To my mind, Ama de‑Graft Aikins is a stalwart scholar, a world‑class Professor by any definition.
Her latest book, titled as above and only recently published, is a treasure trove that must be seriously studied by serious people.
It is a cross‑disciplinary project, operating at the confluence of African art, history, public health, religion, development (especially class differentiations and tensions), philosophy, literature, and, of course, her home domain, social psychology.
I have never quite come across as meticulous and ambitious an academic project by a scholar of her generation in Africa. I particularly love her very creative but reflective use of Ghanaian proverbs.
Ama is the daughter and sister who achieved global fame while staying locally rooted.
Her work is very original in that it reaches deep into the recesses of lived social realities of the subaltern classes, the parts of society that many elites are blind to.
She spends time with peasants, priests, faith healers, prostitutes, charlatan healers, etc., in empathetic inquiry.
At the same time, her literature review will leave many worthy Nobel Laureates panting.
Many times, the scientifically observed and chronicled realities in the book jolted my conscience. How can so many of us live like this in the 21st century?
The Santa Claus democracies in Africa are failing—from Cape Town to Cairo.
For those in parts of Africa debating whether or not false political prophecies by rambling charlatan prophets should be banned, Ama provides ample raw material to enable a rigorous analytical conclusion to be reached.
The poor are in the majority, not the incessantly chattering metropolitan elites.
That majority, unfortunately mired in economic deprivation, illiteracy and disease, is very vulnerable to superstition.
They should not be abandoned by the state to quacks, charlatans, fakes, and—sometimes—even criminally unhinged and demented soothsayers.
My friend Ama does not go as far as to call for the state to forcefully regulate this space with a democratically driven iron fist. But I will.
These irresponsible prophecies claiming to be from God, but playing on the vulnerabilities of our less fortunate compatriots, must be stopped, with an ungloved iron fist. Democracy will never thrive without discipline.
The place in which we will live will not exist until we make it.
Congratulations, Ama. If I succeed in convincing you, this book will be campaigned and activated with revolutionary zeal.
Philosophers have hitherto interpreted the world; what remains is to change it. Hope springs eternal.
