Opinions of Wednesday, 29 August 2007

Columnist: Obeng-Aduasare, Yaw

The Root Cause of Lack of Self-confidence In The Ghanaian Psyche

... And The Restoration Process.

Fellow Ghanaians, the Black Star shall rise and shine again forever, for there are still enough Patriotic Ghanaian Remnants in Diaspora and at home who are constantly transfusing blood into her arteries and pumping oxygen into her nostrils to keep her alive, in spite of those Ghanaians, including some of our so-called leaders past and present who are bent on bleeding and asphyxiating her to death. Ghana shall rise again!

The intellectual discourse among Ghanaian Patriots emanating from the Ghanaweb gives me hope for a bright future for Ghana. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate and thank Ghanaweb on behalf of all Ghanaian patriots at home and abroad for giving us the medium to contribute to the progress and development of our beloved, country, Ghana.

Patriotic Ghanaians are engaged in a healthy polemical dialogue to find the root cause of our backwardness, constant beggar-status, alienphile (love for anything alien) and underdevelopment. Although, the Cosmic Energy has blessed us with numerous natural and human resources but majority of our people are living in abject poverty and human squalor.

Mr. Kofi Akosa-Sarpong in his article, entitled, ' Re-Engineering Confidence for Progress' which appeared on the Ghanaweb on August 19, 2007, laments that it is the lack of self-confidence that has reduced as to a Beggar Status in the world. We are always begging Western Powers and other Asian countries to feed us while we are blessed with abundant surface water, sunshine, fertile land, and human resources. Mr. Akosa-Sarpong insists that our cultural values must be woven into our consultancies and developmental policies. I support the thesis of the eminent scholar, Mr. Akosa-Sarpong for raising the issue of lack of self-confidence; however, this current writer will endeavor to dig deeper, to pin point the root cause of our lack of self-confidence that has retarded Ghana's development as a nation, and also to find the panacea for our maladies.

We lack self-confidence because we live in alien cosmology and have dumbly rejected all the categories of our rich human experiences that stem from our rich African Cosmology. This writer insists that all cosmologies lead to the Ultimate Truth, hence it is suicidal to swallow the sink and hook of an alien cosmology. We are psychologically in a constant confused-state of mind and we adore everything alien, even when ours is better. We subconsciously hate ourselves and name our children, Eric, Jones, Kevin, Janet, Elizabeth, and so forth which means nothing in the psyche of the African child. African names are very important because it connects the psyche of the child to the Living, the Dead, and the Ancestors, and places the child on a specific point at the great wheel of the universe, the Circle.

Most of our women and even some men bleach their skin to mimic white people at their detriment, and they are at the risk of destroying the melanin that protect their skin from getting skin cancer. Moreover, they perceive themselves as closer to white people due to their bleached-skin and delude themselves to be civilized. In fact, they subconsciously hate themselves and wished they were white. Fellow Ghanaians, these are some of the symptoms that have engendered our lack of self-confidence which has stifled our development as a nation.

Fellow Ghanaians, any group of people who blindly follows an alien cosmology shall always be an appendage to an alien people in all spectrum of human experience. It means they shall always be students of alien interpretation of the world and shall never be CO-creators with God or the Cosmic Energy, so far as they continue to remain loyal to alien cosmology. In fact, these blind followers tend to be drawers of water and hewers of wood for their alien masters. The Malaysians live in their own cosmology and are using the cultural values within their cosmology. Their allegiance to their own cultural values has generated self-confidence among themselves and they have been able to use God's Holy Spirit, the Creative Force in human beings to transform their society for the betterment of their citizens. Now, what is cosmology?

Cosmology is defined here as a search for coherent set of categories for the interpretation of all human experience. Cosmology is then concerned with the coherent interpretation of Jurisprudence, Education, Science, Economics, History, Art, Ethics, Morality, and Religion. It is the bounden duty of every society to bring coherence into its cosmology if its people are to live harmoniously with and to all human experience.

However, the question of whether the interpretation of a given cosmology would create human misery or humanization depends solely on its human actors who occupy themselves with such interpretation. Such an enormous task of world-creating demands a constant self-conscious critique to determine if a given cosmology is creating freedom, justice, equality, and humanization in a given society.

This writer posits that any society which rejects her own cosmology or any set of its categories and blindly adopts an alien cosmology is destined to lose her cultural values and in the process lose her self-confidence. The miserable souls living in such society are consciously or subconsciously seeking the interest of their masters at the detriment of their people. There is no wonder why some Ghanaian leaders will create cement monopoly for alien interests at the detriment of their fellow Ghanaians. The symptoms of people who have lost their cosmology are numerous but for the brevity of this thesis few will be mentioned here and the reader can add a few of his or her own after reading this article. If they are not dressed in alien clothes, such as suit in a ninety degree Fahrenheit environment they considered themselves uncivilized. They produce nothing and foolishly brag about how well they consume what other people have produced. Their other destructive symptom is their capability to rejoice at the misery and pain of fellow Ghanaians which their ostentatious lifestyles have brought on the masses.

