No 'Red Flag' Is Necessary

ONE of the endearing things about our indigenous languages is that they always have the most appropriate proverb, even if it was coined over a thousand years ago, to apply to a situation that is current today. How did they manufacture these sayings that never lose their relevance, even when all else from their period of coinage lies in ruins, decayed by the relentless march of time?

Only another proverb, this time taken from ancient Rome, [See Below] can explain this uncanny habit of pearls of wisdom to remain alive for ever.

The epigraph I want to recommend to you is this: “Onipa wu a, ne tekrɛma mmporƆ (When a person dies, his tongue does not decompose; “tongue”, in this sense, meaning “what he said when he was still alive”.

Now, it is by no means only in the Twi language that one finds these ever-living metaphors. A saying in another language noted for its pithy aphorisms – Latin – has it that “stat veritas” (Truth Stands!) [Quiz Question: which Ghanaian institution has this Latin aphorism as its motto?]

But the proverb I really want to draw your attention to goes like this : AsƐm kƐseƐ Ɛɛba a, frƆnkaa nnsi so!” (“When a grave issue arises [in a community] it is not announced by the raising of a flag!”)

Such a “grave issue” in rural Ghana usually relates to loss of life: awudifoƆ akum obi (wayfarers have murdered someone); akodimmaa afa Ɔbaa bi aku no(rapists have assaulted a woman and killed her to prevent her being able to identify the perpetrator(s) to the community; and atetenkorona akyere abƆfra bi de no kƆ [a child has been kidnapped by occultists who want to use his heart for juju purposes.]

When such huge calamities occur in our communities, they are recognised universally as a threat to the safety of everyone. Nevertheless, no flag is raised to announce it. Everybody just naturally hears about it the moment its occurrence is discovered. For with ineffable efficacy, news of the threat is quickly disseminated to everyone.

Whispers go round and are recycled with immediacy: “Ei, they say atetenkrona are operating in this area!”. … Or “They say so-and-so's mother went to her farm and she hasn't returned home!” Or “The dead body of ….[a named individual] has been discovered near where he taps palm wine, with his throat cut!”

Everyone shudders but no-one tells anybody else to be “careful”. That is taken as given.

The next thing is that everybody instantly turns into a spy. Strangers are placed under secret observation to see whether they have any connection to the perpetrators of the crime(s). If an expedition into the bush is called for (say, to retrieve a dead body) all adult men gather at the chief's palace and constitute themselves into an asafo [mass of organised men] who divide themselves into search parties without fuss.

Having seen how responsible everyone is for other persons' safety, I make bold to say that even as 'recently' as my own childhood, the situation described in the following report would never have been allowed to happen:

QUOTE: The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) management was summoned by the [Ghana] Parliament over the water shortage which has hit the state..... The Communications Director of the GWCL [told] the House that.... the water shortage was due to the heavy pollutionas well as the dry season the country is currently experiencing. He .... further indicated that the State will have to endure the crisis and pray harder (sic) for the situation to turn around. However, the Water and Housing Committee has demanded more answers to the current state of the water situation.... The MP for Bodi in the Western region... expressed the worries of the Members of Parliament over the crisis and demanded that the GWCL [should] provide more details to the situation. He said, “We have invited the Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation as well as the management of Ghana Water Company to come and brief us on the water situation in the country and also to tell us plans they are putting in place to address the problem.” UNQUOTE

Now, I ask you; what is the elephant in the room, mention of which is missing in the above report? Was the “heavy pollution” ofwater sources visited upon the community by the deity as punishment for their sins?

No – I suggest that the missing words are evil people and galamsey.The Communications Director of the GWCL mentioned heavy pollution and the dry weather, and although there was room in his consciousness also for the need for “harder” prayers, there was none for the activities of galamseyers! Yet everyone knows that galamseyers are rampantly and relentlessly destroying all our water-bodies!

I am not surprised. For reasons known only to themselves, some politicians and public servants have been skirting furtively around the galamsey menace, if not attempting to cover it up altogether.

For how can the GWCL mention heavy pollution without telling the lawmakers clearly that most of this is caused by humans engagingillegally in galamsey? Was it not the same GWCL that announced some months ago that it was closing down the Kyebi water treatment plant because galamseyers had muddied the River Birem to such an extent that the machines of the GWCL could not treat the water that was supposed to be pumped into them for treatment? Was it not the GWCL that told the nation that its importsof chemicals had risen markedly because there was so much mud in the water it has to treat? Mud caused by galamsey activities in our rivers and streams? Why does it now appear those factors are being written out of the story? Can anything be more stupid than to ask for “hard prayers” from people who can solve the problem in question with legislation? What about urging them to stiffen the sentences prescribed for galamsey offences? Say, making heavy imprisonment mandatory for galamseyers?

I myself reported in this paper some time ago that a hydrology scientist I had encountered had told me that Ghana would run out of water in the next decade or so, if galamsey is not rooted out! I didn't get any pubic reaction from that starting statement.

On the contrary, in the face of this impending calamity, and in the full knowledge of the public condemnation courageously made against galamsey by our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, our MPs seem to be still pussyfooting around galamsey! The Majority Leader of the House laudably makes excellent points against “Australian-type mining” (now banned in Australia) and why it was stopped. But when will the Majority Leader actually instigate legislation to be passed here to prevent the devastation that such mining causes? Perhaps, never; for according to one MP, some of his own colleagues have told him not to touch galamsey because “it is a vote-loser”!

Thank God the President doesn't share that view.

Well, no “red flag” needs to be raised to let the GWSC know that it will progressivelybe unable to supply water to some more communities.

But I implore the GWCL to ask our MPs when it meets them: “Please, will you tell the public, how many Motions you have passed in this House asking the executive to root out galamsey? To expand and expedite its efforts because the signs are only too clear that the water crisis in the country is being worsened by galamsey? How many times have URGENT QUESTIONS been asked in Parliament about the effect galamsey is having on water supplies up and down the country? How many times have MPs asked the relevant Ministers to come before MPs with definitive statements outlining the progress they are making – or not making – in the campaign against galamsey and why?

Of course, it is not fair to expect a private company to be able to stand up to Parliament. However, I urge the company to commission a scientific report on the dangerous state in which the supply of the commodity it uses for its operations – potable water – and have the courage to publicise the conclusions in the report widely, in the belief that “Truth Stands”. No-one should be allowed to pillory it for laying bare the scientific facts.

No! No red flag is necessary, Just the bare facts!