Harry Ofori
Wed May 20 1998

Amanfoo,

While browsing through the archives of one of the world's prestigious newspapers on the internet one boring saturday afternoon, I came across some astonishing information. This makes very interesting reading. This wasn't made up by either me or the paper. What you are about to read is REAL! Its not meant to serve as a ridicule, however, at least not from my end.

Below is an extract of one of dictator Iddi Amin's infamous speeches he used to deliver during the national celebrations. This particular speech was delivered in the U.K at the Conference of the U.N General Assembly.
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Ladies and women, my beloved husbands and men in this assembly, I am thank you very difficult for you hand to forgive me this hour to stalk of you Africa and my country which is Uganda.

As I am a field marshall Dr. Or Haj Amin the Life President of my country, I am apologised because I have not deaded Archbishop Haemeni Kuvum. When many people tell me so many questions about him. His death on my behalf has happened with accident which was in the car when he yalked with it. So I am not a mistake you see.

Another words if or the order in my country in Uganda. The pressnewsmen which you can look them there will wanted to know the law orders of my country. They have inquiring me many questions in because my policemen don't catch people in court while they lost them on the way. No this is not right, yet all them who are catched by my policement are removed for court. When the court does not find them good enough and tie them all with mistakes begining from one month through to ten years with even above. So we attempt people in the court before we tie them to prisons and those you understand about they dead are with if they travel dead themselves. Man invent their death. Uganda is peace loving brother country when people enjoy as if they are in another country. That is true about the country.

Dr. Kurt Waldeheim, you are beautiful in one of these husbands. I think you are this beauty to look what is going on in South Africa with Rhodesia, I am sending two hours to whites as if they can choose freedom to Africa, brothers or you will not blame me as I take wondering action to blow them.

Israel is another enemy, they deaded sleeping soldiers of Uganda when they find them at night in Intebbe. I walked one morning and I invented bodies of my soldiers sleeping in the airport and Israel had deaded people there. They must see or because I pay them of this bad news.

Last of that I am thank your lunch which smelled good I am again fed up with it and have admitted revenge when both of you are invited by Uganda.

Thank you very hard and we shall collide everywhere in internal matter like assembly. Thank you very hard.

--Field Marshall Dr. V.C. DSO M.C. Amin, Conquerer of the British Empire
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The pressmen, when asked by the Queen as to what President Amin has said, replied: "Your Majesty, That was President Amin of Uganda speaking a language similar to English."

THIS IS HILLARIOUS ! oh' me goodness ! Not since the days of DC Kwakye....

Thanks for the laughs, Harold.

I do not think this article is funny. It affects all of us. The text of the speech, even if well written, shows a high level of stupidity and ridicule. I do not know if this speech contributed to the creation or strengthening of the negative perception (stereotyping) of Africans and other people of color. Caricature of this sort is a disgrace to us all.

When Nigeria won the soccer championship at the last Olympic Games, those who were interested in soccer went about their business the next day with their chest high and full of smiles and pride. Why? Because some people of color had exhibited a superiority in something, and we wanted the whole world to know about it and recognize us for that. Funny, because a speech (display of intelligence or lack of it) like that makes one feel like putting a sand bag over one's face the next morning. What makes any group respectable is the group's consistent display of dignity and intellect, among other virtues. We seldom show any dignity or intellect. Is it any wonder that, regardless of our status, some people do not think we are deserving of any respect, or humanity itself.

Read or listen to what heads of governments (not leaders) in Africa say. It is in the interest of every one of us to have the liberty and want to demand accountability for what people in positions of trust say and do. To me, people in positions of trust in Africa should beg for others to look into what they do and say, because they rarely say or do wise or worthwhile things. Nobody relies on their words, and they almost always speak a foolish word and never do a wise one. Let's stop being shameless. It is about time we stopped taking disgrace and insult. God bless.

Gentlemen,

I do not think any person has done wrong for posting this article about Idi Amin. (I am on the defense of Harold and Ohene Kwapong.) If one remembers Idi Amin's record in 70s, then he ought to speak better english. On the other hand stereotyping is bad; however, a joke is joke, and it should be treated as such.

Remember the Surgeon General's recommendation: "Laughter is the best medicine".

