Ghana is Ghanaians and Ghanaians are Ghana - Essay Example

The Ghana Exercise A. Letter Accra, 10 November Dear The time point at which I will have to leave my position in the school is quite near. Before that moment comes, I have decided to share with you certain events of my life. These events are related to our country’s political history and I thought that they would help you to understand the current status and the future needs of Ghana’s political system. It was the 5th of June 1949 when I had the visit of my cousin. She had been informed that a new political party was about to be established and interest existed for individuals that could support its ideas. The philosophy of this political party, as my cousin explained to me, was close to my ideas: independence from Ghana and social justice but with a dynamic form of resistance. In other words, it would be a nationalist party influenced from the ideas of socialism. I was really pleased to hear that and I stated my interest. In a few days, the 10th of June, I was present in the party’s establishment, being one of its founding members. Through the years, I tried to participate in as many meetings of the party as possible, supporting social activities, writing documents and organizing events. Through these public meetings local people had the chance to be informed on the progress of the country’s independency and on the party’s schedule for securing economic growth. Also, emphasis was given to the protection and enhancement of Ghana’s cultural and social identity. Because I have to respond also to my duties as a teacher my involvement in the party’s activities could not exceed the two-three hours on a daily basis. For years, my life was dedicated to inform people on Ghana’s potentials, as a nation, on the history of Ashanti, a population that has suffered a lot from colonialists and from the chances of Ghana to recover from economic devastation, as a result of its long-term occupation from colonialists. The power of Ghana’s culture and tradition had been significant help; Ghanaians, being independent by nature, were willing to risk their live for securing the freedom and happiness of their children. All these efforts were terminated unexpectedly. It was the morning of 24 February of 1966 that police officers entered my apartment and arrested me. I had to pass a few years in jail, without specific category but just because of my participation in a political party. My participation in CPP offered to me valuable memories but also an important feeling: I know that I’ve done everything possible for helping my country to escape colonialism and to become an independent state, not just in terms of economy but also, mostly, in terms of political control. Today, the efforts of people of that period to support their country seem to be misunderstood. People who participated in such activities were not based on personal motives, even if exceptions always exist, but rather on their willingness to gain back their identity, as reflected in the culture and the ethics held in the country’s social life. This need of Ghana for securing its identity has to be respected and understood by the country’s people today. Things that have been considered as guaranteed, such as personal safe, right for vote and freedom of speech were not guaranteed in Ghana during the period that the country was under the control of colonialists. This fact, itself, is strong enough to verify the need of Ghana to emphasize on its centralization but with emphasis on human rights and freedom, as secured in the context of nationalism, not in its extreme form but rather in combination with another political philosophy such as socialism. Such philosophy is near to the beliefs and culture of Ghanaians: the people of Ghana love peace but they are also loyal to their roots, not willing to leave the control of their country and their heritage to foreigners. I would like to ask you to have the above issues in mind when you are asked to make a choice in regard to your political beliefs. Nationalism may seem as a threat to the liberal system of governance. However, Ghana’s achievement to be released from systems of governance that had destroyed the country, such as colonization, should not be eliminated by adopting other systems, that can bring the country under another form of control: not political but economic; the latter is always combined with the former. Don’t forget that Ghana is Ghanaians and Ghanaians are Ghana, Your teacher B. Commentary on the letter The letter has been structured in such way so that the recipients, i.e. the students, do not feel as being given orders but rather as having the chance to hear the experiences of a person who has being part of the events under examinations. More specifically, in the letter emphasis has been given to the narration of facts taken place in an important historical period for Ghana, meaning the period that led to the independency as a nation. This approach has been used for two reasons: a) students, due to their age, would possible react negatively if they were felt as obliged to make statements or adopt views that are aligned with the perceptions of other persons; due to their age students are expected to react critically to any explanation given to them in regard to a theme, such as the political status of their country. By referring mostly to events the following advantage is secured: students, as recipients of the letters, are left free to make their own assumptions on historical facts, feeling as being respected as of the value of their opinion. Another important advantage of this approach is that students are most likely to read the whole letter; in case of a different approach they would be