On Coming Home IV

On Coming Home IV

By E. Ofori Akyea

The other day I heard on a foreign radio station an adaptation of a well known Chinese proverb. It went something like this: If you give a fish to a man he will eat it. If you teach him how to fish he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day!

Well, somehow I have the feeling that many educated Ghanaians who are strategically placed to make a change, are sitting in a boat and not only drinking beer but daydreaming and then in their drunken haze they often come out with useless and negative thoughts. They are the people who live in the past. They are constantly dreaming of a mythical good old days and being oblivious to the fact that whatever happened to them in the so called good old days they are to be prepared to confront a brave new world, with apologies to Aldous Huxley. They wax lyrical about times past and gone. The fact of the matter is that those days are gone and are irretrievable.

These older people go on ad nauseam, for example, about the fact that the youth today are terrible. The youth, they assert, are undisciplined. In the good old days, they point out that the errant youngster would have been given several strokes on the bare buttocks and then they would fall in line and everyone and everything will be in order. Did I hear someone say “Presbyterian Discipline”? I recall an aunt telling her nieces to my hearing the other day that her father told her some thirty years ago that her skirt was not larger than a handkerchief! But listen to the incessant cries of the latter day moral advocates about the imminent demise of our nation together with its culture because our young ladies wear sometimes extremely short skirts.

In those days it was not unusual for the whole school to be assembled and the offender called to come forward to face the entire school. His “charges” would be told to the whole assembly. Without any resort to due process, a number of strong boys would be asked to come forward to hold down the hapless victim whiles the most muscular and violent teacher would proceed to administer a number of strokes to the victim. Usually, strokes are added to the original number if the culprit struggled too much or cried out in pain.

After the administration of the lashes the Head Teacher or Headmaster will deliver an appropriate moral lesson to all present. Failure to stick to the “straight and narrow path” would result in the sort of punishment that everyone had just witnessed. One is reminded of the “fiestas” of public hangings of past centuries in Europe. Over there public hangings were public events that the general public attended as one goes to a theatrical, music or some amusing these days.

I was, therefore, after all these years horrified to find people who waxed lyrical about “the good old days” when teacher Kofi gave you six lashes because you did not stand at attention to greet him when you walked past him in the street last week! Those teachers I found out later were some of the lecherous types who drank, smoked and did the most atrocious things that we the young ones did not know anything about.

I find our youth of today in a confused state. For one thing, they do not have a proper grounding in the culture of their birth. A clear manifestation of this is the fact that they are unable to speak our Ghanaian languages well. In fact, in some homes although the parents come from the same ethnic group they speak English with their children. These same people then turn around and speak Akan, Ewe, Dagbani, Ga or whichever language with the household staff. The parents fail to realize that a major part of the subsequent behavioural and psychological problems that their children face stem from their inability to find a sure anchor in the larger society. In the meantime the Bible Society continues striving to have the Bible translated into as many Ghanaian languages as possible.

Let it be known that years of research point to the fact that if a child is cut off from his or her mother tongue and tradition the child grows up quite a deprived individual. The future citizens are neither Ghanaian while the other cultures of Europe see them as intruders and really never accepted into those societies. We are in the process of manufacturing bats that will populate the world.

Such parents fail to realize that the inability of young people to speak their mother tongue well is the beginning of their disorientation and inability to cope with life later on in life. They lose their roots and are susceptible to any predatory culture that happens to go for them. I heard Harry Belafonte say the other day that in the days of slavery the masters forbade the slaves to talk in their presence until they could speak the master’s language. We shall return to this subject at a future date.

Politicians are the worst offenders in looking backwards rather that setting their eyes on tomorrow. Their stock in trade is in running down their opponents for things that happened yesterday and the day before. They behave as if they are in some time warp. They are unable to let go of the past. They remind me of the whited sepulchre that the Pharisees were in the days of Jesus.

We are never spared of being reminded how lucky we are that it is the speaker who is in charge and not those rogues that preceded him or her and their supporters, colleagues and friends. Trying to deal with today’s issues is premised on how well we are able to insult and run down our predecessor. These political types continually claim that they are our salvation. But for them, they intone, life would be unbearable. In the same breath we are told that but for the unseen nefarious activities of the opposition life would be wonderful.

I get the impression that this looking back has been infused into our educational system. Our educational system does not allow our youngsters to break out, be innovative confidently facing the future. One still finds teachers who believe that the best way to motivate children is to constantly wield the cane. Questions are interpreted as challenges by teachers and so school children are forever silent. Parenting is thrown to the dogs by many parents. Many of them do not follow up on their children’s progress in school. In fact, the children as eggs that might break.

The one area that I find the vast majority of our youth being strong is in their religious fervour. They know their Bible inside out. Their life situation has its equivalent in the Bible. Enormous amounts of time are invested into church activities. Pastors of dubious integrity are controlling the lives of our youth and by extension the destiny of our dear nation. These youngsters move and act according to the precepts of their pastors. Their every move is buttressed by copious quotes from the Bible. While I believe that a solid moral grounding is necessary for our country I do not think that individuals depending on a holy book for directions on building a country is what we need now or at any time of our development agenda.

I miss the wonderful traditional institution of chieftaincy in the conduct of our national affairs. When there is a meeting at the chief’s palace everyone who is able is supposed to be present. There are no opposition and government benches. Everyone in the locality has a role in governance. That is one reason why there are gradations and varieties of chiefs. Each person and I emphasize the phrase “each person” is made to feel that he or she belongs. All shades of opinion are listened to. That is why our elders say that a child that knows how to wash his hands is allowed to eat with his elders.

I still have hope that our people see our chiefs as the anchor of their societies. I am pleasantly surprised to observe that seeing the demise of chieftaincy the institution generates passions that are quite interesting. Highly educated individuals who have done well in their chosen fields often see their being enstooled as chiefs as the apogee of their life achievement. It is not for nothing that we see a proliferation

In my frequent rounds in the rural areas, and I live in a rural area, I am gratified to see that people see the traditional authorities as the anchor of their societies. There is general respect for the linguist staff that is sent to summon someone to the chief’s house. Although the chief may not have the physical authority to summon someone to a traditional arbitration the moral authority of his office is strong enough to get people to submit to traditional authority.

I am aware that given society as it now organized it is impossible for everyone to be a chief how ever well he or she may know how well to wash their hands. What bothers me is the sentiment that I increasingly keep hearing being expressed and even more shrilly of those that belong and those that are outside. Those inside give all the indications of being cosy and contented while those outside seem to be wallowing in misery and having to make do with the “crumbs”. Are these echoes of the sore infested Lazarus at the gate of the rich man?

It is in this situation that I find our youth today. I worked with the students of one of our Senior Secondary Schools in Accra. When I left the United States and Europe I thought I had bid goodbye to punks with holes in their noses and lips as well as other unmentionable body parts with rings and going about with baggy trousers over oversized jackets or whatever top. Well, was I wrong! In this school where I found the students generally well behaved and respectful of each other and their teachers I was shocked to see those vying with each other on whose pair of shorts was farthest down away from their waistline. Nevertheless, they ingeniously managed to keep their shirts tucked in.

I was, however, disappointed to find out that the cultural display that the students put up later were variations of American hip songs and dances. There were groups with names like The Californians, Manhattan Six and so on. Their gymnastic abilities are highly commendable. The songs were sung in “American Slang” and the response wild. There was no Kete, Adevu, Borborbo, or anything home grown.

I just sat there stunned. I thought of a decade hence when these young people would have finished their tertiary studies and proceed to take charge of the destiny of our Ghana. Need I go on?