And just how many other languages did the pressmen and the Queen speak fluently besides their native English? None, I bet. I believe Amin did speak his native tongue fluently too. At least you dared to try another language BIG DADDY despite your brutality!

Ken,

I may have given the impression that Harold should not have posted the speech, but that is not what I had intended. I really think the publication of the article enlightens everybody, be it on the funny or serious side. The speech is very funny if it comes from a drunken nonentity. It ceases to be funny when it comes from a person whose image and deeds affect millions of others, just in the same way that yelling "fire" in a theater ceases to be free speech. "Laughter is the best medicine," sure. But when laughter carries with it a negative connotation, then the medicine to one becomes a burden (and in some cases disaster) to another.

The point I was making in the earlier piece was that it would be prudent to be more vigilant about and fight against things that affect us, even in the remotest of ways. A case in point is the involvement in the affairs of Prempeh and the positive results it has so far produced. An earlier involvement would have averted some of the problems that have come to light. We can do the same for the larger society, but I am afraid a different forum would have to be created for that. I hope this is not taking away from concentrating on the needs of Prempeh College. Ken, thanks for your response. God bless.

Dear Ralph,

Trust me:...that piece was funny and indeed knowing what Idi Amin did to his own people, it shows him to be the worse fool ever to rule an African country ( just ask any of my friends from Uganda).

It is about time we moved beyond the type of thinking that makes us defend those who act like fools just because they are Africans and face some reality. Idi Amin's bad speeches should never ever make any African feel ashamed. We ought to stop defending creatures like that for the sake of some elusive collective brotherhood. He indeed should probably have stuck to his local language and that, may be, would have deminish the chances of him being rediculed. There is nothing as foolish as a man who puts on false pretenses of being wise and wants to be respected for that. He is a disgrace to himself and no other. What makes other cultures ascribe his disgrace to us is due more to our own lack of swift repudiation of people like that and how we often cozy up to fools like that because they are Africans. I wish Ugandans have ridiculed and laughed at him for his heinous acts long before the rest of the world. Let's be men of intergrity and face the fact that he was a disgrace to himself.

Bad english like that is horrible whether spoken by an African, another head of state, or an english man ...and is funny because the one speaking it presumes to be wiser than the rest. Our culture has an abundance of dignity and intellect, but we have to start asking ourselves some hard questions....some very uncomfortable facts...example: Africa, or sub-Sahara Africa, is discounted in this world not because we lack dignity or intellect, but simply we have not participated in advancement of the world like other regions and until you have influenced the rules of the game, the rest of the world will not give a damn. We have to stop making excuses! We are always claiming to be smart and yet our economies are in a mess. As they say in Rome, in every country when wise men refuse to rule, fools take over and the wise have to live by the fools' decrees...and then you wonder who the fool really is. I say it's the wise man indeed who has been a fool.

The bottom line is this: what gets a group respect goes beyond dignity. It is the collective achievements of the group and the contribution (apart from plain consumption) to the world, that commands respect from the rest of the world. Asians claim to be smart, Africans claim to be smart, Latin-Americans claim to be smart, Europeans claim to be smart.....but at the end of the day the one who is smart is the one who has the evidence to show for his smartness. If as a group ( here referring to Amanfoo ), we can not even do as much as organize to build our own school to be competitive so our kids will be the ones who get the nobel prizes and become the inventors of tomorrow ...and build the world class global companies, all from Africa, then who are we kidding.

I do hope this Idi Amin story gets Amanfoo energized enough to see the urgency and swiftness with which we ought to get involved in our schools, so we can shape lives better than a fool like Idi Amin. If my child or your child gets up someday to address the U.N. or the world, I want them, whether they speak horrible english or excellent english, to have no pretenses, but rather evidence in their lives that commands respect. Remember, a lot of leaders (Yasser Arrafat, Hashimoto, Yeltsin, Museveni...) do not speak english properly, but yet command respect world-wide...the reason; they have evidence in their lives, of their hardwork for their people, that commands respect and it's the foundation of true dignity. What makes Idi Amin and his speech funny, is not the mere words, but the false pretenses of charlatans like him that make him the object of ridicule. No African should ever feel ashamed to laugh at a fool whether African or not, ..and whether the fool is cited by an African or not. By the way, forget Africa, let's think about Ghana...our children survive on our sacrifices and neither on Nigerian charity nor oil.

