THE LIE BROTHER MALIK AZONG INADVERTENTLY MADE ME THINK OF FREEMASONRY.

by Brother Oppong Clifford Benjamin

Let me be frank with you, before I joined the Masons I was a passionate confederacy theoriser against Freemasonry - the type that argued vehemently against the system, that said Freemasonry was evil and ruled the world from behind the scenes and had a secret agenda of introducing to our already chaos world a new world order. By my theories, the new world order was some kind of mystical power which I presumed was secluded within the very inner circles of the highest ranked Masons -the 33 degree- I thought, that by its manifestation it will heighten the topsy-turvydom of the world. And a popular engravings on the 33 degree ring affirmed my mentality back then. ORDO AB CHAOS, translated as Order out of Chaos. So I made many believe it was rather the other way around they (33 degree Masons) sought to achieve with their new world order mystical enchantments. Silly boy!

Unlike many others of the ignorant popular world, I didn't think Masonry was about blood money rituals or that all Masons were rich. Perhaps, it was because I knew some Masons in my town. If ever anything informed my decision to join eventually, I would say it was the sweet and lovely brotherhood those Masons exhibited towards each other right before my eyes and nose- their jolly end-of-year parties in the community which they invited their ladies and children ( those were the times I would bite my father for not being a Mason), those Masons had many shibboleths that made even a flying bird pause to laugh. But sincerely those weren't my principal drives for my membership. I don't tell, so don't ask.

I thought of those Masons as elite men whose corporeal and mental faculties were in their fullest energy, thinking for the whole township and influencing the governance of Tarkwa. This fallacy, however, was affirmed by my knowing that a particular traditional ruler of the town was a member and also, two very famous doctors but highly dreaded by the people of Tarkwa were also members. It called for no further consideration, I thought.

And then on the night of my passing ceremony, Brother Malik Azong did something that made me believe Masonry was going to make me rich. The thought only crossed my mind right after the Malik gesture, but in the next moment I asked myself why then were some Masons I knew back in Tarkwa not so rich. Quickly, the more excited side of me retorted, maybe they didn't perform those sacrifices. Fear gripped me and frissons were all over my brown November skin. I would remain a poor Mason, my rather disappointed side thought.

Malik arrived at the porch of the Temple to find a lonely man sitting there. My face found no meaning in the moment or maybe in life. It wasn't as if I was scared of the ceremony that was about to take place. I had gone through the initiation ceremony only the previous month and even that didn't frighten me a bit. But I was trying hard to appreciate the system of Freemasonry. I didn't feel belonged and nothing mystically powerful had been entrusted to my keeping, save a word with its corresponding grip which had no meaning to me except its Biblical import. I doubted if it was Freemasonry I had joined here. What then? Nonsense!

"My brother why are you so dull... are you sick?" Brother Malik asked and stretched his hand to feel my forehead. I smirked briefly.

"I am well, my brother" I managed.

"You are not, and is clearly written on your face" he retorted loudly in an authoritative voice. As if he had some charms to determine if a person was sick. (I'm chuckling) And then he did what I have since then come to like most about Malik, he pulled out his fat wallet and counted ghc200 and dashed it to me. WHAAAAATTT? I thought. Who does this? I asked myself. If not the Masons, who else? I answered myself with a rhetorical question.

"Really! Thank you so much but this is too much" I said to him and held the money openly in the space between us.

"Oh! I know you are a student, you are going to need it. Get some medicine, and cheer up. This is Masonry and we know no misery." He yanked up my spirit and like whirl wind, he flicked himself into the temple.

Right there, I knew Masonry was going to make me as rich as Malik on that night or any future period. I would wait patiently, I assured myself. But my excitement was short lived by a memory and a thought. I remembered the not-rich members among the Tarkwa Masons and I concluded that if at any point I was asked to perform any ritual for money, I rather a poor Mason.

But now I have come to appreciate Malik's gesture as a common trait among most Masons - selflessness. I have come to know that Brother Malik Azong was not any rich but he acted so because of the one value which he had so professed to admire - charity. And need I mention that he is one brother who loves his brothers genuinely and cares the most? I need not itemize the various ways he had selflessly shown that he was a proper Mason at heart. Much can't be said about his performance in the lodge, unfortunately.

MASONS ARE NOT RICH MEN

ARE NOT ANY MORE INTELLIGENT

BUT ARE THE PRINCIPLES AND TENETS

OF MORALITY, CHARITY, TRUTH AND JUSTICE.

I beg, whoever said Malik can't speak proper Grammar is warned. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.