Osarfo Marfo Is Right On Mahama's Intentional Sideline Of Autochthonous Akans!!

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Truth 9 years ago

Antwi Boasiako, you are one hell of an animal who has no shame!

Antwi Boasiako, you are one hell of an animal who has no shame!
SARPONG 9 years ago

Why should he have any shame for telling the truth? Didn't the Ndc Ga Youth and Solomon Nkansah say theyare not going to allow Kufuor to have an Office at Ridge in Accra?

Is Rawlings from Accra?

Akans for too long have ...
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Why should he have any shame for telling the truth? Didn't the Ndc Ga Youth and Solomon Nkansah say theyare not going to allow Kufuor to have an Office at Ridge in Accra?

Is Rawlings from Accra?

Akans for too long have allowed these people from other tribes to discriminate against them without fighting back and this Osafo Marfo imbroglio should be a wake up call to Akans to say enough is enough, we are not going to take it anymore.

If it is wrong to discriminate against Gas, Ewes, Dagombas, Gonjas, Kusasis, Mamprusis, Dagartis etc, then it is wrong to discriminate against Akans.
Dabonga 9 years ago

Osafo Marfo is right. If Ghanaians entertained a genocidal tribalist like Kofi Awoonor and honored him as a member of the council of state, why berate Osafo Marfo. What a hypocrital nation Ghana has become. Until the Akans wa ...
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Osafo Marfo is right. If Ghanaians entertained a genocidal tribalist like Kofi Awoonor and honored him as a member of the council of state, why berate Osafo Marfo. What a hypocrital nation Ghana has become. Until the Akans wake up to claim what belongs to them, the minorities will continue to cheat them.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Bloody-minded ignoramus, Awoonor was no tribalist. He wrote against the likes of Osafo Marfo very bold and has since been distorted by devious people. When he died and the so-called tribalistic phrases from his The Ghana Rev ...
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Bloody-minded ignoramus, Awoonor was no tribalist. He wrote against the likes of Osafo Marfo very bold and has since been distorted by devious people. When he died and the so-called tribalistic phrases from his The Ghana Revolution were posted on Ghanaweb's SIL, there were many who were surprised that he was all along taken out of context and lied about. Yes, pple were shocked to see that what he wrote about Ewes like Harlley and Kotoka were even worst; in fact, libellous. He didn't spare anybody in that book, Akan or Ewe.

Andy-K
SARPONG 9 years ago

Fool, tell us what he wrote about Kotoka and Harlley, you fucky lying bastard. Awonoor was castigated even in death and the only people who praised him were fools like you with your bigoted idiocy.

Fool, tell us what he wrote about Kotoka and Harlley, you fucky lying bastard. Awonoor was castigated even in death and the only people who praised him were fools like you with your bigoted idiocy.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Now, it is clear you didn't read the book at all. Ask someone to tell you. Harlley was married to one of my many aunties so I won't repeat the nasty things Awoonor said about him. And some of Kotoka's children happen to be ch ...
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Now, it is clear you didn't read the book at all. Ask someone to tell you. Harlley was married to one of my many aunties so I won't repeat the nasty things Awoonor said about him. And some of Kotoka's children happen to be childhood and school acquaintances. I consider Eric, for instance, who is my age mate a friend.

The only idiot here is you and your ilk, and you know it.

Andy-K
David 9 years ago

you 100% right

you 100% right
Ghana 9 years ago

Bastard Sarpong when will begin to cogitate like a normal human being?

Stop eating the shit because it has affected the central section of your equilibrium.

Your stupidity has no bound!! Get closer to normal human being ...
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Bastard Sarpong when will begin to cogitate like a normal human being?

Stop eating the shit because it has affected the central section of your equilibrium.

Your stupidity has no bound!! Get closer to normal human beings to enable you reason like them.

Democracy is about the majority with the same ideology rules and not about tribe OFUI!!! Voting to select a leader depends on the ideals, intellect and likability and not based on tribal preference.

I don't know how to describe you these Bastard Sarpong, Ahofi and Akadu Wansema. Proud people who have everything stay at their homes but, you are out there slaving your asses of and feeling obnoxiously haughty is incomprehensible!!!

Finally Pepeni President Mahama has resolved to build the Kumasi market so that your technicolor mom will continue to sit there and bleach her face.

Don't forget to tell her to bleach her armpits her gums and her palms!!!
Dark Donkey!!!
SARPONG 9 years ago

Maybe bleaching is what your toilet carrying and goat tending descendants need to wipe the stink from their pores that stinks to high heavens. When did you savannah dust caked primitives learn how to take your bath? You foo ...
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Maybe bleaching is what your toilet carrying and goat tending descendants need to wipe the stink from their pores that stinks to high heavens. When did you savannah dust caked primitives learn how to take your bath? You fools smell so bad sleeping with your cows and goats there is no difference between you and animals except you walk on two legs and animals walk on all fours.

God created houseflies,tse-tse flies,ants,bugs, cockroaches, maggots, mosquitos, fleas, ticks, slugs, leeches, and intestinal parasites , then he lowered his standards and made you.You are a real monument to stupidity ! As a first time offender , I shall let you off the hook with the sentence of a parole but a repeatition of such crass dunderheadedness will leave me with no option than to give you a maximum sentence.

Will you now get back into your cage ? And I mean now, you vulgar little maggot !
Ghana 9 years ago

You these illiterate Ashanti's keep on dreaming everybody inhales Co2 from Kumasi.

Say it loud that Ashanti's and not Akans kwasia.

You are Ashanti until when you'er pined to the Conner then you change the Ashanti's to ...
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You these illiterate Ashanti's keep on dreaming everybody inhales Co2 from Kumasi.

Say it loud that Ashanti's and not Akans kwasia.

You are Ashanti until when you'er pined to the Conner then you change the Ashanti's to Akans!! You think all the discerning tribes are fools.
SARPONG 9 years ago

"You these illiterate Ashanti's"

Hahahahaha and this Tanii toilet carrier who has taken his trade Detroit cleaning old men's butt has the audacity to call others as illiterates.

Ashantis not Ashanti's. You don't even k ...
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"You these illiterate Ashanti's"

Hahahahaha and this Tanii toilet carrier who has taken his trade Detroit cleaning old men's butt has the audacity to call others as illiterates.

Ashantis not Ashanti's. You don't even know how to use apostrophe, you cracked heel Northerner cow.

"You are Ashanti until when ( you'er) (pined)

There is no word in English like PINED but PINNED, you smelly goat tender. You're not you'er, WO HO KANKAN.

Dumbass, you might have inhaled too much of the CO2 yourself. Do you remember bragging about you and your kayaye family residing in Kumasi before?

The whole three Northern regions are not even worth ten percent of Kumasi alone.
Diamono 9 years ago

If you do not agree with a person, provide reasons why you disagree with him/her.

It is not helpful for healthy debate, to call a person an animal just because you disagree with him/her. What is your view - your position ...
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If you do not agree with a person, provide reasons why you disagree with him/her.

It is not helpful for healthy debate, to call a person an animal just because you disagree with him/her. What is your view - your position - on what he wrote? I guess you have none. You believe an insult is enough to kill the debate.

To me what Antwi Boasiako wrote makes a lot of sense. It should be acknowledged that disagreements over allocation of national resources have caused conflicts in many countries.

I do not apportion blame to either the NPP or NDC, but we should appreciate that if this matter is not properly addressed, it poses a great danger to national cohesion and peace in future.
Baffour 9 years ago

It is very strange and shocking that some 'Akans' in the NDC have allowed themselves to be used to champion this hatred for their own tribe, just becuz of politics. No wonder the whiteman succeeded in the slave trade. Becuz w ...
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It is very strange and shocking that some 'Akans' in the NDC have allowed themselves to be used to champion this hatred for their own tribe, just becuz of politics. No wonder the whiteman succeeded in the slave trade. Becuz we sold our kind as slaves
Cool 9 years ago

Ashanti were attacking and enslaving other Akans. Akan is a culture and the tribe is Asante Akyem etc This tribalism is not about sefwis Nnena wassa Fante etc , it is about two speaking asantes and ugly akyems

Ashanti were attacking and enslaving other Akans. Akan is a culture and the tribe is Asante Akyem etc This tribalism is not about sefwis Nnena wassa Fante etc , it is about two speaking asantes and ugly akyems
OKOROMANSA 9 years ago

WAKA A WAKA. NPP SHOULD BE BOLD AND POINT BLANK ON ISSUES SUCH AS THIS OSAFO MARFO TAPE. AND I LAUD BOASIAKO FOR THE INSIGHT, JUST LOOK AT ALL THE EXAMPLES HE CITED, AND YET AT THE LEAST UTTERANCE BY NPP HELL BREAKS LOOSE. IN ...
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WAKA A WAKA. NPP SHOULD BE BOLD AND POINT BLANK ON ISSUES SUCH AS THIS OSAFO MARFO TAPE. AND I LAUD BOASIAKO FOR THE INSIGHT, JUST LOOK AT ALL THE EXAMPLES HE CITED, AND YET AT THE LEAST UTTERANCE BY NPP HELL BREAKS LOOSE. INDEED, NON AKANS SAY MORE NASTY AND MORE TRIBALISTIC THINGS THAN WHAT ONE COULD IMAGINE. BUT IF WE CHOOSE TO ENDORSE TRIBAL SENTIMENTS,WOULD IT NOT AMOUNT TO A TRIBAL WARFARE? THE TRUTH HURTS, BUT OSAFO MARFO SHOULD NOT APOLOGIZE TO ANYBODY FOR ANYTHING. HE DID NOT LIE, HE DID NOT INSULT, HE DID NOT DEGRADE ANY TRIBE, HE DID NOT ASK AKANS TO VOTE FOR AKANS SO WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL HERE?
AGBAVI K. JONAS, NEW JERSEY 9 years ago