Amanfoo, At least he should be given a credit for trying to speak a foreign language, the queen cannot and will not even be prepared to learn any African language. It is time we have to pay more attention to our own language. Many of us will honestly admit that we cannot not even write in our own language that is a big shame. Cheers.

Dear Amanfoo,

There are so many incredible lessons to be drawn here. Lessons that Seaman's comments bring to light. First, of all Amin needs no credit for making a fool of himself. There are better men in Africa and we ought to raise our standards and give credit where credit is due...and a rebuke, where one is deserved.

Lesson # 1:

The queen should not be faulted for not speaking an African language. In the big scheme of things, she doesn't need it for her to make her country great. We wasted our time studying "World before Britain" instead of concentrating on what was needed for the greatness of our own country. There is nothing wrong with studying about other people if only to help you do better, but one has to seperate what is necessary from what is garbage.

Lesson # 2:

Writing in our in Language? hmm..mm.m. Let's put this in proper perspective. It is nice knowing how to write in your language, but when the body of knowledge that is going to develop your country can not be transfered to others in your language, then you are wasting your time trying to mass educate people in the elements of written vernacular. Question; how do you draw up whole manufacturing strategy for a country in your local language, teach it in your local language, and expect to be better at it than those who are far ahead of us. You can either go back and waste precious time re-developing a whole body of knowledge in your language or take what gets business done and do it better than the one who owns it. Remember, Ghana never had Cocoa until its introduction in 1878 and guess what? We quickly developed competency in it and produced it better than where it came from.

The lesson here is that if writing in our language puts food on the table for our people and helps propell our country ahead of the development cycle, then it's a shame not knowing how to write in our language. However, if writing in our language does not propell our people towards greatness, serves as an unnecessary distraction towards our quest to develop, and does not get business done...then let's relegate it to the realm of drama and poetry, where we can all meditate on and draw strength from to do greater things in the language of business.

By the way, remember pouring libation to the gods with whisky or, I guess for our gods, "akpetishe" (hey, I just wrote in our language..but wait a minute...why am I using alphabets? This computer is crazy..I don't even have "eh" on it. Now who is going to develop local characters so we can stop writing "Amanfoo" or "Amanfour"...that is the problem). As I was saying--> my take is that "libation" is a good tradition, but try explaining the meaning to yourself...and you quickly realized that our country is probably messed up because we have gotten all our gods drunk as hell. When the white man is praying to his god, we are feeding ours alcohol. Good gracious! I propose that we institute an edict...that all libations be conducted with water. Extra lesson here...we ought to be bold in reasserting our past and doing what makes us develop as a people rather than fantisizing with the past in a way that holds us back. Sankofa means more than taking from the past. What we forget is that the bird took from behind it an egg not its droppngs...but the egg that brings forth new life. Sankofa means getting from our past what brings forth new directions and development. Till writing in our language becomes a collective culture....we ought to be better than everyone, in what we have learned.

Amanf???,

I do not think I am condemning the publication of the article. As a matter of fact, I am very glad that the speech was posted on the net for all to see and make whatever we wanted to make of it. The speech may be funny, but what makes it funny? Is it the poor grammar, the misuse of words, the lack of coherence, the senselessness of the whole text, the stupidity of the contents, or what? Something makes the speech funny. But when one goes beyond what makes the speech funny in one's eyes and looks at the effect of the speaker on the lives of other people, then the speech at some point ceases to be funny. And also, the humor one finds in the speech gives way to these sorts of questions. How could this guy rule a nation? Did the people he was ruling recognize his display of extreme ignorance and stupidity? How much say did his people have in what he was doing? How did his people feel about him? Did they want him out? Could his people get him out if they wanted to? How did he get into power in the first place? How could his people avoid a recurrence of a similar situation?

