Bemoaning of Love : An Aspect of Ga Women ’ s Discourse on Love in Adaawe Song-Texts

Love, as a subject, has received a lot of attention in literature, particularly poetry. This is probably because poetry is traditionally seen as the creative exploration and expression of an individual’s emotion and passion. A genre of Ga oral poetry that has love as its primary subject is the adaawe songs which are sung by Ga maidens. This paper examines an aspect of Ga women’s discourse on love in the songs. Particularly, it examines how love is bemoaned. This was done based on the premise that, as a creative exploration and expression of individuals’ emotions and passions, adaawe songs contribute a unique commentary on the subject of love. Songs which were recorded and transcribed, as well as songs collected from Hamond’s (1970) Obɔade Lalai were analysed, paying attention to content and style. The analysis revealed that love is usually bemoaned when there is lack of continuous interest in a persona by the other party in a love relationship, or when there is a betrayal of love.


INTRODUCTION
In a paper entitled Celebration of love: An aspect of Ga women's discourse on love in adaawe song-texts (See Kubi, 2017), I examined one aspect of Ga women's discourse on love in adaawe songs.It is, however, instructive to note that the discourse on love, as presented in adaawe songs, is rooted in two different themes, each with its own internal discourse.Apart from the theme of love celebration, where love is celebrated on the grounds of the pleasure that it produces in the person who celebrates it, there is also the bemoaning of love, where love becomes a source of sorrow to a party involved in a love relationship.In most cases, it is because one party shows lack of continuous interest in the other or betrays the other party's love.This present paper is a sequel to the earlier paper in which the theme of love celebration was examined.Whereas the earlier paper examined how love is celebrated in adaawe songs, the present one looks at how love is bemoaned in adaawe songs.
Indeed, it is not by accident that the adaawe songs in question provide a unique commentary on the subject of love.Over the centuries, the phenomenon of love has inspired and occupied researchers in many fields of study, and for a long time, the theme of love has received a lot of atten-tion in literature.Poetry particularly, which adaawe songs are considered part of, treats the theme of love in a manner that is different to other literary genres such as narrative and drama.This is probably because poetry has traditionally been seen as the creative exploration and expression of an individual's emotion and passion."The vicissitudes, losses, joys and sorrows pertaining to love are approached in a unique way through the poetic word, as it simultaneously addresses these issues intellectually, emotionally and creatively" (O'Dwyer, 2009, p. xiv).This is explicitly exemplified by adaawe songs.

Adaawe and its Performance
The characterisation of adaawe and its performance have been done by Kubi (2017).According to Kubi (2017), adaawe songs constitute a gender-specific idiom among the Ga people, a group of coastal dwellers domiciled at a part of southern Ghana which forms part of the Grater Accra Region.As a performance, adaawe is a form of recreation for Ga maidens, which involves singing and dancing.It has a primary function, which is entertainment, but aside this primary function, it presents some discourses.The major discourses of adaawe songs border on love and marriage.This could be attributed to the preoccupation of the maidens, the owners of the genre, at that stage in their lives.Indeed, Coker (2012) makes an observation to the effect that it is not an uncommon practice among the youth, particularly women, to share experiences about their romantic relationships with their peers.
Adaawe is actually an avenue for young women to give commentaries on significant social issues that affect them -their fears, disappointments and excitements.That aside, the performance allows the maidens to band together and express themselves as a social group.This is possible because the performance territory creates a demarcation for the participants, which excludes men, thus, isolating the women from men and enabling the women to regard each other as a social network or focal group (see Agovi, 1994).The isolation of the women from men coupled with the unison with which they sing and clap their hands gives them the assurance that they share a common gaol.This sense of togetherness gives the women the encouragement to express themselves freely without inhibition.
Another important function of the physical context of performance is that it insulates the performers from censure.The Ga people have much restrictions on what could be expressed openly and what could not, but with the insulation provided by the performance territory, issues that may otherwise not be openly expressed because of their obscene nature, for instance sex, are expressed openly.This is because at the performance session, an isolated context is temporarily created outside the everyday life situation where such issues cannot be openly expressed.
