When I began working on my memoir, I decided to lay the facts bare; even though uncomfortable, these are meant to probe the hearts and the minds of society. I warn my readers to literally shed their ethnic and racial prejudices before plunging into this book full of angst, suspense, hope and despair, culminating in the search for true justice, for it has the potential to turn people into ‘anti-racism racists’ or ‘anti-tribalism tribalists’ effortlessly.
Ethnocentrism and racism are the most vicious evils that afflict the African everywhere. These prejudices exist the world over, yet they are the most dreaded subjects for any public discourse, as they usually, drive people into a deadly state of denial and indefensible fury. Even to the sanctimonious, ethnic and racial blood are absolutely thicker than the blood of Jesus, or any spiritual leader of today or yesterday. We have seen it in the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’.
This book brings to light the place of the African in the global scheme of things. It is a rare glimpse into the world of bigotry. It is an audacious horrible chronicle which takes the reader through a journey of turbulent experiences in my search for excellence as I set out from a small town in Ghana to seek my rightful place in the new world. In this search, I nearly paid the ultimate price against the grimness and the gloom of which the twin flames of courage and perseverance glow the brighter. My return to my native land, Ghana, will make you stifle a laugh and ask ‘is the reality of the African supposed to be any different from what it is?’
In my memoir, I attempt to wake society up to the reality that excellent ideas can come from anywhere and anyone irrespective of their political, social, economic, racial or ethnic status. We cannot be ‘asleep at the wheels and be proud of it’. Reducing intelligence, competence and skills and confining them to political, economic, social, racial or ethnic familiarity complex is ‘a toxic super simplification of the postmodern reality’.
The method in coming out with this book is unique, not prompted by choice between social theories and methods. It is a matter of life’s circumstances over which we mortals have little or no control—my birth and your birth are not matters over which you and I had any control. Indeed, this does not in anyway shrink its scientific credibility and reliability. The connections between evidence and logic are solid, enforcing its scientific spirit. ‘But, of course, if a simpler proof was available, which could uphold its value, I would gladly have adopted that, wishing it did not have to be sacrificing my very life for these experiments. But in all, I am glad I have laid the facts bare and have brought to the fore issues of those living on the fringes of our society without a voice.
Prosper Yao Tsikata is a young Ghanaian who suffered a vicious racial attack in Hull, UK, which almost disrupted his studies. He underwent an internship with the UN in New York and returned home to Ghana with Msc. In Applied Social Research, but has been unemployed since November 2006. The above is an excerpt from his memoir. Contact us for express permission to reprint:
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