NTOABOMA — Before I left home, my great grandmother called me into her living room. “Remember what you’ve been taught by that table,” as she pointed to my grandfather’s dining table. That table was where I learned to eat, for myself. That table was where I learned to commune with fellow men. That was how I learned to become a man from the tender age of five. That table was a rite de passage and it represented manhood; it represented an idea, a conviction, of what it meant to be a man in Ntoaboma. There I learned to eat scalding hot, fast and big.
With one arm, my great grandmother waved me over. I kneeled by her armchair as she nudged my head into her bosom. She kissed my forehead and whispered, “Don’t forget.” Such was the instruction. Brief. Concise. She was the tradition giver. Then she tapped me on the chest a few times, as I kneeled transfixed, expecting more words. She looked me in the eyes, “Go, you will miss the lorry.”
My great grandmother does not tolerate soft men. Crybabies. Men who complained. She had one advice every time I went to her for advice. “What is it,” she would ask? I would usually describe a conundrum: what way to handle one matter? This way or that way? She would probe, “What do you think?” I would settle on a tentative idea. She would retort waving me away with two hands, “Just do it!” As simple as that. She will dispatch you and she would discuss the matter no further.
So, on this fine rainy morning, when I was about to leave for college she dispatched me with the same emphatic hand. The University of Ghana, at Legon, was the destination. Go I must. The decision had been made.
I picked up the first of eight lorries from Ntoaboma, in order to finally set foot on that campus. The lorry got me to Amankwakrom, and then the second lorry to Forifori. From there, I took a third to reach Ekyiamenfrom, located on the second bank of the Volta Lake, south of Ntoaboma. I took a pontoon to cross over to Adowso. I hailed a fourth lorry to carry me through Kwahu Tafo, through Mpraeso, and across the Kwahu escarpment to Nkawkaw. I had travelled this distance for a good eight or ten times.
Over the Kwahu scarp, near Kwahu Tafo, an elegant high rocky projection, which looked like the spine of a volcano dotted the skyline. Here the scarp had a name: Bruku. Bruku was the embodiment of the guardian spirit of Kwahu. She guarded Kwahu from invasion.
One old lady travelling with us recounted some of the history behind Bruku. Any stranger who entered Kwahu land had to pay homage to this spirit or she will consider the individual an invader. Apart from the fact that people came from far and near and sought spiritual assistance in times of sickness, so fierce and so exacting was the spirit of Bruku that even as we drove by, older men tipped off their hats in respect of her. So revered was this God that even the Bruku Komfo interacted with her only on special occasions.
A slim-figured gentleman, not too tall, not particularly sharp, but dressed in a neat smock, and a matching pair of “guarantee” shoes, stationed two seats to the left and across, looked straight at me and said, “Bow your head,” while nodding in the direction of Bruku. Several times I had passed this location as a little boy with my uncle and this is the first time I was charged to nod my head in reverence of Bruku. I thought. I was certainly no stranger. I re-considered his advice for a second. After all, I was in Kwahu land, so I did. I gave the land my utmost respect. “Very wise,” the man said. “You are not an invader,” he continued. “No, I am not. I am just passing through,” I retorted.
The man studied me for a moment, seeing that I wasn’t too impressed, he smiled and said, “Not everyone just passes through. You must make your intentions known. You can never know others’ intentions.” I nodded in agreement. He continued, “Where are you from?” “Ntoaboma,” I replied. “Oh!” and he was now certainly amused. “You people won’t even allow a goat through Ntoaboma without paying homage to the Gods. Ha?” I nodded in agreement. “I have been once,” as he countered and looked out of his window. I was seriously trying to stop an unsolicited conversation. At this point I had been travelling for over seven hours!
When we got to Nkawkaw, finally over the scary humpy scarp—since the men in our esteemed country seemed incapable of building a tiny tunnel through a scarp—that is the Kwahu scarp, I changed lorries again and boarded my fifth to Suhum. From Suhum, it was a straight shot to Accra. My sixth lorry arrived in Accra without much fanfare. At Kaneshie, my first impressions of Accra remains a tale for another day. But allow me to state the obvious: I wasn’t, in the least impressed. I preferred Forifori better. Much better.
From Kaneshie I couldn’t get a straight Trotro to Legon-Madina so I transferred at the 37 Military Hospital into my eighth lorry. Finally I was at Legon. How excited I was, yet disappointed! That was an exaggeration. For a school that had Nkrumah’s name to it, although I was too tired to adequately tour every corner of it, I wondered what part of the school honored Ghana’s first hustler—Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah? The most remarkable thing over this terrain was the unremarkable sight of a man cutting through firewood, with an axe, for a beautiful lady who sold Kenkey and fried fish by the street-side. But for the pretty woman, the whole thing was boring.
I was ushered into my hall by friends who seemed to have caught on to the excitement about the camaraderie of a college education. But on the way to find a meal with these friends, before I could get myself together, something incredible caught my eye. A stony projection. So prominent was this statue that it reminded me of Bruku. I approached it so that I could pay my respects in the new land that was Legon. I scrutinized the statue: a bony short, rickety, ugly statue for a man. It had a name carved into stone afoot the statue: “Gandhi…” and the rest escapes my recollection.
My disappointment upon arriving at the University of Ghana escalated. It climbed a scale beyond comprehension. I had read about a man called “Gandhi.” Once! An unwholesome story, especially one for my part of the world.
I asked my newfound friends whether this was the same man who had protested the decision of Johannesburg municipal authorities in 1904 for allowing South Africans to live alongside Indians. Is this the same man who wrote in that year that the Apartheid government of South Africa “must withdraw the Kaffirs (Africans) from the location?” That mixing of the Kaffirs with Indians was “unfair to the Indian population” and that it was “an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of his countrymen?”
Is this the same “Gandhi” who noted once in his response to the White League’s agitation against Indian immigration and the proposed importation of Chinese labor into South Africa in 1903 that: “We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race?”
My friends were flabbergasted with open arms.
How come from far-far away in Ntoaboma, some eight lorries far away, where lighting kerosene lanterns and fetching river-water from three miles away were the norm every evening, every night, and which was some nineteen hours of travel from Accra, how come I knew about a reprobate, a Shaitan as indolent and as racist as “Gandhi” but the university officials here, with all the pomp and pageantry of pipe-borne water and electricity, who allowed the statue to be erected on Ga-Dangme land, had no idea?
Or perhaps did they know and still remained moronic in its construction at the University of Ghana? How a statue of a man, from another country, from another continent, who believed in the superiority of the white race (if there was any such thing); who not only believed himself a “superb” descendant of an Aryan race but believed in its white supremacist inclinations dotted the landscape of my intellectual security and sanity in my own country, beat me. This is what my cocoa farming family, my Akpesteshie boiling family, and my yam producing family paid their taxes for?