My simple input is that our leaders should not think if we are illitrates our eyes and nose cannot see or hear.I urge all ghanaians to read about ethnic/tribal conflict in SOUTH SUDAN.NUERS AND DINKAS/SHILLUKS TRIBES just aft ...
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My simple input is that our leaders should not think if we are illitrates our eyes and nose cannot see or hear.I urge all ghanaians to read about ethnic/tribal conflict in SOUTH SUDAN.NUERS AND DINKAS/SHILLUKS TRIBES just after independence july 2011 two years later 13/dec/2013 tribal war has destroyed alltheir dreams. allthe poor and rich people are now displaced especially the innocent poors.War doesnt know your tribe you will either be killed or displaced even your children,wife or husband. Preach this gospel of tribal side effects.Just google history of South Sudan after 50 years of war and independence OR tribal war in Rawanda
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago

I am Akan, Obuorba from Obo Kwahu, I don't share this tribalistic value; it devalues the identity of the autochthonous people of Ghana big time.

Anything less is tantamount to insecurity big time.

I am Akan, Obuorba from Obo Kwahu, I don't share this tribalistic value; it devalues the identity of the autochthonous people of Ghana big time.

Anything less is tantamount to insecurity big time.
jimmy 9 years ago

yes osafo Marfo need to praised not condenmed

yes osafo Marfo need to praised not condenmed
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Some of us have been rebutting these NPP claims for over 2 decades now. We shall soon put it beyond doubt but here is something to warm the plate.

This covers a wider subject than their bigotry and false claims.

Tellin ...
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Some of us have been rebutting these NPP claims for over 2 decades now. We shall soon put it beyond doubt but here is something to warm the plate.

This covers a wider subject than their bigotry and false claims.

Telling It As It Is: The PP/NPP’s Tradition of Tribal Politics

Folks,

Here is the other post from the archives. It should be an eye opener to all those who are claiming that tribal politics started under Rawlings and the PNDC. For others, it should reveal to them the origins of the ethnic foment and ethnic politics in Ghana under the NLC and then under the PP regime. It is that tradition that continues today, with the sympathisers of the NPP with Akan backgrounds being the main culprits.

I wrote the piece in response to Prof. George Ayittey, a major exponent of tribalistic analysis of politics in Africa. He failed to write a response though, since he has none. What I wrote then is still very relevant today and on this forum too. I’ve slightly edited it.

Incidentally, it was this very post Gamal Nkrumah took exception to, as he wrongly thought I was referring to him when I wrote “incestuous Egyptians”. I found out and explained to him that he and present Egyptians were far from my mind, as I was referring to the ancient and real Kemetians. Kofi Ellison, you get this straight, as you’ve been wrongly referring to this from an unknown source who told you I had a clash with Gamal.

Well, this is quite long so I’d leave this with you and for the record.

Date: Wed Aug 05 20:03:14 1998
To: ayittey@, VILLAGE@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
From: Andy K
Subject: Re: [VILLAGE] Ghana Leader Seeks Unity of Black Race
Cc:
Bcc:

Villagers,

This is something I can't pass over. As usual, it is designed to inform you all, not to enter into any discussion with Prof. Ayittey. He may however issue rebuttals to what I have written if false, or not entirely correct. After all, I never make claims to holding the monopoly to the elusive truth. I am just a lonely Seeker after the Truth. (To your information, Prof Ayittey had never taken up the challenge to back up his claims with some facts and I burnt him out the last time he repeated them).

At 19:07 03.08.1998 -0400, George B.N.Ayittey wrote:
>*************
>
>Cinque, and look who's calling for unity of the black race? A "Clarence Thomas":) >Ooops, a Freudian slip :)
>
>Seriously, Cinque, in my view, Rawlings is NOT the person for this job because:

>1. His 17 years in power in Ghana have been the MOST DIVISIVE. Ethnic tension is very >high in Ghana today. Ask any Ghanaian. There is a public perception that key positions in >Rawlings' government are occupied by his ethnic group, the Ewe. Note: I said public >PERCEPTION. Ask any Ghanaian. If he cannot unify his own citizens, how much more >those outside the country?

Andy-K writes in reply:
That ethnic tensions in Ghana are very high, first of all, is an overstatement. Rather, it is high among Ghanaians in the diaspora. Secondly, whatever ethnic tensions are there are not due to Rawlings' doing. Rather, it is the doing of some bankrupt and jaded politicians who have been arousing ethnic hatred against Rawlings mother's ethnic group members, the Ewes, as a political tool to gain power. So far, it has failed resoundingly. In fact, it has backfired so badly the culprits, found mainly in the NPP, which George also belongs to, are now openly writing and saying that they had to reassess their strategy.

The issue is not a "public perception," shared by a majority of Ghanaians. The "perception" is insidiously and virulently promoted by a narrow group of Ghanaians, of whom George indeed is one of them. He clearly and unambiguously promoted this in a mail he posted on Okyeame sometime ago. As to be expected, I took him on and referred him to the English Sociologist, Charles Elliott's book (1975). A great comparative study of poverty and its causes in some "Third World" countries, it presented statistics on the ethnic distribution in different occupations, including the public services in Ghana too. As I told George, the figures show that by 1975, his own ethnic group, the Gas, proportionately have more of their people in higher govt. positions than any other ethnic group in Ghana! I wanted to know whether that has changed since Rawlings assumed office again on 31 Dec., 1981, less than a day to 1982. As to be expected no answer came from him.

Of course, I am aware of newer researches, as that of Richard Jefferies, African Affairs, 92. 331-399:1993, which clearly state that Rawlings has not packed higher offices with Ewes since his second coming to power. (BTW, same accusations were made during his brief first coming of 3 months too). What anyone having the pretensions to being a scholar or an intellectual should do is to read those studies and stop spreading such venomous and virulent lies, which are in fact reminiscent of 1920 and '30s Nazi campaigns against Jews. Or what we Africans get from anti-alien, racist groups and parties in Europe presently. But that is not the way of George. His is abstract empiricism! Just repeat the nonsense ad nauseam without bothering to cross-check!

Anyway, I can recollect that when he posted the same offending post to the Village, he had amended the offending portion about one ethnic group in Ghana dominating to a multiplicity of ethnic groups, thanks to my biting criticism of him (on Okyeame). He left intact that simplistic level of analysis for Nigeria and Kenya, which I also objected to too. Some of you may recollect that post.

What actually is the problem? Is that "perception," (actually it's nothing more than sheer, deep-seated expression of "native prejudice" - my coinage - against Ewes, which stock I belong to), of what they have now dubbed "Ewenisation" a new thing, arising after Rawlings became head of the PNDC? Which PNDC and later NDC Party comprise a cross-section of Ghanaians? Far from it! Indeed, all the political parties in Ghana were represented in the PNDC in its early years, so nobody was excluded. (Interestingly, Kufour, presidential candidate of the NPP, was the rep. for the PFP in the PNDC).

Villagers, it is the confrontation of the source of that native prejudice that recently spilt over into the Village under the title of “Yaa Asantewaa....” We aren't finished yet! So let me take you back just to the late 1960s, not 1900.:-)

From Denis Austin's book, Ghana Observed (1976: 125), Manchester University Press and Africana Publishing Company, we read about the anti-Ewe hysteria prior to the election that brought Dr K.A. Busia's Progress Party to power in 1969. Please bear with my long quote.
******************************
"A surprising and disagreeable novelty of the election was the extraordinary anti-Ewe sentiment that was expressed in conversation with many of those who were against Gbedemah and his party. One can explain this very strong animus not simply by a dislike of Gbedema's reappearance in political life but in relation to events after 1966 coup. Suddenly there were the soldiers and the police, and everyone bust out singing, but when the music died away it was noticed that the NLC was commanded (it seemed) by minorities: Ewe and Ga. When Ankra (a Ga) was moved out, and charges were brought over-hastily by Harlley against the Chief of the Defence Staff, Michael Otu, the evidence to many was overwhelming. It was all an Ewe plot. Soon Ghana would be run for the benefit of an energetic minority, operating first within the armed forces, and now behind Gbedemah. "Appoint an Ewe to a public corporation or to a government department and within a year the entire hierarchy down to the messenger will be Ewe.” So the argument ran.

[MY COMMENTS: As it is still running today, as shown by a piece on the web site of the Ghanaian Chronicle I have posted below - one reason for the ongoing Yaa Asantewaa fracas.].

"And there was always some evidence for it, since the Ewe, deprived of any natural wealth in their barren region, have for many years been energetic in seizing the opportunities of public employment, including positions in the army and police, which wealthier communities (like the Akan) did not wish to occupy. In practice, looking through the list of senior officers in government departments and the public corporations, the evidence is certainly not clear of any Ewe domination: it could hardly be so in view of their number. (MY COMMENT: JUST OVER 13 % OF GHANA'S POP.). But a belief does not, of course have to be true for people to hold it fervently.
Now there is an Akan-dominated government of an Akan-dominated society. Were I to become, by some improbable change of fate, leader of the governing party I would be much less apprehensive of my Ewe opponents in front than of the large and expectant following behind. I would be fearful too of the ambitions of those now excluded from power, remembering the Songs of Innocence that:
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown".

