GHANA COMMENTARIES, by Anna Esi Hanson

As a writer, my theme has always been Ghana, and my focus has never drifted. I constantly talk about Ghana because Ghana is my home! I constantly talk about Ghana because no matter how far I drift, no matter how far I go, I still have nowhere else to return but home. In calling a place home, Ghana is my first point of contact. I have nowhere else to call home but Ghana. For this reason, it feels me with great anger and disgust when my Ghanaian brothers and sisters treat my home with complete disrespect and complete disregard! Rather sadly, we are teaching foreigners to do likewise! That is unacceptable! Whenever a Ghanaian travels outside the shores of this country, we always receive stories about the development and progress being made there. There are always stories and perhaps, pictures on how orderly and organized things are. Our ‘borgers’ usually rob it in our face how efficient the health delivery system is in the western countries. We are always told how efficient the ...

It is often said that if you can read and write, thank the teacher. Hence, for all readers of this article, we owe it to our teachers. For this, I say, thank you teacher, for making this possible. I can read, and now, I write! Many people are always thankful to their teachers for the roles they have played in their lives. Many people are thankful to their teachers for contributing to the progress they have chalked. Many people are thankful to their teachers for the successes in their lives. But what about those who have failed to make any meaningful lives for themselves? What about the failures? Just as some people are thankful to their teachers, others never seize to mention the name of a particular teacher or teachers for influencing the path they chose in their lives at a certain point. Some people are bitter because, to them, their teachers are to blame! In the past, for most people and in most homes, schooling was out of the question and so going to school was seen as a ...

Ghanaians were generally noted as patience, kind, friendly, hospitable, God-fearing and peace loving people. When it comes to hospitality, the famous Ghanaian hospitality spoke for herself. People loved to visit this country just for that experience and the story thereof was a long and interesting tale. It is rather a sad awakening that in Ghana today, that is all a thing of the past. The proud, happy, warm and peace loving Ghana has been replaced with a bitter, cold and war some person. I have no idea where the pieces of the past can be picked up from. The peace we have proudly and remarkably enjoyed is being replaced with chaos. That was once our identity! These days in our media are stories of ambushing, murder, robberies, rape, molestation and abuse, fighting and rivalry, among others. The clashes are becoming rampant with each passing day. I keep asking myself: Where are the true Ghanaians? For the people I see around me today, are only shadows of the past! With the pass...

It is sometimes disturbing when we listen to the kinds of promises made in the name of politics. They sound too good to be true! Imagine a person seeking for a job and yet promising one in return? How likely is that? That is the first question we should ask ourselves each time we listen to our various politicians and people seeking for election into various offices as they campaign. From our past experiences, lessons should be learnt. How much have our politicians done for this nation in recent past? How many of our politicians or leaders have been able to make good their promises to some considerable extents? We keep hearing promises each day and yet, we keep getting disappointed. We keep listening in faith over and over again. It is therefore true after all, that faith is believing in something unseen and yet we hope for. And so, we live and wait in hope! We live and wait in hope for a day when politicians would try their possible best to be true to us! With all these promise...

During the Republic Day commemoration, GTV aired a recording that dated to the very day the country was declared a republic. We watched as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah read his victory speech. After listening to the commentaries, I made a personal note. Indeed, I loved the way and manner in which English was spoken there and then! That was the original language. As I listened to the founder of the nation as he read his speech, I also realized how passionate he sounded. Indeed, the struggle for independence was no joke to this great man! After watching all those gathered at the then State House, now the Parliament House, I also noted how great they must also have felt at that moment. On the streets, the excitement of the happy crowd was unmistakable! As I sat in my living room watching this video, I felt those same emotions stirring up in me. That was the real Ghana! The Ghana with good roads, schools, hospitals, jobs, and most importantly, a national agenda of harmony and development! The Gha...

How far has the African progressed since independence? Not so far, would be the appropriate answer! As a Ghanaian, and an African, I would proudly defend my nation and continent whenever an opportunity presents itself but how much can I really boast of? What much can I defend? How far has my country progressed since independence? How far has Africa progressed since its liberation? How liberated are we, in the first place? In our various history books, the story of the struggle for independence by our forefathers has always been a strong point. For most of us, in reading these literature, our hearts boil with determination; the determination to make a change just us others did in the past. Sadly, whenever we look around us, we do not see much progress after all those years of struggle. Each day, by our own actions and perhaps inactions, we nullify the struggle and the sacrifices made by our founding fathers! The story of the underdevelopment, poverty, famine, diseases, the une...

Murder has now become the means of conflict resolution in Ghana! Gone are the days when people argued unending, and in the end resorted to the use of arbitration, or the fist as a means of conflict resolution. Although these were sometimes not the best means of resulting conflicts, it was comparatively a better alternative. Overnight in modern Ghana, things have changed! These days, the gun has become the substituting alternative in conflict resolution! Each morning, we awake to stories of murder being committed! The highlight of this story is usually when we are told that a gun was used. Rather sadly, most of these fall under domestic or perhaps marital violence. Couples are killing each other by the gun! Workers are gunning each other down! Rather sadly, the younger populace, our beloved children cannot be left out! They are not innocent! They are now playing with guns! A few years ago, these stories were usually in the movies and more westernized. Rather sadly, we have bec...