ARMAH +ZOLA=?

         I wrote this piece in 2009(and so it expressed the local and global events of the time) which was carried in my column “Asia 601” in the Graphic Business newspaper. It came to mind after I watched the biopic The Life of Emile Zola with my Leadership Seminar class in Ashesi last Thursday. I thought I should share this for against all odds an active and engaged citizenry CAN ALWAYS make a difference.   Kindly read on......

The truth is on the march and nothing shall stop it 

                                                                                                                           -Emile Zola(1898)

Okay this heading can be deciphered by anyone with the most primitive and basic mathematical competence. Join me as we go through the clarification of the terms. But in the interim you can answer the question to test your literary capacity. I will give my own answer. And you may accept it or reject it. We are in a democracy are we not?

Armah the brave and sublime Ghanaian thinker at work!!!

I remember trying to lay hands on Ayi Kwei Armah’s unputdownable, page-turner of a classic of contemporary Ghanaian letters The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born. The title misleads I must say and indeed has nothing to do with any amorous trysts. I was misled and considering it a non- serious book did not read it in high school. Matters were not helped by commentators especially in the Ghanaian press who dropped the title when matters of romance were their concern. I finally got this book from the Dubois Centre Library where I had courted the trust and friendship of the librarian. I was hooked. In graphic, searing, detailed terms Armah lays into the post-independence Ghanaian society where the dream of independence had become a nightmare of corruption, self doubt, political patronage, nepotism and all the ills some of us have grown up to write about. Unsatisfied I went for what was then in the 1990s his latest work Osiris Rising. Here Armah had entered upon the business of proffering solutions to what he considered the recurrent crisis in Africa. This book provided further reinforcement for my decision to study in Asia if I had the opportunity. I was lucky to see him when he passed through Dubois around that time. One statement he made carried by the Daily Graphic is worth quoting: “Ghanaians have become used to celebrating than cerebrating!” Anguished by his country’s failure he has virtually abandoned her(spatially and locatively at least) and now lives by the sea in Popenguine(a village two hours from Dakar) in Senegal where he runs the independent and quite successful publishing house PER ANKH. Ghana has forgotten him too it seems. No national award for this rare genius; this fertile chronicler of our seeming stagnation. No role for him anywhere. He reminds me of Russia’s Alexander Solzhenitsyn who passed recently.

Paul Cézanne, Paul Alexis reading to Emile Zola,   

And then there is Zola. Emile Zola. Frenchman. I watched recently a grainy, white and black film on his remarkable life. He used to live in poverty in an attic with broken windows with his friend Cezanne (one of Europe’s great artists) when he started to write. His focus like Armah after him was French society’s self destruction and pervasive injustice. The authorities derided, hounded and sought to silence him. He persisted and then found fame and fortune. He is best remembered for the Dreyfus Affair (a matter in which an army officer was wrongly jailed for treason he did not commit). His relentless campaign for which he had to flee for his life and to evade unjust imprisonment got Dreyfus released and reinstated in the army. I still remember when I stood solemnly at the French Panthéon. in Paris at the crypt he shares with one of my favourites Victor Hugo. Social justice and its pursuit. That is what Armah and Zola stand for. Armah +Zola= SOCIAL JUSTICE.

That is the issue, indeed the foremost one, for this and subsequent Ghanaian governments. This is what lies at the heart of the general public outcry against the Chinery Hesse Report. Social justice makes completely silly and incredulous the defense that because other African leaders live in palatial mansions and drive Benz 500s we also have to splash money on same (former chief of staff Kwadwo Mpiani so intimated on the FrontPage talk show hosted by the inimitable Kwaku Sakyi-Addo on Joy FM). Singapore recently issued its budget. It has been called the “Rainy Day Budget.” The Singapore government is drawing down on its savings carefully kept over the years to support her citizens against the pitiless battering of the encircling global economic recession. Families are being offered CASH! Those who are losing jobs are being retrained with GOVERNMENT DOUGH!!!!  In Taiwan the government offered everyone money to spend on Christmas and the Chinese New Year to stimulate growth.

 When the budget is read in Ghana soon I bet my last pesewa you reader will not find tro(or teku fa as the Fantis put it) in your account. All the savings we could have made have been fed into four wheeled “toys,” a presidential palace that stands empty, secret accounts in Caymen Islands and Switzerland among other senseless things!!! Who for Christ’s sake cares for us?

Compatriots as it seems nobody cares for us at least this we can say in a democracy: GIVE US SOCIAL JUSTICE OR GIVE US DEATH!!!!!   

The Ashesian Question: Education or Fabrication?

