Why the Muharram onslaught on Shias is needlessly petty: A standpoint

In the name of Allah, all praises and thanks is due to Allah. May His peace and blessings be on the best of creation, Mohammed, on members of his household and all who follow in his stead till the last day.

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar is a month of great significance. It is the month of Allah, one of four sacred months – in it, aggression is prohibited even against the enemy.

It is the month in which Muslims are encouraged to observe fasting on the ninth and tenth days. Yet for another bloc of the Islamic world, they observe it for other mournful reasons – the death of Hussein, a grandson of the prophet, peace be upon him. 

Given the different account of what happened at Karbala, the place Hussein was killed, the Shias mournfully commemorate the day with activities of self-harm which I personally do not agree with.

What we have seen over the years is of people severing themselves with knives and machetes and bleeding in the streets. In the case of this year, I saw AFP photos where kids were made to run on burning coal.

Shi'ite Muslims beat themselves at a mosque during a religious festival marking Ashura, which falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in the 7th century battle of Kerbala, in central Yangon, Myanmar late September 30, 2017. REUTERS photo.

Incidentally, their leaders always appear fresh and unscathed by such grievous bodily harm. In any case, the Shia of Ghana have only worn black with red headbands in a procession. If they try the extreme measure, they could be held for causing bodily harm.

Now, to the point where some social media users regurgitate a set of damning messages including copious INSULTS and CURSES on the Shias for being those behind the death of Hussein. It is an annual event that slows down over the year and peaks in Muharram.

One such message made it to a WhatsApp group and an Imam and former student of Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar University gave a response which summed up the needlessness of the annual Shia onslaught.

He wrote: ‘Yaa Jama’ah, the history of humanity – and Islam for that matter – has some dark moments that are worth knowing as part of history that is selectively referred to for guidance ONLY.

‘Mentioning those moments for any other reason is not advised and not Islamic… it is one of the CORE RULES we learnt in AL-AZHAR. Allah ya saa mugane,’ he concluded.

Shia ideology may have its ‘shortcomings’ that a person CAN vigorously disagree with. I have gone down this path before raging and ranting here on social media about Shias referring to them as ‘Sheep in wolves clothing,’ after listening to a lecture by Abu Mus’ab Wajdi Akari. I am against their ideology and I thank our Mallams in makaranta who exposed us to it.

Over in Nigeria, their leader Mohammed Zakzaky remains in government custody despite court orders. He was arrested in 2015 after a deadly clampdown under a Muslim leader Muhammadu Buhari and Muslim army chief Yusuf Buratai – an act I STRONGLY disagree with.

Hundreds of the Shias were killed when the army opened fire on them after they attacked Buratai’s convoy according to available video. They are banned in Zaria, Kaduna, a Sunni hub and the state government has the right so to do.

Quick questions to the annual anti-Shia social media sharpshooters, how does Shi’ism diminish the brand of Islam you profess? What happened to the verse ‘to you, your religion and to me mine,’ as stated by the prophet to the disbelievers at the time.

Pointing out the ‘failings’ of Shi’ism is not and cannot be an issue but how one goes about it could be the issue. In any case, they can also come in the same measure at other brands of Islam.

That the religion will be divided into sects is something NO Muslim can deny – it was professed by Muhammed and has manifested. Over and above the brand one holds, entry into Jannah is the ultimate goal and it is for Allah to bestow on us of his mercy.

The insults won’t change Shias neither will introduce any amendments to their long-held traditions and practices. It is good knowledge to know them and to be able to navigate their ‘routes,’ as for insults and curses, who that one epp?

Wa swal lal Laahu alaihi wa swahbihii wa sallam tasleeman katheeraa. Salamu alaikum

15 Muharram 1440 = 24 September 2018

'Heko ejor ko!' A review of Chinua Achebe’s ‘No Longer At Ease’

‘Heko ejor ko’ is a terminology in Ghana’s Ga language. It simply means ‘nowhere (is) cool.’ That man is in a constant state of motion as he navigates life so much so that standing or staying still is a type of motion.

