All over the world, the first of April is celebrated as Fool’s Day. On that day,
friends play practical jokes or tricks on each other. The best prank I ever heard of
was once played by a radio station in the port city Takoradi, Ghana. Days before
April first, the radio station started announcing that a US ship will be docking at
the Takoradi harbour to recruit volunteers to fight for the American army in Iraq. A
day or two before the Fool’s Day, the station had the ‘US Army General’ in the
studio to ‘authenticate’ the station’s announcement. The enthusiasm amongst the
listeners reached fever pitch. To fully appreciate this pitch, you need to know that
Takoradi is a city noted for its youth stowing away on ships for Europe and the
Americans, risky adventures whose fatal outcomes do not fail to deter successive
generations of young people. On the first of April, there were reports of long
queues at the harbour, young people ready to board a
ship to the States, to fight in a war they had no stake in! It was noon before one
wise US-soldier wannabe remembered that it was April Fool’s Day! The radio station
was nearly burst down!
April first holds a different significance for me, however. On that date in 1998, I
went to Africa Hall, on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. It was UST then. My mission was to visit and wish happy
birthday to my friend Sharon Odartey Lamptey (nee Quarshie). Sharon was also a
member of Joyful Way Incorporated (JWI) and I was the President of the Kumasi
(KNUST) branch. After fulfilling my mission and chatting with Sharon, sitting on one
of the Porter’s lodge bench, I climbed up the stairs of Block A to Room 40, where
two of my colleague JWI executives, Jennifer Fafa Asiedu-Dartey (nee Fudjoe) and
Joyce Opare (nee Kyei) lodged. A chance meeting that day and in that room was to
have a profound influence in my life. In the course of our conversation, a pretty,
confident lady entered the room and I was introduced to the then Vice-President of
Africa Hall, Ms. Vivian Richardson – the very first time I
ever set eyes on the lady who was to become my wife.
I proposed to Vivian in July 1999, a week before we both completed our first degrees
at KNUST, and we got married in June 2002. It is customary in most churches in Ghana
to undergo counselling before marriage, usually done by counsellors of the church
where the marriage was to be conducted. Vivian and I were privileged to be
counselled by Uncle Isaac and Auntie Joy Ashong, a wonderful couple who taught us so
much. Because of my travel schedules at that time as a quality auditor in Unilever
Ghana, we decided to start the counselling six months to the date of marriage, so we
could make allowance for any disruptions. It was a wise decision, which also enabled
Mr. and Mrs. Ashong to really elaborate on the topics of discussion.
We learnt a lot from this experienced couple. A lot. Don’t buy elaborate expensive
furniture until after the kids are grown. Get to know each other well and enjoy your
marriage before the kids come in, because they will change your life forever!
Another lesson they taught us is well captured by Phyllis Diller: “Cleaning your
house while your kids are still growing is like shovelling the walk before it stops
snowing!”
One key lesson, on which I want to dwell in this article, was that in coming
together as a couple, Vivian and I were creating a unique, brand new family name and
tree, a new identify. In our case, we were creating a Richardson-Damoah combination,
merging our two identities, our two destinies, forming a new branch, a new brand
name. And with that, the Ashongs told us, it is our responsibility to grow that new
identity into a brand that our children, our generation, our descendants will be
proud of. A brand name that we can leave as a legacy to those yet unborn.
In David Herbert Donald’s classic biography of President Abraham Lincoln, the
sixteenth President of the United States of America, titled Lincoln, the author
recounts that when one John Scripps wanted to write a biography for Lincoln’s
campaign in 1860 and asked for information, the President replied that his early
life and ancestry could be condensed into a single sentence in Gray’s Elegy, “The
short and simple annals of the poor.” Not much was known of Lincoln’s parents and
what they achieved. But who doesn’t know about the name Lincoln today. It is a
brand. And Lincoln achieved that in one generation, leaving for posterity the equity
in that name. Same can be said of Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Mahatma Gandhi,
Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Yaa Asantewaa, Margaret Thatcher, Efua
Sutherland, Mother Theresa, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Barack Obama. These names are
brand names in our world today. The equity built into these
names was done within a generation, in most cases. Some of them rebuilt the
negative legacies left by their forebears. Some built on the legacies of same. But
in each of these examples, by their lives, these men and women by their actions,
achievements and influence on their generations left a legacy of their names, for
posterity.
I am yet to see someone named Judas Iscariot. If you find one, kindly let me know!
What connotations do Hitler’s name bring to you? This is an exact opposite of what
we discussed in the previous paragraph. A negative legacy, surely.
Abraham Lincoln stated that “I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more
concerned to know what his grandson will be.” And he did. He did ensure that he
could answer the charge of Donald Marquis who remarked that because we pay for the
mistakes of our ancestors, it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to
pay with!
How does one go about building equity into a family name, creating a brand? The
Persians have a relevant advice: “Do little things now; so shall big things come to
thee by and by asking to be done.” Try to influence the life of at least one person.
The Chinese say: If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten
years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want a hundred years of prosperity, grow
people. If you want to influence a generation, affect a life. The who-is-who list we
enumerated above has more people doing community service, giving a part of their
lives to make their countries better. Try to improve on what is given to you to
manage, so you can transfer it to another – more profitable. Try to do a little
above what you are required to, and you will be making an impact that goes beyond
your generation. Ralph W. Sockman captures it when he said that what makes greatness
is starting something that lives after you.
I am determined to follow the advice of the Ashongs. I don’t intend to leave only a
will for my children. I want to leave them something as well, albeit not immediately
tangible: equity in the name I have given them without their permission. Such a
brand may not guarantee success, as corroborated by Mikhail Skobeleff who indicated
that ‘mere family never made a man great’, but it surely gives a head start and, in
some cases, may open doors.
Action Exercise
What are you leaving for your descendants as far as your name is concerned? A brand
recognised for good or for bad? Is it an act they can imitate and build upon? Make a
list of practical ways you can actualise the desire to build a good brand image for
our name and go to work at it!
Quotes
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have
never failed to imitate them.” James Baldwin
“Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us,
and approximate to the characters we most admire. A generous habit of thought and
action carries with in an incurable influence.” Christian Bovee
“The best gift we can bestow on others is a good example.” Thomas Morell
“Immortality is not a gift; immortality is an achievement; and only those that
strive mightily shall possess it.” Edgar Lee Masters
“Fame due to the achievements of the mind never perishes.” Propertius
“A good father lives so he is a credit to his children.” Arnold Glasow
“Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he got out of
it.” James Truslow Adams
“No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree that his life
belongs to his race, and that what God gives him He gives for mankind.” Phillips
Brooks
“A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Great men never feel great; small men never feel small.” Chinese proverb
“From the little spark may burst a mighty flame.” Dante
Source: Nana Awere Damoah
Author, Tales from Different Tails/Through the Gates of Thought / Excursions In My
Mind
Contributing Author, African Roar
Author Page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nana-Awere-Damoah/e/B003NJ3E7Q
Website: www.nanadamoah.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/nanaaweredamoah
