Re: Leave Ewes Alone

I have read the article written by one Pryce, Daniel K and published on the 3rd of February, 2009. I will take this opportunity to set straight certain aspects of his write-up that missed the point completely. I must say that I do have the second part of the article with the ‘ghanaweb’ webmaster and I am not too sure when it will show up. In light of that I may raised certain issues that I have already talked about in the said article.

I can assure Daniel K. Pryce that I did not write what I wrote for the sake of notoriety and that if that is his impression it is most unfortunate. He can always disagree with anything I write but I would ask that, at least, he comes up with concrete evidence or proof to rebuff or refute whatever I write. It is not enough to indulge in name-calling exercises and not present new and fresh ideas or pieces of information that would move this discussion forward.

I made one and only one general or sweeping statement and that was:”After every election cycle, there are accusations and counter accusations as to which part of the country voted ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Over the years two regions have been penciled down as major culprits-Asante and Volta. Volta, without a doubt would always stick to the party that their own son formed and Asante the UP tradition” Now I would like Mr. Pryce to point to any other sweeping statements that I made. I mentioned the incident about Dr. Sammy Ohene and I am at a lost as to how he came up the idea that I blamed the entire tribe for that. In any case he quoted a question I raised and went ahead to answer it so why that charge in the first place?

I guess he wanted to be commended for what he refers to as critizing Rawlings more than any other. Of course you will always find individuals who would, from time to time, go against their own kith and kin on certain issues, good for him if he happens to be one of them, but he dodged the broader issue I raised. I talked about a region (Asante) opposing Kutu Akyeampong(an Asante) and his UNIGOV idea. I wish Mr. Pryce had pointed to a policy of Rawlings (from the Volta region) that the region (Volta) kicked against. Then again, I wanted to know NDC members who publicly oppose any policy of the NDC. Again, I realize he would rather side-step such points and instead concentrate on areas he believes he would be more comfortable. He fights this point by telling us that Osafo-Marfo was ‘an unhappy NPP aficionado’ at the time he challenged Kufuor. Well can he at least give us one such unhappy NDC fellow who had publicly challenged Rawlings and still remained a member of the NDC? Osafo-Marfo and Dan Botwe may not be saints but in the political environment such as we have in Ghana such ‘feats’ are few and far between. When Mr. Pryce says ‘many Ewes and I have continually criticized Jerry Rawlings for…….” all I can say is he may not have read my article carefully enough because I had already mentioned that fact, citing the Okudzetos and the Kakraba-Quarshies as examples.

Does the fact that Ghana has had one Ewe President take anything away from the statement I made, in that, Ewes will vote for an Ewe first before considering any other?

For his information I share his stance that there is nothing inherently wrong with a particular group voting for a particular political party. In fact I started my article with that very fact by stating that Ewes will vote for the NDC and Asantes will vote for the UP tradition. Once again I am not too sure what he read. Maybe he was just too angry to full appreciate the article. When I raised the incident with the Ewe secretary, I mentioned also that those who believe that to be an isolated case peculiar that woman’s family are free to do to so. I further stated that I was only reporting facts as I know them so wherein lies the ‘disjointed logic’ he referred to. For as long as he cannot make that incident go away or even tell us that it did not happen, I have nothing else to say.

He also touched on the Peki Training College situation and said Wesley College was a superior school and that must have been what they were referring to. Isn’t it interesting that Mr. Pryce is able to, through some metaphysical means, tell us what these people were thinking at the time. And whilst on this subject can he tell us why the Volta region has only ‘Voltarians’ heading the educational institutions in the region? My guess is it’s just sheer coincidence!!! But you do have Voltarians heading such institutions in all the other regions including Asante.

Yes the Ewes may form 13% of the total population but if such ‘a peaceful minority group’ comes with the 31st December revolution, and the ‘miawo dede’ philosophy, ostensibly to wrest the economic power from the hands of the Akans ( Prof. Awoonor’s words not mine) then I think it is a little disingenuous for him to feign innocence and ask the question he asked? As to whether it is ‘some nascent envy’ I am not too sure which tribes in Ghana envy the Ewes.

I am going to state this(which I believe I have already mentioned in the second part of the article in question): I was terribly disappointed when the last elections in Kenya led to some chaos and atrocities. The question then becomes, how did neighbours suddenly turn on each other? The story is the same in almost all the conflicts across Africa. When some Ghanaians were driven out from their homes just because they belonged to the losing party in the last elections, I decided it was time for us to have an open and frank discussion on this one issue that we have brushed under the carpet for far too long. That is the only reason for my decision to start writing. I believe that we all should know what is going on and by all means each side should tell its story, so that we can have the complete picture. Only then can we begin to deal with it. The facts are on the ground, these sentiments are repeated by Ghanaians on a daily basis. Talking about them will not suddenly ‘create’ a problem. The problem exists already and we should all help to find solutions I will end by saying that it quite disappointing for Mr. Pryce to accuse me of making sweeping generalizations, only for him to turn round to accuse me of being an Ewe-hater. He doesn’t know a single thing about me.

For his information, we do have a lot of Ewes in the Akwapim areas of Ghana, which situation has led to a lot of inter-tribal marriages between the two groups. I therefore have Ewes in my family by marriage and we have been doing fine so far. May I also inform him that my room-mate form the University was an Ewe. He was not chosen for me or I imposed on him, we chose each other as room-mates.

Wriiten and submitted on 3 February 2009

Yaw Opare-Asamoa

oasamoa@gmail.com