Potpourri @5

Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, I was glued to the Daily Graphic, Times, The Mirror and the Spectator newspapers.

I hardly missed any issues and I devoured each paper in its entirety.

In the process, I developed a certain adulation for some of the columnists, including Kwesi Yankah, Adjoa Yeboah-Afari, Carl Mutt, Merari Alomele, George Sydney Abugri, Elizabeth Ohene, Alben Korem and many other stars of that era.

In The Chronicle newspaper, I would never miss Prof. P.A.V Ansah’s thunderous column, Going to Town, for anything in the world.

Together, these columnists served up a worthy literary buffet to feast on and made a huge impression on me.

When I had the opportunity to work with Prof. Kwesi Yankah at the Ministry of Education, I simply had to tell him just how much of an influence his Woes of a Kwatriot column had had on me. 

Huge shoes

It hit me over the weekend that it has been a little over five years since this column was born.

How time flies!

When I set out to write this column for the Daily Graphic back in July 2018, I was petrified.

I was mindful of the huge shoes that had trod on the nation’s newspaper column terrain and wondered whether I would ever be able to come close to fitting into them.

How would I even find something to write about week in, week out, and for how long would I survive?

I had had some forays into writing, but this was a different terrain.

It meant that every week I had to figure out the issue I wanted to discuss and then put my thoughts on that subject.

Some weeks, two or more issues fought for my attention.

At other times, I just went blank, even as my deadline loomed dangerously close.

The whole point of the ‘potpourri’ (defined as ‘a mixture of dried petals and spices placed in a bowl to perfume a room) in the name of the column was that I was not going to limit myself to politics or any other issue, but rather a wide range of diverse issues, from the serious to the mundane, all the way down to the personal and the light-hearted.

Of course, my political colours are known, but I did not intend to turn the column into a stomping ground for partisan political crusades.

My work, however, and the issues around it would feature prominently, which is why education, and now energy, are quite topical on this page. 

Highs, lows and champagne

It has been quite a journey of half a decade.

In that space, I have enjoyed warm compliments from two paramount chiefs, a Catholic Archbishop and a few high-ranking public officials, who have completely bowled me over.

I have also received some positive emails regarding particular articles that I wrote.

I remain grateful.

Equally, I have been engaged in quite intense email exchanges with a few readers who launched blistering attacks on some of the pieces that I wrote, especially the political ones.

On some occasions, I have struggled to translate my thoughts into the written word, as if a raging firewall was in place.

On other occasions, I could not even rustle up something to discuss in the first place and missed my deadline.

If anyone had said to me back in July 2018 that this column would be around five years later, I would have smirked.

But as the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Looking back, I am glad I took that step into uncertainty.

I am grateful to Mustapha Hamid, former Information Minister, and ace journalist Kwaku Sakyi-Addo for their roles in getting me onto this page.

It has been a truly rewarding experience.

I dedicate the fifth anniversary of Potpourri to my late friend Antonio Quarshie Awusah, a huge sounding board for my writings and a pillar of a friend, who encouraged me to take up this enterprise.

He passed away suddenly on August 20, 2018, a few weeks after this column was born.

May he rest in peace.

I think raising a glass of champagne to this column’s belated fifth birthday, to the memory of Antonio on the fifth anniversary of his passing and my 55th birthday next Sunday is quite in order, to which I say ‘cheers!’

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng,
Head, Communications & Public Affairs Unit,
Ministry of Energy.
E-mail: walworth2013@gmail.com