Ahead of the just-held Ghana’s Most Influential personalities’ award ceremony in Accra, the name Boniface Mwangi was thrown at us. He was to be the guest speaker. The fact that a 32-year-old had been chosen to come and address such an august occasion was intriguing.
And so, Weekend Sun seized the opportunity to unveil the actual person behind this name. What followed was an hour-long interview in which he was bold to sit on Ghanaian soil and call the countrymen of his hosts “cowards.”
Back home in Kenya, Mwangi, an award winning photographer-cum-activist, is notorious for taking his young children to dramatic protests which he stages, sometimes getting beaten to pulp.
Having been toughened by his adversities, Mwangi believes Ghanaians must revisit revolutionary days. His recommendation is for the kind of revolution led by ordinary people rather than power-hungry, gun-wielding soldiers.
In his homeland, this package of a guy has founded Pawa254, a collaborative hub where journalists, artists and activists meet to find innovative ways of achieving social change.
In the following excerpts, you will find other controversial views he shares about Ghana and the African continent in general.
Boniface, how would you describe yourself to an ordinary Ghanaian who hasn’t heard your name before? Who are you?
I am a Pan-Africanist who still believes in Nkrumah’s dream of a united Africa. I am a concerned citizen of this continent who wants to change Africa for the better by example. As far as the change that I believe in and the change that I want to get in this continent is concerned, I lead by example.
If I can, through my work, through my activism and through my art, change one person’s life, then, I will be certain I am contributing to the dream of a united Pan-Africa.
You may be aware that Ghana celebrated its 58th independence anniversary recently. Many feel that Nkrumah’s work is what we are still relying on. As a non-Ghanaian, do you get the same impression?
I get the feeling that the continent has stagnated. We are almost where we were when we got independence. Even though the population is bigger, we are poorer. The level of illiteracy, the level of poverty, and the education quality is lower than Nkrumah’s time.
If you look at someone like Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Thomas Sankara, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Olusegun Obasanjo, even Jerry Rawlings, and many other leaders who came before, they went to African schools – actually colonial schools. But the quality of education was much, much better. You can see that as the continent is getting older, our mental growth is growing lower.
When you go to school what you learn is not good enough to make you a productive citizen. So, we don’t have inventors and innovators. They are very few. The schools have become mass production place for workers. We are just producing workers. We are not producing leaders. We are not producing scientists. We are not producing doctors, and we are not producing inventors and innovators.
We are just producing a mass population that is obedient to the law, that does not challenge corrupt leadership, and that does not think for itself. They just follow. Yes, the continent has lagged behind because we are not investing in what matters.
That point about we just producing workers is similar to the lamentations in Ghana here. Employers always complain that the graduates don’t meet the job market requirement.
So, the people that you are producing are half-baked? They are half-baked in mind. Their aptitude is very low. The reason is that the quality of education is inferior, the level of teaching in schools is bad, the pay they give teachers is poor, and the leaders of today have no interest in giving you quality.
Of course, I employ people as well. And as an employer, I struggle a lot to meet and work with the graduates. They can’t reason. They can’t think for themselves.
They have to be told what to do. A country that has many people who are going to be told what to do is going to struggle to go ahead. If you look at Singapore that we always talk about, people are very well educated. People decide that they know that the future is in their hands.
Sadly, in our continent, we think that the future and the fate of the continent are in the hands of politicians. We have refused to think for ourselves and we have transferred the thinking to politicians.
We have left the progress of our continent in the hands of a few elite politicians who are only out to care for themselves and not for the continent.
You have mentioned weaknesses like low aptitude and quality, inadequate comprehension, little or no initiation on the part of employees, and so on. Are these weaknesses that you have observed in Kenya alone or across the continent?
It’s across the continent. Look at South Africa and the xenophobic attacks; it is pure ignorance. They are not well-
educated to understand that a Ghanaian or Nigerian immigrant is not taking their job away from them. It is the level of education.