One can pursue a similar line of questioning for the decision-making process in the administration of Prempeh and governance/government of Ghana, and I do not think it is a stretch. The main premise of my initial response was to bring a focused analysis of and involvement in the issues and problems that affect Prempeh, in particular, and people of color, in general, as a result of neglect and indifference. If our little discussion were a reflection of the everyday decision-making process of our governments, a lot of good things could be accomplished and a lot of irresponsible and ill-conceived acts stopped.

To those who do not think race is an issue, if you live outside of Ghana then you are burying your head in the sand on it. Race permeates every facet of life all over the world, but that is a subject of another discussion. I hope I did not give an indication of being ashamed of my color or race. I am one of the proudest people of color you would ever meet. I also like to have fun, and lots of it. I laugh at myself and things you would not even think of as being remotely funny, but I make an effort to separate harmless humor from embarrassing and painful ridicule.

I do not have a well thought of opinion about the question of language. I did not think it appropriate in this discussion. Kwapong raised some very important points in his response to Seaman's piece. An overall involvement of everybody in analyzing problems that affect us, including language, would result in more lasting solutions and resolutions. The discussion to a resolution of conflicts or disagreements and to a solution of problems that affect us is my fervent desire and wish. God bless.

Senior,

Bo ho beom!!!! This is an excellent opportunity for all of us to hatch out every year a well-thought out plan to put our school ahead of the world scale... have our kids be recognized as the potentials for future inventions...and even more hardworking than asians, always giving 110%. We can do this, guys!!!

Best Regards,

There are two messages in this story that must not be confused with each other.

First, there is the story of the arch villain Idi Amin and what he did to his own people in Uganda. Second, there is the issue of his bad English. Bad English does not make a person bad. English is only a language. I am sure the Queen of England would have been just as lost in trying to follow what Amin was saying if Amin was speaking fluent Kiswahili instead of bad English. If we are ashamed of Amin, it should not be because he spoke bad English to the hearing of English speakers and the Queen of England, but because he was (the man is still alive!) a stupid bully who slaughtered thousands of his own people. Whether the rest of the world saw what he did to his people or not, we should be horrified by his deeds. Pol Pot was a well educated Cambodian who spoke and wrote perfect French. Let us not mix the messages. English is only a language; it can be learned just like any other language. Colonized people, forced to make the colonial language their own, tend to place too much of their self esteeem on their ability to communicate in that language. Let us get beyond that triviality. Amin's badness is not in his English but in his cruelty to his people.

There has been a serious leadership gap in Africa for a long time. Ever since the generation of pan-Africanists who brought down European colonialism passed on, we have had a succession of poorly prepared or unprepared leaders in many countries. The "last" of the liberators, Nelson Mandela, finds himself in the company of fellow African Heads of State who are not his equals in age, vision, legitimacy, or leadership. While Idi Amin, Jean Bedel Bokassa, Macias, and others may have been the most notorius examples of lost leadership in Africa, many other less well known "bad boys" of Africa have ascended (often by force) to leadership of gangs that have been responsible for the recent self destruction of many African countries.

There is a leadership vacuum which should be filled by sons and daughters of Africa who are trained to lead our people into the next century. Lately, I have been reading the wise words of many such potential leaders in these email exchanges. However, most of those so well-prepared shy away from politics as if our problems can be solved without good political organization and leadership. If we do not want to be "ashamed" of Africa, we must do that which will make Africans proud. Idi Amin was awful for the image of Africa but we should not forget that there is balance in our world just as there is in that of others. Nyerere made us all proud when he organized the effort that drove Amin out of Uganda. As horribly as African leaders can treat their own people, we do not have all the international patents on villains. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, ... villains, all of them, just like Amin.

The greatest human story of our time is the life of Nelson Mandela, and he is African. The "shame" that an Amin or a Rwanda can bring to Africa is well balanced by the likes of Mandela and the success of a Namibia. Let us not entertain the idea that there is something inherently different or wrong about Africans. We are no worse than and just as good as all the others!

