THE reverent sire in a symbolic gesture beckoned the fresher
and with sagely lips uttered the echoing words. Climb the hill of knowledge fresher, though you may stumble and falter, and may dread silent retrogression into the lower most echelons of doom, do not falter- climb the hill of knowledge
The path leading to the edifice of enlightenment is fraught with insurmountable intricacies and occurrences defying easy explanation climb the hill of knowledge
And control your wild excitement the pompous mentality that riddle campus
Is an illusion designed to ensnare the unwary the susceptible the gullible
Forget the initial trauma of cueing in the sun for registration forms
Forget about the harsh reality you have being exposed to
Try to forget O fresher from the precincts of innocence with high aspiration to join the enviable seats of the men of learning climb the hill of knowledge fresher
I am not mocking your efforts and desire to seek higher education at the premier university of academic ambience rivaling world class universities
Fresher climb the hill of knowledge with a gladdened heart with grandeur with majesty climb the hill of knowledge with the hope of coming out with success
But that entails fuelling that desire with sweat and blood and mire at the brink of Golgotha
O climb the hill of knowledge fresher with the sole aim of achieving academic excellence
Never nurse delusion and don’t be disillusioned when the chapter of filth of academic life is opened before you at the sacred edifice
And never engage in reveries beneath the shady boughs of the tall solemn tress
Let the high towers of learning be your guide to the skies O fresher
Forget about the sweet memories of matriculation and start working fervently towards a successful graduation
Of hopes dreams aspirations achieved
The initial taunts and jeering statements of renegade vandals the ponding and all the embarrassing escapades you were subjected to is but initiation into the formidable cult of academia
O fresher climb the hill of knowledge with unflinching resoluteness and firmness
Don’t be cowed by the majesty of the institution
Bow before its norms and traditions but don’t sell your integrity
Be an arrow of justice on campus –
O climb the hill of knowledge fresher climb the edifying hills
Do not engage yourself or identify your self with dissidents but let your sensibilities be felt all around
Do not indulge in campus fracas protests and vandalism but let your words be sharper than all the agitators say and let your deeds out do theirs
Never waste your academic life in obscene profligacy and debaucheries
Never gape at the toyish and tempting display of beauty and seductive coquettish invitation of voltarians
Never let the erotic aroma of sensuality engulf your efforts and warp your senses
And swerve the ensnaring net of rustication
Be glued to your books O fresher
Except for the reality of knowledge the rest are fleeting illusion
O climb the hill of knowledge fresher
proceed in integrity fresher
O climb the hill of knowledge
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
CENTRAL CAFETERIA - PRELUDE
[Central cafeteria. The room is filled to capacity with students. The usual uproarious and cacophonous tendency akin to students is evident here. Some too are speaking in undertones and the youthful scene displayed exudes youthful exuberance and innocence. Almost all them were holding pamphlets or something associated with the theme of the conference. Others too are wearing t- shirts with inscriptions extolling the virtues and power of education and knowledge. A banner with the inscription knowledge is power is been brilliantly displayed. On the dais in front are seated some lecturers and students. The special guest of honor was Professor Ellison from Edifice University. He is asked by the host to assume the floor. He stood up obeisant for the microphone. The students welcomed him with a thunderous applause.]
Professor Ellison. [He is overwhelmed by the delightful reception.] Thank you. Thank you very much. It affords me the greatest pleasure to be in Legon of red roof tiles. Of somber beauty and majestic grandeur. Of balmy shades of enlightenment and edification. I am very happy to be present in front of the towers of learning, herald of intellectual advancement and accomplishment. I am very happy to be at the premier university, [applause from students] to be in this very hall, my precious central cafeteria. But alas, my message is a sad one. A pathetic story that will not darken but illume the learning towers of Legon. As gray tells us, the path of glory leads but to the grave. that as students of this great institution, we must not make the mistake of thinking that once we are receiving a university education, we are the fortunate and privileged few and that the ordinary people are burning in a coal black hell and we have been plucked out. Superiority is a stinking word. Invocation of aggrandizement by virtue of education is delusion - illusion. As students, learners, we must bear in mind that we have a huge task ahead of us - we have a great duty to perform for our dear country. This country is beset with innumerable problems. People are suffering; wallowing in ignorance, there is massive unemployment, moral degeneration, corruption, and cultural depravity. Now we are here to be armed with the weapon of education to liberate our people. it is incumbent on us to use the knowledge we acquire to improve upon our appalling and humiliating circumstances. We live in the nadir of the world - the peripherals where all the filth, the abominable and wretched dross of the earth is discarded. The knowledge we acquire must be used to combat all these negative woes amongst us. We must not detach, alienate ourselves from the less fortunate ones. We must help them with what we have acquired. Education is not only for an individual but an assert of the community.
If you claim to be a leader, then you must prepare to serve. For a leader must identify himself with the people. No one can lay claim to being a good leader if he separates himself from the very people he claims to serve. He must approach them and identify their burden as his burden. The secrets we acquire here must be selflessly revealed to the ordinary people, the masses. So that we can create a collective consciousness, which will help us a lot in our quest for the betterment of our society. We must let them understand everything. We must strive to be their interpreters. The sound of the magic flute from the learning towers must echo and re echo in the consciences of all and sundry, the magic words, open sese me that we desperately seek on our lips must not only be used when acquired to transform our situations alone but must reflect and impact positively in the lives of the citizens of our dear nation. No man is an island entire of itself. We have seen a lot, we have learnt a lot and are still gathering more experience. We are fully aware of the price; we know the repercussions of living in ignorance, being benighted in the dark.
I find it intriguing and quite amazing that some of the most serious and shameful things do originate on campus. The very validity and relevance of the premier university is being questioned. What the towers symbolize, what they represent in the psyche of the community is what we must guard and not destroy. The action of some students in this institution is like a huge hammer battering the towers to debris. So many things have happened here that I know. Revolution itself starts in Legon. So why don’t we rebel against the negative things that are plaguing us. Let us all contribute to combat the specter haunting Legon and bring it to its superior position again. Thank you.