Here we end the extended quote!

Wise words indeed! But were the reactionary PP members told then, they would not have paid any heed. After assuming power, after a coup in which some Ewe officers played dominant roles, they set out to dismiss mostly Ewes, some few Gas and others known to be sympathetic to the banned CPP from their posts. They achieved this through the insertion of the first infamous Transitional Provisions in a Constitution of Ghana, attempts to deprive Ewes of their jobs having failed during the latter years of the NLC. This is the backdrop to the struggle Awoonor briefly mentioned in his ‘famous’ book, and for that, he has become an object of insult to all kinds of puny Akan boys and girls with some modicum of literacy. They (PP) did not last even 2 years in office! I can comment deeper on the above quote, since my own father was one key person who gave evidence, and was before then discriminated against after the coup. And there was plenty to tell, since the charges were true. Hope the official, classified documents of the hearing in camera should now be declassified to stop future speculation. I was big enough to know what was happening then, right from the 1966 coup.

My own father, being the most qualified around, was persuaded to forego confirmation for a post he had been acting in for years under the CPP regime (the CPP big-wigs thought only whites could hold the post!), just to allow a Ga to assume it, as Ewes were supposed to be already too many in similar posts! It was indeed a case of jobs for the boys all over again! So there was some sort of Affirmative Action going on to allow newly qualified Akans and others to also assume posts they did not formerly want. I suffered same fate with another Ewe friend too before, in our seeking a simple vacation job in 1976! And to think an Ewe, a father to a dormitory mate in school was in charge of the recruitment! But he explained, and we accepted, that even though far better qualified, they must take some others too, or they'd be hearing complaints again! So they took on 2 Twi-speaking secondary F4 girls while I, a Sixth Former armed with superlative ‘O’ L results and 3 RSA Stage 2 in English, Accounting and Commerce, was turned down! My friend was also an ‘O’L graduate with good grades and teaching part-time in a preparatory school while pursuing the CA then.

Unfortunately, they (PP, now NPP cohorts) have not learned anything from their past folly and are condemned to the political wilderness, raining insults on all and sundry. Most Ghanaians don't trust them any longer.

Anyway, some of us said enough is enough with this ethnic demonisation, while we are not even enjoying the fruits of office. Our region ranks among the lowest on the development ladder, a permanent position of "Number 9" among 10!:-) We gonna respond and do you in proper, exposing you down to your fathers and mentally warped ancestors who passed on to you those kinds of native prejudice; not better than those held by white supremacists we have come to know in our sojourn among white people.

After all, some of us know that white supremacist ideas had origins from ideas held by the incestuous ancient Egyptians about other peoples! They used to call the Greeks barbarians and no Egyptian girl would kiss a Greek ‘cos Greeks eat pork and meat, taboos to Egyptians. The demon in our midst is our own creation! Let us deal with it right from our homes! To UNIFY any people in a meaningful way, some would have to be made to drop their feelings of superiority and prejudices they hold about others within the same group. Period!

I think Rawlings has done enough to remove that image from the eyes of the mass of Ghanaians. In 1966, Kotoka would have been quite unacceptable to most non-Ewe Ghanaians as Head of State. That's why Ankrah was brought out of retirement to be head of the NLC. After all, by 1966, Ewes were just "Ayigbe dzorlor," i.e., "Ayigbe thieves," the pejorative term you Gas had coined for us Ewes, George. And I did not hear crying "you've changed meter band to Number 9," at the sound of Ewe when I was last at home, as was the case in even the early ‘80s. We'd get to the bottom of all this, just wait long enough!

Please find below a "modern" version of the Ewes are dominating us hysteria. Make up your own minds about the import of the purported letter to the "Chronicle."

>Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 21:17:28 +0200
>To: Okyeame@africaonline.com
>From: Andy K
>Subject: Tribal Conspiracy at Wesley College?
>Cc: africa_think_tank@databack.com
>
>Folks,
>As you can see, they are still at it, the T-mongers! By their words, we shall know them!
>As an Ewe, as you all know of course, I have said no to this kind of demonisation. I have >renounced the "si kpi kporwo" (don't mind them) mentality which our parents, siblings and >elders brought us up with, and is out to confront bare hands, if need be, all who think they >have grievances against Ewes. They have no case!
>That this should be happening within a church organisation is even more pathetic. Read for >yourself this piece of crap found in a national press and put on the web.
>
>Andy Kwawukume
>Norway
>
Tribal Conspiracy At Wesley College

In the November 11, 1997 issue of the "Free Press", Mr. A. Bosompem Boaboduro wrote inter alia:
"That is the reason why a place becomes Ewenized in no time, the moment you put one Ewe there."

In this write-up we intend to prove why and how there has been a conspiracy to subject Ashantis to humiliation, in Wesley College and as a result Ewenize the college. We know that at the end of it all we will be accused of fanning tribalism, but we are sure that whoever reads this article carefully and objectively will sympathise with us, the students of Wesley College and particularly the Ashantis among us.
When a little over two years ago it became necessary for the then Principal of Wesley College, Rev. Kofi Amponsah to retire from the Ghana Education Service, it became necessary for the Methodist Church to recommend somebody to replace him.
Also in 1984 when Rev. Brew-Riverson left the college as principal, two people, Rev. Kofi Amponsah and Rev. M. O. Antwi vied for the post of principal of the college. Rev. Kofi Amponsah eventually got the post and Rev. M. O. Antwi was appointed General Manager of Methodist Schools. Now as General Manager, Rev. M. O. Antwi became the Appointing Officer when Rev. Amponsah was to be replaced as the principal of the college in 1996.
It was at this stage that the conspiracy began. Apparently Rev. M. O. Antwi was peeved because in 1984 an Ashanti was appointed to the post of principal of the college, now that he was the Appointing Officer, he decided to "show" Ashantis, who he had thought, manouvred to side-step him in favour of Rev. Amponsah.
It is pertinent to note that even though in June 1996, a date was fixed for an interview to select a principal for the college, long before the interview many people in GES circles knew that Rev. Ametefe would be the principal of the college. This, the General Manager was capable of doing, because as the Appointing Officer, he was in a position to advise whatever panel conducted the interview on whom to appoint. So eventually Rev. Ametefe got the post after a farce of an interview had been conducted.
Now after Rev. Ametefe had got the post of principal, the scene was set to "show" the Ashantis. In less than two years as Principal of Wesley College, Rev. Ametefe's administration has been so fraught with tribalism and mal-administration that if nothing is done about the situation, Wesley College will lose its glory as one of the best training colleges in Ghana.
Now let me enumerate a few examples of tribalism and poor administration under Rev Ametepe. A few months after taking over the administration of the college, he declared that he could not work any more with the domestic bursar, her assistant, the college store-keeper, all Ashantis. Although, he could not assign any tangible reason for this action, he put so much pressure on the regional office that the two women were transferred from the college. Our information is that he wanted to replace those transferred with Ewes but he apparently met resistance somewhere.
In furtherance of his plan to Ewenize the administrative set-up of the college, Rev. Ametefe has made the college librarian (an Ewe), Gershon Tsadidey, virtually a vice-principal of the college. All construction works are under his care.
Obviously all these are creating tension in the college, and certainly if nothing is done about this, there will soon be an explosion on campus.
We plead with the GES Directorate in Ashanti and opinion leaders in the region to do something about it. We warn that this should not be interpreted as merely crying wolf or making false allegations. Whoever doubts what we have said can conduct his own investigations to find out the truth.

> CONCERNED STUDENTS.WESLEY COLEGE, KUMASI, ASHANTI.
> Homepage
> //www.africaonline.com.gh/AfricaOnline/newsstand/chronicle/1/page07.htm

-----------END OF FORWARDED POST-------------------------

Now, how can appointing a principal to a school in Ghana be the concern of some students; not even old students? BTW, the Rev. Antwi is most likely an Akan too, as “Antwi” is a common Akan name, though there are some Ewes of Akan origins with Akan names. And there is a whole bunch of an Ewe sub-group with Ga-Fanti origins marrying with Ewes, the so-called Mina-Ewes centred around southern Togo Republic and Benin. Ewes are thus people of mixed linguistic origins, not any single tribal group from the past. Our eventual homeland became the so-called Slave Coast, as some of you surely know already. But that is quite another story, even though it is much a part of the reason for the formation of what I've dubbed "native prejudice" against us by non-Ewe Ghanaians.

Some few other comments on what George wrote.-

>2. His regime has been the MOST BRUTAL and CORRUPT in Ghana's history.

That the PNDC has been brutal in its early years I won't dispute. Much of that brutality was actually directed at each other, in the power struggle between the "super-revolutionaries" and the moderates. The moderates won. That stopped most of the abuses super-revolutionaries were meting out to the public. There was near anarchy in the country. Rawlings himself was nearly several times "devoured by the revolution." Insiders claimed he was not sleeping at the same place twice at a time!