I circled the statue weighing my disbelief alongside the wisdom of Bruku. Why will the Ga-Dangme allow a foreign hero, an Indian “god,” on their land? If the Indians were passing through, on a visit, didn’t traditional wisdom insist that they rather pay their respects to Ga-Dangme Gods, Ghana’s Gods, and our heroes?
I was torn between finding food, sleeping on the matter or doing something about it instantly. This was my very first day on campus. But I recalled my great grandmother’s advice: “Just do it.” I asked my new friends to wait behind as I quickly sought after the man I had seen with the axe and the firewood. I begged him for the axe and promised the pretty lady who sold Kenkey that I would repay her in kind: by cutting her some twenty logs of firewood in return for her worthy gesture.
When I returned to the site, my newfound friends had vanished. I skimmed the horizon. They were nowhere to be found. So much for a college camaraderie amongst men. I climbed the statue and started swaying and digging at it. A little crowd begun to gather. One lady shouted on top of her lungs: “Oh my God, you are in trouble!” I turned and I looked her in the eye. “I am from Ntoaboma. This is Ghana and this “god” of the Indians belongs in Indian, not here!” The crowd giggled, some clapped and others begun shouting appellations of joy, of courage and of bravery, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”
Within moments, others had tied a rope around the neck of the statue. Within moments, a truck was ready, the rope tied to the statue and the truck revving its engine. At this point the size of the crowd had swelled out of proportion. Some could not find their way through to where the statue stood. The crowd became ecstatic, expecting the obvious. Shouts, songs and screams could be heard from those who were for it and a demonstrable sullen demeanor from those who never could be relied upon to understand the import of our actions.
But for me, if Legon was the campus, the land on which my college education was going to be built, forged and cast, the racist “Gandhi” and I could never share the same space. This is Ghana, and when Indians get here, they must pay their respects, or they must be considered invaders. I repeated this reasoning to the crowd and with a shout they understood the wisdom from their respective villages. The truck revved and revved and finally pulled the statue down and away into one tired part of a nearby bush. There, we adorned the statue with placards of “RACIST” written and tagged to the front and back.
We urinated over it. We spat on it, amidst jubilation and some much needed merry making. I realized this campus needed it. They craved this raw Ntoaboma oomph! I felt my energy swell back up, even after nineteen hours of travel.
Then, I heard gun shots. Gun shots! One. Two. Three… and then there was commotion. People started shouting, “Police, Police, Police!” Folks begun to run for the bushes. As I turned to look, I locked my gaze with an attired cop, approaching, wielding what looked more and more, as he approached closer and closer, like an American imposed rifle. I heard another distant shot, as the police man I was watching raised his firearm and pointed it at me, “Hands up, hands up, hands up,” he continued to implore my patience. I swirled left and right, raised my axe and dashed for him in a zig-zag Atsiagbekor fashion, murmuring a chant of war. I got to him more quickly than he could cock his gun. I brandished my axe, arched my torso to generate the maximum power for the kill blow, ready to chop off his head, only to wake up sweating. Profusely.
I looked out the window. It was pouring. A dream. It was all just a dream. My thatch mattress was soaked. But I was glad, I was happy it wasn’t true—the statue I saw at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Let us make this beautiful Dream of Narmer Amenuti about the nightmare of Gandhi on sacred Afrikan soil in Accra a reality!
Don’t forget Gandhi joined the army as sergeant major and then participated in a war against blacks. This occurred in South Africa in 1906.
For your information:
7 Protests Against Gandhi Statues
https://www.facebook.com/singhofjudahmedia/videos/1741336899463636/
African Activist Links Gandhi’s Legacy to Supremacist System That Kills Minorities
https://www.facebook.com/singhofjudahmedia/videos/1737729603157699/
Controversy Over California Gandhi Statue
https://www.facebook.com/singhofjudahmedia/videos/1735836226680370/
Genocidal Indian PM Preserves Culture of State-Sponsored Atrocities
https://www.facebook.com/singhofjudahmedia/videos/1740487229548603/
Narmer Amenuti provides us a tactful treatment of the atrocity that is the statue of “Gandhi” on the campus of the University of Ghana. So sublime and so surreal are the issues he raises that it is well-nigh impossible for anyone to continue to defend the decision to erect the statue in the first place. Although I have signed a petition to have it removed, the uniformitarianism of all things of immediate significance, of immediate effect, on the lives of Africans in our own country has me losing my patience. But Narmer’s methodological approach to this social and political contretemps foisted on all Ghanaians by the University of Ghana officials will surely entice you to do more than sign a petition. More, it will lure you to take action. Do something!
Enjoy!
On first ‘peep’ one will think you are an anarchist. But most times,there is method to the madness. You go over the generally accepted view of people about even an accepted Hero and appraise the complete man. Americans are like that. We Ghanaians…I reckon Africans…like to praise sing people based on their perceived status in society. This is the bane of our underdevelopment. We practice ‘nwhe wh3 anim’ culture instead of critical thinking and observation. Heros like Ghandi, mother Theresa, Budha, kwame Nkrumah who deserves a statue in this case etc are human like us varanda boys people! So ate the socalled new generation pastors,politicians, even the president!
Gandhi used his British education from London to create policies contributing to the rise of apartheid.Please learn from Gandhis own writings and actions his hatred for blacks. Is Gandhi really one of us?
http://www.gandhism.org/the-durban-post-office/
Is there really a statue of Ghandi,in Legon? I see the picture but…
Why do we need his statue on our land?
Handbook. How to Become Popular in Ghana. Hell, even Become a Martyr.
Psyche yourself up, combine your energies – your spirit, your emotions, your intellect and your economic situation. Obtain an axe, from Grandfather’s bedroom. March to the University of Ghana campus. Find a statue: One called “Gandhi.” Start hammering the statue into “konko-” or “firewood-” submission. The elders of our University clan will call the police. When they arrive, don’t mind. There would already be a crowd. This crowd will prevent the cops from reaching you and the statue you are hammering. Some students, or concerned citizens might even join you. The press will be there. The TV stations will focus all their attention on you.
Finally, you will be arrested. You will be taken into custody. Your name will be on every Ghanaian’s lips. Hell, it will be on every African’s lips. You will go to court for “vandalism.” You will call me to defend you. I will be there on your side to do it at no cost. I will coach you. I will put you on the stand. And the address you will deliver to the nation that is Ghana will forever be the final nail in the coffin of our anencephalous elders.
Whatever happens to you, you will remain forever a brave man in the eyes of the Ghanaian. If you survive it, you will have a chance to become president. Here too, you want me on your side. You will transform the country. You will change it. Forever. You will remain the Ghanaian hero. You would have accomplished what some of your ancestors failed to accomplish.
