Nowadays, almost everyone you meet in the “elite” circles of Ntoaboma has obtained some degree from some weird institution in the west (in Europe and North America). In an age where Ntoaboma is barely able to feed itself (compared to just one hundred years ago), why the preponderance of such degrees among Ntoaboma’s elites?
Now, you need to understand how elitism works in a failed state like Ghana so that you can understand how it has been extended in Ntoaboma. Ghana has two types of elites: (1) those ordained by birth into notable royal families and (2) those blessed by the new-money of the new economy.
First, the laziest sons born into some royal families are automatically considered elites. Usually this means that any lazy man born into such a family can skip real work, and opt rather to sit in a classroom and be taught—over a very long period of time—how to regurgitate facts manufactured by someone else. Such a man might travel to the west and return to Ghana even with a doctorate of some sorts, usually in a subject of no relevance whatsoever even to his own royal family.
Second, some of Ghana’s elites comprise of the most hardworking poor who are lucky to chance upon a lucrative venture in the new economy, i.e. market capitalism, brought to Ghana by erstwhile colonial terrorists and turned into glitter by the current miracle-working Yankees. If it’s not one of the lucky hardworking poor, however, it is the laziest of the poor who has managed to show to his colonial teachers that he is better than the lazy royal boys at imbibing and regurgitating copious amounts of facts manufactured by someone else in the west.
Either way, the scene of elites in Ghana is a terrible sight: a bunch of either lucky or lazy boys, some of whom are utterly and not surprisingly capable of regurgitating the facts fed to them by their colonial terrorists. Elitism in Ghana has no meritocratic basis! The reason this occurrence has spread into Ntoaboma is clear. Ntoaboma is in Ghana. Ntoaboma also boasts of royal boys. In addition, Ntoaboma has quite a few boys outside of said royal families eager to show their missionary colonial Yankees how much better they are at the bar in collecting various jugs of useless doctorates.
Nothing useful is free!
What is common among Ghana’s elites, after all, is the preponderance of useless degrees from obscure universities and colleges in Europe, Canada and the United States. It is as if one cannot become an elite in Ghana unless one has been sent out from these obscure schools in the west. It is as if one cannot be an elite in Ghana until the west decides to confer on your lazy ass some modicum of western mediocrity.
And of course, it is: One cannot be part of Ghana’s elite unless one has been sent out by one of these obscure schools dishing out free, obscure and useless degrees. Nothing useful is free! But, alas, tell lazy boys that! In essence, Ghana’s elites are true diplomats of western mediocrity. The whole reason we suffer from poverty in this part of the world is that since independence, we’ve been led by true diplomats of western mediocrity.
I recently bumped into a former school mate and she told me she has enrolled in a Yale “exchange program” where she goes in spring time to pursue a “behavioral science” course… and so I couldn’t help wondering to myself whether
those so called Western universities are pushing these worthless courses to our backyard by default or by design; especially remembering that this particular course was initially the brainchild of the Rockefeller foundation… Either way these courses are bound to render us impotent and keep us ideological dependents and subservient to Western causes. Perhaps these forms of “education” have just taken over from where the missionary left…
But of course I did not dare to communicate my disappointment seeing my friend most probably couldn’t see things my way and her’s was probably a well calculated step at future “career advancement”. Her future is indeed bright…
Her future is very bright… indeed. I think I have to agree that these western universities are actually pushing this stuff into Africa and on Africans. The missionary work in Africa has not ended until the land can be finally be collected and owned by Europe’s oligarchs.
Fine, and this a correct reading of the situation in Ghana. Let me offer some advice: Whenever I am accosted by any of these lazy boys with long foreign degrees from obscure schools in the USA or the UK, I tell them something simple, “Remove the log in your eye before you start telling me about eh speck in my eye, wai!”
Traitors to our Sovereignty.
Wonderful exposition. Narmer sometimes I do disagree with you purely in terms of my own principles and perception. But this one I totally agree with you because a hardworking nation must not sit down milking its people whilst they work themselves to death. Our social services and amenities are nothing to write home by just to cite examples . This applies to many countries in Africa. Are we rising or being pushed down by our political leaders? How many of them are free from corruption ? Charity begins at home but even the ruled have attitudinal issues. We simply do not love each other but flock churches on Sundays I only to reach home and other places and put the mask down and allow nefarious activities to take over. Hard worker need not drown in the ocean of no return. A nation needs to be defended at all fronts. We seem to be losing what we even had already. Creator helps those who help themselves. For the few good citizens and leaders who still stick to the truth I say bravo!
For indeed, hardworking is what truly defines men.