Traditionally, adaawe was performed in the evening under moonlight.This was so because until the invention of electricity, the moon was an important source of light at night.Usually dressed in white chemise, the maidens gathered at the blohuŋ (square).The performers form a closed circle, with the boma (the "cantor" or soloist) standing in the middle and calling a tune which the other performers, asafo, respond to.Unlike the general pattern of Western European folk-songs, the individual singer does not stand out in a dominant position as against a passive audience; instead, she interacts with the chorus (Finnegan, 1970).Also, no one person monopolizes the position of the "cantor"; each participant is given an opportunity to call tunes during the performance.

Oral Literature and Oral Poetry
This paper is rooted in two complementary concepts generally known as oral literature and oral poetry.Oral literature is also identified by various scholars by such terms as orature, traditional literature, folk literature and folklore.There is one common element with the terms, and this is the word 'literature'.Oral literature is now the most commonly used term for the subject, and it simply means literature delivered by word of mouth (Okpewho, 1992).According to Miruka and Sunkuli (1990), oral literature is prose and poetry marked by artistry and communicated by word of mouth.Oral literature is chiefly different from written literature because of its dependence on orality for its composition as well as transmission, and memory for preservation.This however does not defeat its character as literature.Literature, by definition, has to do with the creative use of language -an element which is observable in oral literature just as in written literature (Scholes, Kaus & Silverman, 1975;Henderson, Day & Waller, 2001).
Following from the foregoing, oral poetry constitutes any poetry that is conceived and delivered by word of mouth.According to Lomax and Abdul (1970), African written poetry is a reflection of oral poetry.This statement is affirmed by Fraser (1986) in his observation that a relationship exists between oral and written verse in West Africa.He cited Kofi Awoonor's ability to transfer the cornucopia of aural sensation of Akpalu's dirges to the various poems in his Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964) as a case of reference.Oral art forms such as adaawe songs should be of interest to us because they have a lot to offer us, as Africans, in shaping our literary tradition -a process which is already taking place, (see Okpewho, 1988;Kalu, 2000;and Akinyemi, 2007).

Songs as Poetry
The concept of oral poetry, as noted earlier, denotes the class of poetry that has come to be recognized as poetry conceived and delivered by word of mouth.The fact that it is not written can discount it as literature (Lorentzon, 2007); however, Finnegan (1992) argues that it is important that oral poetry is studied in courses on literature.She intimates that oral poetry is not odd, and that it is a common occurrence in human society, whether literate or non-literate.She also asserts that there are parallels and overlaps between oral literature and written literature, and she proves this by categorizing some oral poems in terms of Western literary study.Accordingly, she identifies epics, ballads, panegyric, odes and lyrics.According to Finnegan (1992), the lyric, which she defines as a short non-narrative poem that is sung, is the most common form of oral poetry and can probably be regarded as universal in human culture.Lyrics, according to Finnegan (1992), come with diverse functions.Thus, there are love lyrics, psalms and hymns, songs to accompany dancing and drinking, political and topical verses, war songs, initiation songs, "spirituals", laments, work songs, lullabies and many others.On their part, Miruka and Sunkuli (1990) define lyrics as poems or songs expressing strong personal feelings of romance and performed privately or in public; individually or communally.They also see lyrics as love songs.This is because love and marriage are probably the commonest themes in lyrics, as has been observed by Finnegan (1970).These two themes happen to be the predominant themes in adaawe songs but this present paper focuses on only an aspect of love.
One other thing that Finnegan (1992) mentions is that oral poetry circulates by oral rather than written means, and in contrast to written poetry, its distribution, composition or performance are by word of mouth and not a printed word.Finnegan's (1992) assertion means that even when oral poetry is reduced to print, it must be seen beyond the printed text.Its true nature is realized in actual performance, but it is only useful that we reduce it to print since that is the only way any meaningful work can be done on it.Moreover, in cases where some forms of oral poetry are at the verge of being lost, the only option left is to reduce them to print.Thus, even though this paper deals with transcribed texts, the transcribed texts still fall within the domain of oral poetry.
