Opinions of Friday, 10 July 2009

Columnist: Hiatsi, Dzifah

VooDoo Child; Give me that moment lead by First Lady Michelle Obama

When Air Force One arrives at the Kotoka International Airport Friday 10th July, it would be that designation’s third journey to Ghana with the most powerful man in the world. Yet, this third time is the charm as Air Force one would arrive with the Chosen One, President Barak Obama, a son of Africa and his wife Michelle, a descendant of African slaves.

People would line up the routes and go to hear him speak, Ghana’s kings, queens and royalty will still deck out in their bling to welcome the US president and his wife. Expect another inspiring speech and if Ghana’s President Attah Mills plays his part well a people would be inspired and feel more united.

The moment to look out for however may not be in Accra, it would be in a slave castle in Cape Coast. That moment which could fall on First Lady Michelle Obama to create is the key to understanding the behaviour of a race, that failed to be broken, it is the key to understanding why the great son of Africa Kwame Nkrumah would say, "We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility." It is the key to understanding the concept of the angry blackman, why a race with just 15 percent of the population in the US is the majority in US prisons in demography.

If President Barack Obama’s visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, last month was described as emotional by CNN, it would just be prudent to wait and see the effect of his visit to the slave dungeons in Cape Coast with his family.

Anyone who has seen and heard about the dungeons and the reaction of Africans from the diaspora as they tour these places and realise how their ancestors were treated would know. One should take a moment, imagine the chill of the dungeons, where human being were treated like cargo, shackled, degraded and sent marching into waiting ships.

You with a heart, imagine the situation as one enters those places, wondering why a human will do this to another human. Connect with that moment in captivity, pause and take in the moment; submission, helplessness, despair, confusion, inferior, hopelessness, betrayal, who am I, what am I, why am I being treated like an animal?. A broken spirit, hunger, pain, slave. Yes a slave, property of another human.

Young lovers full of hope for the future violently separated along with a growing seed planted in a womb maybe. A spouse, sibling or friend looked with helpless horror as a close one, naked or half naked was forcibly taken away to satisfy the lower desires of a wicked human being, probably a sadist or sodomist. Then there was that gate of no return through which slaves were marched to be packed like goods; a journey into the unknown in the holds of ships. And thence began the attempt of writing on the very genetic code of a people to accept second class citizenship in a world made for all. Yet they survived, and fought to achieve equality. And on the mother continent, Osagyefo Kwame Mkrumah planted a seed that germinated, resulting in this great meeting.  

So, centuries later, a descendant of one of those slaves, married to a son of Africa sired to a descendant of the masters would have helped show a moment to the world to see. Hopefully, the world would be reminded about the damage that was caused a race and why i t has generally lagged. Most importantly, and this is a long shot, a few African leaders would have been be jolted into reality.

If the minsters of Tourism, Information, the Central region, the CEO of Cape Coast Municipalities and Elmina; if the President and vie-President have the slightest idea of the significance and opportunity this visit provides, they would help bring about that moment. Give that moment to Africans and the world, then we can begin by going back to a certain statement made by a certain ex president about the slow pace of Ghana’s President Attah-Mills