Professor Ellison. [He is overwhelmed by the delightful reception.] Thank you. Thank you very much. It affords me the greatest pleasure to be in Legon of red roof tiles. Of somber beauty and majestic grandeur. Of balmy shades of enlightenment and edification. I am very happy to be present in front of the towers of learning, herald of intellectual advancement and accomplishment. I am very happy to be at the premier university, [applause from students] to be in this very hall, my precious central cafeteria. But alas, my message is a sad one. A pathetic story that will not darken but illume the learning towers of Legon. As gray tells us, the path of glory leads but to the grave. that as students of this great institution, we must not make the mistake of thinking that once we are receiving a university education, we are the fortunate and privileged few and that the ordinary people are burning in a coal black hell and we have been plucked out. Superiority is a stinking word. Invocation of aggrandizement by virtue of education is delusion - illusion. As students, learners, we must bear in mind that we have a huge task ahead of us - we have a great duty to perform for our dear country. This country is beset with innumerable problems. People are suffering; wallowing in ignorance, there is massive unemployment, moral degeneration, corruption, and cultural depravity. Now we are here to be armed with the weapon of education to liberate our people. it is incumbent on us to use the knowledge we acquire to improve upon our appalling and humiliating circumstances. We live in the nadir of the world - the peripherals where all the filth, the abominable and wretched dross of the earth is discarded. The knowledge we acquire must be used to combat all these negative woes amongst us. We must not detach, alienate ourselves from the less fortunate ones. We must help them with what we have acquired. Education is not only for an individual but an assert of the community.
If you claim to be a leader, then you must prepare to serve. For a leader must identify himself with the people. No one can lay claim to being a good leader if he separates himself from the very people he claims to serve. He must approach them and identify their burden as his burden. The secrets we acquire here must be selflessly revealed to the ordinary people, the masses. So that we can create a collective consciousness, which will help us a lot in our quest for the betterment of our society. We must let them understand everything. We must strive to be their interpreters. The sound of the magic flute from the learning towers must echo and re echo in the consciences of all and sundry, the magic words, open sese me that we desperately seek on our lips must not only be used when acquired to transform our situations alone but must reflect and impact positively in the lives of the citizens of our dear nation. No man is an island entire of itself. We have seen a lot, we have learnt a lot and are still gathering more experience. We are fully aware of the price; we know the repercussions of living in ignorance, being benighted in the dark.
I find it intriguing and quite amazing that some of the most serious and shameful things do originate on campus. The very validity and relevance of the premier university is being questioned. What the towers symbolize, what they represent in the psyche of the community is what we must guard and not destroy. The action of some students in this institution is like a huge hammer battering the towers to debris. So many things have happened here that I know. Revolution itself starts in Legon. So why don’t we rebel against the negative things that are plaguing us. Let us all contribute to combat the specter haunting Legon and bring it to its superior position again. Thank you.
ALUMUNUS
For a person to return to his homeland, to his Alma mater after a long absence is unparalleled favor. One must be proud, be elevated to a solemn height. Even if there are noticeable changes and improvements. I can see some changes here in Legon, some adjustments here and there, renovations, and new lecture halls. Nevertheless, things have not changed at all. Though some are apt to point that the premier university has really improved in its inception half a century ago, recent events is a clear indication that things have deteriorated, growing from bad to worse. it is the same old buildings, the same red roof tiles, the same plan while the population has increased to unprecedented figure. The hall of residence is in a mess. Students will have to cram themselves in a hall they are supposed to reside with ease and learn. They have to sprawl on the floor like helpless accident victims and the daring ones who have sworn heaven and earth not to remain outside the academic walls of the learning towers would manage to stay on campus and perpetually hang around the less than life size rooms in the name of perching. This shows how fervent they are to pursue higher education despite the manic odds. Strange, curious, inexplicable. They were politely refused to be given a hall of residence because the fact of the matter is the rooms were long occupied by students. Residents or non-residents, they have a way of asserting themselves. Waiving of naïve prejudices cast by fellow students, and despite all the shameful obstacles that dog their steps in their quest to enjoy the ambrosial fragrance of academia; most importantly the intellectual ambience of the premier university, their petty human desires are not warped. In the stillness of the night when the learning towers maintain dead silence they will trudge the lonely streets with their fiancées’ to the academic ghettoes and plead with their collogues to be “excused” for the night. They are like eneke the bird in Things fall Apart. They are known as “perchers”, but like the bird, if the authorities have learnt to shoot without missing, they have also learnt to fly without perching. The authorities are privy to the fact that they are non – re. yet they have a terse answer to the ignominious position they have being relegated., looking at the vagaries and intricacies of education; the burdensome nature of mastering knowledge and putting it to effective use, and with an albatross of non re stigma hanging around ones neck, battling with the ruinous system to stay on campus and maintain a balance, sanity, while the vast stretches of legon lands lie waste. When I look at the original plan of this institution when it came it being, the factors that led to its establishment, its like it is taking more than it has, we are exhausting the ideals that led to its inception. After all Legon for half a century has produced so many scholars and intellectuals. These eminent personalities are the same people who will parade the country saying that things have deteriorated at the premier university. Instead of them to find ways and means of helping their prestigious alma mater. Of course, some are helping, making donations and investing in education, but it is simply not enough. We must rebuild Legon. But it must be a collective effort and
not a fashionable display of rhetoric about its problems.
not a fashionable display of rhetoric about its problems.
INTEGRI PROCEDAMUS
The phenomenal history of university of Ghana by Francis Abgodeka according to Prof R. Addo-fening is a solid work of historical scholarship, telling the story of legon from its beginnings in a straight forward narrative that is at once lucid and engrossing as it is informative. Yet this massive work of historical roundedness and of consequent value for every student written for the fiftieth anniversary of the premier university are still languishing in the shelves of the book shop gathering dust after dust after a decade of its publication and the impending sixtieth anniversary is not only uninspiring and lackluster in outlook but insipid enough to inspire students to read about the grand history or was it a long night of howling nightmare of academic hyper myopia and intellectual languor of the premier university. No student is interested in legon as a historical entity, the ideals that led to its inception and the numerous huddles and obstacles it has trampled down, and the efforts of some of the illustrious alumni who held together the tottering institution at the time of crisis and on the brink of suicide at six thirty.
