Legacy! Legacy! Legacy!

In school, we were fascinated by interesting quotes by Shakespeare, Chinua Achebe, Chaucer etc.

We loved to commit them to memory for use in embellishing our own language and writing. Some of the quotes were:

• “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones….” by Mark Anthony in his eulogy of Julius Caesar.

• “Et tu Brute?” (And you too Brutus?) by Julius Caesar after his closest friend Brutus stabbed him.

• “Radix malorum est cupiditas” (Greed is the root of all evil.) Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales

• “Unless the penis dies young, it will surely eat bearded meat.” Achebe in Arrow of God

• “Rubicon crossed.” “The die is cast” (alea iacta est) by Caesar daring the Roman Senate.
         

August 2024

August 2024 has come and gone. Like any other month it has left behind its own history.

At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France, the commentator who on the night of August 4, 2024, saw the 24-year-old Swedish pole-vaulter Armand Duplantis set a new world record of 6.26 metres/20 feet 6.5 inches stated excitedly as follows.

“This will linger in the minds of the 75,000 people here at the stadium who saw it and will say ‘I was there’!” Duplantis’ legacy!

At home on Friday, August 3, 2024 at the Arakan Officers Mess, Burma Camp, adjectives which came out of our beer-lubricated mouths in eulogising a colleague buried that morning included, “bold, courageous, honest”.

For those of us who lived at the Arakan-Officers-Mess as young single officers in the 1960s/1970s, Arakan is home to us.

We therefore considered the occasion “homecoming” for us “Arakanese” as we call ourselves. Our departed colleague was described as “a gentleman officer of Integrity.”

Once again, I asked myself the same question I have asked many times! What legacy are we leaving behind? My mind raced back to an earlier article in which I stated as follows:

Kennedy Brothers

Two brothers who made significant statements for which they are remembered are former President of the USA JF Kennedy, assassinated on November 22, 1963, and his Attorney-General and younger brother Senator RF Kennedy who was assassinated on June 6, 1968.

At the foot of his grave at the Arlington National Cemetery, Washington DC where a perpetual flame glows, President Kennedy’s famous words are inscribed as follows:

“My dear American! Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country!”

Equally poignant are the words of Senator Robert Kennedy who said,

“Some people see things as they are and ask, why? I dream things that never were and ask, why not?

These two pithy statements by the two brothers have been etched into history books as people who selflessly paid the ultimate price for a cause they believed in, for the benefit of their country, the USA.

While some have etched their names in history, being remembered for the good legacy they left, others are only remembered for the negative legacy they left!

In 1648, Oliver Cromwell, then a Colonel in the British Army, led a group to stage arguably the first coup d’état in British history by overthrowing/executing the monarch King Charles 1, and replacing the monarchy with a Republic. Ten years later, Cromwell’s skeleton was exhumed, tried and executed.

To this day, Oliver Cromwell remains probably the most controversial and divisive figure in British history. Indeed, his grave is unknown.

Discussion

An inscription at the entrance of a cemetery reads, “Lead a good life, so that we don’t have to tell lies about you in your tribute!”

Generally, Ghanaian culture does not allow anything negative to be said about the dead even if that is the truth. Half-truths are therefore blended with half-lies in an attempt to bring some respectability to the deceased.

As an example, the story is told of the village goat-thief whose tribute went as follows:

“Brethren, our departed brother who lies before his Maker today was a very good and kind-hearted man. So kind was he that everybody liked him. Indeed, our brother was loved not only by us human beings, but also animals. Goats in particular had an affinity for him and loved him dearly. In the process these goats sorely tested him.

As ordinary mortals, we are often tempted in life, just as Christ was. But unlike Jesus who was the son of God and whose shock absorbers against temptation were specially designed by his Heavenly Father, we humans fall to temptation. And so was it with our brother who lies before us today.”

How do you want to be remembered? Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah will always be remembered as a Pan-Africanist who is probably more respected outside Ghana, than in Ghana.

In nine years, he set Ghana on the path of semi-industrialisation. He did not factor himself into any equation of wealth acquisition and the resultant greed. Indeed, he did not own a single house.

How do Ghanaian leaders want to be remembered? A recent clip comparing Abidjan’s clean waters entering the sea and our Korle-Lagoon entering the sea made one sad as a Ghanaian. Where is leadership?

As we spoke fondly of our departed colleague, it was obvious that what was said was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He was described as honest, selfless and with integrity. His tribute was not doctored like the goat thief’s.

Can our leaders confidently beat their chest to make such a claim? Remember Oliver Cromwell is still remembered as a despicable man who committed regicide.

The American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “What you are, shouts so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what you say about yourself!”

Holy Child School, Cape Coast, has for its motto “Facta, non verba,” which means “Action, not words!” On August 31, 2024, Ghana-Water-Company-Limited attributed the current water crisis in the Central Region to galamsey, resulting from inadequate water at the Sekyere-Hemang Water Treatment Plant!

In the words of anti galamsey crusader journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor, galamsey is the result of failed leadership. “Galamsey” is a national disgrace! Galamsey is a dishonourable legacy!

Leadership, it is said, is cause, the rest is effect! Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is former CEO of African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair Family Health University College, Accra. 

E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com 

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System Summary

The article reflects on legacies and the importance of how individuals and leaders are remembered, using historical examples and personal anecdotes. It begins by recalling famous quotes from Shakespeare, Achebe, and others, noting how these expressions shaped the author's thinking.

The author transitions into reflecting on recent events, such as a colleague’s funeral and the legacies of historical figures like the Kennedy brothers, Oliver Cromwell, and Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. It discusses how certain figures are remembered for their selflessness and integrity, while others, like Cromwell, remain controversial due to their negative impact.

The piece concludes by challenging Ghanaian leaders to consider the legacies they are leaving behind, especially in the face of national issues like corruption, "galamsey" (illegal mining), and environmental degradation. The author emphasizes the need for leadership rooted in integrity and action, urging leaders to avoid the dishonorable legacies of greed and failed leadership, and to take responsibility for addressing the country's pressing issues.