From r to l: Dr. Awuah, Mrs. Hutchful and Dr. Sarfo and myself

As a teaching assistant in 2003 at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ghana, Legon(my very beloved alma mata) I was asked by Dr. Martin Odei-Ajei( a very original thinker and mentor) to go act as a judge for a debate in his stead at Ashesi University College. The physical surroundings were obviously modest compared to say the sweeping, majestic, almost intimidating sprawl of Legon. But I noticed the very well manicured lawns, the almost poetic symmetry of the order in the classroom that served as the venue for the debate and the overall ship-shape feel of the surroundings. And I felt palpably the intensity and determination of the students to literally conquer the world: there was an obvious hunger. The opposing debate team was incinerated. I still remember it all like it was yesterday. I reflected as I left what this project was all about. And as it turned out Ashesi was then just a year old: very new and dogged beginning. I think I applied to teach there subsequently inspired by the dream. I got a response: Ashesi was not ready for me. I took it on the chin; I was not ready for Ashesi. I still have the letter in my collection of papers.

Dr. Awuah(right) making a point at the seminar

In 2005 my public service sent me back to Ashesi. I had set up with my friends Kojo Asante(now a leading light at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development aka CDD) and Cofie Tawiah Cofie a business man what we called the Renaissance Network. Anguished by Africa’s great unactualized potential we sought to do something with our limited resources. We wanted to inspire thought amongst our generation about the pressing issues of the time. The redoubtable Thabo Mbeki was then helming South Africa; his renascent Africa theme provided energizing inspiration. We decided to have our first public event in Ashesi. We thought this new university embodied institutionally the African Renaissance project. Our theme was on education. The Kufuor Administration was then attempting some fundamental restructuring of the sector; we wanted to interrogate the process. We booked an appointment with Dr.Patrick Awuah the central architect of the Ashesi Dream. It was the first time I had met him up close. He exuded this quiet brooding intensity which balanced an almost disarming informality. He offered us Ashesi’s facilities free for the two day event and participated himself on both days. I noticed he walked to and from his office to the venue; a not too challenging distance which some of our big men and women will ride in cars to cover. Certainly this dude has a certain philosophy of life. Ashesi’s students participated with verve and in gratifying numbers.

In 2009 I finally joined the faculty of Ashesi on my return from further studies offshore. Ashesi is now a decade old this year and I have participated at close quarters in the unfolding of this dream that is now flowering as it weathers challenges and chalks every hard earned triumph. One of our triumphs is the rise of our gleaming campus atop the hills of Berekuso. One of our enduring challenges is the spine dislodging road which has tested us every day in our bid to transform first our Republic, Africa and then the very world. I think that Ashesi poses a deep question to Ghana and Africa. And the question is whether our institutions of higher learning going forward simply intend to fabricate our young people like the cars coming off the assembly plants or seek to educate them. Fabrication here is construed as an inordinate focus on equipping students with skills for the job market in contradistinction to education which touches deeply the mind, hands, soul and heart. 

Ashesi’s liberal arts framework attempts to focus on a many sided education that allows our young people to see the link between Akhenaten, Cheik Anta Diop, Langston Hughes,Plato, Ayi Kwei Armah, Bill Gates,Deepak Lal, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ato Quayson, Herman Chinery-Hesse, Allotey, Carlos Slim, Frantz Fanon, Adu-Boahen, Emmanuel Acheampong, Justin Lin Yifu, Bach, Amakye Dede, Reggie Rockstone, Ephraim Amu, Nii AyiKwei Parkes, Ha-Joon Chang and Michael Porter and to take on the world with a heart and a conscience. This focus I believe is what keeps me, my jazzy colleagues and all the heroic staff at Ashesi. To be sure the greatest genius without a heart and conscience will only gift to the world evil schemes and scams; the last thing a resurgent Africa and an unsteady world needs. May the Ashesi dream live on eternally for the benefit of our Republic, our continent and humanity everywhere. Happy 10 years Ashesi!!!!!

                 

INVITE- Ashesi @10Symposium

Dear All, 

Invitation to Ashesi University’s 10^thAnniversary Academic Symposium

The faculty, staff and students of Ashesi are delighted to invite you to an Academic Symposium on Friday, March 16^th 2012, in honor of the 10^th Anniversary of Ashesi University College.

The schedule for the overall Academic Symposium is as follows:

All day:                   Poster session

09:30 – 10:30:         Arts and Sciences Lecture and Discussion

                                Theme: “Musings on two contemporary Ghanaian Questions”

11:00– 12:00:          Business Administration Lecture and Discussion

                                Theme:  “Branding Ghana”

12:30 – 13:30:         Computer Science Lecture and Discussion

Theme: “Computer Science in Everyday Life”

14:00 – 15:30:         Economics Lecture and Discussion

                                Theme: “The Oil and Gas Industry”

15:30 – 17:00:         Q&A with authors of posters

We look forward to welcoming you to our campus.

Yours Sincerely,

Signed

G. Ayorkor Korsah, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Computer Science

(On behalf of the Ashesi University 10^thAnniversary Committee)

FOR THOSE WHO LIVE BY THE WORD.....

Great initiative. Send in your  thoughts in full flowery flow and SPEAK some truth to POWER!!!