WHY I WRITE WHAT I LIKE?

Article by; Austin Brako-Powers (University of Ghana, Legon) +233 242 62 81 64

Freedom is a currency very vital for the survival of any specie in the world be it a plant, animal or human beings.

Look at the ways of the mouse and you will come to terms with what it means to be free. It frets at the sight of man and goes about doing what pleases it when it is not chased or tiptoed by any force.

The best demonstrator of freedom again is the wind. It blows to whatever direction it desires without any hindrance. Though the expression of freedom by the wind do sometimes interfere with the enjoyment of such a right by both humans and animals yet it epitomizes what freedom ought to be.

For decades on writers, philosophers, sociologist, anthropologists, political scientists, historians, physical scientists and psychologists have buried themselves in bringing home to man how they ought to behave and express themselves.

The most admired of all scientists is John Locke, a man whose ideas underlie America’s educational philosophy. According to him, as children, our brain is “tabula raster” where we have nothing in the brain. At this stage, personal efforts from both parents and relatives help us to acquire some knowledge about the workings of the world.

I know you would never believe me but suffice to know that, true freedom is not practiced anywhere in the world. From the so called “land of freedom” – America to the rotting state of Nigeria in the Western part of the African continent, one finds scary indications of encroachment on the expression of freedom by man.

Believe me or not I strongly feel true freedom comes from “freedom of expression and movement”. Between the two; freedoms of expression and movement it is the freedom of expression which is the greatest of all.

Fact is, Africa’s economic developmental morass is explained by the lack of a true “freedom of expression” prevalent in the continent. Brute force is meted out to anyone desirous to be loud with an opinion which is in disagreement of the government of the day.

Many dehumanizing stories of journalistic victimization abound in the continent Africa. Heroes have been made out of people who were doing nothing but expressing themselves in their country.

I believe in the power of writing to shaping the mindset and opinions of people especially the voiceless in the continent. But horribly, the literary market is among the most unexploited markets in the continent aside its human resource development.

The continent currently is far from free because, the “currency called freedom” is expensive that, the sum of individual country resources in the continent cannot pay for the atonement.

I write because, there is “trust deficit” in the various government in the continent and people have to be informed of “broken promises” of the political leadership. Anything short of this…

Life must surely go on and with freedom we as a people of this “dark” continent will surely get there someday sometime but not with this current leadership. They are failing souls and a “scar in our conscience”. Period

Augrako4gh@gmail.com