The Case of Poets, Jukes and Edwards

Today’s article is dense stuff from dense territory. Pure and simple, it is food for thought as we search our national soul regarding the many young people who have descended into hawking or are idle in our villages and towns and cities as school drop-outs, ‘Area Boys’ with no hope for the present, and worst of all, for the future whilst our educational system sits in limbo.

This serious food for thought is based purely on age-old but relevant research that numbs the mind. The two research reports presented below about the long-lasting effects of poor foundations on generations are taken from the same period; one in England and the other in the United States of America.

The first research is taken from an old book, The art of writing, published in 1916 by a renowned professor of literature, the late Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. He analyzed the background of twelve great poets of the nineteenth century (Coleridge, Worsdworth, Byron, Shelley, Landor, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Morris, Ressetti and Swinburne). Only three of them did not have the benefit of university education and/or was not well to do.

His conclusion? Education matters! Financial security matters! Intellectual freedom depends on financial security. With either, or preferably, with both a good education and financial security at ones disposal, a person can have the liberty that gives power and space to contemplate, to think for ones self and to accomplish the utmost best in life. A further conclusion is that genius does not simply blow in any direction. Genius must be nurtured.

And you wonder why Ghana is in a development trap! Hold on for more. This is where the plot really thickens.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch argues further: “These are dreadful facts but let us face them. It is – however dishonouring to us as a nation – certain that by some fault in our commonwealth, the poor poet has not in these days, now has had for two hundred years, a dog’s chance. Believe me – and I have spent a great part of ten years in watching some 320 elementary schools – we may prate of democracy, but actually, a poor child in England has little more hope than had the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born.”

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was writing about poets because that was the definition of intellectual greatness in those days. But today, we can relate his observations to all aspects of education and progress, and of national development.

Enduring Questions: Does the poor boy and girl child who begins life as a hawker of low-cost made in China products have a ‘dog’s chance’ of becoming anything but a low-cost adult? But look beyond the discarded youth of today to generations of their offspring. What ‘dog’s chance’ do their descendants have of making anything significant of themselves? We may brag of democracy, but does a poor child in Ghana today have more hope than ‘the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom’ of which greatness is made?

Let’s set up another scenario – between Max Jukes and Jonathan Edwards, both American-born who lived in the same period. I first heard of Jukes and Edwards in a sermon by Pastor James Obeng. I’ve done further research over the past few weeks and I present some of the disturbing facts below.

One hundred and ten years ago on July 22, 1900, the New York Times published a fascinating article under the headline, “Jukes and Edwards: Significant statistics about two American families.”Below is the full text of the newspaper publication.

“About the year 1720, one Max Jukes was born. Very little is known about him but his descendants have managed to keep themselves constantly in the eyes of the public. Some expert student of heredity devoted the better half of five years to a study of the family and located about 1,200 of them. Every one of them was either a pauper, an imbecile or insane. Only twenty of the number ever learned a trade and ten of the twenty learned trades in a state prison. Twenty years ago, his progeny had cost the public more than $1,250,000.

“In 1703, Jonathan Edwards was born and the history of 1,500 of his descendants was presented to the American Institute of Instruction at its meeting in Halifax N.S last week. There were only six criminals in the whole number and not one pauper or imbecile. In education, literature, statesmanship, mining and railroading, law, medicine, and theology, the descendants of Edwards have filled the highest places.

“Among their number were 283 college graduates and thirteen college Presidents. It may or may not be true that the law of heredity is as constant a factor as the law of gravitation, but the vital interest of the general public in the regeneration of the descendants of Max and all his kind is shown in these luminous figures.”

Beyond the New York Times publication, here is a further break-down of what became of the descendants of Jukes and Edwards. In the 1900s, the descendants of Max Jukes comprised of 680 Alcoholics, 300 Prisoners and 190 Prostitutes. In sharp contrast, Jonathan Edwards’ descendants comprised of 430 Ministers of God, 86 University Professors, 75 authors of good books and seven Congressmen.

Foundation matters! Poor and weak foundations echo far into the future. There is a vast difference between children born in the valley as compared with those born on privileged high-ground. For the valley children, our discarded youth – life comes at them as arrows. It is as if they have been washed away by the currents of failed irresponsible educational systems and corrupt governments. Of course, there is luck. But there are no guarantees that luck alone will drag everyone with a weak foundation out of the valley and lift them onto higher ground.

