Lets Give Them A Warm Welcome.

A couple of years ago, my in-law arrived in New York with the Akan or Akuapem version of the Holy Bible. In one of our numerous conversations, she told me that my last name, KUSI, could be found in the Bible. So she instructed me to open Sephania (Zephaniah in English) chapter one, verse one. I picked up the King James Version and found the translation of Kusi, to be Cushite.

So after our biblical discussions, I went to Google to check the history of the Cushites and a few sites popped up. I read through them and found that they lived in present day Sudan centuries ago. The Cushite Empire is said to have existed alongside the Greek and Egyptian empires and they are sometimes referred to as Ethiopians. They are known to have migrated south to Kenya. I came to the conclusion that some might have migrated west to present day Ghana but wondered how they made the long trip by foot.

My father who was born in 1903 used to tell me that, he would walk from Tamale to Cape Coast with his father, carrying along cola nuts in exchange for salt. Refugees from war torn Sudan have confirmed my conclusion with their arrival in Ghana. Although I cannot confirm the mode of their transportation from Sudan, I assume they came by foot.

If they have been screened and found to be law abiding, lets welcome them in the spirit of brotherhood of man.

We have set up programs like Homecoming for African-Americans who left our shores four hundred years ago. Some have even been made chiefs in our villages, (in Ghanaian terms,) after paying a little something. In this instance, there are many Ashantis by name Kusi and some Kwahu citizens by name Kissi. All of us are Cushites and should trace our ancestry to that part of the region, if we believe in the Holy Bible and its Akan translation. So lets also treat them as members of our family.