechanism for conducting your business and gaining allies whom are disposable to you.

Your next paragraph deals with your issue of privacy and confidentiality and the role artists play in exposing the truth. Your statement reads, “It is not the responsibility of artists — particularly those named — to have to speak publicly on a highly vulnerable and private matter.” If you truly believe it is not the role of artists to speak on matters which inevitably affect their community especially because it involves two very key members of their community why do you support such artists as Wanlov The Kubolor and Bright Ackwerh and other like artists with such politically charged content? It can also be said Mantse’s abusive and violent behavior, as I pointed out earlier, extends to other women in the Accra community thus making your matter a public matter and removing it from your private household because Mantse exists in the art community and has access to art communities around the world. If you had dealt with him in your home before he was able to publicly prey on other women I could agree with you, but because his abuse and sexual harassment extends to women outside of your home to the general community I simply cannot concur.

Also, your assertion that “this author is not invested in knowing or sharing the full truth and yet is proclaiming to speak on my behalf and in the name of truth” is an utter misunderstanding and I apologize. I am not speaking on your behalf Sionne, no. I am speaking on behalf of myself as a woman and a member of a community of women all over the world. I, and many others like me, including self-respecting men, want to see the coward, Mantse Aryeequaye, punished to the fullest extent of the law on behalf of EVERY WOMAN WORLDWIDE! He is a threat to us all Sionne, but for some reason you choose not to see it so. For some reason you really think this is just between you and Mantse and the few people you confided in. You are completely wrong and I know you know it. You are taking a very self-interested approach by particularizing what has happened even though the principles of feminism – a principle by which you claim to adhere to – suggest that what has happened to you is not solely about you but about all women.

In the second to last paragraph you wrote, “…this writing has created a double violence, wounding and traumatization for me and others in the arts community who bear no responsibility.” This is devastating to read Sionne. The only double violence being committed is by you and anyone who agrees that you and the rest of us should remain silent. Mantse is on the loose, as I have stated before and will continue to state again and again. MANTSE ARYEEQUAYE IS A DIRECT THREAT TO ALL WOMEN AND SELF-RESPECTING HUMAN BEINGS ALL OVER THE WORLD. If what I wrote is traumatizing for you, please ask yourself why? What is traumatic about truth? Again I assert if the claims I am making are not true, speak specifically to those non-truths without making cloudy, distracting statements. Did Mantse Aryeequaye beat, brutalize and threaten you? Furthermore, what of the other women, who via your silence feel disempowered to speak up? Or whom you have specifically admonished for speaking against Mantse? And if what I have said is not true, why do you consider my exposé “a double violence”? What was the first violence because a few paragraphs ago this was purely “kokonsa”? You are contradicting yourself Sionne.

Finally, in your closing paragraph you made a very thought provoking and powerful statement “I am not a victim. I am a survivor.” The fact that you survived is nothing short of a blessing Sionne. It is empowering. I just want you to use your power for good. Recently on Drama Queen’s twitter page, run by Nana Akosua Hanson, she tweeted a startling fact and statistic “As many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners.” When I first read this my stomach curled. It physically made me ill. I say this to make the point that Sionne you are truly lucky to still be alive after Mantse’s attack against you. This is life or death. Mantse Aryeequaye is dangerous and anyone who wishes to protect him is equally as dangerous.

You mentioned there are women whom you’ve confided in and have been a source of unwavering support for you. I want you to know I’m genuinely happy that you have them by your side, especially now. Your life is about to go through a lot of changes and you’re going to need all of the sound support that you can get. My message to those women is that in their efforts to support you they also have a responsibility to be honest with you about your words and your actions. I really do hope and pray they provide you with clear and strategic counsel. Again Sionne, I wish no harm or ill upon you. I want you to get through this, clear your name and begin a new and better life. However, I am unwilling to turn a blind eye to all that has happened. I am simply un-willing. This quote from Dr. Maya Angelou I believe is even more relevant now than in my first article. Read it again Sionne.

“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat so that we can know who we are. So that we can see, ‘Oh, that happened, and I rose. I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away; I rose right where I’d been knocked down.”

In my first article I said I couldn’t imagine what you are going through and that is true. Only someone who has been through the same can possibly fathom what you might be feeling. For this reason I realize that you may not be in a sound psychological, emotional or physical space to fight. However, please don’t make me out to be the enemy. I am not your enemy! Mantse Aryeequaye is! Now, I need you to understand we cannot allow Mantse to rein free any longer. He must come down one-way or another, with or without you, he must and will fall. If you cannot fight or answer any questions today, ok, however Mother God willing, there is indeed tomorrow. At some point Sionne you will need to speak your truth. We can forgive you for your transgressions if you come clean, but we will not forgive Mantse Aryeequaye. He must pay for his crimes in full.

To all of you reading out there, THIS IS WAR! And you’re either on the side of Justice or you are not. There is no middle ground. No one is safe from the wrath of truth!

Again I am calling on our friends in the local and international community, I am calling upon the power of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. I am calling on all of the real activists of the world to help us see to it that Mantse Aryeequaye (a.k.a Redd Kat) is put away for his crimes.

NB:

*To whom it may concern: a few reasons why I remain anonymous: for one, Nudho is a real person. Whether her existence solely resides in the virtual realm or not, she is real. Real enough for you to respond to. Next, I do not want to be attacked based on who I am, but rather on the merits of my arguments and the claims I am making. If you knew who I am it would be easy to be distracted by my given name so I rather choose to provide you with my chosen name. My sentiments are the same regardless. Don’t lose focus please. Further, as many of you have proven already, we have a tendency to want to discredit someone who is doing something that is controversial and disturbs the status quo. Even if the person is correct in their actions we have the desire to simply silence them and discredit them. Anonymity takes that power away from ill-minded people. Please, let us consider many reputable 21^st century examples of whistleblowers like Wiki Leaks, Anonymous and so forth. Now think about the people who did not remain anonymous and how they have unjustly suffered at the hands of society, i.e. Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and even the brave Anita Hill.