So try it! Will ya! For at this moment, you are the whole reason why that statue came to Ghana. At this moment, the stars have aligned, for you! Take it, seize the moment. It’s yours!
The people are afraid of taking off the image of Cesare Bogia (as Jesus Christ) from their bedroom walls. The people are afraid that their grandmother’s witchcraft. The people are scared. Christianity can do that to a people! Fear!
There are vandals right there in that university. I will incite them.
That will be wonderful!
the mind set that allow the statue to be built is the problem and on a university compus.
I passed by it last week… I’m not this brave so I just shook my head and laughed. Johnson Ayoka trust me they have been making noise about this on twitter for weeks I’m close to the campus so Ive been expecting to here them do something about it but nothing so far.
“Giving a brief background to how the statue was erected, Mrs Amoah said it was a gift from Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee, who visited the university in June this year.
“We accepted to host him to deliver a lecture at the university. Prior to his coming, the High Commissioner of India asked that the president would like to make a donation of Gandhi’s statue to the university and that it was customary for the visiting president to give a gift on such visits. The university accepted the gift and the statue was unveiled by the President of India during his state visit in June this year,” Mrs Amoah recounted”
~ Mabena Kunkpe Ansah.
A good gift should benefit the receiver, dorm,library,etc would have been more appropriate.
Hehe , we love free gifts , don’t we?
If only we knew the real reasons for this superficially painted gift thingy. A gift that benefits not the receiver. Which kind gift bi dat?? How many places has he visited and how many of these have Ghandi’s statue? Why Ghandi’s statue for Ghana and not any other thing?
Why we keep calling it a gift? It’s a propoganda racist Trojan horse. Why we took itv? Either we are greedy$ sold the people’s dignity and self respect. Either we are ignorant or admit it, we have been outmanuverd by Gandhi then and by Gandhism today.
Solomon Azumah-Gomez this goes to reaffirm what Dade Afre Akufu said, You must really be afraid of someone to just take a gift from someone without being able to say, “Can we think about it first?” or anything like that.
DONATION?! Pardon me to think that all the things the man said about Africans are true….and we’re reliving those words everyday.
I see it as a gift for our youth to show that they have the energy and the courage to fight and transform the country. The statue is a physical thing. If you are afraid of removing a statue, as students or concerned citizens in a country, then you are truly scared of everything. This is a gift. True heroes are made out of such fine opportunities. I wish I were in Ghana. This would have been my chance!
it was done for money, chain slavery will be starting soon.
Hmmm… that is why we must stop it now. The youth must send a clear concise message: we are not allowing it anymore.
The whole country is corrupt, they can not fight anymore.
Its chaos theory in practice in Ghana right now.
There are three levels in it and if a country reaches the third level, its done, finito! Unless a revolution.
The first rule of the theory is that is we might or might not agree on what chaos is, in other words, what you see as chaos i might see as order. That’s level one
But when we come to agree that what both of us see is chaos, that’s level two of the process, and it also means trouble. Thus when a minimum of 25 percent of a population agree that what they see is chaos, turning things around becomes very difficult.
Level three is when a section of the population, especially the elite, starts deriving profits or other forms of economic and social gains from that chaos. At this level there i nothing you can do about it. Only a revolution can changes this around.
And Ghana is at level three now!
Ripe for change, chaotic or not! even the gods clamor 4 it…’move meat, move!’ alas, their cries fall upon the deaf and emasculated. the masses have never been reliable movers of change. in gh the masses are 2 ‘fickle and feckless’ to move…too corrupted in heart and mind…too preoccupied with self preservation and wholly risk averse…they are not worth urs or my sacrifice. ..martyrdom. ..they don’t respect it…bigger minds and personalities like nkrumah learned the hard way. if u choose to do it do so because it is right…because posterity deserves a chance, including ur progeny. otherwise never bet on the ghanaian…u will be bitterly disappointed.
Word! “Do so because it is right…because posterity deserves a chance.”
This is what our religious masses have become. Back in thos traditional religious days, men fought and died and lost and won. But these foreign religions have emasculated the ordinary Ghanaian. He thinks more of his Fufu today than the Fufu his grandchildren might not have for his cowardice today!
Our loyalty to the unknown world is seriously scary and the ignorance of so called educated can’t be measured.
Wish I were in Ghana now!
This tells a lot about the psyche of the kind of people at the helm of our educational institutions. How could the whole council of our premier university approve this?
Kofi Mawuli Klu would u have done as Namer said?
Yes, certainly! Narmer points to my way: Positive Action speaks louder than words! Please, Isaac Kwame Armachie and others, check the realities of what Afrikans, the Dalits, Adivasis and the so-called “Untouchables” experience in India today after decades of its Brahminian practice of Gandhi’s wishywashy teachings! Mohandas Gandhi was undoubtedly a great courageous Indian patriotic anti-imperialist fighter but hugely limited in his theory and practice of Changemaking by elitist Brahminism with its terrible prejudices with regard to Intersectionality Justice! The realities of India today, and the bankruptcy of most of its Establishment political parties of the Right, Centre and the Pseudo-Left, expose the gross inadequacies of the elitist Brahmin-Gandhian wishful thinking about Changemaking! The point about protesting against the statue of Gandhi in that particular space is that it ought not to be the first to be erected in the premier University of Ghana, Legon, even as a free donation! A statue of Gandhi should come only long after others, particularly our progressive Afrikan Educationist Scholar-Activists, like Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Kwegyir Aggrey, Kobina Sekyi, Professor Nketsia, Daaga Nukulenu, Dr. Leticia Obeng, Dr. WEB DuBois, Dr. Alphaeus Hunt, Maya Angelou, and even, to concede with all the difficult challenges of intellectual honesty against my own best politico-ideological interests, Dr. J.B. Danquah and Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia!
Julian Bacchus
Julian Bacchus7 months ago
omg I watched and listened ( twice) this video without any audio or video interruption some months ago. it’s enrich with historical accounts of the coming of India and the Hindu religion both of which he chastised as a demonic and baberic ploy by the Arians. As for mahatma Gandhi, he describes as a double “edge sword ” an individual that should of never been trusted. His advocacy for a nonviolent peaceful protest was of ulterior motive. In many circles in India Gandhi is celebrated as a hero of some sort
I decided not to mind Isaac Kwame Armachie
Legon is on Teshie land. I wish I were the chief in Teshie. I would send my Asafo straight to the campus and pull that shit down. (Excuse the langauge but it is).
