Internet matters, especially Web 2.0,
have been on my mind a lot lately. The 2.0 part of the meme scares me
sometimes; a self-replicating something (some call it a hype) running across the interdisciplinary landscapes of the mind, latching on to long-held
concepts, trying to transform established meanings--"development 2.0," "education
2.0," "government 2.0," "enterprise 2.0," "finance 2.0"...! It was
while in this Web 2.0-induced state of mind that I stumbled accross a
debate on Ghanaweb recently, concerning the brain drain of doctors away
from Ghana. It had been triggered by a series of brilliant feature articles authored by Professor Atsu Amegashie of the University of Guelph, Canada.
It all happened in a cool atmosphere
largely free of the insults, hot airs and sundry emotional perturbations that
bedevil too many forums. Cruising through message after sensible message felt
like an escape from the sticky mugginess of a hot day into the dappled ambiance
beneath an indulgent mango tree. Lots of
low-hanging intellectual fruits hung within easy reach of my eager fingers, the
click of my faithful mouse...
This post elaborates a bit more on some of the ideas that
came up during the debate, but from a more general African perspective. It attempts to capture the salient portions
of the discussion in a way that, hopefully, makes up in African taste, what
they might lose in Ghanaian flavor.
You must know by now that the main reason behind the age-old
exodus of African experts is the desire for a 'better life' abroad. We have been indoctrinated into the belief
that the pasture is green and the honey abundant at any place but home. Volumes
have been written about the problem. Most of them are irrelevant, often missing the head of the nail (ouch),
and hardly getting to the roots of the phenomenon: faith in a material Canaan to which many are called but few are chosen. The urge to escape is so powerful that trying to stop it by appealing to
patriotism, or by resorting to some draconian measure, would be as pointless as
commanding the winds and waves to stop surging—as one Ghanaian king tried to do
on the beach more than a century ago. So
what to do now?
From my initial perch on the sidelines of the debate, I noticed an attractively adorned idea scrolling by on my screen, and grabbed it with a click before it could
vanish. It was a juicy concept for
turning the brain drain to our advantage, saying: encourage African
professionals living abroad to enter partial affiliations with local
organizations in their countries of origin. African professors and researchers
based in North American universities, for example, would spend the summer
vacation periods delivering teaching and research support to universities in Africa to which they are affiliated. In a
flash, this idea quickly gathered an enchanted throng of satellite comments and
thoughtful remarks. In the ensuing
exchange, several people urged—rightly—that the model be extended to other
professional fields besides professors and doctors.
Then Atsu dangled before us a link to an earlier article on the same topic. Clicking on it, I was teleported at digital speed to
a fascinating piece by Robert Mensah-Biney in 2004. Mensah-Biney had done a thought-provoking job of showing
how professionals in the diaspora could be mobilized for national
reconstruction and development. He used entertaining analogies from the world
of football to score his points. “If” he asked his readers, “it makes sense for
the Ghanaian football (soccer) team to invite Ghanaian professional soccer
players [based in] Europe to play for Ghana during the world cup tournament, I
do not understand why it does not make sense to invite Ghanaian professional
engineers, architects, economists, accountants, medical doctors, scientists,
educationists, in the Diaspora (Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Australia etc.) to
come to Ghana as consultants and advisors on development projects in Ghana.” [To be continued]
Update (4 January, 2006)--The link to the 
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