“Too Known” Is Killing Us

I have struggled with an appropriate title for this piece because I recently learnt a lesson about publishing articles on ghanaweb.com – the title of your article is as important as the content of the article. In particular, if you try serializing an article, you need to think carefully about your titles. But that was just part of the struggle; the other part has to do with the likelihood of misinterpretation of the phrase “too known”, routinely used in Ghana as a derogatory and demeaning label. I hope that this article clarifies my position from the start. I hate the label “too known” because it is killing us as a nation.

“Too Known” is killing us, literally. Yes, I mean because of “too known”, we are dying as a nation. We are unproductive, not innovative, risk averse, negatively creative, unpatriotic, incompetent, hypocritical, subversive and corrupt. Yes, all of us, all of us living in this country called Ghana. Before you start calling the hangman, hear (read) me out. The phrase “too known” is pejorative in Ghana, used to characterize a person who comes across as a “know-it-all” or as the Americans call it, a “wise guy”. I have seen many a Ghanaian reduced to a caricature, for fear of being characterized “too known”. It is a disgrace.

Politicians are afraid of it because in their view it might jeopardize their chances of securing the project they promised their constituency during the last election, and thus cost them the next election. Civil Servants are afraid that it usually marks the truncation of a lucrative professional career laden with patronage, kick-backs and boot-licking. Parents are afraid of the consequences school authorities may visit on their kids in school, because their “too known” parent dared to question publicly the content and method of their child’s education, although every parent is complaining about the very same thing privately. The Police, the Military, Customs, IRS, Immigration, the entire institutional infrastructure in this country and in fact the entire population of Ghana is held captive by this two-word phrase – “too known”; and because of it, the things we ought to say and/or do to develop our country, and overcome the challenges of our times, are left gathering dust in the deeper recesses of inventive and brilliant minds. There are many people in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana with good ideas, which can easily be made great if put in the public domain for discussion; but this two-bit word has so scared such beautiful minds, that none has the guts to speak up. We are quick to label others as “too known”, always pejoratively, never complimentary; but quick to be hurt when the label is put on us.

Let me tell you a bit about a few “too known” people, and what their “too knownness” has brought mankind. Wilbur and Orville Wright took their “too known” attitude to the cliffs in Ohio and revolutionized aviation as we know it today. Yeah, the planes we all are quick to jump in were invented by two “too known” school drop-outs from Ohio, who tried their “too known” hands at everything – printing, bicycles, ice hockey, etc. Marie Curie took her “too known” farther into physics and chemistry and pioneered research in radioactivity. Garrett Augustus Morgan through his ‘‘too known” attitude gave us the traffic light system.

“Too Known” Tetteh Quarshie, by a singular act of “too knownness” changed the destiny of a nation, and with it, its economic fortunes, when he smuggled ten cocoa beans, at risk of death, to this country. Unfortunately, because of our fear of “too known”, we still eat the cocoa, the same way we have done since he brought the bean in – Milo (and its varieties) and Chocolates, made by “too known” foreigners. It is a disgrace

The birth of our own nation, Ghana, was occasioned by a “too known” and young General Secretary of the UGCC Kwame Nkrumah who became Africa’s greatest in the twenty-first century. I am sure UGCC members of the time labeled young Nkrumah “too known”, while working to thwart his efforts. Sadly, they did not make the “African of the Century” list. Without him, we would never have had a nation to call ours; a nation that the same anti-“too known” UGCC members lived in and benefitted from. Look around us. Everything we see and use – cars, TVs, cell phones, etc. etc. are the products of someone’s “too known” attitude. Remember Steve Jobs, the most “too known” non-tech guy at Apple? Yeah, that guy who died worth 20 Billion Dollars? Yes, he brought you your first iPhone prototype and he was not even a techie; he was a marketing guy. Alll Smart Phones today are modeled after his “too known” innovation. I would love to be “too known”, bring a major invention to mankind, put a little ding in the world and die 20 Billion Dollars rich. How about you, do you simply want to live in obscurity and mediocrity and die a pauper? Come on, people!!! Say “too known” is good!

Behind the offensive use to which Ghanaians put this phrase however, are two principal contradictions which drive our very existence routinely. The first is the notion that “who you know matters”. Clearly, if someone wasn’t “too known”, how will knowing him/her matter, indeed, how will we get to know anyone at all? Think about it for a moment. Many of the people who matter that we need to know to get things done, are known by so many people – “too known”. It is the reason why you get to hear about the person as someone capable of helping you in the first place. If such a person wasn’t “too known”, you will be getting nowhere. Yes, some may argue that the “too” part is the undesirable difference in “too known”. I disagree; that part should be the desirable part. All of us are “known” one way or another, and unless our own hubris clouds our objectivity, we are just mediocre. In fact, we often construct our own renown to fit our subjective valuation of our worth; but to really be impactful, we must add the “too” part and thus, become “too known”. It is baffling that the very attitude we condemn, ironically, is the same attitude that seems to be responsible for making anything worthwhile happen.

The second contradiction to the “too known” phenomenon is the question “do you know who I am?” It is a question which immediately puts fear into the most determined bribe-taking policeman in Sikaman. I have heard numerous stories of fellow countrymen and women who have used that question to great advantage. It is almost like a get-out-of-jail card when faced with the foot-slogging policeman. To the Civil Servant, it tantalizes the appetite for a bribe or the potential for career advancement. To the young man or lady struggling, it beckons the chances of “connection” to a job or a contract. The question is used in many, varying circumstances but often with the same result – sweet relief and reward. So why so much hostility towards “too known”?

I have even heard others hurl that pejorative word at America, the United Kingdom and Western countries. This article is not about the ills of the West against poor countries. Yet, let’s look at America for a moment. For all it’s “too knownness” nothing much in the world would be the same the way we know it today. Energy, technology, locomotion, aviation, medicine, transportation, education, science, music, art, theatre – I could go on endlessly. America has much to be proud of, much to be “too known” for. As for us, what are we “too known” for? Well, just being plain “unknown”. We eat our TZ, kenkey, fufu and palm nut soup and waakye, belch loudly, brag about our cell phones and cars, and how many “boutique” clothes we have, oblivious of the fact that we are just nonentities. As my good friend Amakye Dede puts it “e japaadi? nyinaa y? kwa”!

Finally, the few who dare to be “too known” know that if they go public on an issue, then they must deliver. To me that is positive. It spurs these people to work hard, to do their “homework well”. Sadly, such people are so few and far between that we have only produced two – Professor Allotey, whose Allotey’s Constant is being utilized even at NASA for space exploration. As usual, we Sikaman fu?, have used his Constant for nothing, zero, nada, zilch. We just refer to it like I have just done. End of story. The other is Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jr.

So why the hell are we allowing “too known” to kill us, when it has been so useful. People, let’s all get known; let’s get as “too known” as we can be, for it is the only way by which we can get this country out of the doldrums. Let’s remake our country, and with it, its place in the world and its destiny. Thanks for your time.

Francis Dery
Email: deryfrancis@yahoo.com