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Opinions of Saturday, 17 February 2007

Columnist: Fiagbeto, Yao

Kufuor and Rawlings Celebrate .....

KUFUOR & RAWLINGS CELEBRATE CROSS-CULTURAL DISPOSITIONS AT GHANA’S 50TH BIRTHDAY.

Norvinyewo- brothers and sisters!

The death of Selormey a man regardless of what his alleged crime was has invested back into Ghana of enormous proportion but his investment now in ruin causing economic lost to the State and the Ghanaian worker now the jailed sentenced pronounced on his Hon.Abodakpi MP from Keta who was never my favorite coupled with my recent experience at Kotoka International Airport last year where I said hello to a custom official in Ewe because I overhead him spoke Twi on the Job and his response was are you from Togo? My reply was is Atito or Anlogah in Togo? I said all these because I am scared and my knees are quivering for 50th anniversary aftermath for Ghana.

To curtail my fears we should all celebrate with KUFUOR AND RAWLINGS our tribal composition because that is the true natural or original identity of being an African, God’s own ordination. We can try to convince ourselves that we are not tribalistic but every indications shows we identify ourselves as Ewes, Ashantis, Akyems, Brongs, Fantis, Ga Adangbe or Dagombas or Kokombas just to mentioned a few even sisters and brothers from civil war zones still calling themselves Anyi’s (Nzema), Baoule’s, Julas or Bete all hailing from Cote D’ivoire which in my view is a good thing because I am a born certified Ewe tribesman from Atito via Anlogah in the volta region of Ghana but when our tribal affiliations are view and use in the framework of superiority in which one tribe openly ascribe or view their language, culture and tribe as a dominance force then an exploitative agenda is formulated and use by powers seeking markets for their guns and machetes.

How past sequence of events unfold before chaos. Name calling erupt resulting to civil disobedience eventually into arm conflicts. The very exploiters emerge us mediators while seeking advantage to escalate the conflict so as to maximize their profit margins. It is a ploy that works against unique cultural and religions dispositions in the past and continue to work vehemently in the global setup, therefore we as Ghanaians should not be naïve that our tribal dispositions will be treated differently from Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone or La Cote D’Ivoire therefore we must be vigilant and tolerance of each other regardless of our tribal identities.

With this backdrop let us all feel proud of our tribes in positive lights, respecting each other tribe’s existence on this 50th birthday of Ghana. The Airport is in Accra therefore to be fair and sensitive to the Ga Adagbe’s Welcome of visitors should not be in Twi (Akwaba) alone but there must also be Ga translation of Welcome at the Airport. Furthermore, the president should be able to welcome the occasion in all Ghanaian languages.

It will be a plus and something to be proud off if our resolution at this 50th birthday is to learn as many Ghanaian tribal languages in other to feel at home around other ethnic groups. I for one I am very blessed to be an Ewe man from Atito a fishing village north of Anlogah, who early on was exposed to appreciate and celebrate other cultures in Ghana especially my experiences in Tepa Abotoase, Kwamekrom, Kpasa, Dambai and Accra where I can proudly say expose me to Ga, Hausa and Twi and thank God I will never be cheated in any of these unique homes in Ghana. I have also the African connection as well from Casablanca, Dakar, Abidjan, Kano, Lagos, Duala to Libreville just to mentioned a few, with their unique taste of cuisines and cultural niche.

I am very honored to say I am and will always be that village Ewe man from Atito who has unique proud Ashanti, Ga, and Hausa friends and as I take pride in speaking their languages to them I always try to interject Ewe in my conversation with them so as to attract their interest and I am happy to say it has been working very well in some fronts. Therefore His Excellency Kufuor should set the stage at this 50th anniversary by acknowledging the existences of other tribes in Ghana in his opening welcome speech.

If we all can be proud of ourselves and freely speak our languages wherever we found ourselves in Ghana be it in school, banks, university and place of work just like the Ashanti’s for example some of us will not feel left out and hide behind other tribes in our day to day deliberations.

In conclusion as encouragement, I speak Ewe anywhere because I am very proud of my Ashanti brothers and sisters having such pride and audacity to speak their Twi to anyone anywhere. I want to be like them and it is working perfectly alright for me. I speak Ewe in tro tro, bank institutions, and ministries and in Legon on business anytime I am in the country. There is always someone available in all these places that attend to me in Ewe. Thank you and God bless Ghana on our 50th birthday. Love You All.

AKPE! AKPE NAMI. MIDA MOASE. NYE WURANDON, NAN GO DE.

Yao Fiagbeto 9371 Haley Court Jonesboro, GA. 30238

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