Our beloved country Ghana approaches its half century as an independent country in 2007. It should be a time for truly national and united celebration with the entire country - Religious groups, workers, schools and children, young and old, and all political parties involved in making Ghana?s Jubilee a memorable one.

The Convention People?s Party (CPP) the party that gained Ghana independence should be at the heart of events or certainly at the table, but partisan politics will probably ensure this does not happen indeed the signs are that the ruling NPP government would is seeking to marginalise Ghana?s Party of Independence and its supporters, whilst also seeking to capitalise on the anniversary of an event that their forbears had fought against. It is worth remembering that representatives of the United Party (the party from which the NPP descends) boycotted Parliament at Independence. Their opposition to Independence on the grounds that we as a people were not ready to manage our own affairs has caused them great embarrassment since 1957 and is still a matter of great sensitivity in their ranks

This perhaps explains the launch of the ?JOSEPH PROJECT? aka ?AKWAABA ANYEMI?, aka ?AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA HEALING PROJECT?, as 2007 approaches.

The NPP?s publicity on the project is that the year 2007 also marks the bicentennial of the British Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, and that Ghana is making preparations towards a healing manifestation to deal with the problems of hurt spirits, that the project is ?an initiative by the Government of Ghana to use the historical occasion of the year 2007 to heal and reconcile relations between Africans at home and those abroad.?, a call of welcoming embrace and a bonding of kindred spirits to consolidate the future safety and development of Mother Africa?s children both ?at home and abroad?.

The reality however is that they simply want to dilute the celebration of Ghana?s 50th independence celebrations, an issue which is historically embarrassing to them, but also seek to capture black/Afrikan diasporan sympathies where they have not worked to rip any such rewards. The project poses many questions which many progressive Ghanaians have already begun to raise.

Many wondered ?why 'Joseph'? and the Biblical / Koranic parallel in a multi-faith country with its share of pagans, atheists and ancestral worshippers? ? why not a parallel from somewhere (say West Africa) or cultural experience (say in the Black American experience) closer to home?? Many can?t help recalling that Dr.J.B. Danquah's Christian name was 'Joseph'.

Those who are now viewing the ?Joseph Project? with a lot of suspicion ?cannot phathom why we still use European or judeo-christian/moslem analogies to sell our country or to make it more attractive for others, or why we cannot come up with more original and symbolic appellations to capture the imagination of the bulk of people we intend to attract, who may not be practising Moslems or Christians for that matter?.

An International Conference on Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation, and Reconciliation. Conference is scheduled to take place in Ghana, July 21st to August 2, 2006, called allegedly to assess the Global Pan African reparations movement , but also to outdoor the ?Joseph Project?

The organisers acknowledge that Ghana is ideal for such an important conference because ? Pan African reparations work used to be at the heart of the local, national, and international policies pursued by the government of its first president, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah with the support of great historic figures like W.E.B. Dubois, Amy Ashford Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, Malcolm X, George Padmore, Ras Makonnen, Franz Fanon, John Henrick Clarke among others?

The question then is why. Ghanaian progressives at home and abroad in the CPP and other parties have not been invited, nor indeed a wider circle of Ghanaians to make the event a truly National/International event.

Some are also asking why reparations is seemingly US focused and dominated to the exclusion of for example Latin Afrikans in the South Americas ? Black Brazilians and Columbians who constitute a sizeable number of Africans outside of Africa. - they as a united block are continually ignored with token representation at such conferences.

We call on progressives both in Ghana and abroad not to be fooled by the Conservative NPP governments seeming support for a progressive cause. The Joesph Project is a fraud and we ask Bankie of the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC), Namibia. Sababu Shabaka, Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations, Queen Mother Dorothy Benton Lewis, former National Co-Chair of N'COBRA and North American Regional Co-Representative to the GAC, Raushana Karriem of All for Reparations and Emancipation (AFRE). Esther Stanford, of the Pan Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe (PARCOE) and Pan-Afrikan Forum of Ghana, (PAFOG) to expose the truth and join the CPP and other progressives in America, the Latin American Africans, the African continent, to organise an alternative and truly representative reparations conference in memory of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, The greatest African, who worked tirelessly for the cause.

Individuals and organizations who support the aim of organising an alternative event in the name of Dr Kwame Nkrumah , and to truly celebrate Ghana?s 50th birthday, should contact the CPP at cppuk@hotmail.com. Forward Ever!! Backward Never

Convention People?s Party (CPP UK & Ireland)