Even before Finnegan's (1992) argument that oral poetry be studied in courses on literature, Okpewho (1988) admits "the oral traditional poetry of Africa" as part of literature.Accordingly, in his anthology of African poetry, Okpewho (1988) includes both African oral and written poetry.In his own words, "The.perhaps more important aim of this anthology is to give the oral traditional poetry of Africa its deserved place both in the literature curriculum and in our general understanding of what poetry tries to do" (p.3).Unfortunately, however, none of Okpewho's examples of oral poems came from Ga culture, even though he catered for some other Ghanaian cultures.This should not create the impression that the Ga people do not have oral poetry.It is just not possible for Okpewho (1988) to cater for the oral poetry from all African cultures.
The most important point that Okpewho (1988) makes is that there is the need for us to abandon the false assumption that poetry must necessarily involve words or the order in which they are arranged.In his observation, a group of measured lines which describe a situation is simply a verse, and may have very little that is poetic about it.On the other hand, it is possible for a combination of music and movement (dance) in a performance that has no words at all to be described as very poetic.In Okpewho's estimation, therefore, the essence of poetry lies in its power to appeal strongly to one's appreciation and, in a sense, lift one up.Okpewho's observation has implications for studies in oral poetry such as this paper.Though some of the adaawe songs do not contain many words -Sometimes composed of just a line or two repeated several times -that nature of such songs should not discount them as poetry.As Okpewho (1988) suggests, they are equally good poetry.Levine (1977) observes that Africans are naturally full of poetry and songs.According to him, songs are used for many functions, but most importantly, he identified a dual purpose of preserving communal values and solidarity and providing an occasion for the individual to transcend the inevitable restrictions of his or her environment and society by permitting him or her to express deeply held feelings which ordinarily could not have been verbalized.The functions of songs as outlined by Levine (1977) seem to be the primary functions of adaawe songs.The songs help to preserve Ga culture and foster solidarity among the women who perform adaawe.The most significant function is that the songs allow the women to express themselves freely.Many things which may otherwise not have been expressed openly for the reason of being obscene are easily expressed in adaawe songs.These include open criticism and sexual inclinations.
In an article entitled Women's Discourse on Social Change in Nzema (Ghana) Maiden songs, Agovi (1994) examines women's discourse on the theme of social change in ayabomo songs.Just like adaawe, ayabomo provides an outlet for assessing defined attitudes, perceptions and reactions as being representative of Nzema women on significant so-cial issues.Agovi (1994) traces the historical development of ayabomo and one thing that stands out is that even though it is a pre-colonial cultural event, it gets shaped by the unfolding situations of history and cultural change.That ayabomo gets shaped by the unfolding situations of history and cultural change is very characteristic of literature.At every point in time, the various discourses -historical and cultural -at play in a society provide data for the creation of literature.Literature is informed by the discourses in society because it has a role to play in transforming society, and it can only achieve this by appropriating the discourses in society to either affirm or transform culture.The statement that literature plays a role in transforming society is not to say that the aesthetic value of literature is not important.Granted that literature, particularly African literature (including African oral literature), must perform a utilitarian function, it must also have an aesthetic value.These two things about African literature are significantly exhibited in adaawe songs.Anyidoho (1994) also studies nnwonkoro, which is an Akan female genre, and observes that it gets shaped by the unfolding situations of history and cultural change.This is an affirmation of what Agovi (1994) observes about ayabomo, which is also true about adaawe.Just like adaawe and ayabomo, nnwonkoro was an all-female recreational activity performed in the town square when the day's work was done.Having formed a circle, participants clapped rhythmically as individuals took turns singing solos, which were supported by the group in a chorus.This way of performing nnwonkoro is the case with adaawe and ayabomo too.Also, just like adaawe and ayabomo songs, nnwonkoro songs comment on many aspects of female and male relationships: love, courtship and marriage.Generally, Anyidoho's (1994) work together with Agovi's (1994) work gives an indication that there are genres similar to adaawe in some other cultures.
