A REVIEW OF ANIMAL FARM

INTRODUCTION
Eric Arthur Blay who goes with the pen name as George Orwell wrote a very classic and political book he called Animal Farm.  The book was published in England on 17th August, 1945. It could be said that the allegorical novel brings to bare issues of colonialism and other significant issues the affect and influences a country and its citizens.
It gives a vivid presentation of what may be seen as the pre and post liberalization of a nation. It considers the struggle for self rule and authoritative nature of the cream of the crop class once freedom is achieved.
Reviewing “Animal Farm” with viewpoint to political Ghana, it is necessary to outline the colonial and post colonial antecedents that took place as examples to justify the political nature of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. In so doing the review seeks to touch on Colonialism, Fight for Independence, Coup D’état, Dictatorship and Propaganda as was witnessed in this allegorical in relation to The Republic of Ghana.

COLONIALISM
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals” (p. 4).
This shows that the animals felt oppressed in their situation where they had to work for someone whom they see as portraying himself as master and recognizes them as servants or better still slaves. They work as hard as is determined by their master who is known as Mr. Jones in the book.
The animals saw Mr. Jones as a colonial power that maltreats them and takes away the fruits of their labor to enrich his self. It is in this same light that the people of Ghana viewed the British. The people of Ghana were made to work laboriously for their masters; the British. The British took their lands and its mineral resources to build their nation and became lords over them in their own country.

FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE
The fight for independence always starts with motivational messages, setting up of movement groups guided and goaded for a common and identifiable of self rule. And there wasn’t an exception in George Orwell’s ‘’Animal Farm’’. Old major a middle white boar began stirring up the fight for independence from a strange dream he had. He began his rhetoric with a revolutionary song titled “Beast of England” (p.7). Upon his death, the course was taken up by Snowball and Napoleon two young boars (p. 10-15). The revolution eventually took place on a Sunday afternoon and surprising to the animals they had won their independence though blood was shed.
As steps to claim their right to own their new state, they changed they name of the farm from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm”. They also used the famous revolutionary song “Beast of England” as their National Anthem. The animals instituted “seven commandments” to guide them to exercise self restraint, moderation, compromise and peace (p.14 & 15) which served as a constitution. For a national flag, the animals hoisted a green cloth with a hoof and a horn in white painting embossed on it (p.18).
When Ghana won its independence, she hoisted the Red, Gold (with the black star embossed on it) and Green flag to promulgate the birth of a new nation. A new constitution was written and a national anthem titled “Raise High the Flag of Ghana” was sung. Though the animals used force and anarchy to gain their independence, Ghana’s had elements of dialogue.

COUP D’ÉTAT
“But just at this moment Napoleon stood up and, casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard before.   At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and they were after him” (p.33). This is a clear depiction of a coup d’état in the “Animal Farm”.
Coup d’état is a sudden unconstitutional change of government which is often violent. The action taken by Napoleon was aimed at getting Snowball out of the way so that he could take over the sole leadership of the farm. Snowball was a threat to him and his supposed rule. He used the dogs as armed soldiers with orders to kill.
This action was reminiscent to all the coups that have taken place in this Ghana. The first coup was against Kwame Nkrumah which sent into exile just like Snowball.

DICTATORSHIP
 Dictatorship is a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in one person known as the Dictator and/or a small clique. The clique or the dictator becomes take decisions without consulting the people they govern.
“Napoleon acted ruthlessly. He ordered the hens’ ration to be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving as much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death” (p 48).
Napoleon started ruling in the “Animal Farm” by using decrees and whatever he says is not challengeable.
This form of government existed during the Nkrumah era when the Public Detention Act was implemented. Dictatorship also became the order of the day during the military regimes. Citizens were not permitted to speak freely for they feared arrest or facing a brutal punishment. During the rule of dictatorship regimes in Ghana, the Constitution is suspended and most democratic practices are abolished.

PROPAGANDA
Propaganda is information, ideas or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement or a nation. In the “Animal Farm” false information about Snowball was communicated by the Napoleon-led administration through Squealer to the animals in other to influence the thinking of the animals
 “”Comrades!” cried Squealer, making little nervous skips, “a most terrible thing have been discovered. Snowball has sold himself to Frederick of Pinchfield Farm, who is even now plotting to attack us and take our farm away from us! Snowball is to act as his guide when the attack begins. But there is worse than that. We had thought that Snowball’s rebellion was caused simply by his vanity and ambition. But we were wrong, comrades. Do you know what the real reason was? Snowball was in league with Jones from the very start! He was Jones’s secret agent all the time” (p.49).

The same thing is being done in modern day Ghana. Political parties in the country spread unsubstantiated rumors about other political parties or the people in the party so that Ghanaians will form negative opinion about those parties. Some of the parties even go to the extent of creating an executive office for Squealer’s equivalence, which they explicitly call Propaganda Secretary.

