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Burning issues The lion and the sheep story: any lessons?
African culture is made up of many stories that are told to children to let them become mature and wise people as they grow up. These stories help them to grow and become useful citizens so that they will not only be wise when they grow up, but help prevent unwarranted mistakes that can occur in society.
One African story tells us about animals in the bush but with a focus on the lion and the sheep. We know that the lion is a very aggressive animal. On the other hand, the sheep is a very harmless animal that is only concerned about what it seeks to find and eat without causing harm to any other animal.
A LION
There was a lion that was going around the bush looking for animals to eat to satisfy its hunger. In the process of killing animals and feeding on them to satisfy its hunger it became tired and decided to rest. It woke up from sleep and decided to continue its journey. This time it was in a great hurry and, for this reason, overlooked a big hole that was in front of it.
The animal, therefore, fell into this deep hole and started looking around for help. Help came from nowhere and that made it very sad. It started to cry and hoped that help would come very soon. After a short while, the sheep was passing by and the lion called it and passionately appealed to it for help.
The sheep, knowing how ferocious and wicked the lion could be, told it that it would have been willing to help but for the fact that if the lion was able to come out of the hole, it would devour the sheep. Immediately, the lion started crying and looking so miserable, promising the sheep that nothing like that would ever happen.
MANY APPEALS
After incessant appeals to the sheep, the humble animal decided to help the ferocious lion. It asked the lion to promise it once again that it would cause no harm to it when it brought it out of the hole. Once again, the lion promised not to attack or harm the sheep, swearing that it was never a bad person and would always remember it for bringing it out of the deep hole.
Based on this promise the innocent sheep, humble as it is and has always been, decided to find a rope and let it down the hole. It then asked the lion to hold the rope tight and start climbing up. Within a few minutes, the lion was able to use the rope to come out of the deep hole.
On coming out, the lion started smiling and expressing gratitude to the sheep. The sheep smiled back, thinking that the lion would, indeed, go by its promise of ensuring that it would never be attacked.
The lion, ungrateful as it was, decided to catch the sheep, contrary to the promise, and eat it up. Laugh. The sheep started crying and within a few minutes many animals in the bush heard of the cry and became attracted to where the incident was taking place.
HOW WAS THE LION REMOVED?
The animals wanted to know what was happening so they asked the sheep to narrate what has happened and after that they also asked the lion to tell them about its version of the story. All the animals, upon hearing the story from each of them, knew that the lion was wrong, but they were all afraid to say so.
After some time, the rabbit, being a very wise animal, politely told the lion that it did not believe that the sheep was the one who actually brought it out of the hole, and that if, indeed, it was the sheep that brought it out, then the lion should get back into the deep hole for all of them to see how the sheep was able to rescue it.
On hearing this, the lion quickly jumped into the hole and asked the sheep to bring it out again, so that all the animals would know that it was the sheep which really brought it out. After it had jumped into the hole, the rabbit quickly pulled out the long rope and asked the lion to continue to stay in the deep hole.
WICKEDNESS
This story tells us how wicked some people we deal with in this world can be. Some of the people we encounter in life, whether in the marketplace, in organisations, in hospitals, as managers or chief executive officers are so wicked that much fear is put into their subordinates.
The lion was feared by all the animals in the bush, so even though they knew what it did was unfair none of the animals was able to stand up boldly to tell the truth that it was being unfair to the sheep. They knew the truth but were afraid to speak it out.
There are many chief executives and managers who are operating very well in this country. Unfortunately, there are many others who are so wicked that their subordinates, like the ferocious lion, find it very difficult to come out with the truth about the issues.
There are many lessons we all need to learn from this simple story. In the first place, there are many wicked people who have been appointed to positions of authority and who are using dubious means to cover their misdeeds. These wicked people ought to be uncovered and put to shame.
INVESTIGATION
There have even been cases where some of them have been investigated for the truth to come out but the appointing authorities, for some reason, find it difficult to stand by the truth and put such wicked people to shame. When things happen this way, it discourages the majority of the people who serve as subordinates around these wicked people to stand for what the truth is, knowing that at any point in time they may be sacrificed or victimised in a very unfair manner.
For fear of being unfairly sacrificed or being victimised, many of these subordinates keep quiet over the atrocities that are encountered in many workplaces. If these things continue, people will keep quiet and the appointing authority will always be unpopular.
One other lesson from this story is that any appointing authority must pay attention to the story and go for the truth at all times. While going for the truth the appointing authority must exhibit boldness, no matter what, to be fair to all and sundry by ensuring that Freedom and Justice is meted out to all. If Freedom and Justice is meted out to all people there will be happiness, and speedy advancement or progress at all times in society.
BY DR. KOFI AMPONSAH-BEDIAKO
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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