Why do we have a statue of Ghandhi on the campus? This is a serious question
nothing stopped university administrators from declining an offer that offends! reminds me of how we young uns demonstrated strongly against decision by howard university president unilaterally inviting the architect of bush sr.’s election victory in ’88, lee atwater, speaking at our convocation. atwater was bush campaign advisor and republican party chair. he ran a disgraceful racialized ad against bush adversary michael dukakis insinuating that he would as president release black rapists and thugs from prison unleashing them on white families. dukakis had been leading in polls up to the point when atwater and his hoodlums released this ad with a scary looking blackman, which literally turned the tide in favor of bush. we were incensed by the deplorably racist use of black males to scare white america to vote republican. we felt it was highly disrespectful and cynical to invite this bigot atwater to address we the students – young black males and females – at the nation’s premier historically black university. we organized, mobilized and brought down the president of our university and all his lackeys and put the white house on notice that we would not accept condescension. for their part bush and his friends put the financial squeeze on the university by cutting funding and scholarships for foreign students (because many of us had the effrontery to helped stage and lead protests). some of us had no doubt that the ancestors and gods wud not let this go unpunished. ..we later learned atwater had suddenly gotten brain cancer and died couple of years later. bush sr. had one pf the most unremarkable presidencies with weak economy, an unpopular invasion of panama and Iraq. he never won reelection. how I wish I was young again and enrolled at legon.
There is an argument in favour of keeping the Gandhi monument. I touched on it on Isaac Kwame Armachie timeline from 13 September
Oh yeah? Can you copy and paste?
Tomorrow. Now almost 5, going to bed. I meant 5 am in Moscow.
“The argument regarding Gandhi statue is a great sign of reactionary and mediocre thought process! A simple checks of the dates associated to Gandhi’s derogatory statements about blacks and his whole life does not warrant the chastisement of the supposedly intellectual community of University of Ghana on the man! It is a cry of self pitying people! You dont need a rocket scientist to tell this! Lets grow. Lets know time and times and the meaning of what people do in them!”
Isaac Armachie
Kofi Mawuli Klu seems to have established a good case, but I personally feel some discomfort calling for the pulling down of the Gandhi monument. Apart from the racially unfortunate comments of this eminent global figure for peace and antiimperialism, comments which most other dignitaries from history are not unknown for, it would look appropriate to have his monument standing somewhere in Ghana, either by letting it stand where it is already, or relocate it to another spot on the Univ campus. Gandhi is not portrayed by any circles as a racist. His monument is a symbol of peaceful resistance by oppressed peoples anywhere on the globe, of assertion of national independence, generally of the yearning of all peoples for freedom and independent development. Few symbols 100% correspond to reality, but these are the main symbols which Gandhi represents, not the suppressed negatives! No one has ever been ideal, but each towering figure in history stands for particular noble causes, and should be honoured for those reasons. Nkrumah and Martin Luther King, Jr., both blacks, held Gandhi in very high esteem, even regarded him as their inspirer. Not least of all is the fact that Africa needs solidarity and cooperation with other emerging global powers like India. We’ll never have ideal countries and flawless luminaries to associate with.
Johnson Tunu; Yes, but shall we celebrate a luminary who thinks our race is not deserving of the so called liberties and respect he preaches? I think the petitoners make a good case, and for once it shall help our young students appreciate nuance – that not every particular good is a general good, and such a good, though it may serve the interest of others, may not neccessarily be good for us.
Dear Johnson Tunu, one thing black people have since their engagement with others outside Africa in the modern context, always neglected is their dignity. And if have not engaged you before, I would have said you are doing same. Why keep the statue of someone who things what you fundamentally are, isnt human enough? It deserve no corner in your country, not even a basement. Anything contrary to bringing it down to the doorstep of he Indian high commission is an insult not only to our intelligence but to our being as a whole.
What I ask myself right now is: would any other race tolerate this? NO! We as black people often seem ready to make compromises that no one would make. This has always been detrimental to us and we seem unwilling to change our position.
Do you honestly think if Nkrumah knew what has recently come to light about who Gandhi really is, he would have said anything positive about him?
Solidarity with other and vice versa has never brought Africa anything. What Africa needs to do is concentrate on its own way of doing things; know what wants and needs are, learn to define, go for and protect its what it deems its own interest, be it from friends or foes.
#GandhiForGoDown
Please, read a parallel debate on Isaac Kwame Armachie’s post yesterday on this theme! Mind you, Nkrumah admired even aspects of Adolf Hitler!
Mr. Tunu, admiring some qualities of a person doesn’t mean one finds them wholesome enough to be celebrated or honouring with a statue. By all means let the Children read of the great peace struggles of Ghandhi, but never should they idolize his personality, by reason of that insiduous racist sentiment which he represents.
Hitler never regretted, Gandhi seemed to have eschewed racialist views later
Gandhi had those views but they became apparent later when he spent time with Blacks.
That this is even a debate belies just how on the human totem pole black people are. making excuses for racism against ur kind? well, mlk said if u don’t stand for something (in this case urself and ur kind) u’ll stand for anything (in this case, hate and disrespect towards u and ur kind).
@Johnson, you talk about what and how we should learn. In this regard, it is important for us to scrutinize words like “admire”. Nkrumah and Garvey were both known for understanding the interest of African people and were ready to use elements of the tactics and strategies of their foes they felt will benefit Africans. But they never admired any of these people.
There are many things in Hitler’s political practice which talented people like Nkrumah definitely admired in Hitler! Nkrumah hated racialism, of course!
I can even name some, I have leaved in Austria and Germany and there is not denying that Motorway was inspired by the Autobahn but. But Im just not comfortable with the word admiration
I am totally and utterly convinced that we have a bunch of unconscious degree holders running down the university of Ghana while pretending to be providing the best higher education in Ghana! For all you know, the Indians may have paid the university authorities a pittance to gleefully ignore the obvious historical contradictions and the sheer absurdity of their action.
In Ghana, money can even pay to rewrite history in the premier university. Somehow I feel less ashamed that I didn’t obtain my degree from the university of Ghana!
It is crucial at this point to take a second look at the geopolitical history curriculum of the department of history at the university of Ghana and to make sure that the ‘Mis-history’ is rooted out at once to save future generations! #GhandhiMustFall
Are you going to remove plaque sculputres and even place names of the foreigners honored in this country but who were here to carry on the subjugation and plunder of the colonial system. Since I am an Akora and I have seen a few comment on this thread, when is the OAA going to push for Lugard Guggisberg McCarthy and Cadbury from the halls on Achimota campus. Why have you not agitated for that? My beef is where the statue is situated not some frothy misplaced sensebof indignation because of a few throw away comments attributed to Ghandi, even if the assertions are factually correct it does not in anyway take the shine of that great man. Haaba Ogyakromfu remove Princess Anne St Rattray Park etc symbols of offensive patronizing repressive bigotry, oh they are white they are untouchable!! Dis one na tempest inna otinshu cauldron.