CONCLUSION
The book which was published on the heels of World War II tells the story of the political atmosphere that existed which is now of relevance to modern day Ghana. The history of Ghana can be told using “Animal Farm” as a symbolism. The days of colonialism, the fight for independence, the dictatorship regimes that sprang up, coup d’états and the use of propaganda are all stages through which “Animal Farm” went through and so did Ghana. It is right to conclude that George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an iconic representation of Ghana’s political history.

By: Andrew Tetteh

IS IT FOR PATRIOTISM OR TREASON

My friend Lemuel Nortey sent me this amassing poem of his. If you are eighteen years or above and a Ghanaian, the chances are that you will be joining a queue come December 7, so while you wait for your turn to exercise your franchise, please do ask yourself; is it for patriotism or treason?

My brothers and fathers!

.....sisters and mothers!

Is it for patriotism or treason?

For the time is here and we`ll run and not cease

to that place under the trees,

to that church space

that hospital yard,

or even by that roadside.

[Despite],

that constantly, with burdens our backs coil

and our foreheads drip with toil,

they shamelessly fight to keep place and trinkets

whiles poverty fills our empty pockets

and yet to the polls we`d go

and make our 'kokromoti' power flow.

so I ask , when we go, is it for patriotism or treason?

Sometimes I even wonder,  is it the promises?

or the mere assurances?

for the 'elephant-people' say

they will pave the way.

Irrevocably, the 'umbrella-people' vow shelter

and a national future that is better.

'Others' promise us well behaved troops

but better yet, tasty chicken to grace our soups.

[Nonetheless]

tenure upon tenure, these broken promises

are thrust awkwardly  in our faces,

still to the polls we`d go

when deep down we know

that the national treasury they`ll make low

however we rush to put them there

but when we do, ask , if you dare

is it for patriotism or treason?

[Yes]

 its time and with treachery in their hearts

and greed in their  eyes

they`ve  come again, to sow seeds of hope

but experience says, they`ll drag us down the slope

and so finally, when you stand  under that  sun

after that long run,

on December seven

ask yourself, is it for patriotism or treason?

By: Lemuel Nortey

                                                                                                           

GHANA NEEDS A CHINESE PRESIDENT

Today in our homeland, there isn’t a day we do not hear of at least one thing that suggests the Chinese Invasion.

Chinese immigrants are invading in our privacy, they are engaging in economic activities that are reserved for only Ghanaians. The worst part of their infiltration into our country is that they are engaging in illegal economic activities such as galamsey and they even go to the extent of arming themselves, in our country. Yes! They arm themselves in our country! That poses a National Security Threat.

So many questions have to be answered. First, do we even have a data on all these Chinese immigrants who are roaming on our streets with arms? Secondly, how do they even get access to these guns in the first place? Did they purchase them in this country or they brought the guns into this peaceful country of ours.

In our dear country, nothing gets done without the involvement of these invaders. From digging grave like holes at the Flagstaff House to building huge structures like the four CAN 2008 stadia and construction of roads.

There isn’t any sector of the Ghanaian economy that doesn’t have Chinese immigrants featuring prominently. They are basically taking control of everything that makes us Ghanaian and the worst thing is that we are allowing them to do that.

We have politicians who do nothing but always looking for abrogated contracts to pay judgement debts. The leaders of this country are visionless to the extent that they fail to recognise no faults in bringing in Chinese convicts to engage in laborious work, not to say that we have overcrowded prisons in this country indicating that there is no shortage of convicts in our own prisons. The Chinese convicts, most of the times do not leave the country when their projects end.

I just want my fellow Ghanaians to realise that the Ghanaian generated money ends up in the pockets of these Chinese convicts.

Every originally made Ghanaian product has its Chinese inferior version. They get them into this country through our ports, the products then end up collapsing the Ghanaian grown businesses that our dear fragile economy badly needs. The economy is run behind the scenes by these Chinese people who have infiltrated our country and those who are even calling the shots outside the country.

Chinese are everywhere and it will not be much of difficulty to have a Chinese President in Ghana to make “Operation Invade Ghana Complete”.

Besides if we have Chinese people engaging in retail in Ghana (a venture reserved exclusively for Ghanaians nationals). Section 18 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act, 1994 (Act 478) reserves retail trading exclusively for indigenous operators. Foreigners who wish to engage in trading activities in the country are required under the Act to invest a minimum of $300,000 and employ not less than ten Ghanaians.

Then the request for a Chinese President isn’t far fetched though it is also exclusively reserved for Ghanaian nationals. In the 1992 Constitution, Art 62 (1a) states that “a person shall not be qualified for election as the President of Ghana unless he is a citizen of Ghana by birth”.

By: Andrew Tetteh

THE GIFT GHANAIANS GAVE TO MILLS

The most high profile job any Ghanaian can have is President. Maybe being the Secretary General of the United Nations UN could be the job that can challenge this believe.

Presidents are referred to as the First Gentleman on the land and their family is branded as the First Family. All these and many other benefits like a gargantuan ex gratia, and protocol access to other influential Heads of States add up to making the job of a President very lucrative and sort after.