Dear Amanfoo

I have followed with keen interest, "Amin's Speech" and its resulting discussion. Discussions about language, schools, and other important issues facing our beloved country Ghana, our continent Africa, and the black race as a whole. The discussion reminds me of a question that I believe is very important to our development. Do traditions enhance or retard the development of any group of people? You notice that I mentioned traditions instead of culture. I believe that culture refers to our way of life. It includes everything we do as a society including things we learn from other societies. Our culture includes airplanes, VCR's, cellular phones etc. Tradition on the other hand refers to beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, laws, activities etc that we have developed over the years and handed over from generation to generations. I think most people agree that a society needs traditions. It helps make laws, it determines acceptable behaviour, it helps to bring about unity in a society, it also helps to foster a sense of pride,and dignity in people. We can think of a million reasons why any society needs traditions. As a result, most societies fiercely defend their traditions. So can such a wonderful thing like upholding and defending our traditions have any negative effects at all? To answer that question, we have to look at some other effects of traditions on a society. One very important function of a society's tradition is that it influences the relationship between that society and other societies. Our traditions help us determine what other societies are our friends, and what ones are not. What ideas to borrow and what ideas to reject. Another important function of tradition is that it influences what we can create or develop within our society. Looking at these two functions of tradition, filtering ideas from outside and regulating the type of ideas that can be developed from the inside, one can easilly see how important a society's traditions are, in developing its technology and also in initiating, accepting, or rejecting change. Change, in my opinion is the single most influencial determinant of a society's ability to develop. Any society that rejects change from within its society, or from outside, will be a stagnant society and with time will fail. Looking at the world over the years. From the stone age through the iron, bronze, steel, industrial, and recently the information age, the societies that initiated, and accepted change are the ones that dominated the world.

The previous dominant or even small societies that stuck to old technologies and rejected change always eventually fell to the societies with the new technologies. From Ancient Egypt to the Roman empire, from the Great Greek empires with Aristotle and Socrates, through the times of the Italians like Leonardo da vinci (not de Caprio), From the times of the Great British Empire to recently the Soviet Communist Empire, changing ideas and technology dominated and conquered the old conservative societies. Many reasons have been given to explain why Africa has been persistently under developed. Our "distinguished friends" Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in their book the "Bell Curve" state "The average white person tests higher than about 84% of the population of blacks and that the average black person tests higher than only 16% of the population of whites". They believe that some societies are endowed with more intelligence than others and as a result have been and will always be more developed than others. If that is the case, then why is it that over the years different empires have dominated the world for long periods of time only to be overthrown by another society. Does intelligence (which is supposedely genetic based) move from one society to another? In my own humble opinion, I believe that African traditional beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, activities etc. seriously impede our ability to change, borrow or develop new ideas and technology and that if we really want to develop as a people, we have to question most of the things that we were taught, as we grew up, to believe.

TO BE CONTINUED

Well said. The wisdom in our traditions serve as a good guidance, but we have to do things better than those who came before us....and it is not about knowing better than our elders, but having the quickness of youth and the strength of youth to expend in taking our people where new streams our rivers flow. Amanfoo, we can do this! We can make a historical leap for our people....Remember the ten days that shook the world with the Bolshevik revolution....as a band of brothers called Amanfoo we can set one school on a course that can change the destiny of our people.... Traditions are shaped and passed down by people...and people should never cease to challenge and mold traditions to give the next generation a better chance through uncharted ages. Well said, Amanfoo.

Seniors, How would Idi Amin balance his country's bugdet with such "innocuous" type of english ? Have you thought about it, guys ?

Dear Amanfoo, There has been quite a bit said about this Amin issue and, if anything, it has shown that there is concern in everyone's heart for Africa. However, our immediate concern is Prempeh College and the goal of building the educational fund and a network of contributors the school can depend on. That immediate task is what is testing our sincerity of heart towards helping Prempeh. So far only a few Amanfoo have made a commitment to the fund and pledged money. Hopefully that should be an easier issue to decide than changing the whole of Africa. Each of us have to really ask himself if there is a desire really to give or to help the school? Please let us be honest with ourselves....do you really want to help build a network that is beneficial to each member and do you want to give money and resources to help the school? Please let us get back to the business at hand. I personally want to ask everyone who wrote on the Amin issue to also pledge or give money to the fund this week, so it will be clear to everyone that you're not full of words, but also of actions. As the good book says "Wisdom is proven by her actions". Please if you need information on where to send your contribution, please send a note to prempeh_college@hotmail.com or check the website. Let's be men of action.

