The Insolent British Minister

Kojo Sapara

I am appalled by recent statements purported to have been made by a British Minister of Development - a Mr. O’Brien, on the raging homosexual issue in Ghana. On the front page of the July 25th edition of the Daily Graphic, this British Minister was virtually ordering Ghanaians to stop complaining about the growing menace of homosexuality or face the consequences – implying that that attitude may offend our development Partners. Well, this is what happens when poor oppressed people inadvisably decide to practice political systems that are founded on inequality, unfairness and mendicancy. For obvious reasons, I did not, in response to this issue, expect our politicians to come in defense of our national pride and dignity - and typically, they have not failed to disappoint.

I rather had hope that those religious institutions who were legitimately, democratically and appropriately championing the anti-Gay cause to rid our country from sin and barbarian impropriety, would have by now fittingly responded to the downright rude British Minister. However that not forthcoming, I will attempt to do so on behalf of Ghanaians whose sensitivities have been offended.

How can anyone who is a beneficiary of and from that race of people who enslaved hundreds of millions of human beings have the audacity, the temerity and the effrontery to advise us – the victims of that most horrendous blight on humanity, about human rights? It is inconceivable that anyone from that race and from that same group of countries and people who are ultimately responsible for the slaughter of over three million innocent Iraqi’s, Afghans, Palestinians, Ivorians and now Libyans in recent times, can come here to this country and instruct us on what human rights are about? Mr. O’Brien, by his conduct is either a very brave man, a homosexual activist or a very unintelligent man. By his puke, he clearly exhibited amateurish diplomatic skills and furthermore, suggested that he is not very well versed in the history of Africa – in particular the history of Ghana – Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana. If he was, he would have been more circumspect about his patronizing and unguarded neocolonial imputations on this matter and of Ghana in general.

The fact that they - the imperialists, have ever since they criminally assisted local mercenaries and rebels within our Armed Forces to overthrow the nationalist govt of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 and have since then, manipulated our weak political elite to kow-tow to subjective political dependency on imperialist handouts – and therefore into some kind of political self-denial of our cultural values and dignity, does not mean that all Ghanaians have similarly buckled to that subjective position of servility to neocolonial diktat.

Some of us are discerning, we are proud of our race, our nationality and we take offense at such unwanted meddling which tends to suggest that we are a country of stupid people. We will resist and undermine any action or inaction that draws us deeper into the quagmire of barbarian oddities and depravities such as homosexuality and its related transgression of pedophilia. Anyone who wishes to practice such unpardonable sins in Ghana should buy a one-way plane ticket to the homosexual safe-havens of London, Paris or California. I am certain they will very easily be granted visas for such purposes.

They the imperialists can go and play these kinds of games of disrespect elsewhere where the people were not lucky to have undergone the tutelage of visionaries like Kwame Nkrumah and are therefore not sufficiently aware of the underlying dynamics of political power-play and brow-beating by the forces of imperialism. I can state confidently that the average Ghanaian is considerably more intelligent, much more broad-minded and more civilized than the average citizen of the United Kingdom and will therefore reject such diabolical nonsense. I lived in that country and schooled there for several years and I can testify to this assertion.

We can manage our affairs and duly mind our own business. Just to remind him, we know what we want and what to do with ourselves at any given time. We have the right to make our own mistakes or to progress in our own way. We certainly do not need any lessons from social deviants who have suppressed the rights of large swathes of their underclass and denied them their due privileges of society simply because of their color.

Any discerning person knows the damaging effects of homosexuality on society. Homophiles have converted themselves into a separate race of people who congregate and discriminate against others who they rather perceive as alien and not being of their ilk. Their numbers have overwhelmed the House of Lords, the British Parliament and many of their major state institutions to the extent that laws and societal standards are configured with the priority interest and benefit of gays. We don’t need this wahala here.

British society has therefore become a subjective prisoner to the whims of homosexuality to the extent that normal human beings are now perceived with suspicion as antagonists and oppressors. In Britain, the slightest word out of place suggesting disrespect to gays is tantamount to voicing an opinion in favor of communism or Black people – you are branded, demonized and ostracized – sometimes with penal conviction.

Needless to say, homosexuality is without doubt a biological and ethical aberration. Having lived in Britain, I can attest to this fact by the experience of having observed at first-hand, the mien of homosexuals. Psychologically, homosexuals tend to be irrational, emotional – sometimes unnecessarily violent and without any doubt, flippant and unmanageable. Mr. O’Brien’s manner, incidentally, tallies with this picture. Whilst it is difficult to associate with male homosexuals as men, it is at the same impossible to relate with them as females. Physically, their sexual preference imposes upon them severe objectionable medical conditions which are horrendous to say the least. One senior Ghanaian Priest recently affirmed in sympathetic protest that, the medical needs of homosexuals have in addition caused a shortage of disposable nappies in the public domain. It is as funny as it is sad.

We have rules, laws and regulations in this country and we try, like people in every sovereign country, to live by them. One of those rules determines that homosexuality is a crime. Ghanaians have not yet found cause or reason to think otherwise. Until we do, Mr. O’Brien is politely advised to mind his own business and limit his repugnant and disrespectful advice to his own country in a way that every civilized, respectable and educated person ought to do.

