When a fellow Ghanaian cannot speak English, we say s/he is uneducated, but if a British or a German or any ‘white personality’ cannot speak Ga or Twi or Ewe, do we also say s/he is uneducated? If a lady in an executive dress with heavy perfume and make-up mistakenly steps on your toe and a hand-to-mouth kayayoo does the same, would you in all sincerity, react to the two differently or otherwise? Anyway, I would highlight certain grave and heartless treatments some so-called literates and highly-educated people mete out to the uneducated (illiterates).
I’m really passionate about writing this. It is absolutely unfortunate to see how some of us, in diverse ways, subject those who cannot read nor write to emotional and socio-economic traumas. But does education signify wisdom and intelligence? I’m asking this because i’ve seen highly educated people who bath once in a day (not because there is shortage of water), dispose of refuse indiscriminately, live comfortably in dirty environment, and even speak anyhow. The word ‘illiteracy’ is socially defined. Nowadays, people even use the word to insult and discriminate against people. But what’s the difference between the so-called educated person who insults and the illiterate who does the same? Now, let’s work this simple analogy. If we label those who cannot read nor write as ‘useless’ or ‘conservative’, etc, then logically we are branding God with the same attributes because humans are material manifestations of Him. What a big insult!
Now let me touch on the harsh and unspeakable maltreatments we mete out to those who cannot read nor write. The economic aspect. In many corporate environments, illiterates are discriminated against in broad spectrums of exploitation and sugar-coated slavery. Often, we tend to lose sight of the fact that our economy is shouldered by these illiterates who have vastly occupied our extractive industry. It is unambiguously stipulated in our 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana, article 24 (1) that ‘every person has the right to work under satisfactory, safe, and healthy conditions, and shall receive equal pay for equal work without distinction’. But this provision had been grossly disregarded by several firms and has been prejudicially sliced to embrace certain class of people (literates). Some Ghanaians are still working in death traps, some are been given embarrassing salaries, and their seemingly unending predicaments are aggravated by pot-bellied officials who parasite on their meagre bonuses, and threaten them with dismissal when they clamour for better wages and salaries.
I remember one incident vividly when I was in SHS. It occurred during a PTA meeting when a fragile middle aged woman tried to call the daughter she was struggling and toiling to educate. This ‘uneducated literate’ daughter of the woman, who was sitting among her peers behind me, gave her mum a response, which none of the adjectives in the Dictionary can accurately describe. It only takes a shameless soul and a heart of ingratitude to deny a friend or a loved one or a parent simply because such a person is illiterate.
Please, let’s re-evaluate and check our relationship with such people. The touching aspect of it is that some people are illiterates as a result of irresponsible parenting, sacrifice for other siblings, illogical cultural systems, and also poor understanding of education. Let me indicate that i’m not condoning nor admonishing people to reject education, of course, that’s the window to our intelligence.
It is important to treat everybody equally irrespective of their socio-cultural situation. How would you have felt if you were to be in their shoes?
Kindly spread the message by passing this on to other colleagues.
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