The Fool-hunters

(‘Take The Money and Run!’ Didn’t Make Sense!)

‘Take the Money and Run!’ Probably Didn’t Make Sense

You probably struggled making heads or tails of last three weeks’ article, ‘Take the Money and Run!’. I will tell you why. If you read the print version, you missed an entire opening paragraph. This is how the article was supposed to begin:

“PART I
I have been wanting to tell you this for some time now, you know.

I think Americans have a Stockholm Syndrome for the British particularly. Yes, yes, I know… This is a nation which has managed to assert its place as the modern age leading empire, its influence spreading far and wide across the globe. A nation which has managed to, very intentionally, very painstakingly, carve out an image for itself as heaven on earth, as the very epitome of the grandness attainable by the human being. ‘In America you can be anything you want to be’—a nation for the fulfilment of dreams. First on the moon; first on earth... In all things earth, first. First economically, first in science, in technological advancements, in art; a nation leading the course of our time… “America is great!” You see how I put that in quotation marks? That is because these Americans do not even wait for you to say it; they make sure to tell you so. This nation, suffering a Stockholm syndrome for another nation? It sounds absurd, I know.”

It was after this introductory paragraph right up here, that this paragraph followed—the paragraph which was mistakenly made last three weeks’ introduction in print:

“I hear them using this word ‘Anglophile’ in description of what the feeling is between them and—one can say—their past overlords, particularly Britain, a lot. But if you witness this supposed Anglophile-ness, you can’t help but smell some Stockholm lurking behind it—at least a tiny dose of it. Granted, it is not as dire as ours is to the West... Because for one thing their colonialism, that which planted this seed, this Syndrome in the American, was totally different from ours. It didn’t proceed from an immediate past of slavery, of degradation as ours did, but a voluntary exeunt. But that’s not the point of this article. We will have to look at this matter in a later article.”

Essentially, we began that article with an assertion that the typical Caucasian American wouldn’t be particularly happy with. An assertion that said that he/she, the born and bred American, conditioned, and socialised into believing themselves the best there is, and their nation the best there is, was in fact suffering some form of inferiority for another nation, the British. This nation, this global superpower which has throughout its history made conscious efforts at asserting its dominance over countries and peoples worldwide, suffering a Stockholm Syndrome? It sounds absurd, I know. But ‘absurd’ does not necessarily equate ‘falsehood’.

You know what, let me just go ahead and add to the whole mystic surrounding the CIA by saying, I wasn’t too shocked to find this introductory paragraph of last three weeks’ article magically omitted in the print version. [But I will however admit to being completely floored when this follow-up article also magically disappeared from my laptop. After a week-long futile attempt at recovery, it had to take an IT-expert friend of mine all the way in Gambia to recover the .asd file. I will admit that at some point during that whole wahala, I began to think, ‘Maybe God doesn’t want me to write this piece? Eh, this piece that paints the American in an almost unflattering light… Maybe God wants me to ditch it all together. But what are we—we, these offspring of Kweku Anansi—if not stubborn? So here we are this week, in full print, powering on, on this story of ‘The Fool-hunters’]

I must say that as a Ghanaian always on a lookout for the display of perfection and world-class standards by fellow Ghanaians, I have always been proud of the standards constantly displayed by the great people at the Business & Financial Times (B&FT). The B&FT has consistently proven itself an epitome of excellence. So, for them to mistakenly publish an article without its intended introductory paragraph—a paragraph which was in some way a slight against the American brand of bravado, ah! it must have been the clandestine work of the CIA. Or?

Still a Rundown
The entire article took a nosedive after that. Coming right from depressing the American, last three weeks’ article went straight into depressing the Ghanaian, the African—and the writer, for that matter. We faced reality head-on. And the fact is this: the human ecosystem is no different from the animal kingdom. Let your guard down and you are eaten alive. Let your guard down and you are taken advantage of by fellow human beings. Worse, we find this same dynamic at play on the national level. In last three weeks’ article ‘Take the Money and run!’ we saw how the White folk, a people so tainted with a tyrannical history—a tyranny particularly against our race, the Black people… We saw how they, at a point in this same history of theirs, committed a similar tyrannical act against their own people—towards this same end of increasing their economic gains. Yes indeed, at some point in their modern history, the White folk, towards this same end of making money, committed to enslaving fellow White folks.

