Ghana is not a plantation; Ghana has never been the plantation of any White Man. Ghana was born on 6th March 1957 a slave of none after many like gods fought for their freedom and abolished amongst others the bond of 1844 and thence took steps to permanently reverse the Berlin Conference of 1884. We are proud of the achievements of our parents some of who shed their blood for us. Ghanaians today are not the indentured servants of anybody in fact or in law. We are the equal of all and amongst us can be found some of the best that humanity has ever produced. Ghana is a peaceful, free and independent country of diverse ethnic nationalities with a constitution whose overall strategic goal is the establishment of a just and free society - see Chapter six: the directive principles of state policy in The 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
In the Feature Article of Saturday, 20 August 2011 on Ghanaweb, the Emperor who disrespectfully described Ghanaians as brain dead in a previous article sought to mislead Readers again this time over Ghana by making a false claim.
The Emperor’s central false claim is that “It seems that wherever you go, the story with Black people is the same. If you put a Black man in America, he would beg. If you put a Black man in Ghana, he would beg. As a result of this tendency, the Europeans have little to no respect for us. To them, we are sub-humans who have yet to evolve to their level of thinking. We haven’t proved them wrong! For instance; when it comes to our resources, the Europeans know that they can get them without purchasing. We give our resources to them too cheaply! Ghana’s ridiculous 10% oil deal should ring a bell, amongst others. In fact, Ghana is a plantation, the White man’s plantation. We're all indentured servants!”
These deeply contradictory, undignifying and racist assertions are not true, disrespectful of Ghana and Ghanaians, without evidence in history or fact in some respects, disgracefully unacceptable and calculated to incite racial and ethnic hatred.
On this planet earth, there is only one human race with different ethnic groups whether black, red, yellow or white. Wherever they are there are good ones and bad ones among them. No ethnic group of the human race is a sub-human and it is sheer evil to say there is. There is no evidence anywhere that wisdom or stupidity is the monopoly of any particular ethnic grouping black, red, yellow or white. The capacity to commit crimes against humanity is not a virtue that any ethnic grouping must be envied for. Theft with the help of accomplices whatever their colour is theft.
Although explanations of the Black Man’s role in the situation in which African’s find themselves abound – “the Field-House Negro” model for instance, The Emperor lumps all white people on one hand and all black people on the other hand together and asserts that “blaming the White man for our sufferings came with such delight! It became, more or less, my favourite sport. Hatred for the White man quickly ensued. In my view, the White man was a no good thief and a murderer. The man responsible for keeping us down!”
I am calling on Ghanaians to reject The Emperor’s labelling of Ghana a white man’s plantation - a play with shouting disrespectful words and phrases – to get our attention. It is uncalled for. The Emperor must be made to understand that he is driving apathy away from his readers who would have benefited far more from any progressive proposals he might have made.
I am also calling on Parliament to enact a new law in Ghana that makes incitement to racial and ethnic hatred a criminal offence. This is because such incitement to hatred of a person’s dignity in my humble opinion is contrary to Chapter 6: “35 (4) The State shall cultivate among all Ghanaians respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms and the dignity of the human person.” The Emperor is demeaning Ghana and Ghanaians rather than helping to promote the dignity of the Ghanaian. The Emperor is further undermining the Ghanaian Pledge.
In addition, I urge all Ghanaians whatever our problems to decide what they will do, what part they will play as Leaders, to bless our homeland Ghana and make her Great and Strong. Afterall we are all leaders whether small or great.
As I said in a previous article in response to this same Emperor, the question is “What does The Emperor intend to do, short of sitting among the Dutch and moaning about conditions back home in Ghana and Africa?”. The Emperor is angry. Anger is good, especially about the plight of our people; but it must bring forth progressive proposals that can win the support of Ghanaians to do something about it. Lashing out at everybody and calling us brain dead, stupid etc is neither best nor sound in dignifying democratic discourse.
The new Africa needs a New Progressive Leadership with a bullet-proof Plan to unite, develop and secure the Africa Homeland.
Notes
(1) This rebuttal is written by Christian Agbodza; Chief Executive Officer, World Governance International; Mobile: 0044-759-102-4436; Email: christianagbodza@worldgovernanceinternational.com; Website: www.worldgovernanceinternational.com. Those who wish to be part of this new progressive leadership solution are encouraged to get in touch.
(2) The Emperor makes so many contradictions in the article. For example, the Emperor says everywhere Black people are beggars and in the same breath declares there are Black millionaires in Africa. So which is which? This king of feature article is self-immolation at its highest expression.
(3) On how widespread “stupidity” for example, Readers could please lay hands on recently published Kwasi Kwarteng’s “Ghosts of Empire”.
(4) CHAPTER SIX: THE DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY:
34. (1) The Directive Principles of State Policy contained in this Chapter shall guide all citizens, Parliament, the President, the Judiciary, the Council of State, the Cabinet, political parties and other bodies and persons in applying or interpreting this Constitution or any other law and in taking and implementing any policy decisions, for the establishment of a just and free society.
34(2) The President shall report to Parliament at least once a year all the steps taken to ensure the realization of the policy objectives contained in this Chapter and, in particular, the realization of basic human rights, a healthy economy, the right to work, the right to good health care and the right to education.
35. (1) Ghana shall be a democratic state dedicated to the realization of freedom and justice; and accordingly, sovereignty resides in the people of Ghana from whom Government derives all its powers and authority through this Constitution…35 (6) Towards the achievement of the objectives stated in clause (5) of this article, the State shall take appropriate measures…