Legon is fast losing its symbols. An academic arena for research and higher education! Its onetime cherished story of blood and toil and the indefatigable and unflinching thirst for knowledge displayed by some of the ablest men of the country and its compelling tale of survival and determination and uncompromising stance in the midst of national crisis and how it resurrected as still the sole custodian of knowledge and academic excellence is now becoming a fable, sinking ignominiously into the pantheon of oblivion. The numerous symbols and statues on campus, the intriguing connotations and esoteric meaning implicit in the various names given to the various halls and the structures have assumed a decorative and embellishing outlook. What then do the chimes of the learning towers herald when the professors of knowledge are rapidly losing grip on the monumental and inspiring stories that reveals the labyrinth of the premier university. To what future is one cast if one has no glorious past or turmoil to inspire or to warn?
Despite its febrile failings and left to wander in the desuetude of modernity, legon is quite complex and it has some of its cryptic ideals embedded in highly intricate symbols of academia which is left to the initiated student to decode and explore its full import and build upon it.
I quote an anecdote Francis abgodeka inserts into his history of the premier university to illustrate the point I am making.
In 1948 the UGCC approved the colleges motto as “Vigil evocat Auroram” in view of the warning of the British colonial office at that time: that governments should not interfere in the affairs of the university colleges they were establishing in the British colonies, the meaning of this motto was that the new venture of university education in the gold coast could only succeed if the university college behaved like the cockerel, the watchful bird calling forth the dawn, i.e. keeping vigil to protect its academic freedom from being eroded through political intervention in its affairs. The cockerel was chosen to symbolize this motto.
When the UCGC gave way to the independent university of an independent Ghana, the message symbolized by the cockerel in the college’s motto with it’s colonial background lost its appeal to the university community. By 1963 when the independent was laying down its guidelines for growth and development, it was felt that inspiration for this growth could best be drawn from Ghana’s own cultural roots preserved in a new motto and a new crest. The new motto must take its source from traditional African thought but must be expressed in the scholastic language of international academic circles where legon has already won an enviable position. So when in that year professor A.A kwapong, a classical scholar took office as the first Ghanaian pro vice chancellor, he was assigned the responsibility of producing the new motto and crest. He got Professor Manwere Opoku in the institute of African studies (I A S) to design the crest, of course in traditional edinkra symbols. Prof opoku chose the symbol of three straight ferns (aya in twi), which because of their quality of always growing straight up in the forest represent, in traditional thought, straightness, truthfulness, integrity. He also took the symbol of two interlocking ram horns (in the Twi language Guanini mmen toa so) which we know never stop growing therefore depict progress. Kwapong, the professor of classics provided the Latin rendering of the motto “intergri procedamus” progressing with integrity, inscribed beneath the symbols.
The prevalence of symbols and cryptic statues and memorials scattered on campus if patiently scrutinized and dissected would unravel interesting and unchallengeable outburst of inspiration for students. Some of the clandestine objects points out landmarks in the history of the premier university which has shaped the destiny and the course of the university. It is when you know and understand the happenings of the past that you would be able to appreciate the present and be able to envisage what will happen in the future. The crest and the motto has served as a constant reminder to those who were able to see beyond its symbolical connotations to work hard. Proceed in truth and integrity.
Now students are apt to take inane interest in events which are not only irrelevant but time wasting as well which has no affinity with wit or intellectuality.
The well laid structures they are oblivious to. They see and analyze things on superficial basis. They sing the anthem with glee without any effort to get down to its import and application on a practical basis. One wonders if they don’t apply their theoretical and highly artificial and idealistic way of viewing events to everything they encounter ON CAMPUS. Symbols will always remain symbols it will always be devoid of practicality. Statues will remain statues without life. What message can you carry across with the bust of Nkrumah and sabah to an inmate of sabah hall who is at the university for the sole purpose of obsolete theories which he will take nowhere. Why must he read the history of legon. Whether legon evolved from the le tree which was situated on the hill at that time or le the ga word for knowledge is not his present concern. He knows he is on the hill of knowledge for theories. The history and symbols of legon is a piece of curiosity for the few who are obsessed with the majesty of the institution. He went to the towers to earn degrees for miniature privileges and allowances, personal aggrandizement and the sheepish acknowledgement of the fact that he attended legon.
Legon is fast losing its symbols. An academic arena for research and higher education! Its onetime cherished story of blood and toil and the indefatigable and unflinching thirst for knowledge displayed by some of the ablest men of the country and its compelling tale of survival and determination and uncompromising stance in the midst of national crisis and how it resurrected as still the sole custodian of knowledge and academic excellence is now becoming a fable, sinking ignominiously into the pantheon of oblivion. The numerous symbols and statues on campus, the intriguing connotations and esoteric meaning implicit in the various names given to the various halls and the structures have assumed a decorative and embellishing outlook. What then do the chimes of the learning towers herald when the professors of knowledge are rapidly losing grip on the monumental and inspiring stories that reveals the labyrinth of the premier university. To what future is one cast if one has no glorious past or turmoil to inspire or to warn?
Despite its febrile failings and left to wander in the desuetude of modernity, legon is quite complex and it has some of its cryptic ideals embedded in highly intricate symbols of academia which is left to the initiated student to decode and explore its full import and build upon it.
I quote an anecdote Francis abgodeka inserts into his history of the premier university to illustrate the point I am making.
In 1948 the UGCC approved the colleges motto as “Vigil evocat Auroram” in view of the warning of the British colonial office at that time: that governments should not interfere in the affairs of the university colleges they were establishing in the British colonies, the meaning of this motto was that the new venture of university education in the gold coast could only succeed if the university college behaved like the cockerel, the watchful bird calling forth the dawn, i.e. keeping vigil to protect its academic freedom from being eroded through political intervention in its affairs. The cockerel was chosen to symbolize this motto.
