Going through old papers
One look at my desk and you could conclude that I am not a very tidy person.
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The state of my desk often looks like there has been an angry dispute among files, magazines, and papers labelled urgent, pending and long-term.
I do make regular, half-hearted attempts to tidy things, but it is often a losing battle.
Every once in a while, I undertake a wholesale clear-out and restore some order to the desk, and then watch forlornly as the chaos returns.
I am currently in the midst of one such occasional clear-out of my desk, and discovering papers that should properly belong in a cupboard labelled TIMES PAST, but not on my desk.
As often happens, instead of throwing them away, I got caught reading them.
Unfortunately, the three magazines I discovered in the mess on my desk are no longer in publication and the majority of people alive in this country today probably had not been born when they were in circulation.
Copy
Here is a copy of The Legon Observer, Vol X No 2, 15—28 September 1978, with a cover price of ₵¢1 It highlights three main articles: Busia passes away, Devaluation vs devaluation, Blay-MiezAH.
The editorial, headlined A political giant passes away, is on Prof. K.A. Busia who had just died.
The first line says: “For about four decades, Ghanaian politics has been dominated by three political giants, J.B. Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah and K.A. Busia”.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
State
The state of the cedi, the Ghanaian currency, was very much on everyone’s mind and Jones Ofori-Atta, (Senior Lecturer, Economics Department, Legon) father of Ken Ofori-Atta, the current Minister of Finance, wrote under the Economy column, an article he titled Devaluation versus Devaluation.
This is the opening paragraph: “In the last eleven years, the ill-fated Cedi has suffered three devaluations.
Each government since Nkrumah has found it necessary to adjust the exchange rate it inherited downwards.
The NLC devalued in July 1967, the Progress Party devalued in December 1971 and the SMC devalued the Cedi in August 1978.
The cumulative result of these devaluations is that in monetary terms, the September 1978 Cedi is worth only 16 per cent of its June 1967 value!”
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose
Indigenisation
Here is a copy of West Africa magazine, No 3216 and dated 5 March 1979, offered for sale in Ghana then at ¢2 cover price.
The editorial is under the headline, Is indigenisation working?.
The first sentence is a quote from a report on the problem of the indigenisation of African economies by the Economic Commission for Africa.
It says: “Despite two decades of preoccupation with indigenisation, it does not seem that much has been achieved in the way of self-reliance or economic independence”.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose
The Sierra Leone Minister of Information and Broadcasting is quoted as saying that “African journalists cannot afford the luxury of an adversary role as it is practised in the West.
He said journalists should join hands with governments to arrest the severe problems that were faced rather than resort to criticism. Plus ca change. . .
I had quite forgotten what a thoroughly interesting man B. J. da Rocha, the great lawyer, Progress Party, Popular Front Party, New Patriotic Party guru was.
He is in here with a robust interview with my friend Nii K. Bentsi-Enchill.
Question, what is your view on the Political Parties Decree?
Answer, it is a stupid law, calculated to obstruct the formation of political parties.
I hope the government will realise the stupidity of this decree and amend it.
Question, people have remarked on the fact that “the same old faces are presenting themselves again.
What is your view?
Answer, let’s be clear, there is no special merit in a new face.
Every party or institution must regularly have an infusion of new faces.
But you do not drain a man of all his blood first.
The infusion must be done in a methodical fashion.
New faces can learn from the old and if they learn nothing else, they should learn not to repeat the mistakes.
They don’t make them like that any more.
Ephraim Amu
Then here is a strange one called the Ghana Copyright News, Issue No 1 and dated March 1990.
I have no idea if there were subsequent editions after this issue.
Even if this was the only issue, I would say it deserves to be kept in a place of honour in every library in this country.
It has an article on Ephraim Amu, who it turns out, was the president of the Copyright Society of Ghana, I certainly did not know that.
The article here is titled Ephraim Amu and the story of Yaa Amponsah.
It is a delicious story that deserves to be recounted over and over again.
But the bit of this article that must be taught in every classroom in Ghana is the famous, or maybe infamous story about how the legendary Ephraim Amu, composer of Mia Denyigba lolo la, Yen Ara Asaase Ni, was dismissed from his job as a teacher at the Presbyterian Teacher Training College, Akropong in 1933.
I suspect the Presbyterian Church, to which I belong, will never live down this particular infamy.
Events
The events leading to the dismissal from the College are set out in a letter from the church authorities and they are quoted liberally in the article.
“Mr Amu has brought into the College, different sorts of drums, horns, etc, beating the drums and teaching some students how to beat the drums and dance.
The Synod Committee ordered him to remove the drums but he defied the authority of the Synod Committee and continued the practice for almost a year.
He has disregarded every warning and said he would not give up the drums”.
A second charge in the letter said he “attempted to introduce the fashion of preaching in the native garment or cloth in the pulpit, which practice offended the majority of educated and non-educated community.
He was approached politely by eminent persons to stop that practice but he would not listen.
He was therefore forbidden to preach if he would not preach in European dress.
He agreed not to preach”.
I wonder if I can find anything quite as sensational on Social Media as I have discovered in one morning of going through old papers on my desk.
