Africa-Press – Ghana. The Ghanaian attitude to time management is notably appalling giving rise to a misnomer, ‘Ghanaian and/or mostly African time.’ This, by and large, has deep roots in the social fabric of society.
This awkward phenomenon could affect productivity and lower development.
Invention of Clocks
Earlier to the invention of mechanical clocks and becoming common in many homes, people used clues like the position of the sun in the sky or even water clocks (a device that measured time by the controlled flow of water) and candle clocks (a device that used the rate of burning candle to measure time) to keep track of time phenomenon.
Thomas Tompion, FRS (1639–1713), was an English clockmaker, watchmaker and mechanician, who is still regarded to this day as the “Father of English Clockmaking,” according to Wikipaedia.
The first known geared clock was invented by the great mathematician, physicist, and engineer, Archimedes during the 3rd century BC. Archimedes created his astronomical clock, which was also a cuckoo clock with birds singing and moving every hour.
These methods gave people a rough idea of what time of the day it was.
They were not always accurate and not consistent across locations or seasons.
When mechanical clocks came into use, said to be around the 14th century in Europe, they provided more precise and uniform way to tell time.
Since then, time can be divided into fixed hours, minutes and seconds not just morning, afternoon or evening.
According to Sarah Fletcher, born in USA, an actress and producer describes time as an ontological and epistemological issue. It is embedded in how we record human existence, how we organize our society and how we tell the story of history.
She says, time is of the essence, time is money, kill time, bury time, behind the times ahead of time, these are all common English sayings and they all imply the same thing: time is a resource, time is capital, time can be saved, and time can be lost.
Fletcher indicated you are either ahead of time or behind it. They almost involve the adrenaline pinching race of the stock exchange.
In fact, it seems most of us do not think about time too much and yet time might be the idea that is most cleverly hidden behind structures of power in the world.
“That is how the hegemony of linear time hides in power structures,” Fletcher noted.
The million-dollar question is how do Africans think about time phenomenon and whom are we?
A friend once joking said whiles the white man has a watch, the African has time.
Dr. Sylvia Tamale, a renowned Ugandan University Professor and African feminist activist once proclaimed that “we must beat our proverbial drums to African time.”
Unfortunately, African time has been juxtaposed with European time, represented as a yoke of lateness, unprofessionalism and lack of respect next to a standard of punctuality, linearity, productivity and efficiency.
Time enables humans to prioritize and accomplish meaningful tasks.
Once time passes it cannot be reclaimed or relieved.
Time is an irreversible resource, so its effective management is very important.
The prevalence of African time in the Ghanaian society, lack of respect for time, lack of judicious use of time and lack of punctuality, even in these modern times are our bane – our underdevelopment.
Strict adherence to African time syndrome hinders socio-economic development, reduces business reliability, fosters poor work-related outcomes like decreased job satisfaction and eroding trust and cohesion within groups and organizations.
In fact, the African time syndrome has permeated every fabric of the Ghanaian society and therefore is seen as “something normal.”
Those in authority, who are supposed to uproot this canker from the Ghanaian society are unfortunately the guiltiest.
Many shades of workers, including politicians, teachers, nurses, doctors and public and civil servants sadly enough, allowed themselves to be led into the snare of the African time mentality.
The African time mentality has even crept into the house of God.
A few years ago, a journalist reported the lateness of a Pastor, (name withheld), who was to officiate a programme, to start at 1000 hours, but reported at 1300 hours with many excuses, which couldn’t add up.
If a Minister of God cannot be taken on for attending programmes late, how could he check the judicious use of time in his ministry.
The most detestable issue is that; all public events came with well-arranged programmes to help steer events to a reasonable conclusion but mostly these programmes are not usually measured with time.
The astonishing part is the addition of ‘prompt’ to such arrangements, making it look like a cliché or abused words without any effect.
The political time syndrome has not yet been fully addressed though many government functions have drafted programmes with time allotted to help run such events, but are largely not followed – all in the name of African time syndrome.
We greatly miss the late Major Courage Quashiegah, a Minister in President Kufour’s administration, whose adherence to time was par excellent.
An astute military officer, late Colonel Charles Agbenaza, a former Volta Regional Minister, was always punctual to invited programmes and was extra particular about stated time on event programmes.
His trademark address to the audience usually opens with time consciousness remarks, perhaps their military backgrounds were the factor.
Togbe Adza Osei VII Paramount Chief of Akoviefe Traditional Area said time and development are inseparable and sighted politicians as the worse culprits in terms of time management.
Like Sarah Fletcher, we should see time as a capital and a resource given to us by God, a resource that is irreversible and use it to prioritize and accomplish our meaningful tasks.
It is high time the African, especially the Ghanaian throw away our African time mentality shown by “water and candle clocks” and strictly stick to the time shown by the mechanical clock.
Attitudinal change and a reset are likely to break the jinx.
Source: Ghana News Agency
For More News And Analysis About Ghana Follow Africa-Press