When the UCGC gave way to the independent university of an independent Ghana, the message symbolized by the cockerel in the college’s motto with it’s colonial background lost its appeal to the university community. By 1963 when the independent was laying down its guidelines for growth and development, it was felt that inspiration for this growth could best be drawn from Ghana’s own cultural roots preserved in a new motto and a new crest. The new motto must take its source from traditional African thought but must be expressed in the scholastic language of international academic circles where legon has already won an enviable position. So when in that year professor A.A kwapong, a classical scholar took office as the first Ghanaian pro vice chancellor, he was assigned the responsibility of producing the new motto and crest. He got Professor Manwere Opoku in the institute of African studies (I A S) to design the crest, of course in traditional edinkra symbols. Prof opoku chose the symbol of three straight ferns (aya in twi), which because of their quality of always growing straight up in the forest represent, in traditional thought, straightness, truthfulness, integrity. He also took the symbol of two interlocking ram horns (in the Twi language Guanini mmen toa so) which we know never stop growing therefore depict progress. Kwapong, the professor of classics provided the Latin rendering of the motto “intergri procedamus” progressing with integrity, inscribed beneath the symbols.
The prevalence of symbols and cryptic statues and memorials scattered on campus if patiently scrutinized and dissected would unravel interesting and unchallengeable outburst of inspiration for students. Some of the clandestine objects points out landmarks in the history of the premier university which has shaped the destiny and the course of the university. It is when you know and understand the happenings of the past that you would be able to appreciate the present and be able to envisage what will happen in the future. The crest and the motto has served as a constant reminder to those who were able to see beyond its symbolical connotations to work hard. Proceed in truth and integrity.
Now students are apt to take inane interest in events which are not only irrelevant but time wasting as well which has no affinity with wit or intellectuality.
The well laid structures they are oblivious to. They see and analyze things on superficial basis. They sing the anthem with glee without any effort to get down to its import and application on a practical basis. One wonders if they don’t apply their theoretical and highly artificial and idealistic way of viewing events to everything they encounter ON CAMPUS. Symbols will always remain symbols it will always be devoid of practicality. Statues will remain statues without life. What message can you carry across with the bust of Nkrumah and sabah to an inmate of sabah hall who is at the university for the sole purpose of obsolete theories which he will take nowhere. Why must he read the history of legon. Whether legon evolved from the le tree which was situated on the hill at that time or le the ga word for knowledge is not his present concern. He knows he is on the hill of knowledge for theories. The history and symbols of legon is a piece of curiosity for the few who are obsessed with the majesty of the institution. He went to the towers to earn degrees for miniature privileges and allowances, personal aggrandizement and the sheepish acknowledgement of the fact that he attended legon.
OF HEROES AND STATUES – SABAH – NKRUMAH AND THE PEASANT FARMERS.
We went to akuafo hall the next day. A short witty maxim one of my friends use to say crept into my mind. Who would graduate from Legon, a staunch advocate of agriculture from Akuafo hall and engage in farming? When we reached the entrance to the hall, my friend beheld the statues erected in front of akuafo hall of farmers harvesting cocoa and he burst out deliriously. What a magnificent statue of unparalleled grandeur. it is not only representation of cocoa as our major foreign exchange earner, but Ghana itself and the selfless peasantry. A classic piece of art depicting agriculture. I was impressed by my friend’s insightful recognition of the symbolic statues and what they really stood for. I corroborated what he said. Akuafo hall means farmers hall. They are playfully called farmers but they take it to heart. But how can we live without fufu, ken key and gari. The shortage of these palatable Ghanaian dishes alone can cause a revolution in the country. But surprisingly, the most common maxim of akuafo hall is man shall not live by bread alone. Most of them claim to be religious persons, the Christians dominating. And we know that true Christians, though very few are suppose to follow the examples of Christ i.e. they should be seen as iconographic examples in the society but in recent times they are far from harmless creatures. Because there is an offer of consolation to a lost soul awaiting eternal damnation by the hellish fires of Gehenna within their doctrinaire brand, they are apt with a vicious justification. if you cry out loud and clear and repent from your sins you would be saved. They are as meek as a lamb because they are pretentious and gullible and they cover their weakness with the inimitable meekness of Christ. They make a public show of their almost unrecognizable presence on campus by chanting their daily mantras. We are farmers, we don’t want trouble, we are devout Christians. They seem to be Soft spoken and very serious in their studies. But who knows it may be one of their wolves in a sheep clothing tactics. I asked my friend whether he is a Christian. He was apt to admit his hypocrisy. I do go to church but I am not a very strong Christian. He admitted frankly. I was furious. I said. So are you telling me that you cannot join the prayer warriors of Legon to pray to the prince of peace, the stiller of the storm for the betterment of Legon? it is something that I have being doing since time immemorial but nothing happens. I have come to realized that it is a sheer nonsense and fallacious to chant in a detached place, away from the problem. How can you solve the problem gnawing at your heart? The church bells are ringing and the children are singing but nothing happens. Well, I said. I am not in to destroy your faith. Let us go.
When we reached Sabah hall, my friend was intrigued, overwhelmed when he saw the bust of john mensah Sabah. What Sabah did, his astonishing and commending accomplishment in the legal field was a bit vague in his mind even though he did history in secondary school. Sabah to him is synonymous to a mythical figure or a legendary hero whose achievements and exploits is neither a reality nor unreality. Fiction or fact he is indifferent, not bordered in the least. All that he is aware of is that there is a hall in Legon called Sabah hall and it will forever remain Sabah hall. I tried to bear with him. Now, I said to him. Let me tell you something. You are not the only one who is guilty of inability to see the value and appreciate things of esthetic value and historical significance. Most of the students fall into the same morass. Now look at the bust again. Why would someone decide to erect such a thing? A bust of a person. The purpose is to instill nationalism, chauvinism in us. It was erected for us to know our heroes, our forbears who fought and contributed in diverse ways to liberate us from the shackles of imperialism. It was not erected to serve just as a memorial, but a pointer, a reminder that we also have a duty to perform. It is something that is supposes to gnaw at our conscience. To make us remember that shirking our responsibilities is not noble. The one who stands in times of crisis, defends his country, and is even ready to be a martyr to annihilate anything evil, vicious, cataclysmic that will threaten his country or nation. Such a person is naturally ennobled. His desire to remain selfless and to strive not for personal aggrandizement but the elevation of his mother land, such a person like Sabah never dies. But is always embedded in the psyche of the people. I wish, nay it is my duty to sensitize them to come to the realization that it is not only walking in campus and uttering the name Sabah just for the mere sake that it is a name of a hall. We must learn his example. He is an iconographic and inspirational figure. My friend was exasperated by my long sojourn on the bust of Sabah. He saw it as a kind of uninspiring drudgery. Invocation of dross. Let us go then I said.
