At the end of the week, I would have been in Ghana for 2
months. It’s definitely the longest time I have spent in Ghana since we left
here in 1983. Not too many of you know this (unless ofcourse you lived in Ghana
during those times) but life in Ghana before we left was pretty rough. There
was a coup and Rawlings had just taken over. There was also an insane famine, I
was about 7 at the time and I remember very clearly how when an uncle came from
overseas with a box of cornflakes it was like the Messiah had returned to
deliver us to the promised land. During many meals we would pat down our
serving of rice so it would cover the whole plate and every time we took a
bite, we would pat it down again so it looked like the plate was still full.
Ish was real back then I tell you. Where tall trees and a seemingly bustling
metropolis now perch used to be littered with lush vegetation.
Yes, in many ways Accra is quite different from back the
city my 7 year old memory remembers. 30 years on and its been emmm quite emotional
being back! The country has come a long way from where it was, but in my humble
opinion and let me add based on very little else other than pure observation, I
wouldn’t be popping any bottles and setting off fireworks. This place is a far
cry from whence it came…in many aspects. But if I have to be honest, I think as
a continent we are guilty of mistaking mediocrity as greatness and worse still
we the normal folk praise this mediocrity and endorse it by not holding our
leaders accountable. 57 years ago Ghana
gained independence, we are supposed to be a gateway for many companies into
West Africa, in 2012 we were rated as the country with the fastest internet on
the continent, yet in many places, everything is still written on paper, many
roads are crater-filled suspension testers. We walk and drive on roads that
have open sewers on both sides and that’s fine. It is commonplace for folk to
just toss their rubbish on the floor because we couldn’t be ar sed about
putting up dustbins.
I bemoan the fact that someone in a place of much power
would sooner take offence to the fact that I handed him a piece of paper with
my left hand as opposed to my right hand, than notice the archaic and
inefficient driver licence conversion process. It disappoints me that the
inhabitants of a country that can boast the largest reservoir (Volta Lake) by
surface area in the world (the fourth largest by water volume) still suffers
days where water doesn’t flow through the taps in urban dwellings! The fact
that due to poor foresight and planning, indefinite rolling black out schedules
have to be published. These are some of the many things I have spent daily
moments pondering. Wondering why is it that things that seem rather simple to
mend (to me ofcourse) are totally overseen by those in power. But dare you tell
them Tweeaaa (similar to saying ‘whateverrrrr’), whilst they are on the podium
making a speech, it will invoke reaction akin to threatening his family with
the 10 plagues of Egypt.
Then it dawned on me, pure observation though but bear with
me. Our colonial masters may have left, but colonialism is still very alive in
these parts so too slavery. It is ingrained in our psyche. (But I will come
back to that shortly)…couple that with the fact that many of our politicians go
into politics primarily for wealth creation. We have a very close, very
educated and well off, family friend who
is in politics. I went to visit him a little while ago and we discussed
politics. From our discussions it was very clear that the amount of cash he had
put behind his party during the election campaign was seen as an investment,
the rewards of which he hoped to reap plenty fold once his party were in power.
The willingness to ease the burden on the population was a distant secondary objective…well
from what I gathered.
But back to the colonization/slavery…There are people just longing
to serve others, because in their heats of hearts they believe its their place
in life, not a bad thing, but I feel horrible having a man older than my pops
and half my weight begging to carry my bag upstairs or hooting at 4am so the
‘houseboy’ can come and open the gate. I understand there is a place for
everyone in this life but is it right for me to keep another down or in ‘their
place’ because through some magical, natural, phenomenon, my place in the human
eco-system is seemingly ‘higher’ than theirs? You see, in my minds eye, and
mind you I am no psychologist, this thinking and behavior, on the one hand, breeds
superiority and entitlement flanked disgustingly with arrogance and draped with
a veil of godliness! It takes our leaders to a place where they believe they
have the right to do as they please and who are we to question them. Sadly on
the other side of the coin, it breeds a majority enshrined in abject poverty of
both means and mind, keeping the masses in a place where they dare not question
what goes on ‘above’ them, feeling as if it is not our place to question.
It blows my mind when I think that one man can deem it fit
and proper, knowing very well the plight of his people, to build a residential
enclave to the preposterous sums that some of our leaders have. Even if it is
allowed by the governmental structures, when you open the newspapers do you not
read what I read, public service protests, mass load shedding, lack of housing,
lack of medical facilities and practitioners, yet let me buy 10 range rovers,
live in a monstrosity of an abode, well
because I run this ish and forget you who voted me into power to help you, it
is my right!
But I blame myself. I sit and write a blog such as this,
speak to my mates over coffee/a pint, then I go home in my car, switch on my
DSTV and tweet on my iPad, cos inspite of it all my life is still ok. I blame
myself because I accept this as the status quo, I mean he is an oga in power
and who am I to question him. Same colonial/’slave’ mentalityUntil they realize
they are there because we put them there and they are there to make our lives
better not just their lives, we will stay as we are. Right?
I write this not because I am fed up and want to leave this
continent of saviges. Au contraire, I write this because I see hope and
prosperity in this beautiful land of ours called Africa. I see a diamond dying
to be polished. I write this because to fix this place merely requires a
willingness of the whole to set off a chain reaction…but then again therein
lies the challenge, so I guess in the end I write this, well because I can..