As for the corruption, the PNDC was once one of the cleanest in Ghana's history. Ghana won some few prizes, e.g., for having the lowest pilfering and theft at the ports, and fastest turn around (hence low demurrages) for ships. Since 1990, particularly after 1992, the need to accommodate the vociferous business community and sections of the right-wing opposition, has meant a general laxity and return to the bad ways of the past with a vengeance. It seems the dictum of those people that "corruption is the lubricant which oils the wheels of bureaucracy" has won the day. But Ghana is certainly not the number 6th in corruption level, bypassing even Indonesia, as claimed not long ago. Something must be done to curb rampant corruption though.

>3. He denigrated the sanctity of African heritage by imposing ALIEN
>institutions on the people of Ghana. He blew up indigenous MARKETS,
>stripped and whipped MARKET WOMAN who violated price controls -- an
>alien measure. (Chiefs do not impose price controls on village markets);
>imposed nonsensical revolutionary committees -- an idea which was
>imported from Cuba, etc. etc.

As for this, what the hell does George mean? Which "alien institutions"? BTW, Rawlings is half-Scot, half-Ewe. His present Vice is also called Mills! Alien names, by George! Indeed, aliens are ruling us.:-) What else can we expect?:-)

The rest of the stuff above is just fiction too. I don't know which traditional institutions George has studied. If I begin to quote lengthy sentences to disprove him now, some will begin to say that Andy-K is anti-this or that. Perhaps, he hasn't read any where how the Kings and chiefs imposed very strict fiscal rules over the markets and trade routes, breaking them which can earn man the loss of his/her head! Of course, whole towns and villages could be wiped out for severe violations.

One devastating war the Asantes fought against the Fantis was simply for the reason that some two chiefs failed to send some gold nuggets they found to the Asantehene's treasury! And we know by now how the Asantes control the prices of slaves. Don't we? Well, they locked the "surplus" in their homes and burn them alive, for instance! Cinque, you must be lucky your ancestor got through into the slave boat! I hate myths!

And what dared you grow pepper in ancient Dahomey without permission from the King of Abomey? And can you move a slave or an elephant tusk to the European slave castles in Accra without paying your due to the free-booting Akwamus when they were the mercenaries and guardians of the slave routes for you Gas; or after they had given your ancestors a thrashing and taken over the trade themselves, spilling the slave trade into the world of our ancestors in the present VR?

>4. Surrendered the sovereignty of Ghana to the World Bank and the IMF,

Hmm! As for this, no plenty comments! I don't think much of the Terrible Twins too. But did we ever regain that "sovereignty"? Nkrumah only said everything else (economic independence inclusive) would follow political independence. "Seek ye first the political kingdom ....” Some of his critics, e.g., Prof. A.W. Seidman (1978), said the formula was naive to begin with.

>5. Placed the SEAT of his government in the Castle in Accra, where
>thousands of AFRICAN SLAVES were kept in dungeons before trans-shipment
>to the Americas. Yet, he is the same man who sherperd (sic) black American
>tourists to Elmina Castle, some 80 miles away, for an emotional connection.
>Some tourist guide, eh?

The seat of government has for a long time been the Castle. Rawlings just moved in too.

As for the tourism project, I have my own serious misgivings about it and had expressed them elsewhere - directly to those involved too. In fact, I know some of the key architects very well, including the brain behind. He was my host when I was collecting data early 1993 at Elmina and at Shama. We go a long way back.

However, when I read some of the goings on, apart from making contact with my friend, I made contact with no less a person than one main consultant at Smithsonian Institute and expressed my (our) concerns. I gave permission for everything I wrote to be sent to the powers-that-be in Accra and Cape Coast, where George actually attended his famous "high school" in which students used to sit on the floor.:-) Phew! Some people can spin a yarn for a buck! Sorry! Villagers, pardon my soliloquy.

George, there is a fierce power struggle going on in Ghana (and elsewhere) the surface of which only appears now and then. It all has to do with the UNITY of the Old and New, the historically dispossessed of the African diaspora and that of Africa, and the place of the "privileged" of Africa within that order. That unity of purpose and interest, of course, MUST come into fruition, but upon whose terms and conditions? At this moment, I do not want to write more about this, as I intend to do so elsewhere, sooner or later. But let me just narrate this incidence involving the so-called renovation of the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.

What apparently turned out to be a "white-washing" exercise, led an African-American to go on hunger strike protest in the Cape Coast Castle. Some of you certainly know the story better than me already. Ghanaians, including those on Okyeame were outraged, claiming that such a publicity gimmick by well-to-do idealists was out of place in a country some people go to bed with only one meal a day! I stepped in to inform Akyeame that even when some of their ancestors (the hunger strikers) were in shackles, they tried to starve themselves to death. That was why the white slavers used to bring special pincers for knocking off the front teeth of those captives seaward-bound refusing to eat so that they could be force fed. After that, we had a fruitful discussion of enlightenment and Re-Awakening of African Consciousness. Akyeame learned that hunger strike as a tool of protest was not something invented by Gandhi! Of course, the incidence brought out some contradictions in attitudes and viewpoints between the various three parties I identified above, which I'd pass over discussing now.

Well, I have been more verbose than intended.:-) Thanks George for giving me the opportunity to let some bile off my chest.:-)

Andy K

ADDENDUM:
So here ended my views on a number of issues, besides the accusation of the T-thing, which generated it. For those dishonestly or ignorantly claiming that Rawlings brought tribalism to the Ghanaian body politic, from now onwards, they should know that we have travelled that blind alley before, and heard it all before! The Busia, PP tradition introduced it into Ghanaian politics! They used it against our fathers, uncles, aunts, etc. We their sons and daughters shall NOT TOLERATE ANY LONGER THIS concoction of BIGOTRY, ENVY AND PREJUDICE FROM ANYONE WHATSOEVER! We Ewes study hard to get jobs we are qualified for, as someone responsible for recruitment in Ghana recently confirmed to me again. Himself an Ewe, he said at times, he tried awarding lower points to the Ewe candidate, only to be overruled by the white boss and others on the panel! That was his way of dealing with the murmurings he has been hearing – attempt to disqualify yet another more qualified Ewe from getting a job his/her struggling parents had sacrificed so much for!
SARPONG 9 years ago

Trokosi bigotry is legendary and it will take a fool like you to try to rewrite trokosi ethnocentric tag.

Kofi Awoonor exposed the Trokosi bigotry when he wrote in his book that, the 1979 coup was intended to check the Aka ...
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Trokosi bigotry is legendary and it will take a fool like you to try to rewrite trokosi ethnocentric tag.

Kofi Awoonor exposed the Trokosi bigotry when he wrote in his book that, the 1979 coup was intended to check the Akan, especially the Asantes economic power and to seize and redistribute their wealth.

There is a reason why no tribe wants to be transferred to Volta region because of their extreme tribal bigotry.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Since you are incapable of writing a rebuttal against what I wrote, your stock in trade response is to insult me and tell lies, you mentally warped sonofabitch.

As for my book, read my other pos to find out why it is not ...
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Since you are incapable of writing a rebuttal against what I wrote, your stock in trade response is to insult me and tell lies, you mentally warped sonofabitch.

As for my book, read my other pos to find out why it is not out yet. I lost the chapter on the formation of the Gold coast military, police forces and civil administration.

No, they don't want to be transferred there firstly cos of their native prejudice, and secondly 'cos of the poor amenities there. The latter also deters people from the VR.

And the bloody-minded liar that you are, you lied about what Awoonor wrote. He wrote no such things as you claimed here. Quote for us then, if you had even seen that book before. The late Dr Francis Appiah, the grandson of the NLM mojo himself and linguist to the Asantehene, who was once writing speeches for and was my mate in Legon and Dept colleague in the Univ. of Bergen, made a copy for, besides a copy of Awoonor's book devoted specifically to Asantes and Ewes. If he was a tribalist and an anti-Asante person, it is in the latter book that we'd find it but no, the accolades and trust he heaped on Asantes [and Ewes] made both of us get goose pimples! The one he made a copy from isn't the only copy printed, so are you Asantes silent about that book too? B'cos he praised you too much? Just bogger off, you small twerp! I was planning to return to Ghana too and Francis and I were going to co-operate to write a book on the ethnic issue in Ghana but that's left to me now. He made loads of copies of rare items we were going to use. A pity he died prematurely.

Andy-K
SARPONG 9 years ago

You son of a bitch, who is not aware of what Awonoor wrote in his book? Who are more tribalistic than your trokosi people? Don't you even have a name for your bigotry, NYEBRO that teaches you ethnocentric morons to help Ewes ...
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You son of a bitch, who is not aware of what Awonoor wrote in his book? Who are more tribalistic than your trokosi people? Don't you even have a name for your bigotry, NYEBRO that teaches you ethnocentric morons to help Ewes in all endevours before you think about anybody else, you incestuous son of a whore

"No, they don't want to be transferred there firstly cos of their native prejudice, and secondly 'cos of the poor amenities there. The latter also deters people from the VR. "

Listen to your stupid ethnocentric self. So Gas. Northerners and other tribes that don't want to be in Volta region is because they are all tribalists? Is that what you worthless daughter fucker is telling forumers?

People don't complain too much being transferred to the three Northern regions despite the lack of amenities worse than Volta region because Northerners by and large are very nice and welcome other tribes unlike your own people who don't want to associate with others due to your bigotry.