Chinua Achebe is one of Nigeria’s literary leading lights and has won not just continental but global acclaim. He is at the heart of Ghana’s High School literature with his early novel, ‘Things Fall Apart.’

My monthly reading for September 2018 caught me wanting to continue with an African streak dating to June when I started off with Sheikh Ishaak Ibrahim Nuamah’s ‘My Reflections On Life, Volume 1.’

Come July, I settled to read Taiye Selasi’s ‘Ghana Must Go,’ I failed to see that through and hopped on August successfully reading Joseph Out Larbi’s ‘Yarteley.’

Then came Achebe’s ‘No Longer At Ease,’ a pdf version that was shared on a purely reading whatsapp page I belonged to. It was to be the second Achebe novel that I was reading. Summary: thoroughly enjoyed.

I have summarised the novel in ten points of which I share here below. It was a page-turner – flipper in the case of someone who read it on my phone. Got me cracking up at points especially when pidgin was employed and also when the Ibo proverbs rolled out. 

1 – Corruption from page one

The first page and setting is of a court room where a young man is standing trial. Achebe drops hints of wits in the lawyer – judge interaction, then thereon he tells us the story of how the court case came to be – the court returns on the last page. Smart!

2 - Sense of community: Umuofia Progressive Union, UPU of Lagos

We are introduced to an African trait of a community pooling resources to raise the profile of their own for the collective interest. That is how the UPU sponsored main character Obi to study in Britain – rightly they take pride in him on return.

3 - Tradition vs. religion: The thorny subject of outcast, osu

When Obi returns from studies, he returns with a Nigerian he hoped to make his wife, Clara. There is a problem and she is the first to admit it, that she is an outcast. Obi won’t have any of it, his insistence on love over tradition woefully does him in. He fights UPU, confronts his catechist dad and beloved mum, fires a friend – loses Clara in the end.

4 - Contrast between two educational systems

So far back as 1960 as is the case today, Nigerians valued British education. Obi made the trip to Britain for university education, it was Umuofians best bet to have one of their own in the ranks of senior civil service, and that dream did come to pass.

5 - Links story with Things Fall Apart

Achebe effectively ties this novel to ‘Things Fall Apart,’ bringing in the story of Ikemefuna. Obi was grandson of Okonkwo, his warrior and illustrious grandad who killed a boy who was raised in his home – it affected Okonkwo and led his son Isaac (Obi’s dad) to Christianity.

6 - The importance of family

Society’s core unit, family, makes a strong case in the novel. Achebe positions the nuclear as a nucleus which Obi by his standing was bound to serve financially but also a unit that underlined Obi’s identity and convictions.

7 - Depicts typical African patriarchal society

Just as in Things Fall Apart, Achebe unashamedly writes of an African household and society run by the man. Obi’s mom shelved her traditional beliefs because his dad so insisted. Mom had her roles and respected daddy’s lead role.

8 - Language: Use of pidgin gives good blend

No Longer At Ease is written in conventional English for 90% plus but it is the pidgin (broken English) that gets one cracking when it pops up. ‘Dis kind well today sick tomorrow pass me.’ ‘Dey say dey don give am belle,’ nurses gossiping.

Lorry driver explains why all drivers cannot be insulted after a near accident: ‘No be all drivers de reckless. Dat one na foolish somebody. I give am signal make him no overtake but he just come fiam.’  

9 – Bigging up Lagos – the fast and furious city

So even though the story is of an Umuofian who went to Britain to study, it is staged more in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos. 1960s through to now, it remains the boiling pot of commercial activity. A place for the high and mighty, the ragged and wretched yet touted for its promise of prosperity.

10 - Summary of main character: Poor and proud Obiajulu Okonkwo

Obiajulu Okonkwo, born to catechist Isaac and Hannah was a bright young boy who showed academic prowess that saw him top provincial exams. He was a natural pick by UPU to study in Britain.

He returns and gets a job as a senior civil servant stationed in Lagos. He fights UPU over Clara, a fiancée – he engaged and impregnated. Obi’s finances cornered him after he made rush decisions to repay a UPU loan.