When the UK ‘rebels’ took to the streets in the first two weeks of August, after one of their kind had been callously shot dead by the dictatorial regime of which he, Mr. O’Brien is an agent, we minded our business, we did not interfere, like Mr. O’Brien’s govt did by interfering, motivating and arming the ‘rebel’ uprising in Libya and La Cote d’Ivoire.

Even though it is a universally known fact that our Black brothers and sisters are kept in disgraceful socio-economic ‘reservation-like’ and ‘homeland-like’ conditions as prevails in the Black and original native communities in America, Australia, France and previously in South Africa - that harshly prevents this category of people from becoming productive and useful citizens, our govt, perhaps more out of the fear of losing the crumbs of assistance than the courage to right the wrongs of political oppression, did not and have not appropriately acted in defense of our kith and kin in Britain. I however take this opportunity to condemn the racism, the bigotry and the lack of racial human rights which is endemic in British society - the prejudices and pains of which has condemned the Black community to degenerate into and live lives as sociopaths and social deviants in utterly deprived conditions in the midst of plenty.

Some weeks ago, Frank Bruno the world renowned heavyweight boxer whose face is recognizable even in the remotest parts of the world, was stopped in his car by the notoriously racist British Police. In spite of the fact that he had a personalized number plate with his name inscribed on it, the two Police officers pretended not to know him and openly embarrassed him in public by querying him to the effect that he might have stolen the £50,000 Mercedes ML car he was driving. I suggest that Mr. O’Brien concentrates more expeditiously on correcting the serious economic and social imbalances as well as the human rights discrepancies existing in Britain as regards Black people and other ethnic minorities or ‘the fire next time’ will not be so easily doused. He needs to be reminded that as regards human rights, there is more work for him to do in Britain than in Ghana.

The fact that we are practicing a system – their diabolic multi-party neo-liberal system, derived from slavery and colonialism, which prevents and suppresses the development of an egalitarian society and a more reasonable distribution of the resources of state – or what’s left of it, after Mr. O’Brien’s fathers, mothers and grandparents had without permission, unilaterally helped themselves to greater portions of it and as a result of which has in turn, constrained our aspirations and capacity for development, does not mean that we are brainless or as stupid as Mr. O’Brien’s racial species seem to think of us.

Hear him, “the respect for gay rights is necessary to enhance the partnership between the development partners and the (Ghana) govt”. This impudent and reckless Minister of Development – as he calls himself, is actually suggesting that if we (Ghanaians) don’t take their instructions to stop anti-gay sentiments, they will reconsider their purported assistance as development partners – in effect, they will resort to blackmail. It is really sickening. This is corroborated by his further statement that, “he had received assurances that every step was going to be taken to address the apprehension among development partners ….. this is the right response I expect to hear. I hope the recent ant-gay sentiments will be put to one side and not pursued”. My goodness! Not even the overly racist colonialists could talk to Ghanaians in this manner before 1957.

I cannot believe that this country has sunk so low. Something very, very serious has happened to the political and social psyche of the once proud people of this country who only a few decades ago could stand up for the dignity and liberty of Ghana, the entire African continent and Black people all over the world. For me it proves clearly that our leaders have, as has been happening since 1966, been compromised. They have simply lost it. How sad. We the people must now begin to find alternative ways of re-asserting our dignity and our independence. For starters, all decent-minded Ghanaians must resolve not to vote for any person or political party with a visible attitude or presence of homosexuals in their hierarchy.

Mark my words, in the near future these same imperialists will, after they have encouraged and motivated the scourge of homosexuality to blossom and fester to the detriment of humanity, come up with explanations that it is an African aberration. Even though they came with guns - kidnapped and at other times forcibly demanded and bought slaves from fearful African Chiefs who were obliged to comply at the risk of their lives, today they preposterously say that it is Africans who willingly sold slaves to them so now as the matter stands, we shouldn’t worry them, the guilt is common to our two parties. Today the threat is not guns, it is economic aid. And more relevantly, today, they loudly claim that AIDS – the dreadful disease which as far as we all know was first detected in the well-established homosexual communities of Europe and California in America, originated from Africa.

This British Minister, as is typical of their patronizing attitude, was very obviously testing our nationalist resolve to stand up on our own two feet - and from the insinuated reference to the assurances he had received – obviously from high levels of govt, we failed to stand up to the test, thus confirming that we are still ‘comfortably’ subjective to their whims – shamelessly prostrating at their feet for inconsequential alms from which our politicians happily, gleefully and greedily (not only the bastards) take their ten percent ‘finders-fees’.

Of course it must also be said that the content and standard of diplomatic practice within our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Protocol perished after the 1966 coup d’état. Since then, these two vital state institutions have been occupied and compromised by crass vulgarity, insipidity and groveling minions of imperialist sentiment. That is how come one single foreigner of doubtful sexual proclivities can strut into our country, stand in the face of 24 million strapping Ghanaians and unreservedly insult our integrity without a whimper of response from people who are being paid every month to keep our political and international image above par and from humiliating and undeserved abuse.

It seems that it is not only our independence, our economy, our resources, our culture, our national dignity, our racial pride and our integrity as human beings and citizens of this once great country called Ghana that has been compromised and shanghaied, but we have now regrettably also ‘lost our balls’. As the matter now stands, is there anything else of ours left that our ‘leaders’ are not recklessly giving-away to our historical oppressors to our disadvantage, without our permission?

Cry beloved Country!