by Yaw Nsarkoh
We were never supposed to be, at least not to me, one amorphous and anonymous throbbing mass. A mass, shapeless and without either character or vitality. That cannot be life at its fullest. This morning after months of waking up in winter, I woke up in sunny Accra. The sun is not such a big deal if you always have it. Yet, it is a big deal if you seldom see it. So this morning, I walked 4kms non-stop - perhaps merely to thaw - or still perhaps, as a rite of reconnection. Our diversity, in all its richness and splendour, in its vitality and vigour and sheer passion can be something that unites us and makes us all proud. But, and that is an important BUT, it must be purposefully deployed to play that role by leaders - at whatever level - that have the vision and whatever else is required, to do this.
There is nothing sentimental about poverty, nothing at all to be romanticised about the cold fact of extreme poverty. In search of corporate growth that could result in career advancement, one has been to almost every nook and cranny in this space called Ghana.From Pute and Akplabanya to Gushegu Karaga and Teacher Mante; through the hills of Kormantse to the shores of Baka Ekyir; in the plains and coasts of Akatsi and Keta to Kintampo and Konongo in the forests of Dodowa and Faipre and the shrines of Larteh... we have been. With all its shortcomings, in spite of the many contradictions of our society, this is all many of us can call home - in the fullest sense of that word. That it is and continues to be cannot and should not be taken for granted.
This latter truth hit me full force, walking around Luanda in Angola and seeing ruin. Ruin in the face of oil wealth. Ruin in the midst of possibility - the bullet hole ridden UNITA office, an ugly and almost emblematic reminder of what can go wrong when the beast in man takes over completely from the angel in man. They who know the cost of war appreciate the price of the prize of peace.
It is election time in our vibrant democracy. Those who have lived through worse forms of government in this space called Ghana; many who once battled for Freedom - at the peril of their lives, know that no matter what its short comings and apparent defects, we are better off working to evolve the process than to short-circuit the system in order to win power. Neither the promise of the REDEEMERs nor the LIBERATORs nor the REVOLUTIONARIES really materialised. And we are back where we started - with some faith in the ballot box, after many years in the wilderness.
However else some describe themselves, ethnic origins may play a role. Used as a descriptor for the origins of forms of dance and high culture, this can be positive. Since when did Ephraim Amu or Egya Koo Nimo or JH Nketia or Saka Acquaye cease belonging to us all? Or for a latter generation, does the origin of the Hipl life artiste matter more than his music? I know it does not, for I too am a fan! When did the ethnic origin of the scorer of those winning goals that make us all so proud when the Black Stars win become a more prominent factor than the goal itself? Be the scorer Abedi Pele or Tony Yeboah - be the dribbler Muntari or Steven Appiah or Gargo, does it matter? Essien is for us all, so too Agogo. When did it matter where specifically in Ghana they come from?
I am not lulled into the comforting naivety that the Ghanaian is incapable of violence. I have scars on my legs to prove that wrong. My wife has memories harrowing enough to warn against that. The people who can rob and kill, even if a minority, can also wreak mayhem if sufficiently incited. As a country, we have been close before. We have seen nasty and murderous clashes, even if confined to specific - although, not particular - parts. Paramount chiefs of consequence and significance have been murdered because of power struggles at whatever level. Land ownership disputes, partly the consequence of a disorderly regime of property rights have produced many a victim of the form of terror brigade we choose to call land guards. I lived through and saw some Ghanaians, even if a minority cry for others blood...without the patience even to wait for due process.
Memories like these, nasty and unappealing as they may be are part of our history and even our present. When we remember this, we remember too that we are, in a sense fortunate, to have escaped the fate of many of the peoples of our continent. A jarring reminder that made me constantly say, while I walked this morning and took in the peace of the present, like Jimmy (Baldwin): The moment I thought I was lost, my dungeons shook and my chains fell off.
If our chains fell off, let us keep them off. I have monitored with horror; the increasingly worrying, desperately intemperate and saddening, but stark naked and extremely incendiary - but all too frequent - comments on ethnic lines bandied around with reckless abandon. A week ago, I called on those behind one of the Ghanaian internet based publications to act to stop this raging volcano from finding such dangerous expression in the comments section when people post articles. But the larger issue is an issue bigger than publishers alone.
Ethnocentrism is usually a political device. And politicians, some of them at least, are never completely innocent when they do nothing to stop it being deployed by frenzied supporters in their quest for power. This is why they (the politicians, that is) should act, and NOW. Before this beast turns on us and consumes us all. A lot has changed in our social reality and in the material expression of the power equation. There are those - and many a political scientist has written on this - who suggest that when governments fail to deliver prosperity and economic dignity, there is an ominous consequence. For the many who are impoverished and left out - the invisible men - dangerous alternatives like fundamentalist religion and ethnocentrism find breeding grounds. Usually nurtured and sustained by elements of a political class that styles itself as sophisticated . Therefore these too (poverty and mass ignorance) are urgent issues to be tackled. Definitely we must. But we cannot destroy Ghana in the name of saving it. And we destroy it if we fan the flames of ethnic division for short-term political gain.
In times past, a seminal act of the would be usurper was seizing the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. Today the number of electronic media oulets in Ghana is measured in three digit numbers. To immobilise them all, or even those of consequence (however consequence is defined) will involve gun fire and battle in densely populated areas. And I am willing to venture; will require more than three digit numbers to count the cost of carnage in life and property. Where there was once a monopoly of arms in armouries, today - most unfortunately and ominously - there is a widely acknowleged proliferation of small arms. In a second, the gentleman next door can become a font of death should he choose to become a vigilante prosecuting the objects of whatever cause a momentarily deranged person can choose.
We, all of us, have therefore to pause and reflect. Are we better off doing all we can to ensure that we work to protect the rule of law - even when we disagree with some of its intermediate outcomes - or are we willing to tear down all of Ghana in our search for power and what we deem to be freedom? We should long have come to the conclusion, that the rule of law is a better state of existence than the rule of capricious and mercurial man. The Open Society better than a dense and opaque alternative.
It may be impossible, but if it is; then the least I can do is to ask that the impossible be done - politicians in Ghana and all well meaning people must come together to campaign in whatever way or form necessary, to end the fanning of the ethnic flame. It can be done, indeed, it must be done. And done now! It is the least we can ask from those who claim to love us so much, the present and aspiring political leadership - at least they say so at election time - that they will even (sometimes) be willing to give their lives to save us .. if they could. And we must ask.
For if those of us, the beneficiaries of education and hopefully some consciousness who can read this, sit and do nothing as more and more abuse is hurled at each other along divisive ethnic lines, what shall we do when the beauty of the nation that we call Ghana is gone? And go it will if we do nothing.
I invoke that master again, Baldwin: the fate of those who allow love to be replaced by brutal and oppressive division in a quest for power is well summarised in the rendition borrowed from the Old Testament prophet. Unto Noah, the rainbow was a sign of my existence and your unity. Water will not destroy the earth anymore. No more water, no more floods. THE FIRE NEXT TIME.
This generation, this class of leaders - on both sides of the divide - have the chance to act to stop the growth of what can be volcanic in destruction, the beast of ethnocentrism. For the sake of us all and for our children, I hope we choose to act. So that the children and grandchildren, when they are grown like us shall also say in Ghana:"What would we have done if we had lost all this beauty? The togetherness of nationhood and community? How can we forget thee O, Ghana?" And we from our graves, if that is where we are then, shall see the joy of a prosperous generation of Ghanaians and intone the words of the poet: The moment I thought I was lost, my dungeons shook and my chains fell off. Therefore, peace "Hate the sin, never the sinner.."