A strong proponent against corruption and patronage, he finds himself having to lower his guard to accept tips from people who sought his intervention in getting scholarships.

Then one day someone presents him with marked notes. Operatives show up at his residence and before Obi could say jack, the police had been summoned. He found himself in court.

‘Everybody wondered why. The learned judge, as we have seen, could not comprehend how an educated young man and so on and so forth. The British Council man, even the men of Umuofia, did not know. And we must presume in spite of his certitude, Mr Green did not know either,’ Achebe’s final words.

14 Muharram 1440 H = 24 September 2018  

Hajj fare logarithm: Pilgrim’s hard cash and the political algorithm

Year in and out, irrespective of which party is in government, when the hajj season comes around it is as though a bad track is played and Muslims dance to it any which way.

From the politics of it, through to the hajj village crisis, the hustle here and in Saudi Arabia and the headache associated with pilgrims return home, top it up with the more often than not, the unbalanced hajj board accounts – next year same sequence will be ‘pon the replay.’ 

In the light of the national cathedral brouhaha, hajj has gained some traction vis-à-vis the blabbing about government interference in hajj as a seeming justification for investment in a Christian religious venture.

For the record, I support the national cathedral idea in principle; the board should consider a mosque somewhere in the structure. Aside from the planned bulldozing of multiple structures to make way for it, may the good lord protect its funders and builders, Amen!

The government hand in hajj is not a new debate, just a recurring one – almost now like a malignant tumour. Turns out that the tumour will linger on for a while thanks to the politics of hajj.

In 2013: hajj was compared to Israel trip for 200 pastors

The last I wrote of it was when the then Methodist moderator Prof. Martey played a similar card when the erstwhile government reportedly decided to sponsor some 200 Christian leaders to Jerusalem in 2013.

Back then I explained why the Israel trip was incomparable to the hajj – both in form and structure. A key point being that in the case of hajj, prospective pilgrims coughed up cash sums in dollar equivalents to fund their trips.

I made a copious point about the politics involved in the hajj being a headache that governments needed to deal with. It is that politics that continue to beset the organization of the pilgrimage year in and out.

2018 hajj fare and government ‘political’ subsidy

According to a Ghana News Agency, GNA, report of 14-03-2018 – the hajj board led by former lawmaker I. C. Quaye released a fare of 15,000 cedis for 2018 same as for 2017 (about $3,450).

He is quoted as saying the actual fare was to be 19,500 but government absorbed 4500 for each pilgrim. He went on to blamed the price hike on Saudi Arabia’s policies. The government was only playing political correctness with the fare absorption.

I’d explain. 4500 is a lot of money but not for someone who has raised 15,000. I agree it’d have scuttled plans of a number of pilgrims but then again, nowhere is hajj obligated for a person without the wherewithal. Capacity is a central consideration to the pilgrimage.

But for the sake of political fortunes, the government refused to look in the faces of people and tell them the bitter truth, rather opting to use taxpayers monies to subsidize the journey of thousands.

As for the fact that we would most likely go down this path in months or years to come, it’s just a matter of time. In so far as some people refuse to be educated on what goes into the hajj, we’d do well to always educate them for all its worth.

Governments should toughen up and deal with bitter truths than pander to populist actions that create a vicious cycle of seeming entitlement and unnecessary comparisons of unrelated incidents and events.

If the hajj committee will have to deal with a handful of pilgrims and deliver a decent process with $1 profit, it makes sense than ferry 1000 people – partly with state funds, keep them in near squalid conditions and come back to declare losses that government pays or is it – covers up, with more state funds.

Me, I have said my mind sha, the sooner the state sits up the better for us all. It is unacceptable what currently pertains. Whiles at it, can government hand this hajj thing to a private body with targets rather than party loyalists? We’d be better served!

Monday 17th September, 2018 = 7th Muharram, 1440.

Hijri vs. Gregorian calendar: Compare and contrast of "sun and moon"

Muslims around the world will today on September 11, 2018; mark the entry into an Islamic New Year, 1440H. The day marked the first day (1st Muharram) of the year 1440 Hijri. Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar.

