The Professor’s protest action
Perhaps it’s mostly those who, like me, are constantly having to correct people’s spelling of their name who can fully appreciate Professor Ama Ata Aidoo’s recent protest action in response to the wrong spelling of her middle name, which continues to be a talking point.
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On Monday, September 5, the Ghanaian Times reported her protest with a front page banner headline, “POET LAUREATE STORMS OUT OF EVENT …Over wrong spelling of her name”.
The report said: “An event organised to celebrate renowned Ghanaian writer, Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, for her contribution to literature in Ghana, went sour on Saturday when she walked out of the programme.
“This was because both the banner and the programme cover had her name wrongly spelt … as ‘Ama Atta Aidoo’, instead of Ama Ata Aidoo.”
The award ceremony, for winners of a short story competition, was organised by the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) of the University of Ghana (UG). When Prof Aidoo arrived at the venue and saw her name wrongly spelt, “the Ghanaian Times saw her confront the organizers on the error and then walk back to her car and was driven away.”
Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, who moderated the event, “announced that Prof Aidoo would not be part of the gathering because she had another important assignment to attend to,” the paper reported.
In the September 15 issue of the Times, Prof Gadzekpo shared her thoughts on the controversy. In an article headlined “The vexing matter of the misspelling of ‘Ata’”, she wrote: “I do not think Prof Ama Ata Aidoo is wrong in taking a public stand on this matter.”
Prof Gadzekpo said she was told that the misspelling was done by the printers “who had erroneously assumed …that what had been submitted to them – Ata – was wrong” and made it ‘Atta’.
She also explained that the organizers of the event immediately “accepted responsibility and apologized profusely. They went as far as kneeling down to beg, a sign of contrition in our culture.”
Also, she acknowledged that “having at the last minute discovered the misprint they should not have used the banner or programme.”
However, Prof Gadzekpo’s article made it clear that in her view, Prof Aidoo had been too sensitive. It suggests that not only should Prof Aidoo have been big-hearted, she should also have seen the bigger picture: “By choosing not to be magnanimous to her allies in the feminist struggle during their moment of weakness, she also let down the five top winners, all female,” of the writing competition organized in her honour.
In my opinion, both Prof Aidoo’s apparent fury and Prof Gadzekpo’s regret for the missed opportunity for CEGENSA and the winners are understandable. But that leaves the main culprits scot-free: The printer/designer who added the extra‘t’, and the one who took delivery of the items.
How can a printer make a change to text submitted by a customer, even if it’s only a comma placement, without first checking with that client?
And why would a client who has commissioned a printing job on receiving it not check it against the original order?
Furthermore, the organizers noticed the mistake “at the last minute”, but decided to use the banner and the programme anyway.
I believe that it is this unacceptable attitude of, seemingly, ‘it doesn’t matter’, even when it has to do with the main name on publicity material for such an important occasion, that Prof Aidoo’s protest was meant to highlight.
Unfortunately, many people in this country see the wrong spelling of someone’s name as ‘no big deal’.
For instance, although banks are annoyingly meticulous when a customer is presenting a cheque for payment, they themselves are not always so efficient! A number of times in this country I have had to reject a new ATM card because my name was wrongly written – strangely, spelt differently from the expired card it was replacing!
I do confess to having almost an obsession about getting names correct, especially mine! I have even formed the habit of writing my first name in block letters when filling forms, or writing my name for others, but most times people copying it write another version! I usually respond with a joke, that my name is the one thing that truly belongs to me so it should be written the way I want it!
The matter of Prof Aidoo’s disowned extra‘t’ also brings to mind the infamous ‘brochuregate’, the error-riddled 59th Independence Day brochure saga earlier this year. It will be recalled that among the mistakes in the March 6 commemorative brochure was even a reference to the Guest of Honour, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, as the President of Ghana.
In recent times, I have written articles in this column on the regrettable, ready acceptance of mistakes in text, including information on even governmental websites. The most recent article was ‘The importance of little things’ in the issue of August 26.
Of course we all make mistakes. And those of us whose livelihood is linked to publications know too well how easy it is to make mistakes in writing. Usually, a mistake may escape the one who generates the text. It takes a second or third ‘eye’ to see it.
And sometimes even major organizations make glaring errors in their publicity material which, strangely, somehow escape their staff as well as the professionals in the media house publishing it.
On the same day that Prof Gadzekpo’s article appeared in the Times, a full page colour advertisement in the Daily Graphic by the mineral water company, Voltic, featured “temper” twice when clearly, judging by the message, the word they meant to use was ‘tamper’ (as in ‘tamper-proof’).
But, interestingly, the penultimate paragraph of the same advertisement had the correct word, ‘tamper’. So, Voltic, what happened?
Incidentally, that advertisement, uncorrected, may still be running in other papers. At the time of writing this article on Monday, September 19, there was another one in the Daily Guide.
Anyway, hopefully, Professor Ama Ata Aidoo’s memorable protest action will serve as a constant reminder to all of us, writers and those who produce printed matter, of the need to constantly double-check – and consult with the client.