M. Apaloo. I never knew that Achimota campus had colonial statues. I have never set foot on Achimota campus. If I did, I am cocksure I would have written about it already. That said the issue remains that about Gandhi, his statue, at my University of Ghana, which every member of my family pays taxes towards! Referring to analogous cases in point is dishonest since each case can be analyzed on its own merit.
As for Gandhi, we need to remain objective. I do not dislike any human. But I dislike humans who dislike me because they dislike me. It’s personal. And I have the right. More, I have the right to deliberate on the meaning behind statues in our public spaces. “Public,” because I pay for it as well. Therefore, the way we use our public spaces involves what and how I feel about it.
The statements I quoted by Gandhi are in fact verified. That is valid. This is not a witch-hunt. I remain circumspect. Any person who dehumanizes me cannot regain my respect. Still, I couldn’t be more parochial and anencephalous in my own views about myself and my country, and my country folk, if I were to support an Indian statue, the first statue, at a premier public university in Ghana. The idea that our children must study and live on a campus adorned with a person who “was” essentially racist is unacceptable to me.
But then again, it seems to me that the visceral experience that is racism and white supremacy that Africa and Africans have endured at the hands of Europeans, though colonialism and now through neo-colonialism, continues to escape our comprehension. That Gandhi participated in the rhetoric of white supremacy, dehumanizing the “African” remains the blight on the character of the person.
So, I could care less if the man was “great!” I don’t care if he was “great.” Great to whom? To me? To Ghana? Absolutely not. What did Gandhi do for my great grandmother that my tax money must continue to foist him on our children, your children, my children? Gandhi has no connection whatsoever to our lived experiences in Ghana before, during and after his death. He cannot grace the eminence we expect from our public universities. May he rest in peace away from disturbing our earthly peace here in Ghana!
For the record, I stated that Achimota has halls of residence named after imperialist henchmen, why has the OAA not agitated for the renaming of these buildings? I have no problem with a. Ghandi statue per se, I have a problem with the site.
Let me be clear: some of the people in your camp claim to admire arch imperialists like Churchhill but they are spewing all this vitriol about a colored person who did great work, whose strategies and tactics were admired and emulated by many leaders of the indepedence struggle. Despite his unfortunate comments I have not heard one person claim that the man engaged in acts of racism. In my view the vitriol expressed about Ghandi is not justified by the factual record. I do not hear such vitriol directed at Caucasians historical or in our time working actively to keep us subjugated, after all Ghandi did not oppress nor kill anyone, further his succesful eviction of the British from India was a signal event that inspired Africans in their fight. In my opinion taking isolated events without xonsidering the context, time and place is a form of intellectual laziness or dishonesty. Mohandas K Ghandi never subjugated Africans or anyone else for that matter. Among the contributors to this thread are people who in other threads on FB and elsewhere have expressed negative near bigoted attitudes towards Indians and Arabs, it leaves one to wonder whether Ghandi is in fact a stand in for Indians in general since at least some on this thread as I said have “issues with Indians” . When I hear such vitriol directed against Caucasian usurpers and oppressors, then and only then will i spit out the rock salt and swallow the vitriolic condemnation of Ghandi whole.
So M. Apaloo, it seems to me that you agree with me that the statue should not be at the University of Ghana campus. If you decide to erect Gandhi’s statue in your house, for the reasons you’ve enumerated, I cannot in good conscience condemn your decision. In fact, this is your right as a Ghanaian. If you built a school, and you decided to raise Gandhi from the dead to become the headteacher of your school, that decision will be between you and Christ. In fact, it will be your right as a Ghanaian. You, and all others, are free to do what and how you feel so long as this feeling does not impinge on my-others feelings. The last point is the case. The University of Ghana is a public school. I pay my taxes. My parents still pay taxes. My grandparents paid their taxes and got nothing back. The worst thing we can do is dismiss how tax payers feel about how we use our tax cedis, how we use our taxes to decorate and maintain our public spaces.
You like Gandhi, I hate him. Some like Gandhi, others abhor him. Whether this is a matter of his color or not is not clear to me. What you are asking is for us to forgive Gandhi because he was a colored man after all. Or that we should excuse his “mistakes.” Well, if they are mistakes, can you point to any of his writings or speeches where he said he regretted the things he said about native Africans in South Africa? There’s none. In fact, the man engaged rather in cleaning up, doctoring his image. That is hypocritical. Even Benjamin Franklin, and several other white Quaker Americans who once owned Africans as slaves, renounced their deeds, repented, and tried to clean up the mess in the US. At least on the North East coast. Although to no avail. But, and this is the point, if the University of Ghana were to erect the statue of Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, or some white American slave abolitionist on the campus of the University of Ghana, I wouldn’t like it either. I will come against it. So I have no idea who you are referring to when you point the finger at “some people on this thread and elsewhere.”
We believe the same thing, whether you like Gandhi or I hate him. The University of Ghana is not the place for his statue. This is refreshing.
Btw I have read your arguments with pleasure.
Africans today refuse to understand the significance of symbolism! This distresses me greatly. Gandhi represents something in shape, stature, mentality, spirituality and sensibility that I would hate my own child to emulate. My child must remain African. And be gaddamned proud of it!
As soon as someone can point to an Indian university that has statues of Africans, I would not oppose this statue. But unless there are any, I would agree with Narmer that they come as invaders and not as friends or visitors passing through.
What would Indians want with a statue of Gandi but to invade the consciousness and psyche of impressionable college students? It is sad that people working at the university would sell out like this at any cost but that is the way the globalists like it–anything can be bought and sold for a price. So long as we encourage this behavior expect to see more statues: mother teresa, princess diana, somebody’s queen. As Narmer suggests, It is up to the students to rectify the ignorance of the administrators and hold them accountable to serving Ghanaians first and not anyone else.
Once more, the point is brought home very well from another angle, Johnson Tunu
Calls for vandalism are not praiseworthy, as long as there are civilized methods of correcting what most African mini bloggers consider injustice. Here in Moscow, aggressive Russian youth will soon start imitating African nationalists and start destroying Gandhi monument, Samora Machel street name signs, etc., and Mandela monument near Parliament in London may also soon be vandalized! What a planet of racial mutualism!
Spot on Abena. johnson, nobody is suggesting nor condoning violence…that’s self defeating. what we are suggesting is that students nit act as robots but shud think critically about decisions made on their behalf and react appropriately. we too have names of foreign leaders on our streets….but leaders who do not racially disparage africans at home or in the diaspora.
Narmer. I am not referring to you in particular, the parties concerned are well aware I will be busting them in the chops directly in the appropriate fora. It is wickedly ironic and funny.