Amanfoo!!,

This is Joe Passarsa again. Amin was (is) cruel and barbaric, I agree with you, but he wasn´t a poor English speaker. I gave the speech to a Ugandan friend to read and comment on it. The friend told me, "it is just a literal translation of Amin´s mother tongue". This means Field Marshal Alhaji Dr. Dada Prof. Idi Amin said what he thought in his native language.

We had a lot of such English at Sofoline. There was one guy in Serwah House who used to say, "Me pen ahwease", meaning, "My pen has fallen down". One senior one day said to a form one boy, "Come for me for punishment", meaning " Behume na gye wásotwee", just to mention a few.

We are now worrying the webmaster because Amin was not good in the colonial language.

Back at home and in school, we were (are) proud because we could speak pidgin.

At Sofoline, during Carols Night, we always laughed, after the verse in the Bible has been read in Twi. Those of us who attended Local Authority (LA) Primary Schools feared to speak English. This because any "BIG WORD" will be your nickname, e.g. Abomuu, Bokiti, Frankaa, Akoko, Kotokuro etc. We were the "Kookoo ase Boys".

A good command over the colonial language is seen by Ghanaians as part of "civilization". That is why we have so called "Christian Names" as our first names. The cultural alienation starts with this mentality. We are happy when our children cannot speak our mother tongue.

By the way how many of us can write and read in our mother tongue? I will suggest that we write in our various mother tongues in the first two weeks of June.

Amanfoo, do not let us be sad because the Queen of England could not understand Idi Amin. We shoul rather teach our children to speak and understand Twi, Ga, Ewe, Fante, Dagomba and the rest.

I hope I have not attacked anybody.

Obiri-Yeboah Mensah

Ohene:

Your response to my article brings interesting points that confront us everyday. Your decision to put it into lessons particularly interests me.

I couldn't agree with you more on the statement that "we wasted out time...instead of concentrating on what was needed for the greatness of our country". Nonetheless, after reading your article I wonder whether we were speaking the same language.

What we did best after independence was to concentrate on mastering the queens language and feign an indepth knowledge of western culture. The more knowledge one had about Ghana the more "afuom" he/she was. And of course if one spoke fluent twi the higher he was on the "wakura" ladder. We neglected our local languages and yet we did not develop. So where lies your inference that local language serves as "an unnecessary distraction towards our quest to develop".

As you pointed out, there is absolutely no problem in learning another language. In fact English is certainly the most influential language and it gives a speaker a competetitive edge. But please, that does not make learning to write our local language "garbage" especially when it is your mother's tongue. Is it not possible to be fluent and competent in several languages.

I am wodering whether you see any relationship between language, culture and economic development. It is almost becoming redundant to read from Ghanaians the successes of Asian economies as compared to that of Ghana. There has been mismanagement in Ghana, unquestionably, but is that all? 20 years ago, how many South Korean students, for instance, will make mockerey of their locally manufactured products and refused to use them? Why was it so?

My point is that if we don't have confidence in ourselves how do we expect others to do the same? Don't get me wrong, brother, I am not talking about female mutilation, remember every culture has its negatives.

Visit many Asian schools and homes of Asian immigrants, their local languages have not been replaced by popular culture, yet they still invent and manufacture and they are getting better at it.

Ohene, I bet you that we can reject our local language as "garbage" and tag it as an "unnecessary distraction towards our quest to develop" as you profess in your analysis but believe me we will be the same in the next twenty years if not worse unless our mentality changes.

You and I know very well that we cannot change the past but certainly we can learn from the mistakes our former leaders made. If we want to develop, it is imperative to seriously start promoting our local languages in schools and at homes. As I already stated, the relationship between language, culture and economic development should not be overlooked.

Have a nice memorial weekend and peace and shalom.

Stephen Yeboah (Seaman)

To: Steve Yeboah,

You just made a very unfair accusation in your note that disturbs me very much. The word 'garbage' appears in about the third paragraph in my note and I would like to request that you re-read it and let me know what it refers to?

I do not want us to be distracted. The issue at hand is building a network of donors to Prempeh College. So let's all this week make some contributions to the fund, as we look forward to New York '98.

Best Regards, Ohene Aku