Central region lacks amenities like Volta region but nobody complains when they are transferred there so ask your stupid self why people hate and fear to go to Volta region because of your bigotry and criminal behavior especially killing others.

God created houseflies,tse-tse flies,ants,bugs, cockroaches, maggots, mosquitos, fleas, ticks, slugs, leeches, and intestinal parasites , then he lowered his standards and made you.You are a real monument to stupidity ! As a first time offender , I shall let you off the hook with the sentence of a parole but a repeatition of such crass dunderheadedness will leave me with no option than to give you a maximum sentence.

Will you now get back into your cage ? And I mean now, you vulgar little maggot !
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

It is clear to all and sundry that you Justice Sarpong is just a crude, low life jerk from a broken home, or a house of ill repute. You have no fine breeding in your bone.

You wrote this as reason why pple don't want to b ...
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It is clear to all and sundry that you Justice Sarpong is just a crude, low life jerk from a broken home, or a house of ill repute. You have no fine breeding in your bone.

You wrote this as reason why pple don't want to be transferred to the VR:

"...so ask your stupid self why people hate and fear to go to Volta region because of your bigotry and criminal behavior especially killing others."

If that's not a jaded ethnocentric nonsense, what else is? the VR is not occupied by Ewes alone, since they are the butt of your native prejudices. Even Akans form a significant proportion of the population there and they have their area. Do pple accept transfers there or they also kill pple and exhibit bigotry towards pple transferred to those areas which are non-Ewe areas of the VR?

Can you give a single instance of anyone worker killed in the VR 'cos he/she was not from the VR? Gosh! And you think you are intelligent. Go to Ho and see for yourself everybody mixes together, and Twi is just as common as Ewe.

I know Akans, including Asantes, even here in London who lived and work in the VR and they all remember the swell time they had there, against their wildest expectations. Of course, they also came with native prejudices but luckily left without them. I can tell you amusing stories of their experiences and what they first thought was going to happen to them. You are and your ilk are still at that warped mentality stage.

Andy-K
Sam Anderson 9 years ago

"This in the sense that, during Kufuor's administration, the NDC newspapers listed the names of all the top officials in the gov't bearing Akan names, whether the person was from Volta region with Akan name or from western, E ...
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"This in the sense that, during Kufuor's administration, the NDC newspapers listed the names of all the top officials in the gov't bearing Akan names, whether the person was from Volta region with Akan name or from western, Eastern, but as long as the person bears an Akan name, the Kufuor's administration was finally christened as Akans gov't, giving credence to their old weak-minded argument that the NPP is an akan/Ashanti party."

Mr. Boasiako, you're totally mistaken on this. I seriously challenge you to list all the names of the top officials in the Kufuor administration with Akan names but who were not Akans. If you don't do this in support of your statement, then you're only deliberately attempting to throw dust into your readers' eyes.

The gospel truth is that President Kufuor was indeed quite ethnocentric in his appointments and he himself acknowledged this, even though he didn't indicate that he was ethnocentric. This was a well-known fact throughout Ghana in those days. Indeed, an interviewer asked him one day why most of his appointees were Asantes---not even Akans, but Asantes!---and, surprisingly, he justified his decision and action by responding that the Asantes overwhelmingly voted him into power and therefore they deserved to be appointed to key positions. Therefore, this was no secret; it was reported by the Ghana media, including Ghanaweb.com.

When Kufuor and his NPP assumed the reins of governance in 2000, one of his very first acts was to dismiss a large number of people, mostly non-Akans, from both the civil and public services as well as from the military. Most of those dismissed were Ewes, followed by Gas. This was exactly the repeat of Busia's Apollo 568 when in 1969 he dismissed 568 workers from their various civil and public service positions on the flimsy charge of incompetence. Most of the dismissed workers were Ewes and Gas. One Ewe man, Sallah, a GNTC manager who had just then been promoted for his meritorious service, challenged Busia and his PP---which has metamorphosed into today's NPP---at Ghana's Supreme Court, and it ruled in his favour. Then Prime Minister Busia immediately thereafter appeared on national TV and declared: "No court can tell me what to do". He thus over-ruled the Court and let his decision stand. That was precisely the policy Kufuor also adopted when he became President.

In addition, during the Kufuor administration, those bearing Ewe-sounding names were not even invited for interviews for senior civil servant positions. Those Ewe-sounding names were deliberately overlooked and the bearers were therefore never considered for the positions, let alone employed. It was an Akan man, a senior civil servant, who had felt disgusted by his colleagues' ethnocentrism which he felt undermined Ghana's progress, who leaked this information to the press, with a copy of his letter of complaint, to former President J. J. Rawlings. This was also prominently reported by Ghanaweb. com.

Thus, Mr. Boasiako, these are some of the facts you have to consider when discussing issues of this nature. Otherwise, you can't be considered to be objective in your analysis and you views can't be taken seeriously.

Secondly, in answer to your question as to whether or not someone should record and play out any "tribal" comment made by our politicians, I can assure you that such comments don't promote harmony and nation-building, if we agree that we must all contribute in our own small ways to the development of our country Ghana. That's why such comments must be exposed and condemned in no uncertain terms. You need not be reminded of how such comments, rooted in ethnocentric pride and superiority complex, lead to wars and rumours of wars. The Rwanda Hutus and Tutsis and other examples, especially in Africa, are still too fresh in our minds, and we must take our cue from them.
Joe Canada 9 years ago

I am surprise that with your in depth knowledge of Ghana politics, you didn't mention what murderer Rawlings did to Akans. Not once. So it is always okay for NDC to do whatever they like to Akans particulary Ashanti's/Eastern ...
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I am surprise that with your in depth knowledge of Ghana politics, you didn't mention what murderer Rawlings did to Akans. Not once. So it is always okay for NDC to do whatever they like to Akans particulary Ashanti's/Eastern, but it is a taboo for NPP to do same, right?. Wrong is wrong bro, it doesn't matter which direction is coming from, but its sickening when a tribe makes it their ultimate goal to court the support of the other tribes to demonise a particular tribe. Why is it that anytime there is an insensitive tribal comment from NPP, Ashanti's receive the most tongue lashing from the rented/propaganda government press and the electronic media?, WHY?, though the purported statement were not made by an Ashanti?. What baffles me is the continuous silence of the so-called chiefs. It seems to me that they are only good for chasing apusikeleke girls. They have lost the leadership qualities of old and their moral compass. Why can't they call the fucking government and the rest of the bone heads politicians to stop that NONSENSE!!.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Indeed, we know that in NPP circles, what the man said is not considered wrong. It has been the gospel truth the NPP tradition has been feeding on since the 1960s. Others like me simply react to what we hear them saying; of c ...
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Indeed, we know that in NPP circles, what the man said is not considered wrong. It has been the gospel truth the NPP tradition has been feeding on since the 1960s. Others like me simply react to what we hear them saying; of course, sometimes thinking we don't understand or can't hear them.

I've been chronicling their antics for over decades now. Ponder on this one.

WILFULLY BLIND OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANCE?

I have been amused, and somehow puzzled, at the rumpus being raised about what crazed Agyapong said. But what I find surprising is the virtual hypocrisy and mendacious attempts to brush this issue under the carpet by some linked to the NPP as just a one off aberration. These people pretend or do not seem to know that Agyapong’s threats were not the first admonishing the killing of Ewes, something the readily available facts testify to. Facts I have been referring to from 1994 in cyberspace, recounting my own personal experiences with some of those advocates of Ewe killers in Nigeria during the early years of the PNDC. Of course, I have not as yet told the full story. But as Fela said, “I no kpata de finish!”

Hmm! As I found out when I was insulted “basabasa” by a man who turned out to be one of my many uncles, when I apparently misspoke on the hike in petrol prices in the 1993 budget, (on a bus from Anloga to Dzelukope in 1993), for being mistaken for a Quashiga hireling who had joined the “Eblutorwo” (Akans) preparing to come and kill them, my people back home were fully prepared and waiting for us quislings to start the attacks; I was assured. That was long before anyone heard of Justice Kpega as a political pundit! Phew! Me, a die-hard Nkrumaist in league with NPP assassins, to go and kill my fellow Anlos over whom my own forebears had ruled for centuries? Well, after all, it was in Lome, an Ewe centrepiece city even if many are of Ga-Anyi extraction, that they first congregated and started those lose talks against Ewes, thus forcing most Ewes in exile opposed to the PNDC to abandon the opposition to the PNDC and the anti-Ewe bent it had taken. So, many of us Ewes knew about their evil intents a long time ago, as they were eating our akple and fetridetsi and planning it in our kinsmen homes! Hardly any of them knew that much of the land of Lome is owned by people from Aflao and environs. Ignorant morons come in all shapes, you know. They were lucky no one poisoned them in Lome.:-)

Equally, I have read opponents to Agyapong’s utterances, including some Ewes, made some false and misleading statements, which shows that they are ignorant of the facts of the origins of the ethnic imbroglio in Ghana, despite my persistent efforts and write-ups sketching that sordid history, from the pre-colonial to the post-independence era. I read someone situated in the 1979 elections period Victor Owusu’s scathing attacks on Ewes as “inward-looking” during the exchanges with Dr Agama in Parliament after the Apollo 586 sacking of mostly Ewes by the Busia regime which was overthrown in Jan. 1972!