In a paper entitled Zulu Women's Bow Songs: Ruminations on Love, Rosemary M. F. Joseph (1987) examines love songs that are associated with the umakhweyana, a bow instrument played by unmarried Zulu girls.In the work, she debunked the Eurocentric view that the African does not have a concept of romantic love.She notes that most of the anthropologists who did their research in Africa might not have asked questions specifically on the issue and because issues of that nature are personal and intimate, informants may not have discussed them freely.Above all, she intimates that the dismissal of an African concept of romantic love would seem ultimately to stem from deep-seated Western prejudices which attribute such ideas to only less primitive, more sophisticated people.Rosemary M. F. Joseph (1987) argues that such ideas are, however, often expressed in various forms of artistic behaviour by Africans, but as these art forms have not traditionally been the concern of anthropologists, little attention has been paid to the values, attitudes, beliefs and expectations which they reveal.She discovered from her corpus of bow songs a tradition of love songs in Zulu society which reveal much about a romantic concept of love.Indeed, as she observed, "It is not unlikely that a similar situation exists in other African societies" (p.96).Indeed, the ayabomo, which was studied by Agovi (1994); the nnwonkoro, by Anyidoho (1994); the woyi tëddëte (nuptial songs performed after the intimate union of the two spouses; the dominant themes are love and sexuality); and the woyi ndëri (songs of love, homage, and appreciation composed by young girls of marriageable age and sung on moonlit nights in the centre of the village) (see Ndione & Mitsch, 1993) are all proofs of Joseph's (1987) observation.It shall also be noted from the adaawe songs that there is a tradition of love songs among Ga maidens too, and these songs reveal a lot about the concept of romantic love among the Ga people.Hammond (1970) hints on this tradition of love songs in his collection of various songs that are used for entertainment among the Ga people, which include adaawe songs.According to Hammond (1970), some of the adaawe songs evoke happy feelings while others are sorrowful, addressing issues such as disappointment and ingratitude on the part of young men in a love relationship.However, because Hammond's (1970) main import for producing the work is to bring people's attention to some of the Ga oral forms that are no longer common with the people, and not to analyse the songs for their discourse on love, he hardly makes any effort to analyse them for their discourse on love.It is also certain that Hammond (1970) is not interested in whether or not the songs constitute literature.By the title of the book, Obɔade Lalai, meaning traditional songs, Hammond (1970) sees the songs as folk songs or traditional songs rather than oral literature.In the present paper, however, adaawe songs are treated as literary forms, specifically oral poetry.
On her part, Kropp Dakubu (2011) mentions that among the Ga people, the most widely practised forms of verbal art are probably the libation and the song.She noted that songs are sung on all kinds of occasions, very often by old and young and both sexes together, although specific sets of songs may conventionally be sung mainly by one sex, or by the young, or on a particular kind of occasion.Kropp Dakubu (2011) identifies that a marked feature of Ga songs is their incorporation of words and expressions from other languages, and she uses adaawe songs together with other songs to demonstrate her observation.She notes that sometimes a line in a song appears first in one language and then in another, and she sees this kind of translation in the song as a stylistic device.Even though Kropp Dakubu (2011) uses adaawe songs for her analysis, her concern is not with the discourse in the songs.The present paper, therefore, focuses attention on an aspect of the discourse in the songs, but not neglecting how such stylistic devices as the one presented by Kropp Dakubu (2011) help in presenting the discourse.
Long before Kropp Dakubu (2011) observed that a feature of Ga songs is their incorporation of words and expressions from other languages, Nketia (1958) made that observation.Kropp Dakubu's (2011) observation is, therefore, just a confirmation of what Nketia (1958) said.According to Nketia (1958), The language of Ga songs is not always Ga.It may be Ga, Akan (Twi/Fante) or a mixture of the two.The use of Twi words, phrases and sentences in the course of songs which are mainly in Ga is also fashionable even in modern popular music.Sometimes the same idea is stated in two successive sentences in two languages (p.27).