Further Enduring Questions: Since we can’t seem to figure out the how of our matter, we should just take refuge in the why. So therefore considering the way we are going, here are more fast and furious questions to ponder over. Considering the weak foundations we are giving to countless numbers of Ghana’s youth, what would be the fate of the descendants of this segment in the next generation? How many prisoners, armed robbers, alcoholics and prostitutes are we generating? What would be the burden of the social cost of these descendants?

Is Ghana generating a majority of the Max Jukes’ type of descendants with a thin minority of Jonathan Edwards’ types? What can possibly come out of the groin of an armed robber who dies in his twenties while in the line of duty after impregnating a young female adult prostitute? How about the children born of the streets, their mothers impregnated under jute bags in kiosks?

What is the future of the girl child who drops out of school before she knows how to clean herself properly and is sentenced to selling ‘pure water’? What kind of mother and grandmother and wife would she be? How about the boy child into whom Ghana is investing nothing and is left to fend for himself? What kind of father and grandfather and husband would he be?

Who is keeping track?

dorisdartey@gmail.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com

Area Boys of Ghana

Do you know your Area Boys? You must. Knowing might give you peace of mind and probably even save your life from idle male youth and young adults who hang around in your neighbourhood. They might not necessarily be troublesome or are looking for trouble. The problem is that trouble can and does find idlers. They can potentially slide into crime.

The phenomenon of Area Boys first hit me when exploring to own a piece of Ghana to construct my own concrete tent under half the sun. One boy came through my radar. With veiled threats, he sheepishly informed me that he is one of the Area Boys. Clueless, I asked him, “Are you a Land Guard?” He replied, “No, an Area Boy.” Proudly, he offered to become my eyes and ears, with services to provide labour for any construction work I’ll undertake. Of course he assured me that he knows just about everything, a master-of-all-trade master-of-none kind of guy.

Here is the profile of Area Boys I’ve developed over the past one year since this phenomenon came to my attention. They are young males within the teens and late-twenties age bracket. They have had basic school education and have effectively dropped out of school before or after JSS either because they barely passed their examinations or had no support to continue. So they hang around in neighbourhoods, waiting for opportunities – any opportunities.

They are in a state of arrested development. As should be expected, among the rank and file of Area Boys are some knuckled-headed crack-heads. They are permanent fixtures in some neighbourhoods, probably in all neighbourhoods in the country.

They live within the frail crumbling fringes of our society. Our national edges are so frayed that it’s easy for anyone who is stuck at the edge to fall off. There are no social safety blankets to provide a buffer to anyone who is about to fall or who actually falls. Not even prison. Especially, prison!

Area Boys form ready crowds and gangs of foot-soldiers. Have you ever wondered where several young men suddenly emerge from whenever there is a vehicular accident or an incident like a fight in the general neighbourhood? These are Area Boys, idle and ready to come out of the shadowy woods to stand and stare and gossip about occurrences in the hot sweaty tropical sun. Such events offer much needed interruption to an otherwise drab existence.

Politicians benefit from Area Boys during electioneering campaigning. Once clothed in Tee-Shirts and given a little bit of cash, they are set as material at mammoth political rallies amidst gleeful cheers.

As Area Boys sit and stare, their shame factor about their idleness reduces to zero. They appear very happy, finding joy in idle-gossiping. They also display sheer bravado, on permanent expedition. On the initial look, they appear calm and gentle. Yet, they totter at the frontline of crime, disorder, indiscipline and rascality. They are trouble, no, disaster waiting to happen – any day.

Talented, no, potentially talented, these pockets of unemployed, underemployed, and mostly unemployable youth have few skills. It doesn’t appear that anyone is responsible for these male youth. They grow up doing odd and dead-end jobs, forever.

They live in uncompleted buildings and kiosks. Their sanitation and waste management needs are very simple with no complications whatsoever. They live purely at the whims of nature, truly next-to-nature. They bath at dawn in make-shift structures. When nature calls them and they have to go, they go ‘free range’ by way of plastic ‘take/throw-aways’.