Ignorance and superstition are recognised as key cogs in the vicious cycle of backwardness that is our lot as developing people but the extent most so-called educated Ghanaians wallow in these two inhibiting traits is just stupendous and disheartening!

Many try to claim that Rawlings introduced tribalism into Ghana by employing predominantly Ewes into sensitive public posts, especially the security sector; whereas the same claims of Ewe domination of posts had already been used effectively against Gbedema’s NAL by Busia’s Progress Party during the 1969 General Elections, as I had quoted from Dennis Austin’s book “Ghana Observed,” but something all grown-ups at the time knew about. It was therefore unfortunate that the late Prof Adu Boahen, as a historian who knew or ought to know better, fed into these fabrications of Ewe dominance, creating his own when he reportedly claimed in a British Council lecture in the 1980s that Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, a Ga who was given the VC post which he thought he deserved at the time, was an Ewe, and promised in his interview granted to Mahoney and his Africa Watch magazine to redress the presumed ethnic disparity when the NPP was elected into office. To me and many discerning Ewes, especially the Ewe elite, it was all déjà vu. But I was still surprised to find out that some decade long Ewe opponents of the PNDC voted for the NDC in 1992! It would not even surprise me if someone who knew Justice Kpegah’s political views very well in the 1980s came out to say that he was an arch-enemy of the PNDC in the Bar Association. I was visiting Ho in 1990 when the people of the VR angrily rejected the no party idea that the PNDC was then lobbying for, effectively halting the campaign for it. Those in B/A had already voted yes.

Yes! The NPP had itself to blame for their dismal reception in the VR, as they lost the plot with their tribal agenda reminiscent of the 1969 campaign. In Accra, they lost a lot of Ga support when the same Prof Adu Boahen at a rally, in trying to whip the anti-Ewe venom made that gaffe about Gas being pushed by the PNDC to be sleeping 10 persons to a room, after many of the main speakers had spoken in Twi which pissed them off! In 2000, they (NPP) won simply because of JJ’s unwholesome Swedru Declaration and the disrespectful Obed Asamoah led attempts to impose sitting candidates on their constituents, which nearly got him beaten at Dzelukope/Keta. Even my own Anlo Constituency voted for an independent linked to the NDC but not the NDC official candidate who was the re-imposed incumbent!

Fact is, I have been aware, just as many other people, since the early 1980s of various threats by some Akans opposed to the PNDC to have Ewes killed and had written about that many, many times on Okyeame and SIL. Perhaps, adding Gas to those to be killed is just the new dimension added by Agyapong, since it appeared, this time, the Gas, in Agyapong's warped mind, had acted in prosecuting the "Ewe agenda" by beating up Ursula on behalf of the Ewes! Well, warped minds think in strange, circular terms!

After all, the threats were so opened and so rampant that one Ewe, the late Dr Kodzi who died in exile here in London, pointed out the "Anlo-Ewes” in his own virulently anti-Rawlings PNDC book, "Ghana: Worse than Apartheid S. Africa," as the Ewes to be killed, for being the culprits of the complaints and angst of the Akans! That was long before anyone heard of Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe and his renewed “war” on “Anlo-Ewes,” a war his ancestor joined the Akyem Gen. Dompey to fight in "Krepi" against the Asantes and their allies and lost way back in the 1860s and got stranded there, lucky enough not to have been killed like others. That’s another story I had re-told elsewhere and needs a re-visit soon in order to let the populace know what makes bozos like Ahoofe tick. For a man, (I mean Dr Kodzi, not the jerk Ahoofe) who, due to his sterling stewardship when in charge of the Keta Govt Hospital, was much beloved by Anlos, regarded as an hononary Anlo and entrusted with pouring the libation at the Hogbeza celebration of the Noviha group here in London, that was something to write! How could he be sure that the would-be killers would not mistake him for an Anlo man, in spite of the pain he took to identify the other Ewe groups in his book? Well, the failure of the so-called Ewe elite - academic and traditional and the political - to deal rationally with this animus against Ewes is itself an intra-Ewe shambolic intellectual failure I shall deal with by and by. I have right here on my table the rantings of some other Ewes from northern Eweland, or Ewedome, as we Anlos refer to the area referred to by Europeans as Krepi, against the PNDC and Anlos in particular which I have not even as yet dealt with in my writings.

I must, however, make exception here, as Prof. Kofi Awoonor’s much distorted and maligned prison book (in league with Soyinka’s The Man Died) is probably the first book by a Ghanaian which tried to explain the tribal imbroglio and to point the way forward. His only mistake was that he fell prey to the standard Western simplistic, linear and reductionist methodology of reducing what is without doubt a complex articulation of interests and forces which cut across the ethnic divide with people from all ethnic groups found in both or all contesting camps for political ascendancy, or “hegemony”, as he put it, in Ghana. So, for instance, those who imprisoned him for helping Brig. Kattah to escape to Togo were not only “Akans/Asantes” but included Ewes, Gas, Gonjas, etc., as Kutu’s NRC comprised a cross-section of Ghanaian ethnic groups. And some members of other ethnic groups supported Busia and the demonization of the Ewes, not only Asantes or Akans alone.

You have to be wilfully blind or totally ignorant of what has been happening in the opposition to the P/NDC camp in order to claim today that you are not aware of talk of and even attempts to foment what would have become an ethnic war in Ghana prior to 1992. I personally had to intervene and quelled a serious fracas on Okyeame between two well known non-Ewes when the “brave Asantes” were queried again by a non-Asante why they could not deal with the apparently Ewe P/NDC which allegedly committed atrocities on they Akans only, I suppose. I bet many can remember J.H Mensah's arrest in America for allegedly attempting to buy weapons to prosecute their “liberation war” to get their country back. It is no wonder the NPP gurus, many of whom shared in those nefarious ideas, talked about it, plotted to carry it out, etc., are finding it very hard to distance themselves from this public utterance of it again. How can they desert their fellow journey man, without being double hypocrites? At least, there must be some honour among thieves!

There are many questions to ask and many issues to take up. Had my PC not kaput and eventually leading to the loss of a huge part of what I had painstakingly written with references while in Norway with additions in London, my intended book taking up those issues would have been out years ago.

Incidentally, my next intended article after writing "How Some "Ewes" Became a Part of Ghana" is titled "Who Are the Ewes?". It is just a revisit to my first ever post to a cyber forum in early 1994, Okyeame precisely, which Azar should remember so well as, in spite of my providing a reference, he still challenged me to give that! It was sent as my contribution, incidentally, to another NPP instigated scare against poor but hard working Ewe and Ada fishing cum farming pioneers (won't call them settlers) displaced by the effects of the Akosombo Dam on the neglected downstream people who opened up the mosquito infested and disease-ridden Afram Plains. The claim was that the NDC wanted to carve a district for them there and thereby claim the land for them! Wives and children were hastily sent home in order to keep them out of harm’s way in the event of attacks on the communities. That was when I decided not to sit any longer on the fence, just like the majority of my fellow educated Ewes, who think responding to such attacks on Ewes is beneath them, since madmen, "dzimakplawo" and "gbemelawo" were responsible! That was the common “wisdom” repeated by Rawlings at Tsiame, when he was queried by the worried chiefs and people about the ongoing Ewe demonization in the opposition media and on political platforms in the ‘90s.

Gratuitous counter abuse, especially directed at Asantes ad nauseam, is not the way to tackle the issues, as some are presently doing on Ghanaweb. In the ‘90s, the Ghanaian stage was left to a novice like Komla Dumor to deal with on Myjoyonline with his “Ayigbe Jokes” series., which horrified and mortified me when I first listened to it online in 1997 or so. A programme like that would have found him and Myjoyonline foul of the Anti-Vilification Laws of any of the Western European countries and sanctioned appropriately. I doubt though whether half of our “honourable” MPs have heard of such a law, but that is the way we must go, and huge revision of the school curricula. But that calls for another article.

Well, simply, many do not know how to deal with the madmen who repeatedly take their loins cloth while in the bath house! I know how! After all, I know the story of how the Anloga man dealt with the mad man of Tegbi and remained sane; the mad man who used to way lay the “asisiawo” - the market women - from the Keta market with a club and the question: axor a ava lo, alo axor ekpo?, i.e., do you want penis or do you want the club? And one day he raped and killed the heavily pregnant wife of the Anloga man. Of course, it is a taboo to deal with mad men in our society but the Anloga man dealt with the mad man and nothing happened to him.

Ahoofe and his ilk’s tribalistic insults directed at Anlo-Ewes in particular and Agyapong's call to mayhem can be placed in perspective if you are informed about their origins. They used the tribal card so well in 1969 and think they can continue using it forever. No! Some of us decided long ago that ourselves and children shall not remain objects of demonization and vilification for the political objectives of some people who are still suffering from the mental warpedness that the slave trade had foisted on our ancestors. We shall therefore make sure that these appeal to ethnic differences backfire big time on their stupid faces!

I am therefore re-sending and shall continue re-posting this short piece I had put together especially for the readership of Ghanaweb and shall continue with my series on the Ethnic imbroglio in Ghana. Agyapong's outburst is simply the tip of the canker that permeates our body politic that must be dealt with at its roots. They are not the only Akans who suffer from what I have dubbed “Ewe angst and fears”, which afflict the generality of Akans due to how they are weaned and socialised. What do you expect from people who, as kids, are frightened to drink their Mist Alba, behave themselves or go to bed early with the Ewe bogeyman imagery?

