Savannah News Online Reporting Only What Matters Most
Related Articles
History has it that the Cathedral in Navrongo, built with ‘mud’ has been standing for over a 100 years. Yes, built with ‘mud’. And yes, over a 100 years.
I suppose that we are unwilling to acknowledge that the people who built this edifice with ‘mud’ that withstood the vagaries of the weather for over a 100 years must indeed have been really really skilled in that type of work. We will not acknowledge this unless some person from elsewhere, (outside of Africa of course and with ‘a you know what’ colour of course), says so.
But why should they? Is it their mud? If we cannot see the obvious, must they really point it out to us?
And because we will not acknowledge the skill of these people, (the ones who built the cathedral with mud), how can we improve on that skill? Indeed, we will think it preposterous to add this type of skill to our education curriculum and let these people with such skill and knowledge teach in our technical institutions, so that we can improve on that skill and use it to provide for the needs of our people. And so, in the abundance of mud, our people are homeless, and living in squalor.
Again, it is not because our society has no need for their unique skill. It is because the people with that skill come from among us, and they have not obtained the approval of Mr. You Know who. So although their skill would do us a lot of good, and make our society better, we will not use it. We will let it die off. Because we are unable to acknowledge a skill from persons who come from among us.
I am not saying no one should build with cement or any other such stuff. No. But I cannot fathom why if you cannot afford cement for affordable housing, your people must be homeless in the abundance of mud that could afford real affordable housing for them.
Not all can afford beer when they are thirsty. But what does one say to a person who is sitting in the abundance of water, but is dying of thirst because s/he cannot afford a beer? What do you say to such person, who particularly derides the water that could quench his/her thirst?
We will not acknowledge ourselves as the great people that we are. Rather, we are waiting for someone to declare us ‘great people’. Well, the last time I checked, we seem to be the only people who are largely in the habit of declaring ourselves ‘inferior people’, and then blaming others who believe our self declaration.
I know all about the colonial history and the all that brainwashing stuff. So let us not go down that route right now. In stead, let us go down the route of how and why we must arise and take our proper place as the great people that we are, in spite of that history.
By Clara Beeri
