My dear big brother,
There are enough megaphones focused on the so-called good things done by governments and politicians in Africa.
I leave that to you guys in politics. Nowhere in the world do politicians rejoice when searching questions are asked. But without them, there can be no sustained human progress. Philosophy begun in wonder.
“Good” for me, in development, means I can track the impact on well-being, deep into society.
I am sick to the pit of my stomach to this fixation on symptoms expressed in financial indices.
Where are the long-term trends on actual well-being of the mass of our compatriots? That should be the burden of intellectuals.
I invite you to reflect on these words of that great writer, Chinua Achebe (all from his Anthills of the Savannah):
“Writers don’t give prescriptions. They give headaches!”
“No I cannot give you the answer you are clamouring for. Go home and think! … As a writer I aspire only to widen the scope of that self-examination. I don’t want to foreclose it with a catchy, half-baked orthodoxy.”
“Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.”
“Those who mismanage our affairs would silence our criticism… Our best weapon against them is not to marshal facts… but passion. Passion is our hope and strength.”
“The true writer is an inveterate critic. Show him your new skyline and he will ask about the gutters below it. Point him to your shining parade and he will listen for the cries outside its route. His business is not to applaud the spectacle but to trouble its easy confidence, to remind power, and all of us, of the things we prefer not to see.”
I have gone to this trouble for three reasons.
First, I consider you a friendly and reasonable voice in the politics of Ghana today, and you are in high office.
Second, I see our media allowing itself to lose confidence in its agency when it comes to raising questions, for fear of being labelled negative. An affliction that has affected even significant parts of our intellectual community and scholarship. This is a sad day when you remember the trail blazed by Bankole Timothy and other pioneers in post-colonial journalism in Africa (especially here in Ghana).
Finally, I will take out your name but circulate this thread widely. There is a division of labour, the political leaders should do what they do.
It is not the role of the media or intellectuals to sing their praises. Our commitment must be to improving the well-being of all our compatriots, by asking searching questions based on science and facts.
Achebe said the writer (read intellectual) is not a Sunday school teacher who goes round giving answers to little children. Writers ask questions.
Best wishes and good luck my brother. May Ghana see real development progress, not statistical Neoliberal gesticulations that represent mere tinkering with scaffolding, while cracks in the foundations widen.