According to the calendar used across most of the Arab world, Muslims have entered the year 1440 Hijri. It is referred to as the Hijri Calendar because it began with the Hijra, or hegira, i.e. the Prophet Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina (in present-day Saudi Arabia).

Muhammad and a number of Muslims at the time migrated to Medina due to persecution by the disbelievers. The first Muslim state was established in Medina till he returned to Makkah after a conquest years later.  

Here we explore the difference between the Hijri and the Gregorian calendar widely used outside the Arab/Muslim world.

1 - The Gregorian calendar has 365/366 days whiles the Hijri or Islamic year has minimum 354 days.

Reason: the Hijri Calendar follows the movements of the moon (therefore the term lunar calendar). The calendar is consistently less by 11 days comparative to the Gregorian.

2 - Gregorian calendars, measures time beginning with the year 0 A.D. A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which means "In the year of our Lord." The Hijri Calendar has years marked by A.H., which stands for Anno Hegirae, "In the Year of the Hijra." The hegira took place in A.H. 1.

Most popular: The Gregorian which is usually referred to as a type of solar calendar is most widely used across the world, even alongside the Hijri in most of the Arab world. 

3 - The Gregorian was named after Pope Gregory XIII and was introduced in October 1958. The Hijri Calendar is the official calendar in many predominantly Muslim countries, most notably Saudi Arabia.

In most secular countries, Muslims refer to the Gregorian Calendar for most dates and consult the Hijri Calendar only for religious purposes.

The main similarities relate to days of the week and number of months.

The similarities between the Islamic and Gregorian calendar are that; both have 12 months each of seven days in a week. The slight day variations are that the first day of the week is Sunday (Yawmul Ahad) whiles Monday is seen as the first on the other side.

And Allah said in the Quran: “Verily, the number of months with Allaah is twelve months (in a year), so was it ordained by Allaah on the Day when He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are Sacred (i.e. the 1st, the 7th, the 11th and the 12th months of the Islamic calendar). That is the right religion, so wrong not yourselves therein” [Al-Tawbah 9:36]

New Year 1440H: The need to imbibe and imbue Islamic calendar

Authored this day: Tuesday 8th Muharram, 1440 = 18th September 2018. 

Hijri New Year 1440: The need to imbue, imbibe Islamic calendar

Introduction

Ours, Islamically, is a lunar calendar but we are more often than not abreast with the Gregorian calendar for obvious reasons.

Our daily lives albeit governed by Islam is calculated on a system other than the Islamic. The secular nature of our affairs makes it worse because we initiate and make most projections based on the Gregorian calendar.

So as a Nigerian Imam once remarked wryly, “you (a Muslim) do not know of Muharram or Rajab let alone Zul Qa’dah but we know of August, April and September, all for the sake of monthly salary.”

The Qur'an informs us about the months, that they are twelve. The same Qur’an directs that we calculate our seasons based on the moon. Yet here we are grappling with keeping track of these months. Sha’baan, Ramadaan and Zul Hijjah are very well known.

Sha'baan because it precedes Ramadan and Ramadan for all it is worth is a month that even non-Muslims can easily acknowledge. Zul Hijjah because the Hajj pilgrimage is predominantly exercised in it.

Justified Oblivion by Muslims?

Zul Hijjah is the equivalent of December [i.e. the last month]. Once it runs out, in comes the entry of a New Year, Muharram (i.e. the Islamic January.)

Yet only a few Muslims keep track of the Muharram as they do January, a clear case of self-imposed oblivion if you ask me. But why should that be?

The twin reasons that I deduce are; the social milieu within which we find ourselves as above stated and our own lack of initiative and drive to apply the Islamic dates even if alongside the Gregorian.

But these two reasons are certainly not enough for us to discard the Islamic dates and thus there is the need for a conscientious effort to sow the seeds of ‘hijri’ calculations across the religious and social structure of our lives as Muslims.

The Way Forward

My proposals of a solution to this indictment and grave ‘oversight’ on the Muslim Ummah [Community] lies in two words: Conscientization and continued use of the date, especially at ALL Muslim gatherings.