Man, Gandhi does not need no ones forgiveness for jack and I am not making a special pleading in his behalf. Irony again here, how many Ghanaians do you know today in this day and age who hold views similar or worse views about oyher so called races and even their own Afrikan sistren and bredren? I am sure a valid statiscal sample of anti Ghandi proponents will show quite a number of these sorts of folks.
Hypocrisy is universal among humans only varying by degree according to the indivixual and specific situation. In the instant matter one may draw ones own conclusions.
M. Apaloo. That some folks display disdain for themselves and others is a thesis to which we agree. That some of those who have risen against “gandhi” on the University of Ghana campus have unwholesome sentiments, that too might be true. But they are tangential to the matter to which we both seem to amply agree. That is, Gandhi’s statue does not belong to the campus where my children and your children go to for intellectual development. Reading about Gandhi is one thing, but a statue is another thing. To this I will quote a fine mind:
“As soon as someone can point to an Indian university that has statues of Africans, I would not oppose this statue. But unless there are any, I would agree with Narmer that they come as invaders and not as friends or visitors passing through.
What would Indians want with a statue of Gandi but to invade the consciousness and psyche of impressionable college students? It is sad that people working at the university would sell out like this at any cost but that is the way the globalists like it–anything can be bought and sold for a price. So long as we encourage this behavior expect to see more statues: mother teresa, princess diana, somebody’s queen. As Narmer suggests, It is up to the students to rectify the ignorance of the administrators and hold them accountable to serving Ghanaians first and not anyone else.”
~ Abena Maanu
Very well said!!
If you hold that remarkable non Afrikans should not be commerorated honored or portrayed in public sculpture Ghandi should be the start, there are many more egregious examples in my view. Further if reciprocity is the issue what makes it imperative that others go first. And where are the reciprocity for oh Lumumba University etc.
I dont believe our youth are that weakminded but in the current climate in ghana I will go along. Cheers.
Ah, M. Apaloo. You are mixing disparate examples. You have to realize that Lumumba University has been so re-named since the struggle changed, was over. But, you are correct that the Russians named it so. That they did, one must understand more the Russian Communist struggle against Western Hegemony in Africa. Lumumba University was a center for launching African communism so it could buffer or overthrow western capital in Africa. Naming a center for a Geopolitical strategy is not what we speak of about Gandhi’s statue at the University of Ghana. Or are you implying that, for all intents and purposes, Ghana is eager or has launched a geopolitical strategy that we are all unaware of? Please tell.
I do not hold that foreigners should not be honored. If they have to be honored, it must be done in a fashion that uplifts the spirit of a nation to greater heights. Not demean it. Not level it. Not shut it down. Not silence the spirit of most people who are uncomfortable with the idea of a “racist” Gandhi dotting the skyline of their intellectual endeavor. This is not helping our nation. Or is it? This has not helped our collective upliftment. Or has it?
To what end does a Gandhi statue and his ideas serve our motherland? Such debates can be had in a department of sociology or history. And with books kept in our libraries. That is honor to other people’s heroes enough! But a statue again is another level of introspection. Imagery is powerful and to this point our elders have misfired because they are largely unfit to lead a nation. Hell, they have no idea what the place of Ghana is in the world, except that Ghanaians must rise to join the rest of the world. Well, why remain Ghanaian? Why have an identity? Why have borders if the goal is to join the global village where identity becomes ever more fluid? Imagery is key to our imagination. Imagery is key to our conception — how we view ourselves and others. Imagine an one hundred 18-year old girls studying at the University of Ghana. Gandhi is all the statue they see. Will you be surprised if their only life-long dream was to visit India because of it? Not to visit Paga, but India! I would rather have statue of a Crocodile from Paga at the University of Ghana than a statue of Gandhi! The former makes absolute sense. The later is sheer stupidity.
I gather that this is the kind of global village the Globalists aspire to build. But I have a counter narrative. I don’t like it. There are many people who don’t like it. But we all have to live in Ghana now. Obviously we must practice nationalism now. Don’t we? So, some might call us Nationalists just because as a Ghanaian, I feel it’s my duty to ensure and enhance the well-being of the people in Wa, than in New Delhi. If this is what nationalism is, then I wholeheartedly embrace it.
The United Corporate States of Earth are very happy with this behaviour by a country that calls itself the star of Africa. If this is the star of Africa then the globalist dream regime has won. The people of Ghana must be the monkey wrench in this politico-totalitarian nightmare. My advice: form into sinister tribes, start sabotaging this system at every opportunity, attack its propaganda, boycott its products, support your own kind economically, and never let the International Globalists invade your mind with statues of Peaceful Demonstrators. They are only trying to emasculate you further. This is how tribal human nature will reassert itself and regain the sovereignty it has lost to this dystopian gilded cage of corporate colonial civilization.
What is Gandhi’s statue doing there? To symbolize what? If it is anti-colonialism /anti-imperialism we have a galaxy of heroes we havnt even finished honoring. Now, let’s look at the other side, where Gandhi’s reference to people that look like us is alive in everlasting digital form, in black and white and obscene. They are horrendous words that could only have been produced by a hateful, contemptuous mind. So if I find myself strolling on the campus with my young daughter, and she asks me who that statue depicts, I don’t want have to conceal that part of him that regarded blacks as beasts, even if I might give him an inch as just one of other, greater, anti-imperialists. So he must go.
“I would rather have the statue of a Crocodile from Paga at the University of Ghana than a statue of gandhi! The former makes absolute sense. The latter is sheer stupidity.” ~ Narmer Amenuti.
The latter is complete self hate, if u ask me!
The former is actually a very bright idea! The latter is a complete sign of a man without direction, without a mission, without an ideal, without, without a dream!
But crocodiles can’t pay.
The money side is an interesting thing actually. You see even though as a form of income generation, we should focus on the crocodile, we focus on the Gandhi side and the aid it will pull, thinking that side pays more. But if you take conditions out and how it destroys our dignity, the crocodile money is worth far more.
LOL! Yes. Isn’t that the issue! Although those crocodiles in Paga earn Ghana more revenue than the whole of the University of Ghana. I can prove it.
The the school executivs don’t live in Paga and they don’t enjoy the revenue these crocodiles generate. ?
Zowonu, once again you have echoed how these so called executives think, never on a holistic level but always on a simple personal and immediately available ways,. This kind of me, me and just me way of thinking…
This same thinking is what allows them to go for the statue in the first place
Crocodiles also can’t promote whiteness. The gandhi statue fits in much better next to the white jesus.