But some live by perching on the edges of families with no one in particular taking full responsibility for them. Some are just defiant and have broken away from parental or guardian control.

You see them in plain view. In day-dreaming stupor, they sit around street corners and road-sides, under trees, near popular spots – gleefully chit-chatting. On several occasions, I’ve observed Area Boys watch me in wrapped attention. The stares are hard-hitting, without smiles. Beyond New York City, I never thought I’ll feel fear of idle young black men – in Ghana. But I find myself feeling intense fear of the presence and rigid stares of Area Boys. I imagine, deep in my mind’s eye, “That’s an armed robber waiting in the wings!”

They fight for dominance in neighbourhoods. For that reason, some self-identify as Area Boys, as if the title is a badge of honour. For people who don’t have anything, or don’t even have dreams of becoming anything, a fight for dominance in an area where they perch without pitching a tent is an accomplishment. Temptation lures them, smiling, grinning, beckoning them to bite the bait. Your Area Boy of today could potentially be your armed robber or petty thief tomorrow.

There are ways to relate to Area Boys. One option is to infiltrate their ranks; make them useful – for a fee. When you succeed in connecting with a few, periodically, drop some ‘gifts’ their way. A cedi here, five cedis there can simply blow their minds and win you their unbending loyalty. Such ‘tips’ could be packaged as, ‘here is no ko feoo’. That always wins you a broad, grateful but shy grin. Once you consolidate some form of relationship, they become your own Area Boys who could potentially protect your interests.

Without a connection, they simply remain Area Boys – not yours, because they owe you no loyalty. Area Boys who simply belong to the community at large are nothing but loose canons that can fire off at any time.

As I ponder over the issue of Area Boys, enduring questions storm my mind. How are geniuses made? Genius from nature needs to be nurtured and tutored, not left to fate at the mercy of the elements. Specifically, how was the genius of Shakespeare nurtured? For sure, he was not born and nurtured among labouring, idle, uneducated folks. Bill Gates did not rise from the hot ashes of despicable neglect. An environment can nurture or destroy a genius.

How many geniuses is Ghana neglecting to destruction? A diamond is just a piece of rough stone until it is identified and polished. We are abandoning our potential Shakespeare’s and Bill Gates’ as dirty stones, cast into the muck. Wild weeds spread themselves to choke our geniuses. This is the house Ghana is building; this is how Ghana is taking care of its unwanted youth. Is gangrene better than amputation?

I recall the mid-1980s horror stories of the Lost Boys of Sudan, the approximately 27,000 Sudanese boys and young adults who were forced by violence to roam around for about a thousand miles until they reached refugee camps in Kenya, parentless. The Area Boys of Ghana are our own version of internally displaced male youth who are forced by idleness to sit and stare while the years pass by with no hope for the future but pure luck and chance and prayers. God is!

Like the Lost Boys of Sudan, Area Boys of Ghana need redemption. In this year of grace, when Ghana will finally harvest commercial quantities of crude oil from under the belly of the mighty Atlantic Ocean, a progressive youth policy must be put in place and implemented without any leadership buffoonery.

dorisdartey@yahoo.com

Thirty percent increase of youth hawkers in Accra

The number of young people who sell by busy roadsides has increased. I know so because at the beginning of this week, during a short period of one hour, I counted 638 youth hawkers alongside two major streets in Accra.

Twelve weeks ago (September 24) when I last conducted this count of the teeming number of youth hawkers during the same time (9 to 10 am) on the same two principal street corridors (Emmanuel Eye Clinic through Tettey Quashie Interchange to Liberation Circle, and from GBC through Kwame Nkrumah Circle to Obetsebi Lamptey Circle), the number stood at 489. But on Monday, December 14, the number had increased to 638, showing a whopping 30.47percentage increase.

To my surprise, for this week’s count, there were ten percent more girls than boys. In the last count, gender was not segregated so they were all counted together. A hawker was just a hawker; not male or female youth hawker. But gender counts. With all the money this country has spent on girl-child education campaigns, to count 361 female youth hawkers (51.58 percent) as against 277 (46.42 percent) male youth hawkers might be an indication of a failure in policy implementation.