Even though Nketia (1958) mentions adaawe songs in passing as a type of Ga songs, his focus is not on the poetry in those songs.The title of the work, Ga Traditional Music, suggests that he was interested in the music of the songs and not the poetry in them.Indeed, Nketia (1958) observes that the resources of Ga vocal music are not as limited as one finds in a number of Ghanaian societies, though the actual musical types that are created out of them are not necessarily more varied, nor are the texts of Ga songs richer in poetry.While Nketia's (1958) work focuses on the music of Ga traditional songs in general and hardly sees them as poetry, the present paper picks adaawe songs out and treats them as poetry.
To emphasize the point that songs offer abundant opportunities for literary studies, especially as poetry, Vondee (2000), in her master's thesis, studies the lyrics of King Bruce and analyses them for their themes and style.The recognition that songs can be analysed as literary products is what informs the present paper on adaawe songs.More importantly, even though Vondee studies "popular music", she recognizes the influence it receives from "traditional creative verbal performance (p.11)."According to her, the Ga people have a repertoire of these traditional verbal arts, which she categorizes under secular and religious songs.She also asserts that the songs respond to various needs of the people.Thus, they may perform social, cultural, intellectual or emotional functions.She identifies that the secular songs perform a social function, and thus can be classified according to the social functions they perform.Accordingly, there are occupational songs such as aklana and ada songs for fishermen, hunters and farmers, adesa lalai (story songs), abifao wɔlemɔ lalai (lullabies) and shwԑmɔ lalai (recreational songs) such as adaawe lalai (adaawe songs) and amԑjo lalai (amԑjo songs).In effect, adaawe songs, which are the focus of the present paper, perform a social function.As such, they are informed by social discourses, and one of such discourses is the discourses on love.

METHODOLOGY
In a work like this one, there is no better option by way of method other than collecting data through open-ended observations, interviews and documents, and analysing the data for themes or categories, and finally making an interpretation or drawing conclusions about its meaning personally and theoretically, stating the lessons learned, and offering further questions to be asked (Creswell, 2003).As such, the work employed the qualitative method of enquiry, and involved data from both primary and secondary sources.The primary data constituted songs that were recorded on the field and the secondary data consisted of songs taken from Hammond's (1970) Obɔade Lalai.
Interviews were particularly valuable in this work as they provided useful background information on specific songs, which would otherwise not have been obtained without that means.These interviews were conducted after having recording sessions, where some adaawe songs were recorded for transcription and translation.Indeed, Wilgus's (1986) observed that the interviews are a necessary method for collecting musical folklore and folksong, as they provide sig-nificant contextual information which can be gathered only through that medium.
The songs were analysed, primarily, based on the transcribed texts, paying attention to content and style.However, it is important to note that oral literature goes beyond text, and by definition is dependent on performance.As observed by Bauman (1986), the text we are accustomed to viewing as the raw material of folklore represents merely the tip of the iceberg.Certainly, under the iceberg lies deeply situated human behaviour which the folklorist must expose before he or she can begin to understand and explain to the reader how the beliefs, tales, songs, sayings and other traditions manifest themselves in the culture and what they mean to the people (Finnegan, 1970;Okpewho, 1992).Consequently, the analysis took into consideration issues pertaining to the performance context as well as other information which were useful in clarifying points that could not be explained from the texts.

Bemoaning of Love
As observed earlier, adaawe songs are used in the performance of adaawe, where Ga maidens express their thoughts and feelings on issues about love.In some of these songs, love is bemoaned.Such songs depict love as something that can be a source of pain and sorrow to lovers.The songs address issues such as disappointment and ingratitude on the part of men in romantic relationships.Unlike the songs that celebrate love, where the personae refer to their men with such words of endearment as shieŋtsԑ and lɔbi, both denoting lover, and sometimes modifying the words with the possessive pronoun mi (my) and the intensifier diԑŋtsԑ (own) (see Kubi, 2017), the personae in the songs that bemoan love mention the names of their men blatantly, perhaps an indication that the personae are not happy with their situations.For example, in the song that follows, the persona bemoans the fact that her lover is showing lack of continued interest in her and out of despair invites him to make it clear to her if he does not love her anymore, Call: Wɔya Tell me so that I may go, Abeashi Toga.