A good idea to have a croc monument, in the context of promoting environmental conservation, and tourism. In fact, it’d be good to start crocodile farms, and husbandry of other endangered species to serve various industries and tourism. A local river in my home area, River Lotor, or crocodile river, is now left with only the name but no crocs! This is the tendency in all of West Africa, that most African animals now exist in West African languages only in name! We are breeding incessantly, thereby exerting great pressure on the habitat for our fauna and flora! A few representatives of the very much disdained white man took the initiative in starting a process of saving species in southern Africa, but mosquitoes (un)fortunately eliminated most white migrants on our West African coast and this absence of initiative to save our species clearly has contributed to our lands unable now to attract tourists to West African animal reserves!
However, it is difficult to see why Gandhi effigy can’t stand in parallel with ecological, environmental or tourism promoting structures! The later Gandhi eschewed his earlier views and his effigy symbolizes peace, international cooperation and fast development of nations! Let’s be internationalist and comport ourselves as if we were in positions of responsibility, and not just ultra-leftist, irresponsible sloganeers!
“… comport ourselves … in positions of responsibility” indeed, amidst all the horrifically increasing Genocide/Ecocide crimes of the Maangamizi of the past,and present that are being imposed upon Afrikans even in our own homelands and upon all other Black peoples all over the World by the White Supremacist masterbrains and running dogs of Global Apartheid Racism! “Ebi ti yie; ebi nti yie; ebi susu ntiyie kuraaaaaaaaaa!!!” Not all of us can act responsibly because of our conscious choice not to sell our consciences for rewards from “foreigners bearing gifts inside their Trojan horses”; nor seek any “positions of responsibility” in the comfortable bubbles of “White Privilege”!
How I wish those who choose the former could address me in an unopressive language rather than the oppressors language they worship! Looks like the former better than those who choose it for it speaks not in the language of any racist!
Massa nyansa bia eni dier wa twere twere numu?
Obviously Isaac Kwame Armachie this is the Internet and Facebook where English and many other languages are dominant. Most of the websites on the Internet are not on African servers, or is this new information? There are many places where people meet to converse in African languages, however because fewer of these conversations take place online does not mean they do not exist at all.
Isaac Kwame Armachie and Johnson Tunu. You take the insults at Gandhi and the University elite who intalled his statue a little too personally that I feel vehemently moved to really lay it down in bare bones for you.
What in the world? I have my country. Gandhi had his country. I say I don’t want his statue in my country and I have to explain myself? What? What arrogance? What nincompoop ideology of Globalist Internationalism?
I beg, before your start imposing foreign Amaga, foreign Legba, on us try telling us exactly how Gandhi served Ghana? If you can’t state this clearly, you’ve completely missed the point that we have boundaries, that not everything crosses this boundary. We have our independence and we are a sovereign nation! If this fact is not readily clear then you missed the point.
Who is Gandhi? Am I supposed to know him? Am I supposed to know his ways? How is that Gandhi, whatever the tosh he is, happens to be a statue on my land, while Corporal Attipoe, and his friends remain names only in primary school textbooks? This is the question we are asking! If you fail to have priorities that confirm that we are an independent nation, that we must promote our own heroes, in Amaga and Legba, then I do not have anything in common with you!
Wish you success in nation building only with your Attipoes!
Oh so now we need Gandhi in order to build our nation? You have no idea how difficult what you just said is to digest. You have no idea what you just wrote. You don’t get it. Do you? We need others, other than Ghanaians, to build our own country? Jesus!
So if the “Gandhis” help us build Ghana, will the country still belong to us or to the “Gandhis” and us? Johnson Tunu.
Wish you good luck again in building Ghana only with your Attipoes!
Well, the Attipoes are all we’ve got! They fought for our independence from the British Empire. If they can fight for our sovereignty, they sure can build the nation. They won’t need the burden of an old man’s statue from India! Trust me.
Furthermore, if the Attipoes can fight to liberate the British Empire supposedly under Nazi attack, they sure can fight for Ghana. They sure can build their own Empire!
Obviously, the statue of a Paga Crocodile is worth more to Ghana than the statue of a dead man from India. This seems to me a straightforward analysis. But, well, Ghana abi.
Narmer Amenuti is a wise man.
I’m deeply disturbed about the fact that black people have to engage other black people on a matter like this. It should’ve been concensus for supporters of crocodile, hell in fact the statue shouldn’t have touch down at kotoko at all.
Anyhow, as a Russian student once told my brother, blacks who seek to properly reach their potential and where they’re destined to, must understand that a section of their own kind will have to cease to live so that those who understand that their purpose is to be and defend black, can establish the normal societies black societies are supposed to be.
Audu: Set up death squads, Philippine’s president-style, to liquidate the black bad nuts to clear the way for you to impose your will, which by the way is apparently supported by you the majority “educated and righteous”?
The idea of “death squads” cannot narrowly (or condescendingly) be restricted to the Philippines when countless societies have handled their dissenters in that matter. There’s also exile and other forms of exclusion from society, ala snowden or assange. The idea to “set up death squads to liquidate the bad nuts” so to speak might sound ludicrous but the practice of this is far more common than we might like to admit.
Why does the burden of honoring everyone fall on us?
We have to honor other people’s leaders on our campuses. We have to honor other people’s tomatoes in our stores. We have to honor other people’s books in our classrooms. We have to honor other people’s automobiles on our roads…
Meanwhile, who assumes the burden of honoring us?
Russians and Indians make their monuments and give out. The Ghana embassy in Moscow has a Pushkin bust in the main hall. Gandhi statue stands in Indira Gandhi Square. Ghanaians can decline such cultural gifts any time, or if we had the resources, present our Danquahs and Attippoes.
The question is: Who should honor us, when we are busy honoring other people? When we make a statue of Nkrumah and give it out to an Indian school, will they take it?
Try and see! We or they are at liberty to accept or reject cultural gift symbols. Moreover, nobody can impose their cooperation on us, we’re no less sovereign than them!
Now you are referring to a different matter. I am, we are, chastising the university officials for treating our public place with disrespect. Yes, we are sovereign we already knew that. This is about establishing that sovereignty, this is about protecting that freedom, this is about respecting that liberty. The university officials cannot take unilateral decisions about how we treat, manage and use our public spaces. So this is about reining in abuse of power.
Johnson Tunu, uve come full circle…if we are indeed sovereign hence at liberty to accept or reject cultural gift symbols…in this case reject on the salient fact that mahatma’s racist impression of africans and adherence to the caste system of his land, then what seems 2 be the problem? fact…he was a racist. that he was the progenitor of non-violent protest does not recuse or absolve him. his own people shud have a problem with him, especially the dalits…and if they don’t then shame on us if we don’t!