probably tempted to give up reading after a particular point of the letter; b) the teacher has lived by close a series of critical political events, such as the transition of Ghana from a colony to an independent state, the conflicts between parties and the fall of the country’s dominant part, the Convention People’s Party. For this reason, her testimony in regard to that period is considered as critical for evaluating Ghana’s political choices and style of governance. After deciding the content of the letter I had to decide on the types of arguments that the teacher would use for developing the particular document. Apart from describing events the teacher had, necessarily, to state her view on these events. At this point the following dilemma appeared: which direction would these views follow? Should be supportive of the decisions of CPP and of nationalism, as a political movement? Or they would be critical, based on objectivity? The second approach has been chosen even if, at certain points of the letter, the positive notions for nationalism have not been avoided. Moreover, at the end of the letter the teacher had to state her view as of students’ most appropriate choice, between nationalism and liberalism. At that part of the letter the first approach had to be adopted. The teacher presents clearly her thoughts on the appropriateness of nationalism for Ghana. Still, students are left free to decide whether they would adopt their teacher’s view on their country’s political framework. In addition, in regard to the content of the teacher’s arguments, where used in the letter, the following issue needs to be clarified: these arguments had to reflect the teacher’s political beliefs but also the cultural/ social history of Ghana, at the level that the teacher has been involved in politics but she is also a Ghana’s society, as based on specific culture and traditions. The description of Ghana’s political history, in order to evaluate the country’s current political framework and its future perspectives, seems to be a challenging task. In fact, the review of studies referring to the country’s political events has led to the following assumption: being under the control of foreigners for centuries the country’s people had to develop their own national identity otherwise they would not be able to survive. The leader of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nkrumah, had realized the above need (Kedourie 2013). Indeed, as a leader Nkrumah tried to ensure that people across Ghana are given the power to state their view and to ask for their rights; Kedourie refers to newspapers of that period that describe events that had took place during public meetings arranged by the CPP (2013, 129-130). In the context of one of these public meetings a woman from the audience ‘jumped up on the platform and started to sing a song/hymn’ (Kedourie 2013, 130). This hymn has become, since then, a musical theme for the party’s public meetings (Kedourie 2013). As Nkrumah accepted in his biography, he had the need of such support by the people; even if the relationship between Nkrumah and his supporters could be characterized as an effort of the particular leader to control his followers, this fact gave to the Nkrumah the power he needed for confronting his opponents, as Nkrumah had noted in his biography (Kedourie 2013). At this point, reference should be made to the following fact: the culture of Ghana has been part of the African culture, in regard to ethics, beliefs and social behaviour (Adjibolosoo 1995). This culture, as expected, has come to opposition with the culture of Europeans, the colonialists, who had try to control all the country’s resources limiting the perspectives for the country’s future growth (Adjibolosoo 1995). It was in such environment that nationalism in Ghana was highly developed leading to the establishment of CPP; it should be noted though that CPP, even based on nationalism, had adopted socialism emphasizing on the relationship with local people rather than on the relationship with political powers (Goldthorpe 1975). Of course, as also explained below, this practice of CPP has been exercised for securing for the particular party the absolute power over the population. Such practice has been proved quite effective: CPP managed to keep the control of Ghana for about 15 years (Biswal 1992). In other words, CPP remained in the governance of Ghana for many years due to the strong support of local people. However, Ghana incorporates a series of ethnic groups which have important differences, as of their culture and ethics (The Diagram Group 2013). Reference can be made, as for example, to Ewe, an ethnic group of about 2 million people who’ live in the areas near the cost, mostly in the region of Togo’ (Skutsch 2013, 449) and who have their own dialect; also, there are the Ashanti, also known as Asante, who represent the high majority of Ghana’s population using a dialect based on ‘the Akan group of languages’ (The Diagram Group 2013, 37). On the other hand, during the governance of Ghana from the CPP the level of democracy within the parliament had been strongly criticized, as of being quite low (Amamoo 2000). The political opponents of CPP had accused its members for efforts to ‘eliminate any threat for their political future’ (Amamoo 2000, 82). Moreover, CPP has emphasized on the promotion of its power in regard to the control of the country. In declarations released by the party’s representatives, phrases that show an extreme level of control appeared: for example, it is noted that ‘CPP is Ghana and Ghana is CPP’ (Goldthorpe 1975, 259). In other words, the governance of Ghana from CPP has been based not only on the need of local people for