Recent statements on the introduction of new foreign languages in schools took me back to my school days!
Our Latin master/teacher in our first year in secondary school in the mid-1960s, Mr Bernard Sam (later Headmaster of the Akosombo International School), taught us to exchange pleasantries with him in Latin!
He greeted us with “salvete, discipuli,” meaning “hello students!”
He taught us to respond, “Salve, tu quoque magister,” ie “hello to you too, Sir!” He also taught us “hodie fabulam narabimus”, meaning “today, we shall tell a story!” So today, “we shall tell a story!”
It is about an essential commodity we had in abundance in the past, which is fast disappearing in the Ghanaian; sense of humour!
In my October 15, 2021 article in the Daily Graphic titled, “What is M-O-N without E-Y,” asked by a Nigerian politician, I stated as follows.
Sense of humour
In the past, Ghanaians prided ourselves on being a people whose high sense of humour defused tense situations easily and made light of difficulties.
Unfortunately, like our “four-time African-Cup Football champions” syndrome, our sense of humour appears to have left us probably since 1982, like the African Cup.
Recently, Ghana’s ace satirist/entertainer Kwaku Sintim-Misa (KSM) bemoaned the loss of sense of humour among Ghanaians, particularly when it comes to jokes about political leaders.
He lamented that every joke is now given a negative political twist.
We are thus becoming dour, hard, humourless, quick-to-insult, aggressive and stiff people who, while seeing nothing good in fellow Ghanaians, adulate foreigners.
Indeed, some people have so worked themselves into perpetual anger that they have forgotten how to smile, let alone laugh!
They ask, what is there to laugh about when one is hungry?
Does the saying “a hungry man is an angry man” qualify as an “idiomatic expression” as per current Ghanaian “English experts”? From KSM’s observation, such a harmless question meant to generate humour is likely to be given an unintended political twist!
Ghanaians do not mince words on radio/television; as they say, the “hardness” of life in Ghana presents nothing to joke about in the name of a sense of humour!
Nigerian humour
Having lived in Nigeria in the 1980s/1990s, I love the Nigerian sense of humour. Irrespective of the occasion, jokes are never too far away.
During my student days at the Command and Staff College, Jaji-Kaduna, I took along some Ghanaian music cassettes.
Cassettes were the highest technology in music at the time. After listening to Pat Thomas’ “Sika y3 mogya,” my friend Kunle asked me what the lyrics meant.
When I explained and sang it to him, Kunle immediately fell in love with the song.
He exclaimed, “This is a very sensible musician, the type I like, not the doomsday ones who only sing about death and tell us money is not good!”
Kunle had lots of humorous stories! On this occasion, Baba Bombom was being honoured with Nigeria’s national award “Member of the Order of Niger” (MON). Noticing his lack of enthusiasm/excitement in spite of the merry-making going on, a friend asked Baba why he was so quiet on a day he was being awarded the national honour MON.
His answer was the question, “What is M,O,N without E,Y?” In effect, even though he had been awarded the MON, the award did not come with EY to complete it to MON-EY (money).
What I found fascinating about the Nigerian humour was the effortless spontaneity and wit with which they came out!
Fort Knox
I found an incident my instructor told us about in Fort Knox, Kentucky, USA, in 1991.
A young captain was reported to his commander for his rudeness on a Friday to a senior colleague, a major in the officers' mess, telling him to “go to hell!”
On Monday, the commander ordered the captain to go to the major and apologise.
The captain went to his office and called the major on the phone, not as directed.
When the major picked up the call, the captain stated, “Is that you, Major Dicky?
This is Captain Jones. Sir, you remember last Friday I asked you to go to hell?
If you haven’t gone already, don’t go no more!”
This joke to a tired class rejuvenated us.
Asset
For a leader, a good sense of humour is an asset.
Apart from lightening difficult situations, it also shows the leader as a humane human being who can see the lighter side of life and not as a rigid and dour leader who mechanically uses subordinates to achieve missions, unconcerned about how they feel.
Unfortunately, as some Ghanaians say, they cannot joke/laugh on empty stomachs, when the price for a bag of maize doubled from GH¢225 to GH¢ 550 in a week in mid-September 2021, with disastrous consequences on kenkey size and price!
Kenkey-makers blamed that on price increases in inputs such as charcoal, now selling at GH¢80/bag from GH¢45 in May.
Finally, it is wrong to arrogantly tell followers that leaders owe them no explanation for decisions they take on them. Democracy? Without followers, leaders lead nobody and, therefore, cannot be leaders!
Our leaders must learn to spice their utterances with some sense of humour and respect. For a good sense of humour is a formidable weapon in a leader’s arsenal.
Comments
With the disappearance of sense of humour out of economic hardship and its replacement by disrespect/“sense of insults,” many Ghanaians are constantly angry.
Commercial drivers, in particular, not only drive recklessly, hence RTAs are now routine in Ghana; they have the insult-weapon primed on their lips, ready to fire at other road-users, even when they are glaringly wrong.
They certainly have not heard of the “Courtesy for Boys and Girls” we not only read, but practicalised!
“Galamsey” continues to be a sore point for Ghanaians who perceive leadership as insincerely pussyfooting in more rhetoric in the quest for gold than genuine desire to save our forests, water bodies and ultimately Ghanaian lives.
Currently, Ghana is in the headlines for drug trafficking following major busts in Australia, France and South Africa! Why have we sunk so low, greedily amassing all the riches in sight when death is the end-state no matter how long one lives?
Even Methuselah died at 969 years!
Leaders, take us back by example to the good old days of discipline/decency and national pride when, among other appellations, Ghana was dubbed the “Brazil of Africa” for winning the African Football Cup four times by 1982, when Brazil was the undisputed football champions of the world.
When I heard Ghanaians call Ghana the “Colombia of Africa” on radio/TV because of Colombia’s negative reputation for cocaine/drug, I was sad! Remember, as Ghanaians, we carry the passport of Ghana outside and not party passports.
Let us eschew the current negative “sense of insult” and go back to our positive sense of humour/laughter and mutual respect!
Leadership, lead by example/humility/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University, Teshie, Accra.
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