When we reached institute of African studies, the fresher burst out, again demonstrating his awe for the symbolic nature of African art and culture. This is real Africanism. Perfect Africanism. I was enthused by my friend’s passion for African values and ideals. But I was baffled as to the kind of Africanism he was referring to. Whether the fashionable one whereby people put African images in their offices for decorative purposes but themselves purely and thoroughly Europeanized. Or the Africanism which the individual asserts his cultural identity sees himself as a being that had been colonized both physically and mentally, manipulated in time and space, relegated to the abysm of time and his pride trampled upon by forces who claim to work and operate in his interest.
My friend heaved a sigh and said that all that I have said he has no knowledge about but he sees the whole thing a dogmatic nonsense to claim to be a pure African and living in this modern world like a primitive person. He says all that is going that the African has done this or that, that civilization started here has nothing to do with him. He believes that without the white man the black man is nothing. I was not surprised by his stance. As the very African is rejecting his very color to be come a Whiteman. His very accent is offensive to him that he has to resort to the music of the white which results in a repulsive nasal twang. Nature has endowed every human being with special innate qualities that can never be altered. but the black man has succeeded in altering his identity, his culture, his soul and his very color. Humans do borrow cultural values that are relevant to their needs. But everything that the black man possesses is not good. Could it be possible? People have reiterated this claim for centuries that the African has nothing worthwhile to offer. That he has neither culture nor civilization. This is a serious claim. Africanism is saying that it is not possible for a human being to be devoid of culture and in the midst of the craze after alien culture it is showing what is good in his culture to regain his integrity. His pride value and worth as a human being, his interiority and conscience, my friend nodded in affirmation. Now we cannot talk of Africanism and leave an iconographic figure like Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah and institute of African studies are inseparable. My friend went round the bust of Nkrumah trying to grasp its complex nature. Nkrumah’s statue, bust, or portraiture anywhere has a message for Africans. His statue or bust represents African culture, African personality, and liberation from imperialism and neo colonialism. I asked my friend if he has read Africa must unite. He said no. neo colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, he said no. What about conscienscism his philosophical treatise he answered in the negative. What a pity. I said. Honestly, I have not read any of his books but I have seen dark days at Balme library and I intend borrowing it.
I urge you to go for it tomorrow and start reading for in deed we are in the dark days.
When it comes to rejecting, denouncing and destroying visionaries and heroes, we are in the forefront. When the person is alive, no matter what he would do we will never realize his vision? His prophetic message will hypnotize us. We only come to realize his value and worth when he is no more. This is unfortunate. We tend to revere the dead and so don’t see the value of the living. As soon as a person dies - he is automatically transformed in to a saint. Even if the devil is to die today, we would shed copious tears and accord him respect. We deify the dead. I am not saying that we should treat the dead with dishonor. But when he is alive and we despise him, ostracize him, treat him like venom, a social canker, he may die with his visions which will not augur well for the society. We walked silent. The fresher did not talk. He only broke the silence when he saw some campus girls passing by.
When we reached Sabah hall, my friend was intrigued, overwhelmed when he saw the bust of john mensah Sabah. What Sabah did, his astonishing and commending accomplishment in the legal field was a bit vague in his mind even though he did history in secondary school. Sabah to him is synonymous to a mythical figure or a legendary hero whose achievements and exploits is neither a reality nor unreality. Fiction or fact he is indifferent, not bordered in the least. All that he is aware of is that there is a hall in Legon called Sabah hall and it will forever remain Sabah hall. I tried to bear with him. Now, I said to him. Let me tell you something. You are not the only one who is guilty of inability to see the value and appreciate things of esthetic value and historical significance. Most of the students fall into the same morass. Now look at the bust again. Why would someone decide to erect such a thing? A bust of a person. The purpose is to instill nationalism, chauvinism in us. It was erected for us to know our heroes, our forbears who fought and contributed in diverse ways to liberate us from the shackles of imperialism. It was not erected to serve just as a memorial, but a pointer, a reminder that we also have a duty to perform. It is something that is supposes to gnaw at our conscience. To make us remember that shirking our responsibilities is not noble. The one who stands in times of crisis, defends his country, and is even ready to be a martyr to annihilate anything evil, vicious, cataclysmic that will threaten his country or nation. Such a person is naturally ennobled. His desire to remain selfless and to strive not for personal aggrandizement but the elevation of his mother land, such a person like Sabah never dies. But is always embedded in the psyche of the people. I wish, nay it is my duty to sensitize them to come to the realization that it is not only walking in campus and uttering the name Sabah just for the mere sake that it is a name of a hall. We must learn his example. He is an iconographic and inspirational figure. My friend was exasperated by my long sojourn on the bust of Sabah. He saw it as a kind of uninspiring drudgery. Invocation of dross. Let us go then I said.
When we reached institute of African studies, the fresher burst out, again demonstrating his awe for the symbolic nature of African art and culture. This is real Africanism. Perfect Africanism. I was enthused by my friend’s passion for African values and ideals. But I was baffled as to the kind of Africanism he was referring to. Whether the fashionable one whereby people put African images in their offices for decorative purposes but themselves purely and thoroughly Europeanized. Or the Africanism which the individual asserts his cultural identity sees himself as a being that had been colonized both physically and mentally, manipulated in time and space, relegated to the abysm of time and his pride trampled upon by forces who claim to work and operate in his interest.
