Ghana, the Black Star of Africa,  the Beacon of Hope, started so well with great aspirations  and dreams to build New Africa Identity… but Here We Are Today! Is It too late? I don't think so.

SANKOFA…. CAN WE  GO BACK TO OUR ROOTS AS GHANAIANS TO  PICK UP THE PIECES WE LEFT BEHIND ?

Austine Kay

Sadly, some believe the choice of Black Star is the cause of our predicament as a Nation. Their reason :- black stars can’t shine. Hmmm but if our star is black because we are  black people, are our minds and hearts also black? And would our story have  been any different if the star is White or Yellow? Or  our thought our stronghold ?

Nevertheless, Ghana is blessed with many good things.. From our Location:- centre of the world, Environment - tropical region, our Fruits & Vegetables :- Mango, pineapple, tomatoes, kotomre  and Food Produces:- many cereals and tubers are great  food stuff and  enough to take a good care of her citizens.  If only as a nation, we can focus  on what we need as people before thinking of what we want. 

Let's develop a good  taste for  Ghanaian  cuisines and improve upon the cooking:- stop overcooking, excessive use of oil, and  shorten the  process time  to some meals through  packaging. 

“Grow what we eat, Eat what we grow” should be on the lips of everybody.  And if we can be intentional  about our agriculture sector, the fruits & vegetables alone can  take care of the needs of  this country.and make us rich.  I love  what has been done with Coconut, oh good old coconut lately. The center stage coconut is enjoying in these recent times and the opportunity it is providing to many is recommendable. There is more room for improvement though.

And if the politicians want to help, then it will be  prudent that the Agric Ministry  engages the services of  CSIR Food Research Institute , Ghana Atomic Institute (Agric Research Division), Agric Extension Officers and other Food Research Institutes and possibly  the Universities to lead this initiative. 

So let's go back to the principles of Operations Feed Yourself. And If  we can handle this initiative with all the seriousness it deserves, we will  feed ourselves in no time. 

Family is a basic unit of every society. It is a place where we pick basic morals as a person and learn the values of our society. When it is broken, everything  runs along the same line in the community. Fathers are called upon to do a little more. Culture is not evil.

In the ancient days, child birth and naming ceremony was considered very sacred and this cuts across every tribe in Ghana. Notwithstanding  the differences in dialect, we all  attached the same importance to this ceremony. and It  has always been a very  closed ceremony, 

Today, this sacred ceremony is public and merchandise  for money and fame.  Many do not  respect the 8th day tradition anymore, which  aligns the sound of the names, the cry and the breath of the newborn to  the rhythm and vibration of the land.     Hence, most children are so out of alignment with the culture and the morals of the land of their birth. And we call it modernization / civilization.

Since most children are no longer in sync with the bits and rhythm of their land, morals, discipline and culture is least important to them.  The churches also think they can do it all alone and have encouraged their members to reject their families and relegate their counsels.   With this, they have robbed the families of their respect and authority. 

We pride ourselves on Ghanaian Hospitality because we were taught from home how to sacrifice our sleeping place for  a visitor and to treat elders and visitors with respect. Today , the level of morals and discipline in our secondary schools is there for everyone to see:- young ones  stab themselves while teachers look on. 

Further,  I believe we’ve all studied Photosynthesis in school:-  the way  plants and trees  produce their food.  Trees  give us fresh air (oxygen) during the day while they take in the bad air (carbon dioxide ) we breathe out.  This  process is so essential to our human existence and survival on planet earth. However, today in Ghana, we built houses,  concrete everywhere without any green grass or a single tree.

In the past, our forefathers knew this fact and have linked the burying of the newborn’s placentas to the planting of a tree in honour of that child into the family.  Hence the expression “a big tree has fallen” when a great man in a family has passed. 

Though today the children's placentas are no longer given to parents, can we still go back to this  tradition where we  plant  a tree in honour of a newborn while we organise the child’s naming ceremony on the 8th day?.

I believe, if we can all adhere to this simple tradition, in no time we can restore the lost forest cover and enrich our ecological environment.  The expression ”when the last tree dies, the last man dies”  is never a mistake.  

Ghana is a beautiful land, full of many rain forests and a lot of fresh water rivers spreading across the entire country. This should  make life not too difficult to live in this land. if  we  can  all stand  not to think too fancifully, but just concentrate on producing our food and taking care of our environment.  

Let's keep a clean environment from our homes to the roadside,  from the marketplace to our village Squares and good health will be taken care of.   God's admonition to eat our fruits and use the roots as medicine will  strongly be  in place if we can take care of the environment. 

The Environment is our land,  our wealth, our health and our lives. It is sacred, let's reverend it.  We need to take good care of it and guard it joyously because it is all we have to  live a very fulfilling and joyous  life.  God has His reasons for locating us  in this land and it is a gift. 

Our forebears had done these before. They knew the importance of the land & environment and  had kept them so well long before the whiteman had first stepped foot on this part of the west coast. So we know how to do these things, they are engraved in our DNA, let's find them.

“Sankofa yen tsi”:- no one will prosecute us for going back to our roots to pick up the pieces. 

Maybe this piece is too simplistic in focus, ignoring all the complexities and dynamics of today's life.  By now,  deep-thinkers,  great strategists, and  economic gurus have concluded: - oh! What a myopic viewpoint,  in view of all these intrinsic and intricate complexities of problems in this country called GHANA.  

However history  taught me that sometimes, the most effective strategy to overcome complex problems/challenges is in taking ordinary things to formulate simple solutions for everyone concerned to easily follow.  Solving complex problems is not in the complexity of the solutions but in the heart felt commitment and consistency in following the course of action. For some time being ordinary makes you extraordinary because nobody wants to be ordinary. 

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong. 

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