Baby T’s identity after her death remains a mystery to the people of MUTE and Harvest FM for some time. The person who goes to great lengths to hide Baby T’s identity is Poison.
We shall begin this tutorial about attempts made by Poison to hide Baby T’s identity by briefly outlining the events that led to Baby T’s death.
Circumstances surrounding Baby T’s death
In Amma Darko’s novel, Faceless, Baby T is the third child and first daughter of Maa Tsuru and Kwei. Baby T is also Fofo’s elder sister.
Some time before her untimely death, Baby T, barely 12 years old, had been forced out of home to go and work with a certain woman called Maami Broni. It was Baby T’s own mother, Maa Tsuru who gave her out to Maami Broni through another woman called Mama Abidjan.
In fact, the main architect of this plan to sell Baby T to a brothel operator, Maami Broni, is Nii Kpakpo, Baby T’s stepfather and defiler. Baby T is sent out of her home mainly because the two men, Kpakpo and Onko, who have both assaulted her sexually can no longer stand her sight, for obvious reasons.
Moreover, Maa Tsuru and Kpakpo are in a relationship that neither of these two would like to see destroyed by the scandals surrounding Baby T. Don’t mind the fact that none is Baby T’s fault.
Soon after, Onko’s welding business begins to suffer many setbacks. When Onko consults a jujuman, he is told that the cause of his troubles is his affair with Baby T, a child of a cursed woman, Maa Tsuru.
The jujuman directs Onko to bring items including shavings of Baby T’s pubic hair for a cleansing ritual. Kpakpo again leads Onko to Baby T’s new home. Onko must have access to Baby T’s pubic hair. The best way to succeed in this is to pretend to be a man looking for a prostitute to sleep with.
Onko‘s choice is obviously Baby T.
But Baby T refuses to have anything to do with Onko who once raped her and for which reason she had to leave home and become a child prostitute.
It is at this stage that Poison comes in to force Baby T to do as she has been ordered by Maami Broni. Poison physically attacks Baby T, leaving a fatally wounded Baby T on the floor together with Onko.
The next thing we know is that the dead body of an unknown street girl has been dumped behind a certain blue rasta hairdressing kiosk in the Agbogbloshie market. Many people appear not to know the identity of the corpse, but everybody around agrees that she is not one of the kayayoos (head porters from northern Ghana).
Poison is concerned.
Poison would prefer that Baby T’s true identity remains, at best, a mystery.
Poison, the Street Lord of Sodom and Gomorrah, has therefore, done everything he can to hide Baby T’s identity after her killing.
Poison knows very well that the cause of Baby T’s sudden death can be traced to him as well as other members of his circle. And he is no fool to allow this to happen.
Therefore, to avoid any trouble coming his way in connection with Baby T’s death, Poison makes several desperate attempts to confuse the public and investigators about the true identity of the corpse discovered behind the blue rasta hairdressing kiosk in the Agbogbloshie Market.
Attempts made by Poison to hide Baby T’s identity
The following is my list of the various attempts Poison makes to hide Baby T’s identity.
- Poison tries to hide Baby T’s identity by having the corpse dumped in the Agbogbloshie Market, a distance from Maami Broni’s brothel at Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Poison, in the company of Maami Broni, visits Maa Tsuru to give her a stern warning. Maa Tsuru and her surviving children, Fofo in particular, must keep quiet about Baby T’s identity or face dire consequences.
- To hide Baby T’s identity, Poison attempts to rape Fofo. Sexual violence is one potent weapon in the hands of street thugs like Poison to subdue and bend their young female victims to their will.
- Following Fofo’s first meeting with Kabria of MUTE, Poison has Fofo beaten up mercilessly as a further attempt to make Fofo keep quiet about Baby T’s identity.
- Poison goes further to attempt to hide Baby T’s identity by having anonymous calls made to Harvest FM. The caller claims that the girl whose body was found behind the blue rasta hairdressing kiosk was, in fact, a kayaayo – a head porter from northern Ghana.
- Poison warns all the kayaayos in the vicinity of the blue rasta hairdressing kiosk to stop talking about Baby T’s identity to reporters and investigators.
- In fact, Poison makes sure that two of the kayaayos who spoke to reporters about Baby T’s identity disappear without a trace.
- Poison, in an attempt to hide Baby T’s identity, has a shit parcel delivered to the offices of MUTE. This move is clearly a desperate attempt on Poison’s part to discourage the people of MUTE from interviewing Fofo and Maa Tsuru or offering them any assistance whatsoever.
“To Poison, MUTE was the cause of most of his headaches about the increasing public interest in Baby T’s death. They brought it to the attention of the media through Sylv Po, and the shit parcel was a message to them not to meddle in other people’s business.”
- Finally, during his momentous meeting with Sylv Po and Kabria, Poison, seated in his power and glory at his base in Sodom and Gomorrah, flatly denies ever killing Baby T.
“I did beat the girl up, but I did not kill her,” he repeated. “Why would I kill a girl who was making lots of money for me? Maami Broni would bear me out. You can talk to her if you like. I did beat her up, but I left her crying, not dead. She wouldn’t be crying if she was dead, would she?”
At this stage, it is obvious that Poison has failed in his attempt to hide Baby T’s true identity. He is found out and cornered. Even if he does not admit it openly, Poison has come to accept the fact that at least, MUTE and Harvest FM know that the corpse found behind the blue rasta hairdressing kiosk is that of no one else but Baby T’s.
Poison’s only defence now is a plea of alibi. Poison sounds reasonably credible here. But the author leaves the identity of Baby T’s actual killer a mystery. Could it be Onko, the only person left inside the room with the wounded Baby T?. Possibly.
Well, this tutorial is not about the identity of Baby T’s killer.The question as to who ended BabyT’s young life can be dealt with in another post.
So that is it. Now you know all there is to know about the attempts made by Poison to hide Baby T’s identity after she had been killed and dumped elsewhere at the Agbogbloshie Market.
Thank you.
Ralph Nyadzi is the Director of Studies at Cegast Academy. He is a qualified English tutor with decades of experience behind him. Since 2001, he has successfully coached thousands of High School General Arts WASSCE candidates in English, Literature and related subjects. He combines his expertise with a passion for lifelong learning to guide learners from varying backgrounds to achieve their educational goals. Ralph shares lessons from his blogging journey on BloggingtotheMax. He lives with River, his pet cat, in the Central Region of Ghana.
