NKRUMAH’s DELUSION

The saying, all men are created equal is one of the most profound statements of the modern era. Most of our religious sects espouse this particular theory. But, are all men, indeed, created equal?? Probably this was the source of Nkrumah’s delusion, because he ended up believing in the illusory ability of his Ghanaian compatriots. However, 57 years down the line, we’ve managed to make our point so clear and forcefully that we deserve a pat on the back for managing to prove Nkrumah wrong. Nkrumah believed that the black man, like the white man, was capable of managing his own affairs, thus he asserts,

“… I made it quite clear that from now on-today- we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on we are no more a colonial but free and independent people… my last warning to you is that you are to stand firm behind us[government] so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance he can show the world that he is somebody…. I made a point that we are going to create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world we are ready for our battles”- Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

 

Identity crisis

It was in March this year when I attended a leadership/entrepreneurial workshop. At the workshop we were asked to introduce ourselves. It was a small number of shortlisted participants. After introducing myself, a gentleman seated by me, inquired, “don’t you have an English name”? I smiled and shook my head in the negative. He wasn’t the first to ask me such a question-I get that a lot. Most of the people who ask such questions do so, I think, out of ignorance as they fail to realise the import of such a question.

Assuming you meet a Brit and he gives you his name as George William Ferguson, and then you proceed to ask, don’t you have an Akan or an Ewe name? Why should he have one? In the same vein, why should I have an English name since I am not English?

Such a question is considered normal in Ghana due to the elaborate co-existence with the British. Certainly Nkrumah was not oblivious of this. Thus he advocated for the need for attitudinal change and a change of mindset in order to create a distinct African personality and identity.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR — by Cyril Fafa Adom

We all wear clothes, in fact am yet to hear about any group of people from any tribe who do not wear some form of clothes in this modern era. But do you know that the clothes you wear to an extent reflect who you are?  Back in school, I had a friend(name withheld for security reasons) who so much fancy wearing multi coloured clothes, you rarely see this guy dress without mixing colours up. He could wear clothes that have all the rainbow colors in it. Sometimes, it got so funny that we couldn’t help but laugh at him. We thought he was weird, in fact, some thought he was a ‘villager’. We once went to a program with him, and the moment we entered e room, everyone started starring at us. I thought they were probably admiring how handsome we looked until I realized that all eyes were rather fixed on this my friend who was wearing a‘disco’ coloured attire. After that incidence, I began to wonder why this guy always wanted to advertise colours in his dressing, it was then I realized that there was some correlation between his personality and his choice of clothes.

I know most of you have friends who wear certain types of clothes which make you shout “omg! this guy/lady has a terrible sense of fashion’, some of you may even shout ‘this guy/lady is a villager paapa, see what he is wearing’. Well, it is all cool if you do that but after reading this article, you wouldhave realized that a person’s choice of clothing is largely affected by their personality and not just their poor or otherwise sense of fashion.We more often than not make our choices on what to wear and what not to wear based on who we are.

REDEFINING ‘GHANAIANNESS’

REDEFINING ‘GHANAIANNESS’ – By Dzidedi Deku-Amegbor

Some things are better left unsaid. Others turn worse when left unsaid. Those things just have to be said…and done

Ghanianness

We Ghanaians often pride ourselves as peace-loving, hospitable and democratised people with rights and responsibilities which unfortunately, we do not exercise fully for our own good. Though Ghanaians have very fine endearing attributes, those qualities seemingly deter us from exercising our rights and responsibilities. In other words, we fail to use the right quality to fulfill our rights and responsibilities for our individual good and for that of the nation. In this write-up, I explore the need to redefine our “Ghanianness” to include boldness.

THE CHURCH HAS MORE MONEY THAN GOD

The Church Has More Money Than God- By Winfred Appiah-Sefa

The chief wrong which false prophets do to their following is not only financial. The collections aggregate a tempting total, but individual payments are ruinous. But the real harm is on the mental and spiritual plane. There are those who hunger and thirst after higher values which they feel wanting in their humdrum lives. They live in mental confusion or moral anarchy and seek vaguely for truth, beauty and moral support. When they are deluded and then disillusioned, cynicism and confusion follow. The wrong of these things, as I see it, is not in the money the victims part with, so much as the mental and spiritual poison they get.

Barry W. Taylor

HISTORY: AN INVALUABLE TOOL IGNORED

HISTORY: AN INVALUABLE TOOL IGNORED

Some things are better left unsaid. Others turn worse when left unsaid. Those things just have to be said…and done.

It’s the last semester of our final year. History class. No not the normal boring history classes that had students either for most of the time, bent over their notebooks scribbling away or staring at the lecturer absent-mindedly, hearing yet not listening. This particular one had us sitting on tenterhooks with our ears pricked alert like that of a cat who had heard a mouse squeak. Two brilliant lecturers and a promising, well-read teaching assistant handled our class. It was a Post-Independence Africa class.

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

The cultural fanatic would ask, ‘what is there to challenge? Haven’t you heard of the saying, never discard tradition?’ Well, I have and thank heavens; I heard that which says culture is dynamic too.
It seems conservatism was deeply ingrained in the genetic make-up of the African.

                            four legs goooood, two legs baaaad!!

This statement is one of the recurring ones in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, particularly by sheepish flock.
This seems to have been their favourite commandment/law or probably the only one they remembered. However, this write up is not about my friends on the Animal Farm, or should I say Manor farm?? I just want to borrow the favourite commandment of the sheep, albeit in another context, a case of the agony of a southpaw born and raised in Ghana particularly before the twenty-first century, a classic case of, ‘right hand good, left hand bad’.