Abeashi Toga.It is most likely that the young man in question had professed so much love for the persona but is now acting in a contrary manner.The persona is not amused by the turn of events and her bitterness and frustration impel her to make a desperate call on the young man to let her know if she is no longer wanted by him so that she could leave him in peace.The interjection ei indicates the bitterness in the persona's heart over the treatment being meted out to her by her man.As Kubi observes in an unpublished manuscript, the interjection ei expresses different emotions, depending on the context in which it appears.In this song, it appears in contexts which suggest bitterness, Wɔya ei, Let's go ei, Kԑ osumɔɔɔ mi ei, If you don't love me ei, Also, in the song, the repetition of the call as a response to the call emphasises the desperation and frustration of the persona.Certainly, there is no point in staying on with someone who does not love you, and the persona in this song demonstrates courage by indicating her readiness to leave if she is not wanted.Most often, people are so much tied to their lovers that they find it difficult to let go even when it becomes obvious that they are no longer wanted.Apart from decrying the attitude of some men who jilt their lovers without any good reason, the song also teaches one to learn how to let go if it becomes clear that one is no longer wanted in a relationship.
The next song also expresses sentiments similar to what is expressed in the first example.It bemoans deceit and betrayal in romantic relationships, and, most likely, lack of continued interest in the persona by her lover.The only difference is that while in the former, the persona does not call for her lover to restore her to her former state, in the latter, the persona wants her lover to restore her to her former state, Call: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Bɔ ni ofite mi ei, saamɔ mi ei, The way you have destroyed me ei, restore me ei, Mɔbɔ oo, munya bi a mu som.
Pity oo, if you get some guard it.Response: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Bɔ ni ofite mi ei, saamɔ mi ei, The way you have destroyed me ei, restore me ei, Mɔbɔ oo, munya bi a mu som.
Pity oo, if you get some guard it.Call: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Akԑԑ ayakpee mi ei, akԑ mi tee, They said they went to wed me ei, they took me away, Akԑ mi nyiԑ kokootsei ashishi.I was walked through cocoa plantations.Response: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Akԑԑ ayakpee mi ei, akԑ mi tee, They said they went to wed me ei, they took me away, Akԑ mi nyiԑ kokootsei ashishi.I was walked through cocoa plantations.Call: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Be ni miifo migbele, miifo miwala, As I weep over my death, I weep for my life, Mɔbɔ, mɔ ko bi awusa.
Pity, someone's orphan child.Call: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Obɔ ajwamaŋ oma sigarԑti ei, You prostitute with cigarette ei, Polisi oo, munya bi a, mu som.Police oo, if you get some guard it.Response: Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Obɔ ajwamaŋ oma sigarԑti ei, You prostitute with cigarette ei, Polisi oo, munya bi a, mu som.Police oo, if you get some guard it.The persona expresses grief over the fact that her lover deceived her into marrying him only to take her away and make her life a misery.She had to endure walking with him through dangerous cocoa plantations.The journey was very dangerous to the extent that the persona saw it as a matter of life and death, Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Be ni miifo migbele, miifo miwala, As I weep over my death, I weep for my life, Mɔbɔ, mɔ ko bi awusa.
Pity, someone's orphan child.As if this experience was not enough suffering, the persona's man takes her to a strange land and leaves her to her fate.He most likely has no time for her and spends much of his time smoking cigarette, Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Ayiwa ei ei! ei ei! Obɔ ajwamaŋ oma sigarԑti ei, You practise prostitution with cigarette ei, Polisi oo, munya bi a mu som.Police oo, if you get some guard it.Not able to reconcile herself with the state she finds herself in, the persona thinks she deserves a better treatment and would want her lover to restore her to her former state.