In his well written epic article, entitled, ' Politricks Of Cement; Keep Your Eyes On The Prize', which appeared on August 17, 2007, on the Ghanaweb, Nii Lantey Okunka Bannerman moans vehemently about the Ghacem Bribery Scandal. He writes, " They have come to the simple conclusion that we have no morals or discipline. We are easily corruptible and for this laxity or flaw of character, we deserve the economic rape and wanton sodomizing that we endure. While we suffer the rape and wanton sodomizing that we endure. While we suffer the rape and economic sodomy, those that orchestrated it live above the pain with their ill-gotten loot. As if the loot is not enough, we ceaselessly suffer their drivel, rant and rave. For where else will any idiot trade 4 million dollars for a $109 million windfall even as the people moan and groan for relief?" This article depicts a people who have lost their humanness because they live in an alien cosmology and are constantly seeking the interest of aliens while their fellow Ghanaians are living in human misery. These people are spiritually bankrupt and they should be prosecuted.

Now, what is African cosmology? It is a quest for coherent set of categories for the interpretation of our human experience. Our human experience are as follows, Jurisprudence, Science, Economics, Education, Philosophy, History, Art, Ethics, Morality, and Religion. It is about time for Africans to define ourselves as human beings and we categorically reject any alien interpretation of us. It is the task of African intellectuals to bring congruity to all category of our human experience based on how Africans perceive, interpret, and relate to the universe.

We perceive and interpret the universe as a creation of Cosmic Energy or Force and such Energy is intrinsic part of nature. Africans do not occupy themselves with the ontic categories of such Energy. We encounter the Cosmic Energy through our harmonious co-existence with nature. This Cosmic Power is dynamic and is always in the process of becoming. Whereas, Ogya Mframa (Cosmic Energy) is part and parcel of nature, human beings, rivers, trees, mountains, the animal kingdom, the moon, the planets, the sun, and the galaxies we can know her/him through our harmonious relationship with nature. In fact, our salvation depends on our harmonious existence with nature. we know how to tap into the Cosmic Energy in rivers, trees, the moon, the sun and the rest but we do not worship them as some ignoramuses would like the whole world to believe. It is against the law in African Jurisprudence to Urinate in rivers. We respect nature. Here, I hope have thrown some light on the African's raison d'ĂȘtre.

Africans perceive human beings as Holy because they are part and parcel of Cosmic Energy. Human Beings are born with a clean slate and they are capable to create humane society. We are able to obey the Cosmic Energy consciousness in us to touch the otherness to attain divinity like Imhotep, Aktenaton, Isis, Osiris, Jesus Christ, Okomfo Anokye,Yaa Asantewaa, Odartey Wellington and the rest to create a fair and humane society. The Cosmic Energy ( what some people call, holy spirit) in human beings is a creative force and we must produce before we consume. It means, every human being or group of people who become mere consumers are denying the creative powers in themselves. And by so doing, they have become the living-dead, sinners which leads to self destruction-Hell.

Our existence is circular in nature and it is composed of the Living, the Unborn, and the Ancestors. When we die a transformation takes place immediately and we put on our etheric form ( energy beam). We spend forty days on earth before we join our Ancestors on one of the planetary system. Death in African Cosmology is not the finitude of human existence but rather a metamorphosis. Now you understand why Yaa Asantewaa could pick up a gun to face British battalion; and Odartey Wellington could pick one armor car to face Rawlings' battalion. We were brave and courageous people until we were poisoned with the absurd concepts of hell and heaven. The Unborn is sent by our Ancestors to be born and the receiver can refuse or accept the gift. My father who was not tainted by alien cosmology would always say a prayer and

feed the Ancestors and the Unborn before he would take his meal and in the process tapping to the Great Wheel, the Circle. We perceive the world as a big circle which has infinity points and each point is equidistant from a given point at the center. Take a look at the Adinkrahene sign on your kente or adinkra cloth, it is a circle but many people do not understand the significance of it. In mathematics, circle is the set of all points in a plane equidistant from a given point, called the center. It is about time to use the adinkrahene as a point of departure in teaching mathematics in our schools in Ghana.

Fellow Ghanaians, we are marking time in regard to our development as a nation, we are living in a subconscious self-hatred which has eroded our self-confidence. Due to lack of self-confidence we have failed miserably to harness the resources God has blessed us with to develop our country as human beings. We need to weave our cultural values which stems from our African Cosmology into our consultancies and developmental policies to create self-confidence ethos among the populace to move on as a nation. The current social construction of reality based on Judeo/Christian Cosmology is leading us to the slaughter house. Judeo/Christian Cosmology is the antithesis of African Cosmology, for they perceive and interpret the world as a line segment. It has a definite beginning and the end. The proliferation of churches in Ghana has not brought us development but rather nightmare.

My people, there is hope and we understand your problem, for you are yearning for protection, and help is on the way. We will teach you how to tap into the Cosmic Energy to protect yourself and family. You will regain your self-confidence to love yourself, family, Ghana, and Africa. Your creative powers will be released to develop Ghana. You are spiritual people by nature and you will be awakened after reading this article. May The Cosmic Energy Bless You All!

Rev. Yaw Obeng-Aduasare, M. Div.
Staten Island, New York


Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.