The first point of call shall be with Muslim leaders irrespective of which part of the religious banner they hold, to make it a point to at all events be it at naming, marriage or funeral ceremonies to remind all gathered of the Islamic date.

Another very potent platform on which to best drum home the date to Muslims is on Jum’ah – the Friday Congregational Prayer pulpits. Nigerian clerics have the apt habit of dating – verbally – their lectures across the board – Islamic and Gregorian dates for that matter.

A largely marginalized group cannot here be kept out, Islamic school teachers, on them, should be the most important and long-term role of pushing down the concept of the Hijriyyah date into the minds of young Muslims they teach.

I hail my Islamic school teachers at Hamdaniyya Islamic School, Accra New Town, they had the habit of writing both dates on the top corner of the board. A habit that I stuck to when it was my turn to impart that which they taught me as a class two teacher.

Muslim show hosts should be tasked with reminding their audiences about the Islamic dates before and after each program. Muslim writers should also sign off with the Islamic date.

With respect to the use of traditional media, I ask; what stops well-to-do Muslims from paying to publish each month of the Islamic calendar in a number of daily newspapers? I wonder. Our dates should be awash over social media too.

Conclusion 

The Hijri Calendar is the official calendar in many predominantly Muslim countries. In Ghana and other countries, Muslims refer to the Gregorian calendar for most dates and consult the Hijri Calendar only for religious purposes.

The time is now to turn back and start afresh relative to the Islamic dates. From our Imams, through to Muslims in the media, Islamic school teachers and all Muslims living any and everywhere, ours is the onerous duty to make do with what is ours from the Almighty Allah.

The original piece was authored this day 1st Jumad Al Uulaa 1436 = 20th February 2015

The remix is here today published: Tuesday 1^st Muharram 1440 = 11^th September 2018.

Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Teacher, Hamdaniyya Islamic School – Accra New Town

Journalist, Africanews – Republic of Congo

Muslim-led assembly in Aquinas chapel: Swallah, Fr. Ohene and Graphic article

"Aquinas ‘truth’ assembly: Swallah, Fr. Ohene and Junior Graphic" - Okay, so this was the other headline I wished to use but didn't, as if you care. 

Morning assembly at St. Thomas Aquinas was simply a routine with a template I can quite recall decades on. It would take place either in the chapel or in the open space between the chapel and the car park.

All things being equal, it will be led by a prefect – preferably the chapel prefect. Wherever it is held, the motions are almost the same except for Torgbor’s hymns – accompanied by his projector, conducting prowess and piano, when it was in the chapel.

As far as I could remember, there was the hymn (s), the recitation of Hail Mary, the school anthem, announcements – usually from prefects or Fr. Ohene or Batsa, in rare cases by other tutors – these were at the heart of the quotidian event.

I dare say that in so far as a Muslim could not be a chapel prefect, there was a remote if not impossible chance that a Muslim will ever lead assembly. The other possibility was that a prefect – who is Muslim – could find himself leading if the circumstances so played out.

But one fine morning in my Aquinas lifetime, it did happen that a Muslim led the gathering. Swallah Abdul Razak, one of our finest gentlemen in the 2003 batch, he also served as president of the Aquinas Muslim Students Association in our final year.

Evergreen Father Ohene (L), my AMSA president, Swallah Abdur Razak (R) 

That day, the session was to take place in the church. Swallah (then a form 2 student) with very little assistance from a chapel prefect (I think) went through the motions before going on to ‘preach’ about that which earned him the enviable record of being Muslim leading the assembly.

Swallah had authored an article published in the Junior Graphic. The article was titled: ‘Veritas Liberat,’ and it was for that exact reason that Father Benjamin Ohene had asked him to lead the assembly.

Swallah elaborated on the content of his article driving home the point that we had to in all matters stick to the truth. In that opinion piece, Swallah had succeeded in projecting a core value i.e. the motto, of Aquinas as a body corporate.

Of course, it was a motto that most boys did not necessarily live up to. The liars brigade extended from the content of the many letters and the refusal to turn in ‘criminal elements’ – for fear of being branded a chooker.