Andy C. Y. Kwawukume

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THE ETHNIC IMBROGLIO IN GHANA: THE ORIGINS, PART 1

The tribal imbroglio, rather than starting in recent times, has been brewing for a long, long while now. In fact, the roots of the prejudices and the insults we see some raining on others date back to pre-colonial times. So, any attempt to understand the worrying phenomenon must address the canker from that era. That is what I intend to do, with special focus on the apparent cleavage between Ewes and Akans (and any others). But now, I’d begin with the colonial times. When you hear the cry of lamentation:
Dza le le leeeeeee!
Me zu kluvi
The road to Kontsiabu
Strewn with gold dusts.
Only those without
in their eyes gold dusts
felt the pangs of hunger and thirst…

then you’d know that the time to narrate the doleful tales of the pre-colonial era, where it all began, has arrived; but you’d get a glimpse now.

Not to waste time apportioning blame, the Akans (and Gas, if I may add them), started these tribal abuse and attacks on Ewes many decades ago; nay, centuries back, as I said earlier. But as mentioned above, I won't delve as yet into the pre-colonial times when it was free for all, with even some Ewe states joining in marauding and plundering other Ewe states for the slave markets of the Gold Coast. I had indeed provided a write up on that sordid era on Ghanaweb’s SIL in the 1990s, which is available. One German businessman with biz connections to Ghana who used to read the nonsense on SIL wrote a private mail to me saying that he was always wondering why Africans sold each other into slavery to Europeans and Arabs; reading my detailed historical account enlightened him on how and why it happened for the first time. That story must be re-told all over Africa in other to understand the roots of the conflicts that bedevilled the continent after independence.

In Ghana, the colonial times modern version started after the WW1 when Anlo, Tongu and Peki migrants from within the Gold Coast and those from the newly acquired TVT from the Germans started moving to the Akan and Ga areas to either fish, farm or seek paid employment. Ewes from Togo and Benin Republic (Dahomey) escaping from French repressive rule came later. Some Ewes, esp. the educated ones, also got jobs with the commercial houses and the colonial administration. Some, such as Gbedema and Nkulenu, started their own private businesses. Soon, they were becoming prosperous in their chosen fields and/or rising up in the ranks wherever they were employed due to the usual hard working nature of most migrants. After all, the far superior German missionary vocational educational set up, compared to the British, had equipped them much better with skills in the crafts and building, such as carpentry and masonry, which were in much demand by the colonial authority and the other natives of the Gold Coast and Asante. That was when trouble began and the attacks started, as far back as the 1930s.

Below is a brief quote from S. Greene about how the Fantes started perceiving Anlo-Ewe fisher folk; a perception or prejudice which is not much different from what permeates the Akan ethnic group as a whole up to today (not only a few bigots on Ghanaweb). Ewes find out to our chagrin or amusement, often as a kid, that that was how our fellow country men and women perceive us. The encounter is therefore a personal story too.

Not much has changed in the prejudiced minds of too many Akans, as we daily witness on Ghanaweb, even though many too have developed over the years an obsession or desire to marry Ewe girls, failure which often brought in its wake stories of tribalism heaped against Ewes. As I told some Akan teacher colleagues in Nigeria, it was the scary and “irrational” Akan “wofa” (uncle) inheritance system, stupid! Horrible stories of how Ewe widows were in particular dispossessed and treated shabbily were enough to dissuade any idea of marriage to even a most love besotted Akan man! It is no wonder that, with the interstate law of inheritance in place, marriage to Akan men has been on the increase.

I know an Ewe from the Peki area who swore that it’d never be possible to change the jaundiced perception of Akans of Ewes from his own experiences attending Mpraeso Teacher Training College, and then teaching at Mpraeso and in Kumasi. He said one particular woman - a cook in the school - they used to go to church with wouldn’t believe that he did not have any “akpeledzi” under their bed! I said it was possible and gave an example of my own experiences in Nigeria. I managed to convince my fellow Akan teachers that I don’t indulge nor believe in those things - juju or voodoo or even any god (white or black), and wouldn’t drink “ogogoro” with them – when there is original Gordon’s gin and lime cordial to have – and they somehow lost some “respect”, (or was it fear?) for me. They’d say I wasn’t a proper Anloman and fool around with me!

Between 1982-4, when their Anti-Ewe diatribes had reached fever point and they were advocating massacring Ewes as done to the Ibos in Nigeria who they claimed were also allegedly dominating Nigeria in the 1960s, I thought of putting some fear into them by creating some “kporsi” (“see-and-run”) to scare them. Fact is, practically every smart Ewe knows how to scare Akans and Gas even though they don’t have “foko” (anything), as we say in Anlo but I will keep that out of this write up. Good I didn’t do so, otherwise they’d be giving testimonies up to today about what an Anlo teacher did to them in Nigeria – they’d have packed out and run from their rooms on the ground floor of the storey building we were hiring. I “protected” myself practically by chocking the door handle with a chair, as I had seen in movies, before I went to bed, in order to prevent them from making me the first casualty of their let-us-kill-Ewes mania! Funny some of them even became staunch PNDC supporters, only to change their minds again years later when I met some on a visit to Ghana.

Anyway, enough with the digression into the personal narrative and to Sandra Greene.

From p.148 of Sandra Greene I quote:

"Increased Anlo identification with their northern Ewe-speaking neighbours may have also been enhanced by the experience many had while participating in migrant fishing. After World War I, numerous groups of Anlo men and women traveled to other coastal areas, including the Fante area of the Gold Coast, in order to pursue their commercial fishing activities. For many, this was probably the first time they had traveled outside their home area, and/or to a district where they were a distinct linguistic minority. In these locations, they conducted themselves as they had in their own home villages, but those among whom they come to live - often temporarily, just for the fishing season - came to view the Anlos' prosperity with jealousy and suspicion. Stories circulated that associated the Anlo with "blood-curdling" crimes. R.W. Wyllie indicates, for example, that from at least the 1930s "Fanti [children] learned to view the Anlos as thieves, kidnappers, sorcerers, and ritual murderers." The social tensions that accompany these beliefs - and the very fact that these beliefs were held by a non-Ewe speaking people - must have heightened the Anlo's awareness of their linguistic and cultural background and generated some sense of identification with their Ewe-speaking peoples whom they would have encountered in the Gold Coast."

The encounter with the Gold Coasters was enough to turn any Ewe into a paranoid schizophrenic, developed a siege mentality (become “inward-looking”?) and very resentful towards any idea of union with the Gold Coast, not to mention marry an Akan.

As some of you know, the Anlo area through Tongu to the Peki area had been part of the Gold Coast colony proper, effectively from 1874 though the British “bought” and claimed the area from the Danes in 1850; hence the freedom to move to other parts of the Gold Coast and Asante later. Besides, many southern Ewes are descendants Ga-Adangbe, Elmina and Denkyira fugitives dating back respectively to 1687 when the Akwamus first thrashed the Gas for cutting the “bolobolo” (foreskin) of their prince sent to the Ga Mantse Okai Koi’s court to understudy courtship, and 1700, when the Asantes defeated the Denkyiras and took over Elmina from the Denkyiras. Going back to Ge (Accra) and Sima (Shama) with their new kinsmen was just like returning to the ancestors' land. In fact, it was the descendants of those fugitives who were the first migrants, having maintained links with their ancestral lands during their long period in exile. Reindorf had written about that back and forth movement among the Ga fugitives long ago. That’s how Osu-Anecho came to be founded and how all Ewes got the derogatory epithet “Ayigbe” (Ayi refuse), whether they were descendants of fugitives or not. The “dzulor” bit the Gas added originally referred to the Okai Koi stool regalia which the Ga-Ewes in Togo refused to return to Accra and still claim to be its protectors. Remember the trips with pre-colonial undertones their chiefs made to Ghana when the NPP took over power in 2000?

I can make long comments on the above quote but suffice it to say that it was the beginning and end of the love affair which started as unification with the Gold Coast movement ending up as the drive to secede from the Gold Coast. So we read from the December 6, 1919 edition of the West Africa magazine a letter sent to the colonial government of the Gold Coast:

“We PEOPLE of Togoland, descended from two principal countries, Elmina
(Ane) and Accra (Ge), both of the Gold Coast Colony, ask to have British government because it is the government of our fathers, whose customs are our customs, and a British Colony is half-an-hour distant from us.
We ask to have British government because it is the government of our kith and kin, our race and our tribe.
We ask for British government because of our relationship with our people on the west, which must assert itself..” (culled from West Africa 12-16 Dec. 1994)

And so on it went. One may wonder why the petitioners did not even acknowledge the Ewes, Dagombas, Konkombas, Akans and the host of other ethnic and tribal groups in Togo who also have their “kith and kin” within the Gold Coast and the Northern Territories. I guess this piece of history may come as a surprise to the ingrates who make a living of always reminding us that Ewes come from Togo, some of whom carried a video to Lome to trace the roots of Fiifii Kwetey there, instead of doing so in Accra! Well, he said he was from Nogokpo, which rubbed a sore spot for me, but that’s another story.

