Flux and reflux, the rhythm of change affects everything in the world.
The spiral inflation that reared its head barely a decade after our independence gained momentum in 1975. The political see-saw between the Civilian and Military administrators continued but there didn’t seem to be any improvement in the economy. A friend put it jokingly that Ghanaians are a ‘blessed’ people to have been able to survive the various ‘’purgatorial sessions’’ in the reign of each new Head of State.
The most severe one that sparked off the ‘Exodus’’ was the 1975-yellow corn period in that General’s administration. Many classrooms were deserted as a massive number of the Chalk-and- Cane fraternity left their blackboards to seek life elsewhere. Through an innovative necessity we devised various means of survival in the circumstances. Four main ways were distinguished.
There was the ‘’suffer-management’’ syndrome where people were forced to reduce consumption of essential goods and services to the point of death; the ‘’Escapist strategy’’ which was characterised by the exodus of both skilled and unskilled personnel to neighbouring countries; the ‘’withdrawal strategy’’ where people moved from the formalised economy to an informal self-reliant one.
This was a dynamic and progressive system but many of us had been too much steeped in the formalised system to disentangle ourselves from its choking manacles. The ‘’Beat the system strategy’’ formed the bedrock of ‘’Kalabuism’’ alias ‘’Gyinabuism’’ and offered a ready employment avenue to anybody who was foxy and fleet-footed enough to strike easy acquaintance with anybody in a vital position in the administration system of the country whether private or governmental. It was the People’s Revolution that opened up the eyes and minds of many of us to reality and the massive mess in which our country’s ‘Independence’ had landed us.
The nation has certainly got ‘an anthem to sing and a flag to wave’ but not a grain to eat. As the political baton changed from Civilian to soldier and soldier to Civilian, the family remained subject to the whims and storms and upheavals of wider social structure.
Husbands became more and more ‘hopeless’ and the sense of importance and sacredness attached to marriage diminished more and more. The long droughts and the bush fires that came with the Revolution sapped the last atom of hope from the Ghanaian.
Everybody became a ‘walking dead’ and a strong wind could blow a person down.
We became more and more demaciated the more we ate the only available grain -yellow corn-imported soly for poultry. Queues became longer and longer at lorry stations and in front of shops and workers fainting in queues was common sight.
Married couples blamed one another for the hunger in the home and the moral sense of the Ghanaian ebbed very low.
Gradually we hike towards the grave; ‘Heaven knows where we are going…we know we will’.
Benedicta Quashigah
University of Cape Coast, Faculty of Arts ( Department of English and Philosophy)
2011