For three times over a period of eight years, the Late President Mills asked Ghanaians to do him the honor of giving him the job. Beaten on both the first and second occasions by John Kufour. On the third, Ghanaians gave him preference over Nana Addo, a move some analyst say, Ghanaians were being sympathetic of the man who had his eyes on the Presidency after serving as Vice President.

With the recent turn of events; his battle with the sickness only him and his entourage knows what, the eventually untimely death to which Rawlings say, though it is shocking but unsurprising death, have left people wondering whether the gift Ghanaians gave to Mills was bad for him.

Most of the fallout from events preceding his death makes it possible to believe that the job of the President may have contributed to his death or differently put, he wouldn’t have died on the 24^th of July, 2012 if was not our President or if Ghanaians hadn’t given him that job in January 2009.

People believe he had throat cancer for years an assertion Rawlings affirmed in his interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC, hours after the passing of our dear President. According to Rawlings, Mills had cancer since he was his Vice President, he added that the cancer had spread to his eyes and ears which sometimes made the Late President unable to sit through meetings scheduled for more than three hours.

As with every painful and unacceptable death, the blame game all ways finds its way into the discourse of the bereaved. Political parties blame each other for having overdone something or having done nothing at all which then lead to the President’s death. Ghanaians are also blaming the people who were rumored to have urged the Late President on two different occasions not to resign from office though Mills himself had wanted to.

In the end, all this blame game boils done to the gift Ghanaians gave Mills on that faithful Wednesday, 7^th of January, 2009.

If we hadn't given him that precious gift, he might have been alive by now, they say.  The 24 million Ghanaians who loved him and some who disagreed with him politically are left contemplating on whether we should have or we shouldn’t have given Mills the black pearl.

NB: Please do make a comment.

By: Andrew Tetteh.

THE SHATTERED DREAMS OF MY FATHER

My father, when he was at my age pretty much knew what he wanted to do in future. But a boy from a very little village in Accra and a son of a traditional ruler with ten other siblings, his career train veered off a little bit from its tracks.

But as it is said, every responsible person has two different dreams at two different stages of his/her life. The first dream is his/her career and the second is his/her plan for his/her family. Thus what his/her spouse should be doing and the career of his/her children.

My dad was that type of a person. He had a plan for his family and him being just a little over an inch far from his career target, was very careful, anxious and more than determined to get it right the second time.

Well, my dad’s plan for his family was pretty much accomplished until me; the last born changed the course with which the boat was being steered.

I wouldn’t want to say I was or is the black sheep or the person who disappointed my dad the most. Talk of mum who did not visit my dad for five absolute years when he was transferred to Kumasi. What about his eldest son, who fathered three children right after junior high school with two different women. Or my mum’s eldest son whom my great dad treated as his own, what did he do? Hmmm, he fathered a son and he didn’t tell his mum or any of his relatives until the mother of the one year old took him to DOVSU for not paying for child support. The eldest of both my mum and my dad hasn’t done any outrageous thing yet, perhaps the most disappointing thing he did was to fail Elective Mathematics, a very important subject for the course he pursued at school, hence inhibiting him from going to college that year, he eventually did the following year.

The one I come after was the star among all of my dad and mum’s children. He is intelligent, actually he has the best grades in the family but his problem was laziness with food. He barely cooks anything, even if it’s just for himself. When he went to college, he barely ate which resulted in medical complications prompting a surgery which really put my family into much emotional and psychological turmoil.

Though all my siblings have failed and disappointed my dad, in recent times they have impressed him. The one who was dragged to DOVSU is now a happily married man, the one who failed his Elective Mathematics is now a banker, Mr. No Eating is now into real estate and the JHS graduate with three children is now an amateur movie director or so I heard. I must confess I’m not in much communication with him lately. My mum too has won my dad’s love all over again. So well, it seems my dad’s plan and second dream of a stable life for his children is right on track.

But, oh yeah, there is a BUT, buts are always the negative. The problem is now with me; the last born, the last hurdle to be jumped by my dad to cross the finishing line. Actually, he thought he had done that when I went to Senior High School and was doing well as a business student. My dad always wanted me to be an accountant and so my decision to go to the Ghana Institute of Journalism was a shock and a mind bugling decision to him.

He just couldn’t comprehend the idea of me wanting to divert to journalism; a profession that do not pay. Nobody has done journalism in both my nuclear and extended families. My family is an old fashioned one in career choices I must say. They believed that careers are like being a Doctor, Lawyer, Banker, Teacher or an Accountant; you know those kinds of old fashioned office-oriented careers.

In my family, these kinds of media oriented careers are dreadful grounds. I can still remember the resounding NO I got from my mum when I told her I wanted to be an actor.

Though my dad is now fully aware that I have shattered his dreams of being an accountant’s dad, he, as a modern dad, he is in full support of my choice of career and I really hope to do good as a broadcast journalist so that I can give the best dad in the whole wide world a gargantuan consolation price. He is a shattered dream dad but a proud one of course.

By: Andrew Tetteh