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| Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo on CEGENSA's cover |
"Writers don’t give
prescriptions. They give headaches,” Chinua Achebe, the great literary wizard
of all time, once said.
It was not until last Saturday,
September 3, 2016, that the true meaning of Achebe’s assertion hit me like mangoes
hitting a wall in a torrential storm.
On that Saturday, the Centre
for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) of the University of Ghana had gathered for an awards night. The awards night
would see an Ama Ata Aidoo Short
Story Competition held as part of CEGENSA’s 10th anniversary celebration.
However, like the story of the boy who angrily took away his football after a misunderstanding on the pitch, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo did not hesitate walking out
of the ceremony with her ‘ball’ too.
Yes! News reports
suggested she was pissed off. Prof. Aidoo’s beef was simple but it was, enough,
a headache to whoever read the story.
The organisers of the Ama Ata Aidoo Short Story Competition had spelt
her name on both the banner and programme cover as “Ama Atta Aidoo” instead of
“Ama Ata Aidoo.”
This, the celebrated
Ghanaian Author’s daughter briefly explained on social media what happened and
later on justified the walk-away.
“My mother
walked out of a CEGENSA event today meant to celebrate her and winners of a
short story competition.
“Both
banner and programme cover had her name as ‘Ama Atta Aidoo’ and not ‘Ama Ata
Aidoo,’ which is the correct spelling of her name,” wrote Kinna Kintu.
I bear
Ama Ata Aidoo no grudge for getting worried over her name being spelt wrongly. An
interesting tale is told of a man who went for treatment at the then Sunyani
Municipal Hospital.
When (Opanin) Kwasi Nnuro got to the hospital that very day, the patients on admission
had been served porridge. Out-patients were excluded of this breakfast and the
man had taken notice of the apparent segregation. Then, after consulting the
doctor he would be told to go for his medicine.
“Nnuro
Kwasi!” called a nurse.
Dead
silence.
“Nnuro
Kwasi!”
There was
yet a dead silence. Then, the patient sitting next to him asked; are you not
the one the nurse is calling?
“My name
is Kwasi Nnuro [and] not Nnuro Kwasi,” he replied. “When they were sharing
their porridge did they invite me? Why, then, the medicine?”
Certainly,
getting one’s name pronounced/spelt right is as important as anything else.
Failure to get this done, we see a man shivering to death refusing to take his
medicine or an Author walking out of a ceremony meant to honour her and some
budding writers.
According to
3news.com, CEGENSA said the short story competition was in honour of Ama
Ata Aidoo for her multiple roles as a pan-African feminist, an author, poet,
playwright and academic as well as her contribution to Africa’s renaissance.
So, was Ama Ata Aidoo walking out of the ceremony because a
“t” had been added to her “Ata” justifiable? On at least three populated WhatsApp
platforms that I am on and on Facebook, people fiercely shared their views. For
most people, she did the right thing.
In the subsequent lines, I give you reasons why Ama Ata
Aidoo must apologise to the CEGENSA and the University of Ghana as a whole.
Many were
those who equated CEGENSA’s “Atta” as a show of mediocrity. Their argument was
that university students could have done better by doing due diligence.
For a
friend like Fred Darko Effah, getting the name spelt wrongly in one’s documents
at the embassy amounts to being denied a visa. All are genuine concerns and I must
admit to it.
However,
inasmuch as I cannot independently defend the students, if we are to go by what
we all read, then I see no need tagging CEGENSA’s possible mistake as being a
subject of mediocrity.
If the so
called mediocre-students were reasonable enough to have sat down to choose Ama
Ata Aidoo to honour her, then, I strongly think they don’t deserve our bashing
that much. We should not act as holy apostles of due diligence. Yes, at times
we commit mistakes before realizing we have.
I have on
a number of occasions screenshot headlines and stories riddled with mistakes on
some news websites including the BBC, Myjoyonline and my own 3news.com among
others. As well, friends have pointed out to me one or two mistakes in my writeups.
Yes,
mistakes do happen. CEGENSA’s blunder could have been a sheer mistake which was/is
pardonable.
When Ama
Ata Aidoo walked out of the ceremony, she walked out with the courage that the
budding writers need to confront societal issues.
Ama Ata
Aidoo could have taught the students their lesson the hard way. She could have
told them to postpone the ceremony to get her name right on the next occasion.
It
could have also been the ideal ground for her to register her displeasure of
her name being spelt wrongly and take the opportunity to advice the young
writers to pay attention to what they write.
It is
rather unfortunate Ama Ata Aidoo failed to recognize these only for her
daughter to lament on social media.
It will,
therefore, not be out of place Ama Ata Aidoo, first, deeming it important
CEGENSA’s award named in her honour and apologise to them for her walk-out.
Such a
walk-out discourages the youth from honouring their heroes for the fear of
possibly stepping on their toes. This does not mean condoning the youth’s wrong.
Our elders
say, it takes a village to raise a child and our elders must have the heart to
raise these children.
Talking Drum is published on www.3news.com on Fridays.
The writer is a broadcast journalist
with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his opinion and not that of
his media organization.
Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com
Twitter: @Aniwaba
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