They cannot reason to a level to understand that this person living in my country is not making me lose my job. They are not to blame. I have to blame the leaders. It’s the whole structure that was left after apartheid. It allows the few elite to share the money that is made.
But because of lack of education the people can’t see that. If you look at the countries that have dictatorship – The Gambia and the rest – the level of education there is lower. The level of reasoning is lower because if you reason you demand better. If you cannot reason, then anything goes.
Are these the kinds of things that have shaped the way you’ve gone about your work?
Yes. If you look at my work, and even the way I do protests, it is very thought-provoking. I am a provocateur in my work. I want to provoke you to think. I want to provoke you to be upset. I want to provoke you to take action. I take pigs to Parliament, I burn coffins, and I take crosses. I do a lot of very dramatic things.
Yesterday, as I watched your video, I wondered whether you are a photojournalist or an activist. Which one are you?
I am both. I can be both. I am an active citizen.
In Ghana, I can’t get away with that…
(Cuts in…)You can get away with that. In fact, I want to see Ghanaians protesting. I hear the government paid 52 million Cedis to the wrong people. I want to see people in the streets. If, in 1979, Jerry Rawlings shot people for a few dollars, and now millions of dollars are being stolen from the government, you should be protesting. Ghanaians cannot just be good people. Why? You are not even good.
You are cowards. Ghanaians are cowards. You love your football and you love other things but why don’t you speak against corruption? Why don’t you protest against corruption? Why are there no mass protests that will bring the city to a standstill against corruption?
Our colleagues from Nigeria say they are robust and Ghanaians are laid back but you seem to have a different view. Did you say that we are not laidback but we are cowards?
You are cowards when you can’t hold the government accountable. Indeed, you are not alone. Our continent is full of coward citizens. They are afraid to bleed.
They are afraid of consequence of taking an action. The reason why Ghana became free in 1957 is because they fought for independence. Ghanaians have stopped fighting for the truth. They have stopped fighting against corruption and impunity.
But there are those who argue that cowards rather pick up arms because they cannot argue or struggle intellectually. So, theirs is to hit the streets all the time, agitating.
You see, there is actually a saying in my community that the coward goes home to his mother. It’s like the coward never dies. We are cowards because we may end up living longer but longer in suffering. Why do you want to do that?
I still cannot understand how, as a journalist, you remain objective in your work and still take position on issues.
You can never be objective in your work. No one is objective. Don’t lie to me. You are biased as human beings. You are biased because of your upbringing, your religious beliefs, your gender, and your values. We are all biased. There is nothing like unbiased reporting.
The truth is, as human beings, we all have our biases but you must ensure that at the end of the day truth prevails. That is what you do. So, when I do protests and I do my street actions, I have to ensure that it is not about me but about the truth.
Have you ever told yourself that ‘I think I need to be careful’?
I have thought about it. I have toned down. I am a father now, so, I need to stay longer with my kids. I have to be balanced.
So, you now put your kids and your wife at the centre of everything you do?
Not only that. I am the only Kenyan who goes with his kids to the protests. I go with my family to protest. I go with my young son, my young daughter and my elder son. I go with my kids to the streets.
Why?
Because I am fighting for their future and if I died today they would continue the fight. So, they need to understand these things. I take my kids to the street protests.
Is that the way you want them to go when they grow up?
Yes. I am showing them those values and those beliefs and taking away that fear now. So, if my son sees a police officer he is not going to be afraid. And I am sure if I died tomorrow, my daughter, who is turning five, will one day be doing the same things that I am doing because she is the most vocal in the house.
How does your wife take all of these?
She married a package. I came with everything that I am. So, she cannot choose that she likes this guy who is a photographer but she doesn’t like the activist. I think she has been served on a table. But she supports me. She has her own fears that I won’t live long; that I will be killed. But she still loves me. So, enjoy the moment while you can.
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