My friend heaved a sigh and said that all that I have said he has no knowledge about but he sees the whole thing a dogmatic nonsense to claim to be a pure African and living in this modern world like a primitive person. He says all that is going that the African has done this or that, that civilization started here has nothing to do with him. He believes that without the white man the black man is nothing. I was not surprised by his stance. As the very African is rejecting his very color to be come a Whiteman. His very accent is offensive to him that he has to resort to the music of the white which results in a repulsive nasal twang. Nature has endowed every human being with special innate qualities that can never be altered. but the black man has succeeded in altering his identity, his culture, his soul and his very color. Humans do borrow cultural values that are relevant to their needs. But everything that the black man possesses is not good. Could it be possible? People have reiterated this claim for centuries that the African has nothing worthwhile to offer. That he has neither culture nor civilization. This is a serious claim. Africanism is saying that it is not possible for a human being to be devoid of culture and in the midst of the craze after alien culture it is showing what is good in his culture to regain his integrity. His pride value and worth as a human being, his interiority and conscience, my friend nodded in affirmation. Now we cannot talk of Africanism and leave an iconographic figure like Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah and institute of African studies are inseparable. My friend went round the bust of Nkrumah trying to grasp its complex nature. Nkrumah’s statue, bust, or portraiture anywhere has a message for Africans. His statue or bust represents African culture, African personality, and liberation from imperialism and neo colonialism. I asked my friend if he has read Africa must unite. He said no. neo colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, he said no. What about conscienscism his philosophical treatise he answered in the negative. What a pity. I said. Honestly, I have not read any of his books but I have seen dark days at Balme library and I intend borrowing it.
I urge you to go for it tomorrow and start reading for in deed we are in the dark days.
When it comes to rejecting, denouncing and destroying visionaries and heroes, we are in the forefront. When the person is alive, no matter what he would do we will never realize his vision? His prophetic message will hypnotize us. We only come to realize his value and worth when he is no more. This is unfortunate. We tend to revere the dead and so don’t see the value of the living. As soon as a person dies - he is automatically transformed in to a saint. Even if the devil is to die today, we would shed copious tears and accord him respect. We deify the dead. I am not saying that we should treat the dead with dishonor. But when he is alive and we despise him, ostracize him, treat him like venom, a social canker, he may die with his visions which will not augur well for the society. We walked silent. The fresher did not talk. He only broke the silence when he saw some campus girls passing by.
WHAT THE DERANGED PROFESSOR TOLD ME. THE SAGA OF THE LECHEROUS LECTURER
He said he was among the first batch of students who enrolled in the university. The days of principal Balme and professor kwapong. The old professor was deluded. Almost deranged. He sounds abnormally nostalgic and nauseatingly sadistic. Yet I was compelled to listen to the eminent man who has done a wonderful job for his country and at the same time plunged it into blood and mire. Ravished and dehumanized the very students he was entrusted to mould and shape and instill discipline, good morals and purity. I was compelled to listen to the old profligate, the very incarnation of the marquis de Sade. I was compelled to listen to the sexual pervert, the son of Epicurus, the kama sutra reader. for what he said was not mere vaunting effusions of a handicapped dotard nor was it an empty flute of nostalgic jabber of an old senile.
He said in a trembling voice Mephistophelian in tone. At that, time legon was flowing with milk and honey. It was the golden age of the premier university. One room for each student. A first class treat was its hallmark. I was in legon hall then. When the old professor revealed his identity as a former inmate of the premier hall, my interest in his dark revelations mounted. For I have heard much about the legon hall students. They are said to be hedonists of the wild stock. They have converted the place to a mini café, restaurant and a motel. They revel; engage in debauchery and wild sex. Despite the fact that most of the student there are intelligent and academically sound, the fanfare that encircles the place has far more dreadful and sinister repercussions for the few good students.
The lecherous lecturer continued. I was brilliant, I was good, I was a threat to most of the lecturers then. I engaged in all activities that has a tinge or aura of academics around it. I was a voracious reader. My playmates were the eminent scholars on campus, the professors. My undergraduate days were nothing short of glory. I was one of the most vociferous students ever, I had a passion for oratory and rhetoric, and could play on the emotions and sensibilities of students to act. But something terrible happened. That was to change my personality and psyche forever. I was lured by the opposite sex. I was enchanted by the beautiful maidens on campus. I couldn’t stand the well calculated coquettish smiles of the girls. And I became a prey. They devoured me. I couldn’t stand the temptations that was vaunted on me. I channeled my energy to that of winning tough and unyielding campus queens. Though I was able to have time for my books, my carnal lust for girls was insatiable, and after my masters and doctorate, the curse still pursued me. When I became a lecturer at the premier university, though respected and matured, I still could not control my abominable lust. Young fresh virgins who want to excel academically offered me the tempting apples and I awarded marks for sexual favors. For the past thirty one years, I have despoiled young virgins and married women alike. I couldn’t resist the temptations”. He paused and I was appalled. I felt nauseated. How such a respectable figure, an epitome of academic excellence could stoop so low and soil himself with such an unpardonable act. When he was talking to me, I realized that his numerous sexual escapades and manipulations on campus is haunting him. For he sounded like one who is penitent. I was intrigued. My instincts were troubled. How some one could learn all his lifetime and eventually channel the benefits to asking for sexual favors from young naïve university girls who also have the guts to approach their lecturers for such an evil deal. It is pathetic, how the revered hill of knowledge has been converted to a sex pub, sodomed and gomorised by clumsy lecturers - shameless conscienceless men. With such an altitude, how could our educational system improve? If young undergraduates could use a secret weapon between their thighs to pass through the labyrinth of the mighty university, then why waste time, money and paper, why not abolish the whole nonsense about writing exams to test students?
The deranged professor in his avaricious bid to satisfy his insatiable lust has awarded certificates to students who did not work for it. Even some girls not only get the devilish marks to pass through, but manages to persuade the perverts to award similar results to their fiancés turned brothers! Irony of ironies! They manage to manipulate the academic brains and outwit them. This is incredible. When a finger brings oil, it soil the rest. The few morally upright lecturers and workers of the premier university will come out with strategies to arrest the situation, try to salvage the deteriorating situation. Unbeknownst to them, the culprits, and the perpetrators of the vile deeds sits amongst them looking for a solution to the problems.
