After the Kangaroo, the bee

Politics has borrowed a lot of concepts from other activities. Music, dance and even soccer have lent themselves to imitation.

Combined with slogans, they form the spirit of Ghanaian politics and produce a swarm effect on the crowd.

Look at the way the New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters dance at their rallies. They stretch both arms in front, bend their elbows and launch into brisk hops forward to imitate the Black Stars' celebration dance they borrowed from the Hawks of Togo who also copied the kangaroo mode of locomotion.

Far from it being a victory dance for the politicians, the kangaroo is used to illustrate the concept of "moving forward" which is not different from the age -old CPP slogan, "Forward ever, backward never."

Footage of dancing at NPP rallies shows enthusiastic supporters vying to show off dancing skills. Though they all do the kangaroo, the variations are many and linked to height, weight and even look of the dancers. The Makola stereotype with her body festooned with paraphernalia stands still, raises her arms heavenwards and wriggles like a worm.

The slim, energetic man gallops around like a horse. The young schoolgirl type in a blue blouse with a provocatively plunged neckline goes butt-pumping, a dancing style that goes by a name which is certainly not the kangaroo.

The kangaroo is native and unique to Australia. It has tiny forelegs and very long and powerful hind legs and because of the awkward arrangement of appendages, its mode of moving around is by hopping. It is a marsupial and has an external pouch on the abdomen for carrying its young one.

The kangaroo was despised by the early white settlers because it is such a voracious feeder that it competes out their sheep over grazing. Several epithets were hurled at it. They called it a primitive prehistoric creature, unable to devise any other decent method of walking. They coined derogatory similes to suggest that it was a fake.

The kangaroo's profligate nature also came for insult. They said that it was inefficient and that if it were to convert all the pasture that it ate into body mass, the kangaroo would be as big as a horse. These settlers deliberately set out to cull the population through shooting and poisoning and it was to the eternal credit of this mammal that the species did not become extinct.

Why did the Black Stars adopt the hop?

Was it because it looked beautiful and easy the way the Togolese performed it at Germany 2006? After the non-too- splendid performance of the Stars at Ghana 2008 why would a party choose this dance for going forward?

When I was collecting points for this piece, I showed a group of six-year-old children a picture book of insects and animals and asked each to point to one and demonstrate its movement. One boy pointed to Kaiser, our shepherd dog who was sleeping by. The boy leaped into the air and wiggled one hand behind him to imitate the tail. One pointed to the picture of a mosquito. "Ntutum, huum" he mimicked and fluttered his tiny arms.

Another boy pointed to the housefly and produced a whining sound like the bee hum. I told him it was a bee and he wanted me to demonstrate its movement. They all had a good laugh over an old man imitating a bee sucking nectar and picking pollen from a flower whilst humming. I told them more about the bee. It produces honey which is useful to humans in many ways.

The bee pollinates flowers and therefore aids the propagation of plants for farmers. It is a vital link of the Food Chain and biodiversity. It is highly self-reliant and productive. It does not sponge on other creatures. It manufactures its food from simple materials collected from flower and with a secretion from its own glands, and builds its own dwelling place in a colony of a hives made up of honey• combs which are perfect hexagonal structures constructed without use of a measuring instrument. Each member of a colony is differentiated and assigned a specific duty. So, the way a bee colony organizes its activities teaches humans division of labour.

By simply touching mouth parts a bee colony does consultations and takes decisions to the common good of the colony. The only bad habit of the bee for which it is derided by the likes of the spider and the bee-feeder bird is that it is highly talkative.

I, of course, gave the lecture in vernacular using simple imagery the little ones could understand.

We are deep into an election campaign in which symbolism and actions are crucial. To the NPP, the slogan, "We are moving forward" is very apt. It links well with their argument that the issues at this election be reduced to a comparison of records.

They are cocksure that their achievements of development and good governance outstrip the NDC's by miles. Therefore they are asking to be returned to power to continue the good performance. They are reported to own a well-endowed war chest and their propensity to "spray" stands them in good stead to win the elections.

Any money wagered on the outcome of December 7, 2008 in NPP's favour would not have been thrown away. It would take only an act of God - which by the way, starts in several innocuous forms - to make them lose the 2008 elections.

They could bungle what looks like a sure victory through fratricidal disagreements over relatively simple issues such as selection and endorsement of a Vice Presidential Candidate. For, nowhere in this world are so much emotions and resources expended on choice of such a candidate to the extent that it threatens schism. Incroyable! An act of God like a tornado only starts as a small eye in the cloud. As Mr Frazier had occasion to tell the NDC, "Fold together like the fingers of the fist behind your candidates." You may choose to dance your kangaroo anyhow but each variant should not represent an agenda for each performer.

The kangaroo may be appropriate for electioneering but after winning the elections, it must change to a new totem representing the new challenges for 2009 and onwards. Let us be reminded that there would be no HIPC largesse and debt forgiveness. We must also remember that the golden age of business cannot always remain a "buying and selling activity" without production.

For social programmes, the National Health Insurance Scheme is by far the most courageous and far-reaching. People are joining the scheme in droves and numbers have clearly overwhelmed the scheme. Long hours in queues, shortage of drugs and tired and harassed doctors have bedeviled the scheme.

The focus must not simply be on collecting money from donors to encourage more people to join the scheme. Success reckoned in numbers is a self-delusion. We must be more concerned about expanding the facilities and retaining more doctors:

"Going forward" with prodigious numbers is discrediting the scheme. Why do we not change to the bee? The bee for sure, is talkative, and so are Ghanaians.

Whilst extolling the resourcefulness of the bee as opposed to the wasteful attitude of the kangaroo, I am reminded that African leaders have not yet been invited to the home of the kangaroo for an Australian-African Summit in the fashion of those earlier held in China, India, France, Britain and Japan. What is the moral of the Australian silence?