Anyone for sign language?
E. Ablorh-Odjidja

December 13, 2013

What passed for sign language at the Mandela memorial on December 11, 2013 apparently was not. And after the memorial, the buzz in the news was all about this fake interpreter and what he did.

We get to know later through the same press that this fake interpreter was sick. What was not openly said was whether the context of his act might offer a larger meaning; a window on how we conduct our affairs in Africa.

On the day we celebrated triumph over apartheid, we managed to put on stage this farce. And you ask why?

It just might be that the incompetent, the insane, and the most brazen among us always get ahead to call the shots for all of us.

The Associate Press has tracked down the fraudster, one Thamsanqa Jantjie, who by his own admission “was once hospitalized in a mental health facility for more than one year.”

How did Jantjie get on stage to mingle with world leaders and who cleared him for such prominence?

Obviously, he was no apparition, so a human must have certified him for this foolery; not to mention the breakdown in security that the world would not soon forget.

Thamsanqa Jantjie’s act was inexcusable, but this was not a product of racism, apatheid or colonialism. A sick man, who had no idea what sign language was, got the opportunity to attach a farce to an unforgettable occasion  – a cosmic joke, if you will.

A careful vetting of Jantjie's background, skill and sanity could have spared Africa the embarrassment. Pathetically and obviously this was not done.

There are officials on the continent who would readily bring to fruition the worse dream our detractors have for us. Slowly, our society is being revealed as a place where the charlatan triumphs and competent actors don't.

To place one Jantjie on stage that day, official South Africa ignored hundreds of sons and daughters who could have done a better job. Yes, it was Jantjie who got the job!

As news, this event was not half as worthy as it was as a jaw dropper. Disparagers of Africa would rejoice. The ANC government of South Africa must be held accountable for this shame.

The ANC was formed in 1912. It gained its objective of a multi-racial society for South Africa in 1994. But you just don’t defeat men like Pieter Willem Botha and Hendrik Verwoerd and finally drive out apartheid to put in a "Jantjie" act.

Instead of allowing us to contemplate solely on the vast accomplishment of Mandela and his compatriots, we will have this farce dragging on our memory forever and as relish for our detractors.

Jantjie revealed to The Associated Press that he began hallucinating “while he was interpreting.” We pity his affliction. But, we now know by his past that his state of mind was already not up to the task at hand. A responsible official could have found this out.

So on a day when we were proudly telling the world about the greatness of our Mandela, we also let loose on the same stage Jantjie.

"Braam Jordaan, a deaf South African and board member of the World Deaf Federation, said the interpreter was making up signs as he went along," the Guardian of UK reported.

“The structure of his hand, facial expressions and the body movements did not follow what the speaker was saying…….I was really upset and humiliated…. What happened at the memorial service is truly disgraceful thing to see – What happened today will be forever aligned with Nelson Mandela and the deaf community, thanks to this fake interpreter." Jordaan concluded.

The Jantjie failure was graphic. But our postcolonial history is littered with such catastrophes.

When a disgruntled soldier stages a coup, with no clue as to how to govern, but we rush into the streets to hail him as the new Caesar; when the powerful put charlatans in high positions as managers of our national resources, elect leaders who trash the constitution and leave our future in shreds, we have done a “Jantjie.”

And the world looks on amused.

True, there may be such characters as Jantjie in situations everywhere in the world. But what is abundantly clear with this particular case is that we have too many of these imposters in Africa.

And with our collective connivance, they shame us daily.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, publisher, www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, December 13, 2013
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