Treating Africa's Headaches: Beyond Monkey Solutions
By Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, PhD
My plea in this article is that, in our well-meaning effort to do something about the plight of our continent, we must first correctly diagnose the problem. Failure to do so will result in offering “monkey solutions.”And “monkey solutions” are more deadly than the problems they seek to solve. Let me explain.
Monkey Solutions
I derive the expression “monkey solution” from a story I heard from one of Ghana’s pre-eminent statesmen—an Oxford-trained social anthropologist, a prolific author, and a theologian. His name is Dr. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Church in Kumasi, Ghana.
The Retired Archbishop was the special Guest of Honor on the opening night of a 3-day “African Must Think” lectures I was conducting in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. His assignment was to give a short introductory speech to set the tone for my first presentation. As he concluded his insightful address, he told the story of some monkeys to...