And this reality led us to fantasise over an alternate history: what would history have been like if these two races never chanced upon one another? What would history have been like if the White folk never chanced on us? There is only one conclusion that pops up in our heads—the White folk would most definitely have proceeded and continued to enslave their own fellow kinsfolk, their own race, towards this same end of increasing their economic gains.

We are animals.
Us all people, spread world-wide, we are all, quite easily, animals. This world is but a jungle. Live yourself open, and you are eaten.

We are fool-hunters.
Us all people spread worldwide, we are all, always in search of fools. We are constantly in search of fellow human beings to take advantage of—be they male or female, adult or young, black, white, red, or yellow. We usually do not discriminate in our victims-search—we do not discriminate when we are out on this hunt for fools. All we care about is game—finding those persons who are easily susceptible to our hunt. Fools, they come in different shapes and forms; different genders, colours, races, and nationalities. So, we spread our nets wide in our search. But in this search for these fools, one must be careful not to come out the fool themselves. One must conduct the hunt in such a way that chances of reaping success is almost always a guaranteed 100%. And that’s where stereotyping becomes keen. This is where experience becomes vital.

A Foolish Analogy
Because not all people are easy targets. It is like a man who has made it his inane life mission of remaining forever on the prowl... A man who decides to, even upon finding the one—the one with whom he is to be paired for all eternity, a woman with whom he is to carry out the tough journey of existence, a person to call his own, and him, hers…A man who after attaining this desired state, decides to remain still on the muddy prowl, on the senseless hunt of ‘entanglements’ Such a man in this senseless hunt—you will often find—would still apply some level of brain activity to this endeavour. Wisdom is too beautiful a word to use in these messy circumstances. But yes, I daresay, that such a man would often go about this mess with some level of brain activity in play. He would, on this hunt, never go about chasing those members of the opposite sex with brain activity so optimal that they would look upon him with utmost disgust… And in so expressing this disgust, make this perpetrator of a man feel like the perpetrator he is—made to feel like a fool. In this hunt, one selects their game meticulously. One does not go chasing after targets who or which are likely to make one come out looking foolish. In one’s hunt for a fool, one must be careful not to come out looking like the fool instead.

And it is the same for the woman. It is same for those females who dedicate their lives—their often-times young bodily forms–into setting traps for their prey men, men to whom they would, upon getting caught, play the victim. Such ladies, they target the well-known, easy targets. You do not go chasing after a man—a married man—so ‘high-and-mighty’ that they look upon you with disgust and make you feel like a fool for attempting on them, a prowl. This is way too much English used in description of infidelity—I know. But how we go do am? This is, after all, a business and financial newspaper. We have to apply some level of diplomacy to everything over here.

Now back to the matter of the messy prowl. For fear of coming out as fools, one, in this prowl must be extremely careful. And this is where the stereotyping comes in. This is where the categorisation comes in. To hunt for fools, and do so effectively, one must take keen lessons from experience—fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me indeed. This is the philosophy with which a hunter settles on their fools. The hunter, they look out for those persons who have made themselves susceptible to their first advance(s). A successful first attempt means a likelihood of a successful second attempt. And there comes the third, fourth, fifth attempts and their consequent successes. With these known-fools, one’s chances of infinite attempts and infinite successes are high. And with each attempt and consequent success, these targets mature into well-known fools. They become game for all to go out in hunt of. And there you have it, the stereotyping—the stereotype of a known-fool.

We are mathematicians. Us all humans, always doing maths—it’s incredible. Because maths is exactly how we settle on our ‘foolish targets’.

Sorry for the use of the word ‘fool’ a lot today. But it’s not particularly our fault, is it? Because isn’t the word right up there in the title? I apologise, but it’s only natural we proceed still with the use of the term.

The Tragedy
Here is the thing though, my brothers and sisters: manage to fool a person, and that’s sad. But manage to fool an entire nation of people, and that is just tragic. Just tragic!

How does an entire nation of people allow themselves to be made constant game for the successful prowls of others? How does an entire nation of people, perhaps an entire region or continent, slowly but surely allow themselves to be made game—not just once or twice, but countless times, with such frequency that it threatens perpetuity? How does an entire nation or group of people allow themselves to be made fools for the fool-hunter with such frequency and consistency that this unfortunate state of affairs becomes slowly but surely morphed into their character trait? And best believe that when this consistency becomes morphed into a character trait, it is God who gets the covert blame. Yes, God Himself gets implicated in it all… The narrative begins to get couched to look as though the Creator Herself made these supposed fools that way—as though the Creator made them only to assign them the role as the earth’s fools... A puppet for the puppeteer, the animal that has to die and degenerate into manure so that the tree might get life. God sitting His somewhere, minding Her business, gets implicated in this whole mess, as though She intentionally created this weakness, this weak bunch—you and I—to serve as game for the fool-hunters. And we catch ourselves saying this of ourselves a lot… Some go so far as to claim ourselves the descendants of the infamous Ham—cursed by his father Noah, with the curse enforced by God against his (Ham) son.

