The news of your manhandling by some “macho men” of the Oxford University during a debate caught my attention prior to my weekend amid the weekly vexatious political news that is very typical of our beloved country.

My brother, I have heard they dragged you by your ankles like a busted criminal, and after all that, they even accused you of violent conduct. The international media also called you black, not only that they reminded us that you were blind.

Regardless, I am happy they gave you the academic cloak you deserved, for that they dare not take away from your hardworking self. They labelled you as a PhD student, it is a manifestation of what you have acquired and endured over the years. Also, thanks to the citizen journalists who were your colleagues, we could witness in the video that you didn’t go down easily, you stood up for your right and the rights of many with special conditions like you. I am happy to observe in this letter that we heard far away from home that, the students who testified in an appeal hearing exonerated you.

Efo Azamati, your people back home here who can barely read or write, talk less of climbing up to the level you are now, say they are so proud of you! For a second, I could only try hard to understand how difficult it would be in a community with very little equality and very few brothers who could have fought on your behalf. Ever since the incidence, we in your hometown and homeland, have imagined how darker your vision was when you couldn't see those who were inflicting such injustice on you. And as a debater, I could only smile amid tears on your insistence for justice, logic and morals in the midst of a dastardly experience

I am told the Oxford Union have apologized and withdrawn the violent charges against you after hundreds of people signed a petition demanding the president of the Union to resign for overseeing such modern-day ableism and racism.

I also know the oppressors are engaging you on how to address the issue amicably, but I wish to remind you that many homes are not far off, you still aren't alone in this, we are around the ring wherein you have this bout, chanting the war chorus that a true son of the volta land heard the warriors of the land hears while growing up. Remember your mother is up on her feet and with the Ghana flag proudly tied around her waste, she is cheering you onto justice. At night, she goes down her knees to give thanks to Mawu.

Azamati, kindly make a strong statement for all blacks across the world, make it so loud and proud that, disabled blacks will continue to get admission into the white-dominated prestigious institutions. Azamati! make the justice call so clear so that all shall hear that disability or the colour of the skin does not define whether one is more or less of a human.

Azamati, Azamati, Azamati, how many times did I call you? Mawu ne nor kpli wo! (God be with you)


The writer (Kabu Nartey) is a 2017 Kufuor Scholars Fellow. He is the 2018/2019 best graduating student in print journalism and the 2019 most promising journalist of GIJ.