I haven’t changed my views at all. I am just losing patience with you , the majority. I am just stating that you the majority may go ahead and carry out your majority will! If you tell Indians to go to hell, life and development will be faster in Africa! I have earlier wished good luck to those against international cooperation! I repeat that wish. If anger and imaginary racial offence(Gandhi repudiated his old views, everybody makes mistakes, the wise regret them later) are to guide political recommendations of present African youth, let it be! Wish you all good luck in your isolationism! It is the majority and wisest view coming out of the African continent now!
Show me the text, the video, audio, in which Gandhi latter said he was sorry for writing and inciting racists views against native Africans in South Africa? Just give us the evidence. Please!
Abena, I dey feel am.
Cultural imperialism is when you go forcing/buying/begging ppl to honour you with statues you donate to them.
If you’re worth it, they’ll just put it up themselves.
We’ve been dishonoured for centuries now. We should be too busy honouring ourselves by now, not to have the time to honour others, not to talk about those who project their insecurities on us or so to claim, disrespect us.
I have been very careful in making any comments on this issue based on the following reasons
1. I know for a fact when history is narrated by hijacking fact out of context, ignoring the X-circumstances in the past that invoked the “cause” to lead to the “effect”….posterity of today is bound to react in this nature which is not a surprise?
In my opinion, never think the earlier scholars just rooted the statue with fallacious reasons.
If we undermine the reasons behind their actions without digging deep into the underlining philosophical concept that projected the “cause”: we stand in a position to be equally judged by posterity, who are not hear with us today, with limited understanding to all the X and Y circumstances shaping our thought and actions currently, which could easily be forgotten by documented history due to it minor effect to be accounted in records.
2. In the early days, I know by experience number of Ghana Railway Company Engineers who had enjoyed a scholarship programme under Indian Government. Your flagstaff house under Prez Kuffuor regime was sponsored by Indian government and many more.
Questions
1. Do you know why they did that.
2. Do you have the minute of their exchange deal they had with our leaders.
We got to be careful, I rest my case
with respect, that’s not the point. if they had gifted us with the statue of nehru perhaps all wud be moot. fact is despite his admirable work in later years in search of freedom for ‘his’ people…he championed the cause of only some of them. he was a racist…his utterances viz africans confirm this. our general mindset in gh is we settle for everything and anything to the point of mediocrity. there is absolutely no excuse that can be made for accepting this gift in light of the bare facts of mahatma’s disdain for africans and his failure to recant, ameliorate the harm done or demonstrate any semblance of regret in later years as is the case with men of wisdom. in the u.s. the legacies of many founding fathers has been taken to task, shamed and tarnished for their roles in slavery. point is there is no justification whatsoever, cultural, moral or however else for accepting that statue.
C. S. You think it never make point agreed, you are comparing Ghandi to Neru ….perhaps why will Ghanaians choose Nkrumah over Danquah or the entire Big Six as founder
Do not define the interest of Indians according to the base value of Ghanaian desires and perspective
Tweneboah Senzu, it is not my place to judge Indians unless I find the statue of an Indian on my land. No? I have a right to judge an Indian if his statue is invading my land. No? I have the liberty to question why the statue of an Indian indvidual is on my land. No?
Dade Afre Akufu I am not justifying the cause my brother, fellow my text again, I am only questioning the manner we are going about it. And the philosophical deduction we seek to derive out of the final result.
Similar circumstances requested reparations by their freedom fighters.
What do we intend to achieve with the final result ? Or just an claimed intellectual exercise of popularity.
The petition to the University council lack that true spirit of reformation just seem an exercise of popularity.
Ok. What is the manner? Too aggressive?
Tweneboah Senzu is one sane mind in dealing with questions of international relations. Thank you that you are able to use your analytical capacities, and not just wanting to argue as self entertainment, or out of stupid, newly found pride!
Johnson Tunu, “stupid” is totally uncalled for when other Ghanaians want something different from yours. But anyways.
Hahaha Johnson Tunu “stupid newly found pride” indeed. I guess you have never stood up uncompromisingly for who and what you are just like all your white friend would do. This new to you. Well know as of now that there blacks would do same.
Also: Better late than never to find your pride! Pride is essential to human dignity.
Tweneboa the reasoning you are giving are all part of why the statue must go. Whether they flagstaff house or not.
Gandhi is the man who made it possible for our head of state to have a place to call an office. The gift has been offered, and by Corporal Attipoe and all the ancestors, we have accepted.
A beggar (and beggars we have become, let us not kid ourselves) has little choice.
in final analysis, Nene has put his finger squarely on the problem…we have been stripped of our dignity, honor and pride as a nation. we lack self esteem…it was beaten out of us by not only by the colonizer but worse still by our own. we have lost a sense of purpose because we know not who we are even at the very top…we are complicit in our own confusion and unintelligibility.
I’m in fact less worried about his so-called racist past. That’s literary passed.
I’m more worried about the present and the naivete of our so-called intellectuals and self-described “scholars”, their utter failure to understand how the world works and help us shape it to our advantage.
No wonder most of their products lack critical thinking. The chew-and-poor scholarship has badly affected both its giver and receiver.
India and countries like Turkey have never hidden their desire to project (in the case of Turkey) “Turkish civilisation” and (in the case of India) use “soft power” to announce its presence on the world stage as a big player, for what it’s worth.
And our leaders and so-called academics are lying prostrate for these and other nations to step on them in the pursuit of their grand ambitions of cultural imperialism.
Turkey built a mosque (and is now building a cultural centre) as a gift for Ghana not because it loves Ghanaians but because it is promoting “Turkish civilisation”.
What about our civilisation?
India, a poor country whose per capita income is lower than that of Ghana and indeed of Sub-Sahara Africa, is donating statues and making bogus trade deals with Africa not because it loves us but because it must promote its own civilisation and pursue its commercial interests.
It gives us “credit” to import billions of dollars in Indian manufactures, and in return it allows us to export “duty-free” primary commodities (some of these did not have duties on them to begin with, but they know the African is too damn dumb to check anything; ever happy to receive anything that smacks like foreign aid); India punishes us with stiff tariffs on any manufactured goods from Africa, hence undermining our efforts at industrialisation while destroying jobs.
A simple think like exporting processed cashew (high tariffs) versus raw cashew (low or no tariffs) is a major disincentive to African industrialisation.
These are the critical issues our so-called academics should be studying and giving advice to our policy makers on.
It’s not every gift that’s good for you, Black Man!
Wake up and think.
PS: I’ve just noticed that some Ghanaians have started a counter-petition. Imperialism never had it so easy in these parts of God’s creation: Ghanaian against Ghanaian over the imperial agenda of another country. The other country always wins.
Sad. Very sad. Very very sad.
Dear Nii Moi Thompson:
The counter-petition is devoid of any substance.