protecting their cultural and social identity but also on the willingness of the party’s members to remain in the country’s control for a long time. Based on the above, the coup of 1966 that led to the end of CPP’s governance and the ‘arrest of all its critical supporters’ (Amamoo 2000a, 46), could be characterized as expected. Despite the termination of CPP’s dominance in Ghana, through the coup of 1966, the following question has to be answered: has Ghana, since then, been able to secure its growth? In other words, has liberalization, as promoted in Ghana since the fall of CPP, been proved an ideology appropriate for this country’s political and economic recovery? The answer seems to be negative. Indeed, in Ghana nationalization has been considered as an ideal ideology, after the end of colonization (Tansey 2004). However, Ghana was not ready to support nationalization, in all its aspects (Lofchie 1971) since this political philosophy requires integrate political environment. Being a colony for centuries it was quite difficult for Ghana to eliminate social conflicts, a fact that had affected its political life (Appiah 2007). The numerous ethnic groups within the country, such as Ashanti, wanted to ensure that their traditions and rights would be respected by the central government, a target that would be difficult to be achieved (Gocking 2005). In regard particular to Ashanti, reference should be made to the following fact: this ethic group represents the most important part of population in Ghana, as already explained. For this reason, this ethnic group had a critical role to the governance of the country: the teacher, being an Ashanti, believed that its participation in her country’s political life was for her a moral obligation. The above trends make Ghana unable to sustain an ideology for long term: nationalization in Ghana, as combined with socialism, could not survive for many years. On the other hand, the country had to adopt an ideology for its political system: liberalization was preferred, while elements of nationalization were reserved (Legum 1999). The influence of liberalization of Ghana did not take long to appear: in 1969 ‘the country’s most profitable goldfields, the Ashanti Goldfields, were sold to a Multinational corporation, the Lonrho Group’ (Shillington 2013, p.587). Liberalization, actually, had positive aspects, but not for Ghana. The teacher, as a key member of CPP, has experienced a series of important political events. Her imprisonment for her political ideas stopped his involvement in politics but could not affect her views. Her views on Ghanian nationalism could be influenced mostly by the following two aspects of this ideology: a) the particular ideology has mostly enforced the country’s independency and b) it was this ideology that was mostly opposed, leading even to the imprisonment of its supporters. The studies, mostly books, developed in regard to the political history of Ghana have highly helped me to understand this country’s political characteristics but also to understand the teacher’s motives to participate in politics actively. References Adjibolosoo, Senyo. 1995. The Significance of the Human Factor in African Economic Development. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Amamoo, Joseph. 2000. The New Ghana: The Birth of a Nation. Lincoln: iUniverse. Amamoo, Joseph. 2000a. The Ghanaian Revolution. Lincoln: iUniverse. Appiah, Nana. 2007. The Role of Government and Regulation in the Emerging Real Estate Industry in Ghana. London: ProQuest. Biswal, Tapan. 1992. Ghana, Political and Constitutional Developments. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre. Gocking, Roger. 2005. The History of Ghana. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Goldthorpe, J.E. 1975. The Sociology of the Third World: Disparity and Involvement. Cambridge: CUP Archive. Kedourie, Elie. 2013. Nationalism in Asia and Africa. London: Routledge. Legum, Colin. 1999. Africa Since Independence. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Lofchie, Michael. 1971. The State of the Nations: Constraints on Development in Independent Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. Shillington, Kevin. 2013. Encyclopedia of African History. London: Routledge. Skutsch, Carl. 2013. Encyclopedia of the Worlds Minorities. London: Routledge. Tansey, Stephen. 2004. Politics, the Basics. London: Psychology Press. The Diagram Group. 2013. Encyclopedia of African Peoples. London: Routledge. Bibliography Akindes, Francis. 2004. The Roots of the Military-political Crises in Côte DIvoire. Göteborg: Nordic Africa Institute. Dow, William, Craven, Alice and Yoko Nakamura. 2014. Richard Wright in a Post-Racial Imaginary. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. Furedi, Frank. 1989. The Mau Mau War in Perspective. Oxford: James Currey Publishers. Geurts, Kathryn. 2003. Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community. Berkeley: University of California Press. Greene, Sandra. 2002. Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter: A History of Meaning and Memory in Ghana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Juang, Richard. 2008. Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. Santa-Barbara: ABC-CLIO Lansford, Tom. 2014. Political Handbook of the World 2014. Thousand Oaks: CQ Press. Minahan, James. 2002. Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Naylor, Rachel. 2000. Ghana. Oxford: Oxfam. Olson, James and Robert Shadle. 1991. Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Sasnett, Martena and Inez Sepmeyer. 1967. Educational Systems of Africa: Interpretations for Use in the Evaluation of Academic Credentials. Berkeley: University of California Press. Read More