Opinions of Monday, 28 May 2012

Columnist: Thompson, Kofi

Tribal-supremacist Individuals Exist In All Ghana's Ethnic Groups

By Kofi Thompson

One simply has to pity those cowards who hide behind monikers on www.ghanaweb.com to insult decent folk. Since I am a simple soul and an old fool without an ego, I just take their uncouth fare in my stride. Nothing they say can wound one, luckily.

And in 21st century Africa, one has to wonder how it is possible for any normal African, to harbour hatred for a fellow African, on account of the accident of birth that made the object of their hatred, members of an ethnic group, different from their own. Amazing.

Worst of all, are those Ghanaians, whom it would appear do not seem to understand that essentially, we are all one people genetically, south of the Sahara.

Do we not more or less apparently share much of the same DNA, I ask, dear reader? And is it not a fact that in our ethnically-diverse society, no tribe is superior or inferior to another? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo!

To the genius "John Pee" (posted comment from London one gathers), who thinks that somehow Ewes are being favoured by the Mills regime, I humbly suggest he checks which region in Ghana has the most graduates, and has done so consistently, for decades.

Has it struck that genius that it might very well be that perhaps Ewes are more studious because they see education as their only escape from poverty?

And finally, for his information, and surprising though it might be to him, tribal-supremacist individuals actually exist in all the ethnic groups in Ghana.

That is an empirical fact. Naturally, he 's at liberty to go round the landmass, of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Ghana, to check that fact for his good self.

And it is also no coincidence that they are usually to be found in the palaces of Chiefs (the last bastions of unalloyed tribalism in Ghana) up and down our nation. Incidentally, inherited privilege is the arch-enemy of meritocracy in Ghana - in case that fact also escapes him.

The tribal-supremacist individuals in our midst, are mostly those narrow-minded "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, whose blinkered support for today's descendants of the pre-colonial ruling elites and political parties - across the spectrum - is gradually poisoning our oft-harmonious and ethnically-diverse society, and slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy, too.

"John Pee" (who posted his comment from London), wu ti asie afya, anaa? Massa, tribal-supremacist individuals (some, well-educated and highly-intelligent, sadly) exist in the whole of our homeland Ghana, alas.

And they are the cancerous cells in each of the ten regions that we must rid Nkrumah's Ghana of, at all costs, if we are to maintain the cohesion of our unique and peaceful country. A word to the wise...