Shelter in the city

In our marketplace of media agenda and focus, politics reigns supreme. This column maintains that if extraterrestrial beings should visit Ghana and review the content of our mass media, s/he would think that this country is populated by a bunch of happy-go-lucky belly-full people who have no cares in the world so can afford to remain enamoured with the ranting of polarised politicians, mostly of NDC/NPP colouring. But, the aliens’ perception would be so far removed from the truth.

Yes, there are several million dollar houses in Ghana and some houses are more magnificent than those of the rich and famous of Hollywood, California. But there is also agonizing homelessness that is not obvious to the uninitiated eyes. Enters Metro TV.

The winning entry for the 2009 Professor PAV Ansah Journalist of the Year at last weekend’s GJA Awards night told the hard ugly distressing truth of our situation. If you have not seen Samuel Agyeman’s award-winning Metro TV news feature, then you have missed out and allowed the media to consume you with inconsequential NPP/NDC hullaballoo empty noise that does not scratch the surface of the wretched aspects of our national human condition.

Teaser of “Shelter in the city”

It’s important for every Ghanaian to watch the three-part “Shelter in the city” and process it intensely because it’s more edifying than any Nigerian movie. What you get from watching “Shelter in the city” is a reality check of Ghana, which cannot be produced or reproduced in any movie. Samuel Agyeman and his team from Metro TV went through Accra at night to bear witness to the state of homelessness in the capital city of our 53 year-old country.

The rawness of the situation of homelessness and the wrongness of the human condition of the homeless is hard-hitting. When I watched the documentary, I jumped from my seat to give it a standing ovation.

Forget about any condemnation you might have heard about the sorry state of journalism in Ghana. This news feature would give you a flip-side opinion – that there are still journalists in Ghana who care and refuse to be obsessed by silly inconsequential issues that do not move our country forward.

Here is the GJA’s citation for the award. “The Ghana Journalists Association gives you the PROFESSOR PAV ANSAH JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR AWARD for your three-part documentary on shelter in Accra. You took the initiative to do a thorough story about an unconscionable aspect of our country, showing a large number of vulnerable people, including pregnant women and children, who sleep on the pavements and backyards of our capital city. Your story-telling ability is excellent. You looked at several angles of the issue and conducted follow-ups.

Your documentary was culturally strong because it cuts across ethnic groups without stereotyping. You sought for sources from policy makers, the scientific community, human rights experts, entrepreneurs in the sector, government, the United Nations, and the man in the street who are the victims who suffer indignity as a result of the pervasiveness of the this social problem.

You highlighted the housing deficit, which results in homelessness in Accra. Your effort involved risks in researching the story by going to several suburbs of the city at night. Your story ended with a strong appeal for problem solving from key stakeholders.”

Without a doubt, such an entry deserves to be associated with the name of PAV Ansah, that maverick of a journalist and communications professional, who although died too early before his time, left a permanent mark of courage and distinction.

The following are some teasers from “Shelter in the city,” a reality that is unimaginable to the privileged in Ghana. The Metro TV crew went out in the night to take a peek at the awful night-time in Accra to give a blow-by-blow account of the dreadful condition of homelessness. The story shows large packs of humanity stretching out in the open as if it is the most natural thing to do and the most normal place to sleep. The story depicts layers of atrocities including indignity, rape, child abuse, dire insecurity, and inhumanity.

A scene in “Shelter in the city” depicts a sleeping mother and baby with the baby suckling on the mother’s breast – on a pavement, in the open, in Accra. On nights when it rained, the battalion of pavement sleepers are seen scurrying through the rain to hide under anything that looks like shelter. Those who are unfortunate to find hiding places from the rain “managed” under plastic bags. This is a human rights story, a gender story, a national security story, and a poverty story.

“Shelter in the city” is a must see for policy makers to wake them up from slumber, for traditional leaders and family heads whose relatives continue to relocate from the rural areas to the cities in search of greener pastures; for Ghana’s filthily-rich whose philanthropic juices are not flowing – yet; for the private sector to awaken opportunities for corporate social responsibility; and for everyone with a heart still beating in the chest.

Enduring Questions:

Who keeps tract to record statistics of the number of people who sleep on pavements and live in kiosks and uncompleted houses throughout the country? Are our academics studying this growing phenomenon of homelessness to provide lessons for our country?

What is the long-term psychological impact on the children born on the pavements? Of course there is the issue of lost childhood. Where do these children go to school, if they do go to school? What is the corrosive effect on the psyche of the unfortunate individuals who live on the pot-hole ridden pavements and backyards of Ghana?

Whenever the AMA, and KMA and other metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies conduct demolition, decongestion and ‘abaee’ exercises, does anyone care about the humanity they chase out? Where are these people who live on the margins supposed to go? They are already here in the cities and they will stay. They want opportunities for an improved life just like those of us who are privileged.

We complain about the state of our sanitation. The many people who live on the margins generate waste. Where do they dump their trash? When nature calls them, where do they respond?

Pain in the heart:

One school of thought is that all these people should return to their hometowns where there are family homes. The weakness of this position is that cities everywhere are magnets and pull people toward them. The lure of city life, the bright lights and the open-ended promises scream out to the unsuspecting – “Come to me, come to me, and all your problems will be solved.” So they come, desperate, expectant with lush lusty dreams, unsuspecting of the challenges ahead and become destitute.

Next time it rains in the evening or at night, pause to think of the many people who sleep rough on the pavements and backyards of our cities and towns. These are our own army of homeless folks who have no privilege of shelter. This includes children, pregnant mothers, men, the youth, the old, and the mentally ill.