Asante Gold: UK to loan back Ghana’s looted ‘Crown Jewels’ – Ghana and the UK could do better

Scrolling through online articles after meditation in the mornings has become
an enjoyable added ritual as I find myself less stressed and more freed up in
the mornings with a desire for well-being at a stage of life when one can
desist from the ‘Morning Rush’ of school, etc.

…and so it was that on January 24, 2024, the ‘loaning back’ of Ghana’s ‘crown
jewels’ by the UK on www.bbc.co.uk written by Katie Razzall caught my
attention quite early that morning. For a moment I was convinced something
was not quite right as I remembered how I’d had difficulties with the usage of
‘loan’ and ‘lend’ in my English lessons in school. Eventually, back then, I’d
resolved the confusion with the simple understanding that the use of either
word connoted lack of ownership of whatever had been loaned or lent by the
person on the receiving end.

‘LOOT’ was a horrible word, the English Teacher had explained as it had
nuances of ownership or the loss thereof by forced and violent means.
The heading of this article thus confused me enough and demanded a proper
read instead of the usual scroll a morning catch-up with news of the day
demanded. Reading the article was enough to wake me up fully as I had to do
further research to arrive at the sheer magnitude of its absurdity.

Of course, my history lessons taught me a lot about the Anglo-Ashanti wars
between 1824 and 1900; my favourite being the one in which Yaa Asantewaa,
then ‘Warrior Princess’ had led the Ashantis and refused to hand over the
‘Golden Stool’– the soul of the Ashanti Kingdom to the British. Other history
lessons had depicted in my young mind the unjust treatment that the British
had given to any who had stood in the path of their colonial demands.

The research that morning brought back the images of those wars that the teacher
had passed around the class. Pictures of the British fighters on horses with guns and in some protective gear against the Ashanti warriors scarcely clad except being heavily adorned with talismans and often barefooted and with machetes had drawn initial looks of horror that had turned quickly into gasps of
admiration on our tender faces.

Thankfully, this image of a disparity between two races at war had left my memory when in secondary school I had encountered compassion and love personified in the then Headmistress of Wesley Girls’ High School who originated from the Yorkshire Dales precisely, Settle in the UK.

This article sent me back to the history lessons of decades ago! I needed all it would take to understand fully how on a morning in January 2024 I was
struggling with a phrase: loan back what has been looted…

As one who makes her living in the Education Sector, I recalled one of the
posters of our ‘Anti-bullying week’ last November; in 2023 - #Make a Noise
About Bullying. My confusion got more and more heightened and I needed
some other activity for the morning to get me out of this article-imposed web!
A morning ritual that should have energised me for the day was beginning to
have undesired effects on my well-being. As was therapeutic for me in such
situations, responses to a few text messages I’d sent did well in bringing my
energy levels up.

‘Yes, you have read right.’

’I’m equally perplexed.’

‘I’m more angry than you are.’

Other activities lined up for the day rescued me further and I was able to take
my mind off Ghana being ‘loaned’ Crown Jewels that had been ‘looted’ by the
UK.

My research went on the following morning, gingerly. As usual, on January 25
2024, I scrolled down more news items. This time my eyes caught a
photograph by Nabin Baral in an article supported by guardian.org where
Nabin Baral goes into detail about constructive actions by Sanjay Adhikari who
‘flipping through a newspaper’ in 2020 had come across a story of a Nepalese
Statue at the Dallas Museum of Art. These were gods Laxmi and Narayan. He
‘could not sleep’! The gods of his native Nepal were ‘locked inside a museum in
the US.’ ‘He wrote dozens of emails to the foreign ministry, archaeology
department, and the US embassy.’

He went further on and got the mayor of Lalitpur town in Nepal to file a police report about the missing statue and spoke to priests at Pako Tole temple from where the gods were TAKEN 40 years ago. His efforts yielded the desired results as in 2021, the gods were restored to their rightful place – the Laxmi and Narayan Temple in Lalitpur.

My research and unease seemed to be at an end. I quickly got on Google to
find out the theme for the ‘Anti-Bullying Week of 2024’- #Power for Good, it is
this year.

If I am to make any meaning of this hashtag, and be real to myself and convincing as I explain to students of whichever institution I may find myself in November 2024, how my individual and collective action could stop bullying, a good beginning will be to follow Sanjay Adhikari’s footsteps of ‘individual action.’

I am going to send an article to the guardian.org.

I am going to send the same article to ghanaweb.com

I am going to call, and text friends and officials in Ghana; and the UK as well who all may be taking their own ‘individual action’ at this news heading that does not sit well at all with all people who simply should not allow themselves to be bullied or be bullies themselves.

The US hearkened to the appeal of fair play in Sanjay Adhikari’s individual and
collective action. The UK can do better.