Where is their honour? (Part 2)

In the Bible, specifically in Mark 6:4, the Lord Jesus makes a very poignant statement when He says a prophet is not without honour except in his own country. Jesus makes this remark to the people of Nazareth, the town where He grew up, as they refused to believe in his teaching because they considered him one of themselves and, therefore, without authority to preach to them.

When Jesus makes that assertion, what He simply means is that people are highly regarded for their talents and accomplishments everywhere except in their own country, among their own people. If you still did not get the picture, do not look far. Just check Ghana’s record.

The nation’s penchant to consign its heroes to oblivion once they leave the stage is, to say the least, mean. It seems the rule in Ghana is, out of sight, out of mind. The list of national heroes who have been so shabbily treated is long and still growing.

In the previous article, I mentioned some of them including globally acclaimed Ghanaian doctors like Professor Felix Konotey-Ahulu and Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frimpong, whose pioneering research and findings about the dreaded sickle-cell disease, have led to breakthrough treatment options for anxious patients and medical institutions hoping for some advancement in the search for solutions.

And what have we, as a nation of their birth, done to acknowledge their feats? Apart from periodic invitations for them to come and deliver lectures, what national monuments have been mounted in their honour? Can we not establish research centres at the teaching hospitals and name them after these icons of international stature?

In collaboration with international partners, Prof. Ohene Frimpong helped establish a pilot project for newborn screening for sickle cell disease in Kumasi and Tikrom, the first such screening in Africa. He died on May 7, 2022, after a very illustrious career during which he rose to become the President of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. He is gone. Where is his honour?

Last week. I mentioned also Professor F.K. A. Allotey, a Mathematical and Nuclear Physicist with a worldwide appeal,who has gone into the annals of global greatness with the discovery in 1973 of a technique named after him. It is known as the Allotey Formalism, a technique that is used to determine matter moves in outer space. Are we educating our youth about such great men now that they are no more? Where is their honour?

Other great people I referred to in the previous article included D.K. Poison, the first Ghanaian professional boxer to win the world featherweight title who, instead of being honoured, was robbed of his purse of $45,000, (not $40,000 as I said last week), by the government of the military junta led by General I.K. Acheampong.

According to the government, Ghana had run short of foreign exchange to import essential commodities for its citizens, and so it was taking the money as a loan. Gen. Acheampong was overthrown by Gen. F.W.K. Akuffo in a palace coup. And even though Akuffo, as a member of the previous government, was aware of the transaction, did not refund the money before he himself was overthrown by Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings.

For 45 years, Poison chased his money in the corridors of power to no avail until the current president, Nana Akufo-Addo instructed the Finance Ministry to refund it to him and listen to this:“on humanitarian grounds.” What? That is ruining an apology with an excuse.

I talked about the need to name the FIFA project at Prampram after C.K. Gyamfi for his pioneering role in the development of football in Ghana. Today, the emphasis is on former Ghana international, Anthony Yeboah, a football ambassador who took Germany by storm, and became the first black man to win the Bundesliga goal king title twice on the trot, raising aloft the image of Ghana.

Anthony Yeboah played for Eintracht Frankfurt from 1990 to 1995, scoring 68 goals in 123 matches. He started cautiously with 15 goals in the1992-93 season, placing a respectable fourth on the Bundesliga goal king chart, before exploding with more goals.

The next season, that is, 1993-94 season, he won the Bundesliga goal king with 20 goals. The following season, he scored 18 goals to retain his goal king title. That was the time when top strikers like Ulf Kirsten were at their peak, but Tony Yeboah still came tops.

His exploits on and off the field have left an indelible imprint on the hearts of the lovers of the beautiful game in Germany, especially in Frankfurt. High rise buildings and iconic structures have his murals splashed conspicuously on them in a kind of cult worship which has not abated even after about three decades that he ended his career in Germany. Some of his followers have tattooed his iconic number 9 on their bodies.

What makes his achievement even greater is the fact that Tony Yeboah accomplished all this greatness against all odds, under severe intimidation and discrimination, including monkey noises and other racist chants as he touched the ball. Anybody could have been too demoralised to continue under such antagonistic atmosphere, but not Tony Yeboah. He persevered and won them over with his goals and his pen.

He wrote a very scathing letter criticising racism in German football as evil. He roped in his compatriot, Tony Baffoe and another African player, Souleymana Sane to support that worthy cause.Thankfully, the letter received publicity in Germany’s leading sports paper, the Bild and subsequently in other papers, too.

It was like a tsunami, and it shook German football to its foundation and led to changes in the system. The German Football Federation embarked on a campaign with the catchphrase: “My friend is a foreigner.” Tony Yeboah even went on to become the captain of Eintracht Frankfurt, a black man for that matter, who was previously reviled. Call it from zero to hero.

On May 18, 2022, Eintracht Frankfurt sponsored Tony Yeboah, the only black man among a group of legends of the club to Seville, Spain, to watch the finals of the Europa Cup final between his former team and Rangers of Scotland.

Frankfurt lifted the trophy, its first such major cup in 42 years, and honoured Tony Yeboah by presenting it to him briefly. It did not end there. The team took him to Germany for about a week to celebrate with the players and the people of Frankfurt. Talk about remembering heroes! This is how.

In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Lawrence Binyon, an English poet, wrote a poem to honour the soldiers at the war front. Now, countries all over the world, including Ghana, read portions of it during Remembrance Day parades to commemorate when armistice was signed to end the war.

Portions of the poem read as follows:

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

As the stars are known to the night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Tony Yeboah continues to remain a star in Germany. Eintracht Frankfurt continues to remember him. But in Ghana, the rule still holds: Out of sight, out of mind. A prophet is, indeed, without honour in his own country.

By Tony Brempeh