He said in a trembling voice Mephistophelian in tone. At that, time legon was flowing with milk and honey. It was the golden age of the premier university. One room for each student. A first class treat was its hallmark. I was in legon hall then. When the old professor revealed his identity as a former inmate of the premier hall, my interest in his dark revelations mounted. For I have heard much about the legon hall students. They are said to be hedonists of the wild stock. They have converted the place to a mini café, restaurant and a motel. They revel; engage in debauchery and wild sex. Despite the fact that most of the student there are intelligent and academically sound, the fanfare that encircles the place has far more dreadful and sinister repercussions for the few good students.
The lecherous lecturer continued. I was brilliant, I was good, I was a threat to most of the lecturers then. I engaged in all activities that has a tinge or aura of academics around it. I was a voracious reader. My playmates were the eminent scholars on campus, the professors. My undergraduate days were nothing short of glory. I was one of the most vociferous students ever, I had a passion for oratory and rhetoric, and could play on the emotions and sensibilities of students to act. But something terrible happened. That was to change my personality and psyche forever. I was lured by the opposite sex. I was enchanted by the beautiful maidens on campus. I couldn’t stand the well calculated coquettish smiles of the girls. And I became a prey. They devoured me. I couldn’t stand the temptations that was vaunted on me. I channeled my energy to that of winning tough and unyielding campus queens. Though I was able to have time for my books, my carnal lust for girls was insatiable, and after my masters and doctorate, the curse still pursued me. When I became a lecturer at the premier university, though respected and matured, I still could not control my abominable lust. Young fresh virgins who want to excel academically offered me the tempting apples and I awarded marks for sexual favors. For the past thirty one years, I have despoiled young virgins and married women alike. I couldn’t resist the temptations”. He paused and I was appalled. I felt nauseated. How such a respectable figure, an epitome of academic excellence could stoop so low and soil himself with such an unpardonable act. When he was talking to me, I realized that his numerous sexual escapades and manipulations on campus is haunting him. For he sounded like one who is penitent. I was intrigued. My instincts were troubled. How some one could learn all his lifetime and eventually channel the benefits to asking for sexual favors from young naïve university girls who also have the guts to approach their lecturers for such an evil deal. It is pathetic, how the revered hill of knowledge has been converted to a sex pub, sodomed and gomorised by clumsy lecturers - shameless conscienceless men. With such an altitude, how could our educational system improve? If young undergraduates could use a secret weapon between their thighs to pass through the labyrinth of the mighty university, then why waste time, money and paper, why not abolish the whole nonsense about writing exams to test students?
The deranged professor in his avaricious bid to satisfy his insatiable lust has awarded certificates to students who did not work for it. Even some girls not only get the devilish marks to pass through, but manages to persuade the perverts to award similar results to their fiancés turned brothers! Irony of ironies! They manage to manipulate the academic brains and outwit them. This is incredible. When a finger brings oil, it soil the rest. The few morally upright lecturers and workers of the premier university will come out with strategies to arrest the situation, try to salvage the deteriorating situation. Unbeknownst to them, the culprits, and the perpetrators of the vile deeds sits amongst them looking for a solution to the problems.
LOCAL PARLANCE AND PIDGIN: THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD ON CAMPUS
One African writer who I admire most is the Nigerian author of nightmarish and fabulous tales, Amos tutuola. Amos Tutuola was said to have written his masterpieces of fantasy in a naïve, strange young English not of this world. The innocent interesting writer of stories borrowed mostly from materials from his native folklore who was mocked by both western and African critics for his defective use of the English language is now an acknowledged classic. The furor and controversy that surrounded Tutuola was how he irreligiously used the English language without regard to grammar and syntax. He saw the English language as a means to projecting his surrealist halve remembered tales of the fireside to the world in a language he has no mastery nor command and was un abashed about it. When I first heard about the emergence of a true primitive classic from west Africa who have written interesting tales receiving rave reviews from the west and even captivating the fancy and whacking the interest of the poet Dylan Thomas, I was compelled to read Tutuola’s classic the palm wine drinkard.
The novel begins as follows.
I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age. I had no other work than to drink palm-wine in my life. In those days, we did not know of other money, except cowries. So that everything was very cheap and my father was the richest man in our town.
My father got eight children and I was the eldest among them, all of the rest were hard workers, but I myself was an expert palm-wine drinkard. I was drinking palm wine from morning till night and from night till morning. By that time, I could not drink ordinary water at all except palm-wine.
But when my father noticed that I could not do any work more than to drink, he engaged an expert palm-wine tapster for me; he had no other work more than to tap palm-wine everyday.
So my father gave me a palm-tree farm which was nine miles square and it contained 560,000 palm-trees, and the palm-wine tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty kegs of palm-wine every morning, but before 2 O’clock pm, I would have drunk all of it; after that he would go and tap another 75 kegs in the evening which I would be drinking till morning. So my friends were uncountable that time and they were drinking palm wine with me from morning till a late hour in the night. But when my palm-wine tapster completed the period of 15 years that he was tapping the palm-wine for me, then my father died suddenly, and when it was the 8th month after my
father had died, the tapster went to the palm-tree farm on a Sunday evening to tap palm-wine for me. When he reached the farm, he climbed one of the tallest palm-trees to tap palm-wine but as he was tapping on, he fell down unexpectedly and died at the foot of the palm-tree as a result of injuries. As I was waiting for him to bring the palm-wine, when I saw that he did not return on time, because he was not keeping me for long like that before, then I called two of my friends to accompany me to the farm. When we reached the farm, we began to look at every palm-tree, after a while we found him under the palm-tree where he fell and died.
Tutuola, though handicapped by the English language nevertheless was able to present with naïve alacrity the few words and idioms he knew into finished works of art! Combination of pidgin and incorrect usages of words made him a classic because his dilemma was a psychological one.