It would be observed that the above song incorporates an Akan expression, "munya bi a, mu som" (if you get some guard it).As expounded by Kropp Dakubu (2011), this is a characteristic feature of Ga songs.This stylistic device has the potential to produce an emotive effect in the audience.Indeed, Kropp Dakubu (2011) identifies, as a typical feature of the songs she studies, that many lines are augmented by a word that has little to do directly with the meaning of the line but serves as a kind of emotional decoration and very often, the augment is a different language.In the context of the song, the expression could mean that the police should guard such irresponsible men in their custody so that they don't find their ways back into society to trouble innocent ladies.
In song the song that follows, the persona threatens to have her lover summoned before a royal court for denying responsibility for a pregnancy, Call: Alemawe Taki Tawiawe ei; ei Taki Tawiawe ei! Taki T awia's court ei; ei Taki Tawia's court Response: Taki Tawiawe jaa mikԑ o tee! T a k i Tawia's court I will surely take you!Mikԑ bo nyiԑ gɔjiaŋ.I have been with you on the mountains.Mikԑ bo nyiԑ jɔi amli, I have been with you in the valleys, Beni yaafee nakai, When the worst happened, Okԑԑ akԑ jeee bo ni.You disclaimed responsibility.Maŋtsԑ Tawiawe jaa mikԑ o tee.King Tawia's court I will surely take you.It is a common occurrence in Ga culture and indeed most other cultures that young men do impregnate young ladies and sometimes deny responsibility.The persona in the song under review finds herself in such a situation, but as she is convinced that her lover is the person responsible for her pregnancy, she swears she will ensure that he is summoned before a royal court, where perhaps she is certain that the truth can never be concealed.This tells us something about the justice system of the Ga people.
The allusion to "Maŋtsԑ Alemawe" (King Alema's court), "Maŋtsԑ Obiliwe" (King Obili's court), "Maŋtsԑ Ababiowe" (King Ababio's court), and "Maŋtsԑ Tawiawe" (King Tawia's court) is indicative of the trust the Ga people had in their kings and the royal courts.This trust seems to be lost in this present age and this may be attributed to the many controversies that surround the choice of people who are to occupy the positions.All the kings mentioned in the song under discussion were historical figures who played significant roles in Ga history, and whose selections as kings were devoid of controversy.It is certain, for instance, that there was King Taki Tawia I, who ruled from 1862 -1902.He fought and won two wars for the Ga people.There was also King Taki Obili, who was Ga Maŋtsԑ from 1904-1918and 1934-1943. Then, there was King Taki Tawia II, 1944-1947.It was during the reign of King Taki Tawia II that The Native Authority Ordinance was passed, which once again allowed arbitrations to take place at royal courts (Amartey, 1990).
The Ga people maintained the royal courts where people who were wronged sought redress and the insistence of the persona to make her lover appear before the court reveals the trust she has in the justice system.It is certain that if justice did not prevail at the royal courts, the persona would not insist on making her lover appear before the court.
We can notice from the plaintive voice of the persona that she is bitter and distraught about the fact that her lover has betrayed her love.Just like in the earlier songs, the interjection ei is used in the song under review to indicate the bitterness in the persona over the treatment she receives from her lover.She intimates that she had been with her lover in both good and bad times.It is therefore disheartening that her lover betrays her at a time when she needs him most in her life.
Both conventional and contextual symbols have been used in the song to represent the various situations the persona had to go through with her lover just because of her love for him.There are references to nyɔɔŋnɔɔŋ (nights) and tuutuu (dark), which are symbols of gloom; koi (forests) and bui (holes), symbols of danger or difficulty; ŋshɔi anaa (beaches) and fai anaa (river banks), symbols of happiness; and gɔji (mountains) and jɔi (valleys), symbols of success and failure respectively.The use of these symbols is significant because it clarifies the sacrifices that the persona had made for her man.In addition, it creates vivid images which enhance the meaning of the song.Thus, the audience are able to appreciate why the persona is so bitter about the betrayal she suffered from her lover.