Why am I counting? Putting a number to a phenomenon helps to gain a firmer grip over that phenomenon and move it from the fussy realm of vague description to the concrete realm of figures. For instance, to a casual observer from the comfort of moving vehicles, it might seem obvious that the number of hawkers on our streets continues to increase. But when you ask those who should know, “how many hawkers do we have?”, the response is ‘aaahhh’, meaning, ‘we don’t know’. So periodically, this column will conduct a rudimentary social science research of counting. Soon, stories of individual street hawkers will also be told.

In a lecture delivered to the Indian Parliament, the Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank fame, said: “Poor people are like bonsai trees. When anyone plants the best seed from the tallest tree in a tiny flower pot, he will get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed planted, only the soil-base that was given it was inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people.”

The children who are hawking an array of odd products on our streets are our ‘bonsai people’; we will get out of them in future what we are planting in them today. There is nothing inherently wrong with the youth who have by default, taken to street hawking. They are our ‘internally displaced persons’ who hover around looking for opportunities, any opportunities! It’s amazing that we don’t have more armed robbery than we have today.

As a country, whatever we’ve been doing about the youth question is clearly not working. A smart person once said that it’s only a fool who does the same thing over and over again even when he/she gets the same results.

The 30 percent change might indicate a Christmas shopping season increase or it might be part of a trend. But if more young people moved to the cities in the past few weeks to become hawkers during Christmas, what’s the guarantee that they would all return to their hometowns after the buying/selling season? If business was lucrative for them on this initial trip, why would they return? In March, I’ll conduct another count and bring you the results as we track this disturbing phenomenon.

If I were a young girl growing up right now in any part of Ghana, knowing very well that my education will not take me anywhere of substance, or that my education will render me illiterate, I would by now have packed a couple of my tight skirts and stained fashionable-in-my-eyes-only blouses and headed to the bright city lights of Accra, Kumasi or Takoradi. I would have been strategic and settled on Sekondi/Takoradi where business is poised to become more brisk when crude oil will flows.

According to Elie Wisel, a holocaust survivor, indifference is both tempting and seductive. “It is so much easier to look away from victims….. to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. …for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbours are of no consequence….their lives are meaningless.” Through indifference, therefore, we blur the boundaries between the sacred and the profane in the face of our super-Christian pretentiousness. Especially so!

This phenomenon of youth hawkers should be abnormal; yet, it has become so normal to see young people of any age chasing after moving vehicles to sell just about anything; so normal that we just look away. Social welfare has gone to the dogs, and trampled over, crushed into nothingness. We, by default, commit the sin of indifference.

At Christmas time, the season of waiting for the redemptive birth of Jesus the Christ, the offspring of privileged folks would see and live joy, unencumbered with the burden of chasing after cedis and pesewas. From which armpit of Ghana do these youth hawkers come from? Don’t you want to know? Don’t you want to associate a name, a hometown, parents, circumstances and a life story to each of these young people, some of whom are barely removed from childhood?

These are our ‘bonsai trees’ who in full exposure to the tropical elements of hot sunshine, torrential rainfall and windstorms but especially, at the peril of vehicular traffic, work in hazardous, menacing, demeaning and excruciating endeavours as professional hawkers.

Some people come into this world with silver, even golden spoons stuck in their tender mouths. Some enter by edging their way through the backdoor as if just to take a peek at life, to check out if there’ll be a place for them out here under God’s sun. When, after crawling around here for awhile, like worms, bumping their ‘eyeless’ heads on walls at each blind turn, they leave, exhausted, a puree of want and despondency. This reality might explain why the cemeteries might be full of unfulfilled ex-people; people who left no evidence behind that they ever touched down on planet earth.

Some people get nothing from life and to some extent, expect nothing. But shouldn’t they be entitled to something, especially when they enter the world by way of a country that has something? That something includes our gold, diamond, timber, the billions of dollars of loans contracted from ‘development partners’ and others on behalf of ‘we the people’ and for which no account is given to the populace. Who is responsible for protecting such people from themselves and from the painful grind of poverty? Who and where are the elders of this town?

Postscript: A confession. This was a difficult article to write. I cried. I struggled to hold back my tears over the sin of indifference we are committing over our youth. Reader, while you merry over Christmas, (a celebration Jesus would not recognize as his birthday), have space for outrage over the phenomenon of Ghana’s ‘bonsai trees.’