By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Dec. 30, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]
The Akan have a saying that whenever you point your accusatory index-finger at your neighbor, you ought to recognize the fact of your three other fingers pointing directly and squarely at the accuser. This was the first feeling and thought that rushed through my mind when I read the article captioned “Media Mustn’t Plunge Ghana into Violence 2016 – Rev. Asante” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 12/14/15).
There is absolutely no evidence, whatsoever, in Ghana’s entire postcolonial history of the media’s having plunged the country into any form of chaos and confusion. Rather, it has been leaders from Kwame Nkrumah to Jerry John Rawlings who have plunged our country into turmoil and on the verge of civil strife. And so the Most-Rev. Emmanuel Asante, the current Chairman of the so-called Ghana Peace Council (GPC), would make himself more relevant by addressing most of his quite laudable cautionary notes to our politicians and leaders, in particular the so-called opinion leaders, including himself.
You know, the pontifical stance of the former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana reminds me of a St. Peter’s (PERSCO) classmate and friend of mine called Michael Thomford. I probably have his first name incorrectly given; and who can blame me for the quite significant impact of mnemonic corrosion of these past 34-odd years? Anyway, what brought up the name of Michael Thomford with which I wanted to regale my dear reader, is the colonial history behind my old friend and classmate’s surname. Or perhaps, more appropriately, my old classmate and good friend. For we were first schoolmates and classmates before we became friends.
Well, family legend has it that Michael’s grandfather, Agya Tuwohofo (Advise Yourself), traveled to the Sekondi-Takoradi Location or Railroad Terminal looking for a menial job to enable him take care of himself and his family sometime during the late 1920s or 30s, perhaps in the searing wake of the Great Depression. Agya Tuwohofo had lined up with quite a remarkable number of job applicants all of who came up, by turns, to have their names written down by the European clerk at the employment office. Then after what seemed like a whole lifetime, Agya Tuwohofo – he must have been a young man in his late 20’s or early 30’s, came up to the front of the queue.
“What is your name?” the white clerk looked intently into his eyes. “My name is Tuwohofo,” the job applicant shyly cooed, we are told. “What?” Come again, young man, what is your name?” “My name is Tuwohofo.” “Oh, how could I have missed this!? Pardon me, young man, but we also have the exact same name in England where I grew up. ‘Thomford.’ Your name is Thomford.
That, in essence, was how the Thomford Family got its badly corrupted Anglicized name. I suppose the Tuwohofo family hails from the Elmina-Cape Coast littoral. What I am saying in no mistakable terms here is that the Rev.-Prof. Asante did not need to have reminded our media reporters, producers and talk-show hosts and newscasters that they have great power beyond the imagination of the average Ghanaian citizen, whatever the meaning of “average” may be vis-à-vis the concept of Ghanaian citizenship. The most progressive and qualified Ghanaian journalists – both of the print and the electronic media – already know this. And besides, we are blessed with a National Media Commission (NMC) that already does quite a good job bringing our errant journalists and other media operatives to book, that is, those who do not get physically roughed up by such presidential human bulldogs as Mr. Stanislav Dogbe.
I was also quite intrigued to hear Prof. Asante bitterly decry the fact of him having come under malicious media attacks in recent months. I was in no small way intrigued, quite obviously because oftentimes Rev. Asante appears to be preaching to a congregation of adolescent Ghanaians rather than full-fledged mature adult media practitioners, irrespective of how relatively wet-eared a sizeable majority of these journalists and reporters may be. Then also, Rev. Asante could make himself and the Peace Council he heads more relevant and effective, if he and his group focus a bit more of their energies on the real culprits on our national political landscape, that is, the terrorist-hosting cynical politicians at the Flagstaff House, Parliament and their main rivals and opponents waiting in the wings, poised to fiercely pounce at the drop of a pin.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs