All over the world, the first of April is celebrated as Fool’s Day. On that day, friends play practical jokes or tricks on each other. The best prank I ever heard of was once played by a radio station in the port city Takoradi, Ghana. Days before April first, the radio station started announcing that a US ship will be docking at the Takoradi harbour to recruit volunteers to fight for the American army in Iraq. A day or two before the Fool’s Day, the station had the ‘US Army General’ in the studio to ‘authenticate’ the station’s announcement. The enthusiasm amongst the listeners reached fever pitch. To fully appreciate this pitch, you need to know that Takoradi is a city noted for its youth stowing away on ships for Europe and the Americans, risky adventures whose fatal outcomes do not fail to deter successive generations of young people. On the first of April, there were reports of long queues at the harbour, young people ready to board a ship to the States, to fight in a war they had no stake in! It was noon before one wise US-soldier wannabe remembered that it was April Fool’s Day! The radio station was nearly burst down!
April first holds a different significance for me, however. On that date in 1998, I went to Africa Hall, on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. It was UST then. My mission was to visit and wish happy birthday to my friend Sharon Odartey Lamptey (nee Quarshie). Sharon was also a member of Joyful Way Incorporated (JWI) and I was the President of the Kumasi (KNUST) branch. After fulfilling my mission and chatting with Sharon, sitting on one of the Porter’s lodge bench, I climbed up the stairs of Block A to Room 40, where two of my colleague JWI executives, Jennifer Fafa Asiedu-Dartey (nee Fudjoe) and Joyce Opare (nee Kyei) lodged. A chance meeting that day and in that room was to have a profound influence in my life. In the course of our conversation, a pretty, confident lady entered the room and I was introduced to the then Vice-President of Africa Hall, Ms. Vivian Richardson – the very first time I ever set eyes on the lady who was to become my wife.
I proposed to Vivian in July 1999, a week before we both completed our first degrees at KNUST, and we got married in June 2002. It is customary in most churches in Ghana to undergo counselling before marriage, usually done by counsellors of the church where the marriage was to be conducted. Vivian and I were privileged to be counselled by Uncle Isaac and Auntie Joy Ashong, a wonderful couple who taught us so much. Because of my travel schedules at that time as a quality auditor in Unilever Ghana, we decided to start the counselling six months to the date of marriage, so we could make allowance for any disruptions. It was a wise decision, which also enabled Mr. and Mrs. Ashong to really elaborate on the topics of discussion.
We learnt a lot from this experienced couple. A lot. Don’t buy elaborate expensive furniture until after the kids are grown. Get to know each other well and enjoy your marriage before the kids come in, because they will change your life forever! Another lesson they taught us is well captured by Phyllis Diller: “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing!”
One key lesson, on which I want to dwell in this article, was that in coming together as a couple, Vivian and I were creating a unique, brand new family name and tree, a new identify. In our case, we were creating a Richardson-Damoah combination, merging our two identities, our two destinies, forming a new branch, a new brand name. And with that, the Ashongs told us, it is our responsibility to grow that new identity into a brand that our children, our generation, our descendants will be proud of. A brand name that we can leave as a legacy to those yet unborn.
I am currently reading David Herbert Donald’s classic biography of President Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States of America, titled Lincoln. In this book, Donald recounts that, when one John Scripps wanted to write a biography for Lincoln’s campaign in 1860 and asked for information, the President replied that his early life and ancestry could be condensed into a single sentence in Gray’s Elegy, “The short and simple annals of the poor.” Not much was known of Lincoln’s parents and what they achieved. But who doesn’t know about the name Lincoln today. It is a brand. And Lincoln achieved that in one generation, leaving for posterity the equity in that name. Same can be said of Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Yaa Asantewaa, Margaret Thatcher, Efua Sutherland, Mother Theresa, and Barack Obama. These names are brand names in our world today. The equity built into these names was done within a generation, in most cases. Some of them rebuilt the negative legacies left by their forebears. Some built on the legacies of same. But in each of these examples, by their lives, these men and women by their actions, achievements and influence on their generations left a legacy of their names, for posterity.
I am yet to see someone named Judas Iscariot. If you find one, kindly let me know! What connotations do Hitler’s name bring to you? This is an exact opposite of what we discussed in the previous paragraph. A negative legacy, surely.
Abraham Lincoln stated that “I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.” And he did. He did ensure that he could answer the charge of Donald Marquis who remarked that because we pay for the mistakes of our ancestors, it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to pay with!
How does one go about building equity into a family name, creating a brand? The Persians have a relevant advice: “Do little things now; so shall big things come to thee by and by asking to be done.” Try to influence the life of at least one person. The Chinese say: If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want a hundred years of prosperity, grow people. If you want to influence a generation, affect a life. The who-is-who list we enumerated above has more people doing community service, giving a part of their lives to make their countries better. Try to improve on what is given to you to manage, so you can transfer it to another – more profitable. Try to do a little above what you are required to, and you will be making an impact that goes beyond your generation. Ralph W. Sockman captures it when he said that what makes greatness is starting something that lives after you.
I am determined to follow the advice of the Ashongs. I don’t intend to leave only a will for my children. I want to leave them something as well, albeit not immediately tangible: equity in the name I have given them without their permission. Such a brand may not guarantee success, as corroborated by Mikhail Skobeleff who indicated that ‘mere family never made a man great’, but it surely gives a head start and, in some cases, may open doors.
Action Exercise
What are you leaving for your descendants as far as your name is concerned? A brand recognised for good or for bad? Is it an act they can imitate and build upon? Make a list of practical ways you can actualise the desire to build a good brand image for our name and go to work at it!
Quotes
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” James Baldwin
“Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire. A generous habit of thought and action carries with in an incurable influence.” Christian Bovee
“The best gift we can bestow on others is a good example.” Thomas Morell
“Immortality is not a gift; immortality is an achievement; and only those that strive mightily shall possess it.” Edgar Lee Masters
“Fame due to the achievements of the mind never perishes.” Propertius
“A good father lives so he is a credit to his children.” Arnold Glasow
“Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he got out of it.” James Truslow Adams
“No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him He gives for mankind.” Phillips Brooks
“A great man leaves clean work behind him, and requires no sweeper up of the chips.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Great men never feel great; small men never feel small.” Chinese proverb
“From the little spark may burst a mighty flame.” Dante
End note
Nana Damoah is the author of Through the Gates of Thought (April 2010) and Excursions in my mind (October 2008), both published by Athena Press UK.
Both books can be purchased online from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon in France, Canada, Japan etc, and Athena Press. You can also purchase it from Exclusive Books in South Africa and Botswana, Kalahari.co.uk in Kenya and and other outlets.
In Ghana, get copies in Accra from the Silverbird bookshop (Accra mall).
Contact Nana on +233244631209 or ndamoah.yahoo.co.uk for any enquiries.
