In my primary school life, the Headteacher and the teaching staff conducted the programmes and activities of our school with the help of a few clocks in the school. The clocks were usually located in the office of the Headteacher and on the tables of class teachers.
The Bell Boy
One of the posts I admired most in the school was that of the Bell Boy. The School Bell Boy had the privilege of being close to one of the few available clocks in the school. At scheduled times, the Bell Boy would boldly and proudly move outside the classroom and ring the school hand bell with authority and great enthusiasm,
- Assembly, please !
- Silence hour, please!
- Break Time, please!
- Break Over, please!
- Change lesson please!
Sometimes, some of us would plead with our Primary School Bell Boy to add a few minutes to our Break time, to enable us enjoy more play time. As if he did not hear our plea, the Bell Boy would go ahead and ring the bell even more vigorously and with a louder tone, “Break Over Please.”
As we grew up in the school environment, my friends and I learnt the importance of working with time precision. As new students in Secondary School, we were expecting to hear the instructions of the Bell Boy or Bell Girl, but they were nowhere to be seen. As months passed by, we learnt to self-mange our time resource, making use of clocks located in vantage points in the school.
As we travelled along the educational journey, my colleagues and I realized how important it was to be precise in scheduling our time resource.
The Village Clock
Sometimes, during school vacation, my sisters and I visited our father’s village, Nyame YƐ Adom, near Busua, in the Western Region of Ghana. One of the items which I admired most, during such visits, was a beautiful wall clock in my uncle’s living room.
The numbers of the clock, as well as the hour and minute hands lighted up when the room was dark. I still admire wall clocks with such unique features. Later in the sixties and seventies, the wrist watch became more popular in our village and in the surrounding towns, especially, among the elite and business class. At that time, the Swiss watch models gained more popularity in urban communities in Ghana and Africa, in general.
Traditional Timing
Today, as we interact more closely with the clock, wrist watch and modern digital time devices, our meetings are scheduled to start and end at precise times. However, the movement towards time precision in the traditional African context has not been easy. Quite often, we excuse our lateness to functions by hiding behind the common term, ‘African time’.
The Foreign Time Experience
Africans who travel abroad to other continents (especially Europe and America) to work with companies and organizations, often share interesting stories of how they live in a society which observes strict adherence to time schedules. Recording or signing in and out at the workplace is a common practice which employees are required to adhere to.
Tyranny of Time
Some foreigners living in the industrialized countries share stories of how their lives seem to be controlled by the clock. Many of them often feel intimidated by the time precision in their new geographical environment and they tend to refer to their experience as “the tyranny of time.” Except in times of disaster and general hold-ups, lateness to work due to snow falls, heavy rains and heavy traffic does not seem to attract any sympathy from employers
V.I.P. Time
As growing school children, our teachers taught us how important it was to keep to time schedules. On some special occasions, we were transported to a big sports stadium, located in Sekondi, a city in the Western Region of Ghana, to attend important national and regional events, including anniversaries and sporting activities.
On other occasions, as school children, we would line up the streets to welcome very important national and international visitors and guests. In most cases, we would report at the venue well ahead of the time scheduled for the event.
However, in almost all cases, we would wait for a long time before the important personalities arrived. The actual event would usually start late, sometimes far beyond the originally scheduled time. As we grew up, we began to wonder whether important or very important people (V.I.P.) had a different time schedule (apart from the officially communicated time) for attending public meetings.
John is a HR/management practitioner, PHONE/WHATSAPP: 0244599628
E-MAIL: jsquaisie@yahoo.com