For us, the motto was ‘Veritas Liberat,’ meaning the truth shall set you free but the engine of the motto was ‘beeb3,’ for all it is worth we were nestled in Dadekotopon constituency. Speak truth, yes, but also see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil also seem to play a role.

Back to Swallah and Father Ohene: that a Muslim was allowed to conduct the assembly was yet another key signpost of the fact that we lived in and were brought up in a pragmatic and forward-thinking ambience.

As the school anthem said, Aquinas thought us to strive for perfection in three key areas – spirit, soul and body by praying to the Most High God. For those that strived, you did so with humility and doggedness – the anthem chose to call it steadfastness.

Aquinas at the time I was a resident was a perfect template for inter-religious co-existence and so it is that when I read and hear about places of religious strife, I have often said to myself, ‘only if I could pluck and place them in Cantonments, sanity will play out.’

Dodge and duck: Manasseh's azure non-executive Otabil-ian sermon

If social media wants, asks for or demands your voice/opinion, the people on that street / in that nation are baying for blood, ask Otabil or Manasseh.

Otabil has over the past few months been pummelled as much as has been Manasseh, social media has given them a tough time – no doubt. 

In the end, even if they were not personally moved to respond to cries for reactions, close allies may have told them to speak – even if for the sake of being heard. And both have since spoken aggregate two is to one.

Otabil has spoken in an official ‘non-executive’ statement (capital) and in an official ‘God is good’ sermon (sovereign), both should have been a consolidated response till an avowed Otabil ally decided he also needed to speak up.

Manasseh like Otabil has suffered the same fate each time that they have pandered to calls for a reaction in the wake of the banking crisis – more often than not, the response has been ‘they should not have spoken at all.’

Photo owner: Bright Ackwerh

Yeah, for the same social media that whined and twitched that the two men speak, the contents of their respective responses were unacceptable.

What then does it say of this medium, that people come on here with their views on what they expect you to say – people here come with preconceived judgments and expectations. More often than not, going with the popular chant for ‘blood to flow’.

More disturbingly yet, basing their call on a certain social media precedent as if all situations could be aligned in parallels because they involve a particular set of people. 

So in the case of Otabil for all his prosperity sermons and common sense preaching and jab at failure, the ‘non-executive’ question is: how could he superintend over a bank as chairman and allow it sink.

And for the Otabil-ian disciple Azure Awuni, how it is that his potently savage axe of public prosecution – against anti-corruption and malfeasance – had overnight developed so much rustiness it could barely push over a day-old seedling.

More clearly than the Italian football team’s Azure, Manasseh had shown via his response that he had over the period of quiet been ‘working’ with the news team covering the bank crisis but also he had been mastering the art of ‘dodging and ducking.’

Even Otabil knows, the crisis has tainted his personality and position for all its worth. And more so, to the extent that taxpayers money had been involved. If just paying off will restore his loss, Otabil would pay.

But as the back and forth continues, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana, analysts and columnists continue to sink in their perspectives, I stand with the position of Yoni Kulendi as espoused on News File two weeks ago.

The authorities should resist the temptation of being stampeded into taking a certain line of action. My bank – Unibank – is currently in a consolidated soup. Me, like a few others, know our deposits are safe, others are responding to panic buttons within their being, fair.

The banking crisis is a sour episode for our financial system which for long now has suffered lack of active participation especially by the informal sector. With mobile banking peaking, the banking sector is set to suffer more losses undoubtedly.

And so as Otabil exhorted his followers with a tripartite response to criticisms about his role in the capital crash, unless Manasseh was not around or did not listen to the particular sermon, he needn’t have written a long missive in a beloved folder. 

Nine words were all the boy from Bongo needed to string together. ‘God is good, God is good, God is good.’ Then for the sake of being nice and in the footsteps of Rev. Otabil, could add at the end a tenth, ‘Shalom!’

Ok, bye!

