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The last couple of weeks were particularly unusual. I had to help with some port clearing operations, while thinking of the preparations for the World Day Against Child Labor. I had to be involved with the beginning operations of the Challenging Heights cold store, while flying for board meetings somewhere in Europe. And the most annoying thing, I had to see Okoe Vanderpuije’s beard flooded again!

I had a couple of other reasons which made me not to write. It was because the prevailing issues were too political.

Top on the list was the rise and fall of the Komenda Sugar Factory. It had too much partisan slipping fields for my liking. I wanted the matter to die its own death.

I’m not a sugar cane grower, so if a brand new factory set up to produce sugar ended up not having enough sugar cane, and therefore decided to shut down for six months long routine maintenance, what can a fisherman like me say about it?

And I nearly wrote about the presidential gift! That Ford Expedition which the contractor brought from somewhere Burkina Faso with some diplomatic letter escorts.

This Manasseh boy, if I follow him he will lead me bassaa. Why should you follow a presidential convoy? Or why should you follow a presidential bribe, even if it was not? Is Manasseh not aware that the president’s mother died? If you are not going to console the old man, why do you disturb his crying?

Anyway this week I initially wanted to write about how flooding was celebrated in Accra, and how we said never again, only for the entire Accra to be flooded again the next morning.

But I have been inspired to put that on hold, and to explore a letter that came from a former expatriate staff of Challenging Heights.

In 2014 I recruited two British Nationals, Dr. Kate Danvers, and Dr. David Schley, to work with Challenging Heights as Vice Presidents. The aim was to strengthen our internal systems and structures, and to develop sustainable modules for the organization.

David was in charge of Research, Advocacy, and Campaigns, with an additional responsibility for funding management, while Kate was in charge of Rehabilitation and Wellbeing with added responsibility for special projects. These are two brutally qualified individuals, both with PhDs, both above 40 years, and both with several years of working experience.

This week I received an email from Dr. Kate Danvers. I reproduce below Kate’s email:

“Dear James, I hope you are well and happy and all at CH is progressing without too many unnecessary challenges.

Even though you have not heard much from me since we came home, you should know that you have been very much on my mind, and I find myself talking about you a lot when people ask me about Ghana.

This letter is long overdue because I have been thinking hard about how to express all that I feel about leaving you and Challenging Heights. I think it will be too difficult to properly express everything, so I won’t delay any longer. I will risk not writing you the perfect letter, but write it from the heart.

I feel like I have been in limbo since leaving CH, waiting for my new job to start, and readjusting to UK culture, with all its challenges. What I miss most is the opportunity to do work that matters.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity for two years to become part of CH and to do such important work with you. You took a huge risk in inviting two unknowns into the midst of your organisation, and I will be forever grateful that you are the courageous sort who is willing to try things out and see where they might lead!

I often tend to feel shy and hold back when I meet new people and know that I miss out on opportunities and relationships because of this, so I intend to use your example as inspiration: I know you do not always feel socially confident and that you take a long time to really trust people, but you have an ability to put that to one side, make people feel listened to, and be open to accepting their new ideas.  

I hope that I will also learn from your ability to make things happen – often I find myself having ideas about how things should be different, but then don’t manage to take action on them.

You have never seemed to have this problem! You know that at times it made me anxious, as I am the type that likes to plan carefully, but I really admire the way you say “let’s just do it!”.

For all the potential risks, I observed that usually this works out well, and as you also seem relaxed about making changes of direction when they are needed, this inspires me to be more bold as a leader. I only wish I had half your energy and enthusiasm!

What I enjoyed most about working with you was when you, me and David were able to find enough uninterrupted time together to explore your new ideas about CH, and think through ways of making those ideas a reality.

You are such a creative person and often come up with surprising and ambitious ideas that others would not think of. Often times those long talks involved a lot of laughter, and I loved the feeling that it was us and CH against the world!

Because I am a reserved English type, expert in understatement, I do not always say or show when I am impressed by something, so I will say it now, in case you do not know how I feel:

Challenging Heights is a wonderful, impressive and inspiring organisation. The model of change is excellent and I feel proud to have been a part of it.

You have created something truly amazing, a world-class charity that carries out transformative social action as well as humanitarian intervention. You rightly deserve all the accolades and awards you have received, and more, for all you have created.

Also for your perseverance in continuing CH through the years, which I know comes at great personal cost. Your example of service to your community and your country is an inspiration, and I hope I will also be able to commit to service throughout my life. 

