Chieftaincy, tradition and disability

 “All truth passes through three stages. first, it is ridiculed. second, it is violently opposed. third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”-Arthur Schopenh.

Dr Daanaa, born – 1955 in a little village called Tuaha in the Upper West Region, is the first ever visually impaired Barrister in the history of this country.

He obtained a Doctorate and a Degree in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science between 1986 and 1992.

His Masters’ degree in Law was obtained in the same University in 1982, thus after the completion of his undergraduate law programme in the University of Ghana between 1979 and 1981.

Dr Daanaa has worked on the codification of chieftaincy lines of succession for 21 paramount stools in this country.

On October 3, 1997, the General Legal Council of Ghana conferred a special prize award on him in recognition of his achievements as the first visually impaired person to be trained as a lawyer at the Ghana School of Law.

He currently serves as the National Director of Research at the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy. In fact, this man has all it takes to serve at the Chieftaincy Ministry, where he has been nominated to, by His Excellency – President John Mahama.

Unfortunately, some chiefs have raised objections to his nomination in the name of “tradition.”

The most intriguing thing is that, these chiefs are not raising objections against Dr Daanaa’s competencies, but for the purposes of “tradition.”

This so-called “tradition” simply is that; chiefs do not meet nor even shake hands with persons with visual impairment. How outrageous!

An elderly man told me a story about a tribe in a village he once lived. This tribe, he said; persisted in constant war with a neighboring tribe; so I asked why, and his reply was “because they’ve always done it.”

In other words, “it is a tradition.” So these people perpetuated this irrational act and continued in this constant war because of tradition?

A tradition is simply a story or a custom that is memorised and passed down from generation to generation, and are often much less “natural” than is often presumed.

Many traditions have been deliberately designed for one reason or another, often to highlight or enhance the importance of certain institutions.

Since when did meeting or even shaking hands with a visually impaired person become contagious?

Disability in any form is the worst thing to happen to any human being anywhere, especially in Africa.

Disability like death, could strike anybody, anytime, young or old. It is not some commodity in some supermarket that some of us chose to buy.

How many of these chiefs even with their two eyes wide opened, could achieve the height of education Dr Daanaa has done, even with his impairment?

These chiefs, who are opposed to Dr Daanaa’s nomination, have a responsibility to explain to the Ghanaian people, why they are prohibited to meeting visually impaired persons.

This is an abhorrent and disgraceful practice.

The prohibition is to say the least, discriminatory and immoral, and that in itself, is reason enough to abolish this “tradition.”

Somebody should call the attention of those chiefs with their propensity to perpetually follow tradition to the fact that; Ghana is a Republic, and real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of the Chieftaincy Institution.

The Bill of Rights – including that of work, are God-given. They are not privileges to be suffocated and melted away by traditions and customs.

For me, the real tragedy in all these, rests in the fact that, children born with disabilities into these royal families could be killed secretly, and those who unfortunately become disabled in the process of time are segregated.

Sometime ago, kids born with cerebral palsy or other congenital deformities were referred to as “river children,” and parents of these kids were advised to sent them to the river side for the river god to take the child away.

Some of these ignorant assertions form the basis of some of these unscientific traditions that have become albatrosses round our necks as a people.

The world has come of age, Ghana has come of age and it is time for these chiefs, some of whom are highly educated, “to shake themselves off the past, and into the present.”

The Persons with Disability (PWD) Act 2006 (Act 715) section 4(1), speaks against the Exploitation of, and Discrimination against PWDs. The National Constitution: Article 17(3) also abhors the discrimination against PWDs.

Even according to the Bible, it is not good to follow the traditions of men: Colossians 2:8 says:- “Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.

Technology has even rendered some of these traditions useless. Those days it was a tradition that when a chief dies the elders should keep the news of his death a secret, for as long as necessary.

But what is the real situation now? A chief dies and the next minute, the news of his passing is on air, everywhere.

We were also told that chiefs do not eat in public, speak in public, drink in public and all that? Don’t we now have chiefs who are Chancellors of some of our tertiary institutions, chiefs who have become ministers and chiefs who are Board Chairmen of organisations?

Don’t they speak when they attend functions, and do they speak through their linguists when they are giving their speeches at these functions?

We meet them at dinners and even restaurants these days, so what happened to those traditions?

What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. They alter those same traditions when it suits them. Times have changed and these traditions have out-lived their usefulness.

In fact, it is my humble view therefore, that if these chiefs carry through with their threat not to work with Dr Daanaa because he is visually impaired, the rest of the ministers should also boycott that section of chiefs.

They should be made to understand that; “All men are created equal – able, disabled.”

Instead of welcoming and embracing this courageous man into your fold to serve as a motivation to the rest of the disabled community, you are rather alienating him, using a “functionally-dead” tradition to kill the moral, hopes and aspirations of PWDs.

At the time when disability issues have taken centre-stage at the Committee of Nations, our chiefs are still embedded in “Virtual Realities.”

Currently in Ghana, only six per cent of persons living with disabilities are in school, and we will beg of our chiefs to put their shoulders to the wheel as we try as a nation, to solve this huge deficit, rather than aggravate the already bad situation using traditions.

This brings to the fore, the need to as a country, take the subject of “Inclusion” very seriously.

Inclusion simply means that people with disabilities must live, learn, work and go out together with people without disability.

If children with disabilities are put together in the same classroom with their able counterparts, they will learn together and play together.

The able children will learn to use the Sign language and to read the Braille. The deaf will also in addition to their sign language, learn to Braille as well.

This will break the barriers of communication and accessibility, and enhance group study which will inure to their collective benefits. The able will learn to show compassion on their disabled counterparts and love them.

Ultimately, as these kids grow up, and branch into their diverse fields of endeavors, including that of chieftaincy, they will defy some of these obnoxious traditions and live as one people with a purposeful destiny. 

Superstition only leads to discrimination, discrimination to segregation, and segregation to sufferation.

Article by Gab Norgah

The writer was Independent Parliamentary Candidate, New Juaben North, 2012