KEEP WALKING......

It was one of those days I had to arrive at work just about when the sun was rising in order to meet a very tight deadline I thought was ‘impossible’ to meet, but I did anyway.  And after trying my best to complete a portion of the report, I was somewhat tired by brunch time, so I needed to, as it were, ‘stretch my muscles’ outside the four walls of my shared office. 

I had just walked in and resumed my seat next to the Sony radio/cd player when Nat Brew’s ‘history-telling’ tune – ‘W) gb3 j3k3’ was just about ending on Adom FM’s multilingual presenter, Ohemaa’s show. I liked that tune so much that I had to access Google’s popular music video portal, YouTube to listen to it again…and again… and again….throughout the rest of the day and week actually. I had heard this tune since I was initiated into puberty, but it didn’t really make sense to me like it’s been doing over the last couple of days.

The dreadlocked traditional artiste once again took me through how the Gas migrated from Israel, through the land of the pyramids (Egytpt), Haille Selassie’s Ethiopia, the then not ‘hunger-stricken’ land of the Sudanese, then some more countries, and finally to Ghana.

In impeccable Ga, he also makes mention of how our colonial masters mischievously sought to wipe our tears from our disappointments and failures, and sweat streaming down our faces from our toils and struggles, but ended up wiping away the ‘glory’ God gave us. But the verse which catches my attention, even to the extent of sometimes being the first thing I find myself muttering under my breath when I wake up from my not-so-neatly laid bed is this:

“They said I couldn’t jump….

They said you couldn’t jump…..

They said we couldn’t jump”….. [then the sound engineer drops some heavy beats]

  

Then he drops the theme of this piece……..

“They said we couldn’t jump, because they dug very deep holes to prevent us from keeping up

with our walk…but we said WE COULD!”

All these were sung in very impeccable Ga with the direct literal translation by me not entirely accurate, but at least, just about it. These are very powerful statements by all standards.

History is replete with people who according to ‘societal standards’, had not even a little sneak peak at greatness, but ended up living ‘the life’. The story of ‘pre-murder trial’ Oscar Pistorius fascinates me. The ‘Blade Runner’ was completely written off by some family and friends when he told them about his desire to run. They consigned his idea to the dustbins of a ‘reckless’ zeal.  But he knew that it was possible. By some divine providence, the blades were developed for him. Then he took the world by storm. Indeed, he competed ‘able bodied’ men, and won medals in the process. There is no telling what the human being is capable of doing with the right attitude and belief.

In John Grisham’s first non-fiction novel, The Innocent Man, a very depressed man and alcoholic, Ron Williamson was wrongly convicted of rape and murder. He spent 11 years on death row, going through mental torture. He was so depressed that he sometimes questioned his very own innocence. His lawyer however believed in his innocence, but met one obstacle in the appeal process or another. But he still kept going. Then the Innocence Project came on board and provided the much needed help, and Ron Williamson gained his acquittal and discharge. Indeed he won him a very decent out-of-court settlement for his angst. After being stone walled severally, the lawyer could have simply given up, but no, he didn’t! He kept walking, and that was the change causing agent.

Even locally, the stories of men like the ‘failed’ medical doctor turned revered broadcast journalist, late Komla Dumor is inspiring enough to keep any dreamer to keep ‘sleeping’. He positively impacted the world more than he probably could have if he’d passed those medical exams. He set the standard of broadcast journalism so high in Ghana and influenced the likes of Kojo Oppong Nkrumah of Joy FM fame, Radio Gold’s Alhassan S. Suhuyini and Citi FM’s Bernard Avle, even though they’ll quite voraciously have us believe that they brought their own ‘Horseman’ shoes to fill [Tony, my cheque, please!].

Kwasi Twum, Kwabena Adjei, Osei Kwame Despite, Michael Agyekum, Roland Agambire, Samuel Amoh-Tobin, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, Kofi Kludjeson and many others provide us with challenging life stories that are enough to make any right thinking human being drool by just thinking of success. And NO! Their success didn’t come by luck. They had to dream big, work hard, fail lots of times, get up, dust themselves, learn something from their numerous failures…..and like Mr UT overtly depicts in his Johnny Walker advert, they kept walking. The results, they say, is so glaringly evident for us to see. Who doesn’t want to own viable business ventures like Multimedia Group, Kasapreko, Despite Group of companies, KAMA, Rlg, Tobinco, UT Group, Kludjeson International etc…? I’m yet to meet any young man in Ghana who doesn’t dream of greater things than these.   

In my relatively young life on earth, I have come into contact with many young people who like me, are coming from a background of nothingness, and are keen to build legacies that outlive our 10^th generation. Dreams that make people want to roll on the floor and laugh their derrieres out. Some may seem farfetched, but hey!, is there a limit to how big one can dream? I will readily admit that some may not be able to build companies of their own, but will be able to manage multimillion dollar companies that will make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. Either ways, we will be building legacies.

 It will not fall on our laps when we have our arms folded across our chests. No, it won’t! We have to go chasing our dreams, people!  And in our bid to do that, we will fail, yes we will! We will fail again…oh yes! But that which will cause those legacies we dream of materialize is our ability to get up when we fall…dust ourselves…learn a great lesson…..AND KEEP WALKING!!!

This piece will be incomplete if I neglected the God factor in all of these. One of my favourite quotes from the Best Book ever written is: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”…Philippians 4:13. If the legacies we seek to build have the slightest glimmer of hope of seeing the light of day, God has to be in the equation. We may do everything we ought to, get the basics right and seem like we are on the road to success, but if the presence of God is not invoked, we will come tumbling down, like Jack and Jill in the popular nursery rhyme or even Humpty Dumpty!