I think there will be more letters to follow, reflecting in a bit more depth on all that I learned from you and from CH. I feel I have a responsibility to bear witness to all that CH has accomplished, and to bring attention to the high quality of its work.

I am already working on some ideas for how to continue to support CH from afar, including collaborating with my old MA tutor at the University of Brighton to get some of your/CH work published in academic journals – hopefully having published references will help when applying for grants and open doors to other platforms where we can spread the word about CH’s work.

You told me once that people can never leave CH, they are always part of the family, and I hope that will be true for me too.

With love and greatest respect,

Kate”

I must admit I have faced deep challenges working with Challenging Heights. So whenever I receive such glowing tributes, I feel the touch, the urge to celebrate rush to the fore. It diminishes frustrations and invokes ambition.

A few years ago a Dean of Parliamentary press corps was approached to run a smear campaign against me. But he refused, and rather did a good story titled “Challenging Heights to the Rescue”.

A couple of years ago I went through one of the most intense attacks working for Challenging Heights. Some of the attackers offered a former Manager of Challenging Heights a twenty thousand Ghana Cedis reward if he could volunteer any information that could lead to damage to my reputation.

When that did not work for them, they went to Tamale to solicit for a Mallam’s help to kill me. This mallam came all the way from Tamale to Kasoa to accomplish his task. He was subsequently arrested by the police.

A few weeks ago the following message was intercepted from somebody who I am told is working hard to bring Challenging Heights down:

“We are a team of 8 people who are gathering intelligence to sabotage so-called Challenging Heights”.

In the last few years I have learnt to ignore some of these negative disruptions. It used to bother me, and it took away a lot of my energy. But now I don’t bother myself anymore, and ignoring such destructive tendencies has helped me do more of what I believe in.

Most entrepreneurs, especially those found in Africa, face so many of such personal attacks. I have read so much about Ghanaian entrepreneurs such as Kofi Amoabeng, Kwame Despite, Kwesi Twum, Kennedy Agyapong, Herbert Mensah, Ibrahim Mahama, and a host of others. There have been times when I have read very difficult and filthy stories about some of these business persons. In some of the stories, it is so easy to read envy and jealousy into the subject matter.

In Ghana anyone who has been financially successful is tagged as either having trafficked cocaine, or stolen the money, or used charm to achieve his wealth. People do not see scientific reasons why some people like Kennedy Agyapong, Ibrahim Mahama, and Kwame Despite could gain so much wealth in life. So they ascribe so many negative reasons for acquiring the wealth.

Of course I don’t doubt some ill-gotten wealth in Africa. There might be political corruption due to cronyism, procurement fraud, and some naked theft. There must be an effective non partisan system to deal with such public theft.

However, there are so many proven methodological routes to wealth acquisition. As a country we need to find very good ways of protecting and facilitating our entrepreneurs, to continue to create wealth, to create more jobs, and to expand the economy. We cannot continue to destroy our entrepreneurs while expecting to grow our middle class. We cannot continue to expect more jobs to be created when we destroy those with the ability to create those jobs.

As a young and aspiring entrepreneur it is good to admire established entrepreneurs. You should be able to take them as your role models. Study how they made their wealth, and inspire yourself with their success stories and lessons. Therein lays the prospect of your own successes. Therein lays your own energy to grow. You will inspire yourself to victory if you challenge yourself to become like those you see.

Never attempt to denigrate anyone of his success, whether through envy, jealousy, or for political expediency. No one who pulls people down has himself been truly successful in life.

I am a social entrepreneur. I do a lot of different things, so I should not have time to pay attention to people who do not matter in the scheme of the things I do.

Everybody wishes to be successful. We all wish we were as successful as those who are more successful than us. But we are the same people who try to smear such persons, forgetting that such negative energies will also be directed at us when we take our turn at success.

Of course I cannot be right in all that I have done. I might have taken some really difficult decisions. I might have unknowingly done unreasonable things that might have affected other people negatively. The paths of an entrepreneur are full of hurts. It leaves a lot of shredded feelings in its wake.

And why would I not experiment with ideas? I have done very odd things I called innovation. Some have worked really well. Others have crashed, and crashed me. But I have kept going, and I have kept spewing out new ideas. There have been times when the going had become really tough, to such extent that paying staff have been a real challenge. These ups and downs have all come together to strengthen me, and to make what I do somewhat beautiful.

So yes I will err. But I pride myself to the service of my heart, and to do what I believe leaves sufficient legacy, that just as is in Daddy Lumba’s lyrics, “I will sacrifice my soul for mankind, I will do what I can, I will go when it is time”.