I referenced Amos tutuola here to pinpoint a pinprick in our education system. The mania that has descended on campus and not only made it a laughing stock, but as a sham institution that breeds all that it claims to weed out from the society. The advent of pidgin on campus. Students irreverent and erratic use of the English language is surprisingly unpardonable. The use of vulgar language is now the norm on campus. Students of the premier university pride on their ability to speak effectively a language that is not a product of this world nor could ever be imagined to exist by a sane person and they speak it with gusto and relish. . The adverse effect of the use of the pidgin that the promoters of the shameful language nay shameful terms its limit their scope of reasoning and mars their fluency in normal English. One wonders what motivates students to indulge in such a slothful activity. They flaunt it on campus and have the moral courage to tell the society that they are at the forefront of the premier university pursuing higher education. Everywhere on campus that two or three guys would meet would brew the abominable language. Some have the defective and filthy flare for improving the gutter language that have earned them the waste products of linguistics. Some are so skillful with it that they are able to interlace it with words from our local parlance and vernacular.
They parade campus with their language which is a mark of how shallow and weak-minded they are and their inability to grasp the slightest complexities of academia. One wonders how these students view and understand language. For them language is not for communication of ideas but projection of idle thoughts. Base chatter, prattle of the unwary. Unnecessary jabber.
When one delves in to the background of such students, who are not only tainting the walls of the academy but also insulting the university, one woulshocked that these are people who have gone through the educational system for more than fifteen years and are still proceeding in it without shame
A grand institution of grand and solid academic excellence! Haunt of renowned and eminent scholars, educationists and academicians! Every where on campus if one is serious to know something concerning knowledge either directly or indirectly relating to a course the person is pursuing is sure to get a volunteer to explain things to him. Books are everywhere on campus. Everything that happens on campus is one way or the other connected with education. The only medium one can use to articulate his or her views is the English language and there are numerous lecturers and academicians on campus that one wouldn’t actually comprehend how a new breed of students sprung up speaking a different brand of English language that baffle even the most distinguished linguist
The pidgin concocted by idle brains on campus which has become evil spells sinking the learning towers have even found its way finally to the lecturers. They present it on their papers for degrees. It is said that most of the students cannot express themselves in an ordinary standard English.
What does it presage when more than ordinary students of a higher institution like legon find it difficult to express themselves in a language they have spent their lifetime imitating to outdo the Whiteman?
The novel begins as follows.
I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age. I had no other work than to drink palm-wine in my life. In those days, we did not know of other money, except cowries. So that everything was very cheap and my father was the richest man in our town.
My father got eight children and I was the eldest among them, all of the rest were hard workers, but I myself was an expert palm-wine drinkard. I was drinking palm wine from morning till night and from night till morning. By that time, I could not drink ordinary water at all except palm-wine.
But when my father noticed that I could not do any work more than to drink, he engaged an expert palm-wine tapster for me; he had no other work more than to tap palm-wine everyday.
So my father gave me a palm-tree farm which was nine miles square and it contained 560,000 palm-trees, and the palm-wine tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty kegs of palm-wine every morning, but before 2 O’clock pm, I would have drunk all of it; after that he would go and tap another 75 kegs in the evening which I would be drinking till morning. So my friends were uncountable that time and they were drinking palm wine with me from morning till a late hour in the night. But when my palm-wine tapster completed the period of 15 years that he was tapping the palm-wine for me, then my father died suddenly, and when it was the 8th month after my
father had died, the tapster went to the palm-tree farm on a Sunday evening to tap palm-wine for me. When he reached the farm, he climbed one of the tallest palm-trees to tap palm-wine but as he was tapping on, he fell down unexpectedly and died at the foot of the palm-tree as a result of injuries. As I was waiting for him to bring the palm-wine, when I saw that he did not return on time, because he was not keeping me for long like that before, then I called two of my friends to accompany me to the farm. When we reached the farm, we began to look at every palm-tree, after a while we found him under the palm-tree where he fell and died.
Tutuola, though handicapped by the English language nevertheless was able to present with naïve alacrity the few words and idioms he knew into finished works of art! Combination of pidgin and incorrect usages of words made him a classic because his dilemma was a psychological one.
I referenced Amos tutuola here to pinpoint a pinprick in our education system. The mania that has descended on campus and not only made it a laughing stock, but as a sham institution that breeds all that it claims to weed out from the society. The advent of pidgin on campus. Students irreverent and erratic use of the English language is surprisingly unpardonable. The use of vulgar language is now the norm on campus. Students of the premier university pride on their ability to speak effectively a language that is not a product of this world nor could ever be imagined to exist by a sane person and they speak it with gusto and relish. . The adverse effect of the use of the pidgin that the promoters of the shameful language nay shameful terms its limit their scope of reasoning and mars their fluency in normal English. One wonders what motivates students to indulge in such a slothful activity. They flaunt it on campus and have the moral courage to tell the society that they are at the forefront of the premier university pursuing higher education. Everywhere on campus that two or three guys would meet would brew the abominable language. Some have the defective and filthy flare for improving the gutter language that have earned them the waste products of linguistics. Some are so skillful with it that they are able to interlace it with words from our local parlance and vernacular.
They parade campus with their language which is a mark of how shallow and weak-minded they are and their inability to grasp the slightest complexities of academia. One wonders how these students view and understand language. For them language is not for communication of ideas but projection of idle thoughts. Base chatter, prattle of the unwary. Unnecessary jabber.
When one delves in to the background of such students, who are not only tainting the walls of the academy but also insulting the university, one woulshocked that these are people who have gone through the educational system for more than fifteen years and are still proceeding in it without shame
A grand institution of grand and solid academic excellence! Haunt of renowned and eminent scholars, educationists and academicians! Every where on campus if one is serious to know something concerning knowledge either directly or indirectly relating to a course the person is pursuing is sure to get a volunteer to explain things to him. Books are everywhere on campus. Everything that happens on campus is one way or the other connected with education. The only medium one can use to articulate his or her views is the English language and there are numerous lecturers and academicians on campus that one wouldn’t actually comprehend how a new breed of students sprung up speaking a different brand of English language that baffle even the most distinguished linguist
The pidgin concocted by idle brains on campus which has become evil spells sinking the learning towers have even found its way finally to the lecturers. They present it on their papers for degrees. It is said that most of the students cannot express themselves in an ordinary standard English.
What does it presage when more than ordinary students of a higher institution like legon find it difficult to express themselves in a language they have spent their lifetime imitating to outdo the Whiteman?
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