Most women would love to have men who will be theirs alone, without competition from other women.This is demonstrated in some of the songs that celebrate love (see Kubi, 2017).On the contrary, some men are unable to live according to this wish of their women and engage in womanising.Such men, within a short time, begin to lose interest in the women they profess to love and end up jilting them.The next two songs express disapprobation of this attitude by men and disapprove of any relationship with such men.In the song that immediately follows, for instance, the persona states it bluntly that she does not want to have a relationship with a womanizer, and that she wants a lover who will be for her alone, Call: Maŋmaŋ lɔbi ei no hewɔ misumɔɔɔ, He is lover for the whole world so I do not want him, Miitao mikome milɔbi, I want a lover for myself alone, Response: Maŋmaŋ lɔbi ei no hewɔ misumɔɔɔ.He is lover for the whole world so I do not want him.Call: Miitao mikome milɔbi, I want a lover for myself alone,
He is lover for the whole world so I do not want him.Call: Miitao mikome milɔbi, I want a lover for myself alone, Response: Maŋmaŋ lɔbi ei no hewɔ misumɔɔɔ.
He is lover for the whole world so I do not want him.The reference to the man as a "Maŋmaŋ lɔbi" (lover for the whole world) shows that the gravity of his womanising has gone beyond toleration.It may have gotten to a state where it could be presumed that he has lovers almost everywhere.No woman who wants to have a happy relationship would ever want to be in a relationship with such a man because in no time he gets fed up with her and begins to show lack of interest, as demonstrated by the persona's lover in the first song.It is for this reason that the persona in the song under review says she does not want to have a relationship with a womanizer.The song is made up of only two sentences which are repeated several times to create the fullness of the song, Maŋmaŋ lɔbi ei no hewɔ misumɔɔɔ, A lover for the whole world so I do not want him, Miitao mikome milɔbi, I want a lover for myself alone, The use of repetition is important because it helps to emphasise the point that the persona makes, that she does not want to have a relationship with a womanizer and wants a man who will be for her alone.The use of the interjection ei is also significant in that it expresses the disgust of the persona about the fact that a man of such calibre should ever have the guts to approach her.
The next song also seems to express a strong disapproval of womanizing and a relationship with a womanizer; however, here, the persona does not state it bluntly -it is stated metaphorically, Call: Ekple So I won't wear it.The metaphor in the song is expressed through the reference to "Anago mama" (Nigerian cloth).Here, a womanizer is compared to something which has become very common.It has been observed that there was a time (Somewhere in the 1970s) when Nigerian wax print became the vogue in Ghana.Actually, it was said that during the time, many Ghanaians preferred made-in-Nigeria goods to made-in-Ghana goods, as they believed the made-in-Nigeria goods were better than the made-in-Ghana goods.This may have resulted in the commonness of Nigerian wax print in the country.The reference to a womanizer as "Anago mama" (Nigerian cloth) therefore creates an image which is easily understood by the Ga people.

CONCLUSION
This paper, as a sequel to the earlier paper which looked at the celebration of love as an aspect of Ga women's discourse on love in adaawe songs, examined the bemoaning of love as another aspect of the discourse.It was realised that in the adaawe songs that bemoan love, love is depicted as something that can be a source of pain and sorrow to a party involved in a love relationship.In most cases, it is because one party in the relationship shows lack of continuous interest in the other or betrays the other party's love.Unlike the songs that celebrate love, where the personae refer to their men with such words of endearment as shieŋtsԑ and lɔbi, the personae in the songs that bemoan love mention the names of their men blatantly, perhaps to register their indignation about the treatments they receive from their lovers.Generally, it was observed that the Ga people, specifically Ga women, have knowledge about the concept of romantic love and the ambivalence, joys and sorrows that pertain to this love.
Mikԑ bo nyiԑ tuutuu, I have been with you in the dark, Beni yaafee nakai.When the worst happened, Okԑԑ akԑ jeee bo ni.You disclaimed responsibility.Maŋtsԑ Alemawe jaa mikԑ o tee.