Category Archives: Ghana

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong Veteran Ghanaian journalist of BBC fame Elizabeth Ohene’s disclosure that out of 45 Ghanaian medical students surveyed 41 believe witchcraft is responsible for existential problems, once again reveals the immense obstacles entangling the Ghanaian development process. Here the medical students stand on unstable medical universe, where Ghanaians’ inhibitive cultural values easily play into their rational, medical minds. This is consequential. These have lethal implications for Ghanaians’ wellbeing. This also will partly becloud their greater reasoning needed to enlighten the Ghanaian/African progress path. If a medical doctor, who is supposed to be one of the top scientists, believes irrational, primordial witchcraft is responsible for cancer, early deaths, TB, … Continue reading →

By Nana Boakye-Yiadom in Accra, Ghana The only time Ghanaian Members of Parliament (MPs) agree on anything is when they want salary increments or car loans and other things they claim enhance their jobs. And it does not matter which party is in power, the minority and majority sides will agree on what parliamentarians term ‘improvement in conditions of service’. On 15th August, 2012 there was uproar in the Ghanaian Parliament over salary and emolument issues and the parliamentarians threatened to boycott proceedings. The MPs were outraged by the delay in the payment of their arrears which was put on hold by the late President John Evans Atta Mills. This … Continue reading →

By Henry D Gombya Just as she did in 1957 when the country became the first African nation to gain independence from Great Britain, Ghana on Tuesday showed the so-called Third World countries how to exercise democracy without resorting to threats and the misuse of the gun. Shortly after the sudden and untimely death of President John Atta Mills from yet to be announced illnesses, his cabinet hastily met and the country’s Chief Justice was called to administer the oath of office to Vice President John Mahama who woke up on Tuesday morning not knowing that by the end of the day he would become Africa’s newest head of state. … Continue reading →

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong The pronouncement by the Assin North Member of Parliament, from the opposition National Patriotic Party, the hot-headed Kennedy Agyapong, on the Accra-based Oman FM station, which he owns, that people from the Ewe and Ga ethnic groups should be killed in the Ashanti Region, once again opens the unresolved issue of tribalism in Ghana, 50 years after freedom from British colonial rule. Kennedy Agyapong’s stupidity also reveals that Africans do not understand each other, that ancestrally they come from the same cultural tree, and can easily destroy each other without reason. In Kennedy Agyapong, images of the Rwandan genocide flicker. The hell in Somalia flashes. Ewes living … Continue reading →

Dr Kwame Antony Appiah author of the Honor Code. By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong Wednesday, 14th March, 2012 was Ghana Culture Day. Authorities say the day is to promote “mainstreaming of the culture in national development.” This has been going on over the years – basically pandering the same thinking. From that day till now, I was expecting something more enlightening from the cultural connoisseurs but what I read was the same old, same old rational. Why Ghana Culture Day? To restore Ghana/African cultural values that have been demeaned in the eyes of the world during colonialism and perpetuated by the lethargic Ghanaian/African elites and the fact that Ghanaian/African traditional values have not been … Continue reading →

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong Suddenly, ex-President Jerry Rawlings has had epiphany about the on-going Ghanaian/African enlightenment movement. Face-to-face with some lethal cultural inhibitions that have been demeaning Ghanaians’/Africans’ humanity, Rawlings, in the manner of Archimedes and Isaac Newton, exclaimed: “I need an explanation.” For long, some wrong-headed spiritualists have made it their craft to accuse children and old women as demonic, who are responsible for their alleged victims’ existential adversities. In the process, the spiritualists and their accomplices have subjected the accused women and children to bizarre torture, trauma, death or banishment. These, against the backdrop of a culture certain parts of which believe heavily in the dark juju-marabou, witchcraft, demons … Continue reading →

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong A ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Adante, Kojo Adu Asare (photo), thinks a US$40 million corruption scandal that is rocking the NDC won’t affect the outcome of Ghana’s 2012 general elections and development in the country generally. Either Adu Asare just doesn’t get it or he does not understand the development project called Ghana. From the creation of the Ghana nation-state 54 years ago, corruption has been responsible for the country’s instability – until 19 years ago when genuine democracy brought stability. Corruption affects Ghana’s progress. Monies meant for roads, food, security, health, housing, education, and other socio-economic infrastructure are stolen. Ghanaians’ life … Continue reading →