Allez partir! Là-bas, là-bas: Ghana's French link, my Congo language class

Me, Hajia Fati’s son, was born and bred in Ghana, school taught us that aside our south that had a long coast (Gulf of Guinea), Ghana had three neighbours – Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. All three are Francophone i.e. French-speaking.

So even though with a robust democracy we don’t envisage any upheavals politically, a joke has often made the rounds that Ghanaians must learn French because in the case of any crisis, we either enter the sea or join our Francophone neighbours.

But we won’t fight – c’est pas necessaire, notre democracie est trop mature! La period de guerre politique est derriere nous, En fait, Ghana est etoile en Afrique dans bon gouvernance. Use Google translate.

Having said that, growing up, we had a few French terminologies that even the uneducated used. Allez partir, là-bas là-bas is one of them, it simply meant: Get out of here, go far away. Break down: Allez = Go,  partir = Leave, Là-bas = (over) there.

Attention (French) pronounced attan-sion was another word meaning: Be careful. In 1998 during the World Cup in France, Ghanaians joined the world to sing ‘Go, go, go, allez, allez, allez.’

Still with music, one of the biggest tracks way back was Ivorian group Magic System’s ‘Gaou.’ There was barely anyone who couldn’t sing that song, it was hot cake and the radio stations gave it more mileage.

In Ghana, French man = someone who lacks understanding. Au Ghana, quand un personne t’apelle Francais ca veut dit, tu manqué comprehension de chose simple. Je ne sait pas pourquoi, mais ce la realite.

Long story short, Ghana has a cozy relationship with French as a language. In fact, our current president Nana Addo has in the past said French will be a compulsory course at a certain level in our education, ah bon? Laissez lui parle, c’est facille de parle.

Note; the president speaks French as well as he does English. Oui bien sure, notre president parle francais comme son nom est Jean, Francois ou de Gualle mais bizzarement, il n’y a pas de nom cretiene.

So in basic school, we studied French and wrote a terminal French exam. In High School,  your course of study determined if you did French same with the university. My French love story started from home, my self-taught barber daddy, Hajia Fati’s heartthrob was a polyglot.

Our old man spoke English, Arabic and French with rapt and apt fluency. It was he that started teaching us French at home with a book ‘Parlons Francais.’ My basic school French master Monsieur Tackie was also key to my liking for the language.

So during my national service days, I also joined a French language course at Allaince Francaise in Ghana. Paid lots of money and wrote the DELF-DALF exam. Grounded me in the language a bit but there was no one to practice with so we went rusty.

Then came February 2016, a job with Africanews and I had to be based in Congo Republic not Kabila’s Congo. C’est trois ans deja de vivre entre les Francaise en Congo-Brazzaville, vraiment le temps bouge eh.

Then my empoyers decided to give English speakers an opportunity to learn French and vice versa. Over a three month period my colleagues and I under the tutelage of Monsieur Bikindou went through the rough terrain of French language rules. Fatigue! 

We wrapped up the class on Thursday 27 August, 2018; with presentations on a chosen topic and a written test. I totally killed it with the presentation, I did! My topic was ‘Ma vie professionelle’ – my professional life.

The only French man is wearing the suit, Professeur Bikindou L-R Daniel (Uganda), Emilia (Cameroon), Hajia Fati (Ghana), Amelia (Uganda), Michael (Nigeria), Nyasha (Zimbabwe), Jerry (Nigeria)

Long before now, I’d listened to a motivational speaker, Emmanuel Dei Tumi, advise that any varsity graduate needed three things: a passport, a second international language aside English and how to drive – that it boosts one’s chances professionally.

I have experienced the truth in two and rue the missed opportunity to learn to drive. I had a passport when I really didn’t need it, it came in handy when I needed it most. My little French from way back cushioned me and still saves me till date.

I’d conclude with a paragraph from my presentation: ‘J’aime mon travail pour deux raisons principaux, il y a independence de le fait et la feedback sur la ruseaux sociaux – Twitter et Facebook – confirme toujours que notre travail est eprouve et puissant. En fin, je prie pour mon employeur pour l’opportunite est aussi parce que je suis 100% sure que mon salaire est toujours assure!’

Ok, a tout a l’heure!