Daniel Owusu-Koranteng (Futurist Kowus)
There is a story that a poor farmer who sent his son to school told him to seek 20% of the “Whiteman’s Knowledge” to add to the 80% of his indigenous knowledge.
After going through the “Whiteman’s education”, the son of the poor farmer exchanged his 80% indigenous knowledge for the 20% “Whiteman’s knowledge”.
The moral of the story is that, since knowledge has to be scaled up, we require additional technical knowledge even from our exploiters to add up to our knowledge base.
Unfortunately, the son of the poor farmer was transformed into a newly cloned educated elite made up of 80% “Whiteman’s orientation” and 20% “indigenous orientation”.
The story of the newly cloned African educated elites who have been totally oriented towards the agenda of our exploiters through an educational system that enslaves rather than liberates has contributed significantly to the underdevelopment of the African continent despite the enormous natural wealth and Human Resource.
Bad contracts in Africa have been the bane of Africa’s development.
Coming home, the problem of newly cloned Ghanaian educated elites, manifest through the role of our intellectuals in negotiating very bad agreements which guarantee the takeover, control and transfer of our resources from our poor country to countries that laid the foundation of their economic take off through slave trade and exploitation of our resources by our colonial masters.
Many of our agreements that relate to mining and maritime projects have been signed in our so-called “age of enlightenment” but they may compete with or surpass the blood-stained bonds/agreements that were signed in the era of slavery and colonization.
Sadly, these agreements in strategic sectors of our economy such as mining and the maritime sectors end up mortgaging the fate of current and future generations to our colonial and slave masters.
Reading some of the agreements contracted with the help of intellectuals and professionals gives the impression that our sons and daughters who are technically and professionally equipped to be our ears, eyes and mouth to hear the things we cannot hear, see the things we cannot see and say the things we cannot say, exchanged our present and future lives for crumbs.
The story of the newly cloned Ghanaian educated elites who are totally oriented towards the agenda of our exploiters through an educational system that enslaves rather than liberates has contributed significantly to the underdevelopment of our country, despite the enormous natural wealth and Human Resources.
Sadly, these agreements in strategic sectors of our economy such as mining and the maritime sectors sold the fate of current and future generations to their masters.
Reading some of these agreements creates the impression as if the architects who had the honour and privilege to represent the interest of current and future generations of our nation were blind-folded whilst signing such bad agreements or they were coerced at gun point to mortgage or sell the fate of current and future generations to their masters in very bad exchange of national wealth for things that can be described as being equivalent to toys.
In the words of Alvin Toffler, “The illiterate of the 21st Century is not those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
African educated elites need to learn that the colonial education has alienated them from the aspirations of their people and enslaved them to be tied to our slave and colonial past. African intellectuals must unlearn their colonial orientation and relearn to serve the interest of current and future generations.
That is the only way in which they can lead the efforts for economic take off of African nations.
The renaissance of a new African intellectual with the professional and political capacity to be part of an early warning mechanism against Africa’s exploitation and loot to guarantee Africa’s transformation in the creation of generational equity for all generations is a necessity.
According to the renowned Writer and Educationist, Chinua Achebe, “If you don't like someone's story, write your own.”