We, Blacks, descendants of this curse? An utter lie—a senseless lie. Poor God—implicated in a lie. There is no truth in this, only meaningless conjecture.

God has no hand in this resignation to inferiority we have done upon ourselves. There are no biological roots to it. This earthly dynamic finding the Black folk at the bottom of the global food chain has all been purely sociological. It is a dynamic, at its very root, driven by the economic law of demand and supply. One person demands a fool, while the other, through some indecisions and lack of a sense of self, sells themselves out for cheap, or for nothing at all—accepting gladly the role of fools.

You are a country, you aspire to build a powerful nation of yourself, you need the wherewithal—the human and natural resource capital—to make this happen, what do you do? You go out on the hunt. Right there, beyond your national borders, lies certain nations, certain people, lacking foresight and a sense of self, lacking an identity and good leadership, gladly awaiting your poking and prodding. These people with little self-esteem, these people crippled by their own greed for their immediate bellies, these people having leaders suffering these ailments, they await you—they willingly await your hunt.

Because a baby intent on playing with a stone, we all know, will not hesitate throwing the first 200 Cedis note they find at you just so they can get that stone you’re holding right there in your hand. Find yourself a nation with leaders having such weakness of mind, and they will, without even you descending to committing the overt inhumane act of enslaving or colonising them, hand over to you that which you desire—this time around, on their own accord. Why? Because he/she is a child holding 200 Cedis, but in dire need of your stone to play with.

A country which is willing to resign, in this competitive age, to the production of raw materials even while you take on the wealthier role of refiner—ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got your fool… A nation whose leaders will gladly connive with you in the loot of their own nation—rejoice, that’s your fool…

While you are bent on building empires, while you are bent on making SOMETHING of yourselves and your generations, these people are out here in the world just looking for something to put into their stomachs—just for the now. They are looking at making abundant wealth in their slums of nations. While you seek a respectable identity, not only for yourself, but your kind, these people are out here, really still looking at those bellies of theirs... Their bellies and their immediate filling, that is all life means to them.

It's tragic.
Schrodinger’s Cat
We can continue playing the ‘legal’ politics and say to ourselves that as long as one is not caught red-handed, the accusations must be false. But we are Ghanaians here in this same Ghana with you, our political leaders... We all see as you come into power or come into positions of power through your affiliations with incumbent political governments... We see how quickly your finances make a 180-degree turn as soon as you land into these leadership positions. We see how you, serving the various political and public offices, come by all this money so quickly—so easily. Blessed with an environment of mismanagement and lack of supervision, we see how you—our leaders—get obesed with money.

Money intended for national growth, so very often and easily, get diverted into your pockets. You had no business getting this rich this quickly within this short space of time in your service as leaders. But here you are, gluttoned with your people’s money—wealthy in a slum of a nation. As your colleague leaders elsewhere are focused on building empires of nations—nations whose citizens are held in high-esteem worldwide, nations whose citizens determine the course of our time, here you are, in this slum of a nation, happy with our lowliness and mediocrity (at best)—gluttoned with wealth that is supposed to be for the benefit of the entire nation.

While your colleague leaders are out here in this world bent on building for their nations, wealth in perpetuity, here you are intent on acquiring fleeting wealth for you and your small units of families. Here you are, leader—but just like the people from whom you loot, inconsequential in this world of much consequence. Here you are, puppet for the puppeteer, a gatekeeper for the neo-colonialist looting of your own nation… Here you are, still hiding behind Jesus, yet constantly ‘Judas-ing’. Here we are, full in the belly but in the grand scheme of things merely fools for the fool-hunters.

It's 66 years and we are still under-living our potential. It’s 66 years and we risk getting numb to the tragedy of it all. All for bad leadership. This is all so tragic.

BY YAO AFRA YAO
THE FOOL-HUNTERS
(‘Take The Money and Run!’ Didn’t Make Sense!)