A man whose list of accomplishments and accreditations far
outweigh the average human being was on site of the University of
Pittsburgh at Bradford this week to discuss a wide range of topics
from globalization to children’s literature.
In addition to being an author, Dr. Gheysika Agambila, a native
of Bolgatang, Ghana, is a certified public accountant, a certified
fraud examiner, a former employee of Ernst & Young, Ghana’s
former Deputy Minister of State in the Ministries of Finance and
Economic Planning; Harbours and Railways; and Environment and
Science and a professor at the Ghana Institute of Management and
Public Administration, a full-fledged university of undergraduate
and graduate students.
Agambila received a bachelor of arts from Brandeis University, a
master of business administration from the University of Rochester
and a doctorate in public finance from New York University, but has
never been to Bradford. That happened courtesy of his friend and
UPB professor Dr. BioDun Ogundayo.
“I come to the United States from time to time, but this is my
first time in Bradford. The town is very beautiful; the rivers and
mountains offer pleasant scenery,” said Agambila
Agambila, author of Journey, an assigned reading for Ogundayo’s
African literature course, has spent the past week in Bradford and
spoke in three different forums on various topics on the UPB campus
including globalization, the media in Africa and Journey.
The man of many trades began his lecture series Tuesday when he
spoke at a luncheon in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby in Blaidsell
Hall.
Also on Tuesday, Agambila spoke to a Capstone communications
class about the media and free expression in Africa, which the
students found related to some of their other coursework.
“In America, the media is a developed industry and is
self-sufficient. There are schools that train people that allow
them to choose media as a profession. When people can live well
from what they are doing, the industry grows,” said Agambila.
Countries that colonized Africa up until very recently
established restrictions on media, so the push for a more
democratic government and media to boot is a contemporary
issue.
“The freedom of expression that the media has depends mostly on
the type of government in power in a given country. The development
of the Internet has allowed for things to be published that might
not normally be seen, but all in all, there are governments in
Africa that are still very restrictive on what they will allow,”
explained Agambila.
Ghana, both his and Ogundayo’s native country, is this year
celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence from colonial
rule. Ogundayo stressed the importance of this when introducing
Agambila to his African literature class Thursday.
“It is not every day that students get an in-person visit from
an author of a book they are assigned to read,” said Ogundayo.
Journey is a book about “reality in contemporary Ghana,
juxtaposing tradition and modernity, wise old age and frivolous
youth, north and south and male and female,” according to Kari
Dako, an author, translator and lecturer in the department of
English at the University of Ghana.
The students took advantage of having Agambila in the class by
having him clear up some confusion about characters in the book,
and meanings behind certain situations. He even got to hear one
group give a short presentation on the book.
“I’m nervous about having to present in front of someone. I
don’t want to butcher this guy’s work,” said one student before
class. There was some hubbub concerning the characters and how they
were related to one another, which became clear when Agambila had a
chance to speak.
“There are some parallels between American and African culture,
but we do refer to people differently. If I saw a male friend on
the street, I might call him ‘brother,’ although we are not
biologically related. In America, terms are defined much more by
biology,” he explained.
“People ask me if the book is autobiographical,” said
Agambila.
“When you write there are about four sources that you can get
your information from: experience, what you’ve heard, what you’ve
seen and imagination. You cannot write a book about making lasagna
if you have never made lasagna. Of course there are elements of my
experience in the book, but it’s not about me,” he continued.
Ogundayo echoed Agambila’s remarks, saying, “Of all of the books
that we read in my class, this one is very personal to me. I grew
up in the setting in the book. I was a part of the town, the school
– it reminds me of home,” he said.
Ogundayo’s said he is mostly silent about the book because of
his closeness to the subject matter, although he did admit to being
a dining hall prefect at the school they both attended in
Ghana.
“You wanted to know the dining prefect,” joked Agambila.
Agambila signed books for the students after class and
apologized if they had trouble with some of the sprinklings of
dialect that may have been hard for them to understand.
“I never intended for the book to be widely read, so I am sorry
if you had difficulty with it,” he said.
Ogundayo explained, “Books are like bacteria: they spread around
everywhere and people react to them differently.”