THE EWE BACKLASH

By the 1940s, Ewes, Anlos in particular, in the Gold Coast had had enough of the vilification and undeserved demonisation their successes were arousing. The returnee Anes and Ges (Gas), now fused as the Genyi, as Anlos refer to them, through intermarriages, also soon discovered that they were not welcome, or often welcomed with shouts of “Ayigbe dzulor”! Disenchantment set in and secession from Ghana became a far better option. The result was the 1956 plebiscite and the rest is history.

Then come the post Feb 24 1966 coup era, when Busia and his PP turned this traditional vilification of Ewes into a political tool to win the 1969 general elections. It was preceded by an internal struggle within the NLC to share the spoils of office after the coup. An extended quote from Dennis Austin, that great chronicler of Ghana history, captures the gist of it, so here we go:

“A surprising and disagreeable novelty of the election was the extraordinary anti-Ewe sentiment that was express1ed in conversation with many of those who were against Gbedemah and his party. One can explain this strong animus not simply by a dislike of Gbedema’s reappearance in political life but in relations to events after the 1966 coup. Suddenly there were the soldiers and the police, and everyone burst out singing, but when the music died down away it was noticed that the NLC (it seemed) was commanded by minorities: Ewe and Ga. When Ankrah (a Ga), was moved out, and charges were brought over-hastily by Harlley against the Chief of Defence Staff, Michael Otu, the evidence to many was overwhelming. It was all an Ewe plot. Soon Ghana would be run for the benefit of an energetic minority, operating first within the armed forces, and now behind Gbedemah. ‘Appoint an Ewe to a public corporation or to a government department and within a year the entire hierarchy down to the messenger will be an Ewe.’ So the argument ran. And there was always some evidence for it, since the Ewe, deprived of any natural wealth in their own barren region, have been energetic in seizing the opportunities of public employment, including positions in the army and the police, which wealthier communities (like the Akan) did not wish to occupy. In practice, looking through the list of senior officers in government department and the public corporations, the evidence is certainly not clear of any Ewe domination: it could hardly be in view of their number. But a belief does not, of course, have to be true before people hold it fervently.
Now there is an Akan-dominated government of an Akan dominated society. Were I to become, by some improbable chance of fate, leader of the governing party I would be much less apprehensive of my Ewe opponents in front than of the large and expectant following behind. I would be fearful too of the ambitions of those now excluded from power, remembering the Songs of Innocence that:
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caeser’s laurel crown” (D. Austin 1976:125)

Austin was writing with hindsight about what befell Busia’s regime, overthrown in a coup led by an Asante.

In Part 2, I intend to examine the hate campaign against the Ewes and the consequences or reactions from the 1970s which led to Kofi Awoonor’s infamous prison book, The Ghana Revolution, which he claimed he wrote in prison when gaoled for helping Brig. Kattah to escape from Ghana. It’d be necessary to focus on the Ghana Army, from its origins and recruitment trends since it is at the crux of the matter.
.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume, better known as C.Y. Andy-K, is a freethinker, Pan-Africanist and an ardent Nkrumaist.
cyandyk@ymail.com

References:

Dennis Austin (1976): Ghana Observed: Essays on the Politics of a W. African Republic.
Manchester Univ. Press.
Sandra E. Greene (1995): Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave
Coast: A History of the Anlo-Ewe. Heinemann and James Currey
Robert W. Wyllie. “Migrant Anlo Fishing Companies and Socio-Political Change: A
Comparative Study.” Africa, XXXIX, 4 (1969), 396-410.
perscoba 9 years ago

The facts are there staringat their ugly faces yet they pretend it is not so.

I blame Boakye GYAN for all these in part.

The facts are there staringat their ugly faces yet they pretend it is not so.

I blame Boakye GYAN for all these in part.
awolowo 9 years ago

Go Nana. Make Osafo d Osahene of ur campaign and wat he said ur campaign theme, and Sir John will be our Attorney General come 2017.

Go Nana. Make Osafo d Osahene of ur campaign and wat he said ur campaign theme, and Sir John will be our Attorney General come 2017.
Carol 9 years ago

When Ghanaians have the truth staring them in the face, they become uncomfortable. What was wrong with what Osafo Marco said. He is right. How many Akans are in top positions in the Mahama Administration.?
Most of the top p ...
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When Ghanaians have the truth staring them in the face, they become uncomfortable. What was wrong with what Osafo Marco said. He is right. How many Akans are in top positions in the Mahama Administration.?
Most of the top posts are filled by So called Northerners and Volta region, some who are also second generation Ghanaians. No wonder that deep rooted patriotism that the Indigenous Ghanaian feels is lacking.
Koo 9 years ago

Thanks

Thanks
Akwasi Peter 9 years ago

What a pity? Most of these commentators cannot vote in Ghana because of distance. They only bark they cannot bite.

What a pity? Most of these commentators cannot vote in Ghana because of distance. They only bark they cannot bite.
Sika 9 years ago

Antwi Bosiako well done!!!!!!!

Antwi Bosiako well done!!!!!!!
Sika 9 years ago

Antwi Bosiako well done!!!!!!!

Antwi Bosiako well done!!!!!!!
nii 9 years ago

You are the most foolish person ever heard of in this world, kwasia ba foolish and u the only ppl in ghana, if I know u personal like I will cone to ur house and beat up kwasia kobokobo

You are the most foolish person ever heard of in this world, kwasia ba foolish and u the only ppl in ghana, if I know u personal like I will cone to ur house and beat up kwasia kobokobo
Ray 9 years ago

With all due respect, what u posted makes no sense at all, is complete rubbish and am very dissapointed in you. When will this stop in our Country? How can u hail someone for saying this all bcos u are in the same political p ...
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With all due respect, what u posted makes no sense at all, is complete rubbish and am very dissapointed in you. When will this stop in our Country? How can u hail someone for saying this all bcos u are in the same political party? It only shows the kind of upbringing ur parents gave to you. You are morally corrupt and have no common sense at all. No condition is permanent, the peace we ve been enjoying will never be permanent wen we keep championing this tribal course. I love my Ghana and will never support such a comment even if is coming from my own father.
WAZIRAZI 9 years ago

PLEASE REWRITE YOUR ARTICLE AND BRING MEANING TO IT

PLEASE REWRITE YOUR ARTICLE AND BRING MEANING TO IT
WUNTIRA 9 years ago

The NDC is mass broad-based political party drawing their support from across all the regions and ethnic tribes in the whole country. That is why everybody stands an equal chance of leading the party no matter his/her ethnic ...
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The NDC is mass broad-based political party drawing their support from across all the regions and ethnic tribes in the whole country. That is why everybody stands an equal chance of leading the party no matter his/her ethnic background. JJ Rawlings (Volta), Prof Mills (Central)and JDM (Northern). Can we say that about the NPP. It is a big NO. The NPP is a narrow minded tribal based party who think only Ashantis and Akyems are qualified to lead the party. The party is increasingly becoming unattractive to the large majority of Ghanaians.
Joe Canada 9 years ago

I don't see that equal chance body. Attah Mills was used and murdered to get out of the way for the owners of that Party to take over.

I don't see that equal chance body. Attah Mills was used and murdered to get out of the way for the owners of that Party to take over.
Oteng 9 years ago

If you believe in that pls make AKANS!! State and stop talking Ghana we are one people with common destiny if your here speaking on trib what will you say in Africa in general, to bring tribalism in politics is not gud this c ...
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If you believe in that pls make AKANS!! State and stop talking Ghana we are one people with common destiny if your here speaking on trib what will you say in Africa in general, to bring tribalism in politics is not gud this can create tribal war be careful.
back door director 9 years ago

Talk again NDC foot soldiers and the Northern regional minister prevented a regional director of health to take office because he is not a dagomba.
We are in for interesting times under Mahama.

Talk again NDC foot soldiers and the Northern regional minister prevented a regional director of health to take office because he is not a dagomba.
We are in for interesting times under Mahama.
Dan zango 9 years ago

A press conference is coming soon by concern Muslim organization on a secret wiki leak tape in which an animal call Fiifi Kwetey telling Americans that a Muslim can never be a president in Ghana .this is serious issue against ...
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A press conference is coming soon by concern Muslim organization on a secret wiki leak tape in which an animal call Fiifi Kwetey telling Americans that a Muslim can never be a president in Ghana .this is serious issue against islam . Islam exist Ghana for more than 1000 year before Volta region's join Ghana under Nkrumah,,,,,,,
David 9 years ago

i strongly agree with you Antwi.Osarfo Marfo had it right. He was lay the facts bare about how this Mahama led government has sidelined people in the akan region.

i strongly agree with you Antwi.Osarfo Marfo had it right. He was lay the facts bare about how this Mahama led government has sidelined people in the akan region.
David 9 years ago

i strongly agree with you Antwi.Osarfo Marfo had it right. He was layiny the facts bare about how this Mahama led government has sidelined people in the akan region.

i strongly agree with you Antwi.Osarfo Marfo had it right. He was layiny the facts bare about how this Mahama led government has sidelined people in the akan region.
Dean 9 years ago

OSAFO MARFO IS RIGHT AKANS MUST UNITE AND VOTE NDC THE THIEVES OUT IN 2016 ELECTIONS.

OSAFO MARFO IS RIGHT AKANS MUST UNITE AND VOTE NDC THE THIEVES OUT IN 2016 ELECTIONS.

Osarfo Marfo Is Right On Mahama's Intentional Sideline Of Autochthonous Akans!!

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