RICHNESS the WRITER

By Richard Agodzo There was no casket. No mourners. No soft wails echoing through a chapel or tributes posted online. But I died. I didn’t stop breathing — my heart kept beating — but everything else within me quietly folded. The death I speak of was not physical. It was emotional, spiritual, and deeply internal. The kind that happens behind smiles, in the silence of your room, in the pauses between phone calls, where no one hears you weep. The day I died, no breath was lost, but something sacred inside me withered. It began with trust — a word I once believed in with my whole being. I trusted people. I trusted systems. I trusted love. And little by little, trust was chipped away — not by storms, but by slow, deliberate disappointments. A lie here, a betrayal there, a moment of neglect when I needed someone to just ask, “Are you okay?” “Trust fell first with silent cries, then conscience dimmed beneath the lies.” Then came the numbness. I noticed that compassion — once my strength — no...

By Richard Agodzo "I’m fine." Two simple words. Spoken like clockwork by men across the world every day — at the dinner table, in offices, in WhatsApp group chats, in church, at barber shops. But behind those words often lies a silent battle. Pain disguised as composure. Anxiety masked by a forced smile. Depression tucked behind a joke. A mask worn not out of deceit, but out of survival. In many societies — including ours here in Ghana — men are raised with a strict emotional code: Don’t cry. Don’t complain. Be strong. Provide. Protect. Endure. Alone. From boyhood, vulnerability is discouraged. A boy who cries is told to "man up." A teenager facing anxiety is accused of being lazy or unserious. A man overwhelmed by stress is told to “shake it off” — or worse, is mocked for being “too soft.” The Unseen Toll: Real Stories, Real Consequences In May 2022, a 31-year-old Ghanaian banker was found dead in his apartment. It was later revealed that he had been battling depr...