Are African Valued As Others?

Nkrumah's Oversized Shoes

It was Nkrumah who said “ The Blackman is capable of managing its affairs “ He goes on to say

'I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.', 'We face neither East nor West; We face ...forward Is the task too difficult for us ?

Recent weeks have seen a back lash of racism or denigration of the African . First it was a player of the famous football(soccer) team, Barcelona who had a banana thrown at him.. Ives is Black but a Brazilian, very talented and all he was doing was using his skills and entertaining the crowd . I am glad the other star players showed support posting and twixting pictures eating banana. Hardly had that died when it was the turn of Mr Sterling , owner of the L A Clippers . He is the one who puts food on the table of Black players . Action has been taken but it does not take away the fact the level Blacks are viewed. Another bigot who confronted Federal authorities commented “ Blacks were better off under slavery”

Manchester City and Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure thinks he is not regarded as one of the best players in the world because he is from Africa.

The midfielder has won league titles in four countries - Ivory Coast, Greece, Spain and England - and was part of the Barcelona team that won the Champions League in 2009.

He also feels fellow countryman Didier Drogba and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o are undervalued because they are African.

We are going to the World Cup and you can be sure African teams will not only face the other teams but also biased officiating

Meanwhile what goes on , on the Continent? Africa's latest country S Sudan is in turmoil , with Central African republic and Africa's most populous nation and incidentally the one with the highest GDP has Boko haram kidnapping 250 girls from a school and it is helpless to find a solution. The AU is also helpless in relation to the trouble spots. We had Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, Libya , Egypt. And in all this Africans were helpless .Then we have a sizeable number that are racked by corruption among which are Ghana and South Africa and all we do is point fingers

But should it have been so? We had a visionary leader in the name of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah who long ago among others conceived the African High Command . That would have ensured our security with intelligence sharing . We kicked it out and today we pay a big price . How much are these wars and disruptions costing the continent and distracting our focus which should be the common man . Should the money being used for these arms not have been better used for poverty alleviation , that being our number 1 enemy? Who will respect you when your house is in disarray?

EPA . As we wait for the recolonisation or neo colonization of Africa through this program , it reminds us of Nkrumah “Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism. Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below the soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa's impoverishment. . A State in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny.

It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace. And Neo colonialism is the last stage of imperialism”

“According to Deloitte, Africa's middle class has tripled over the last 30 years, and the current trajectory suggests that the African middle class will grow to 1.1 billion in 2060, making it the world's fastest growing continent. This growth, coupled with the forecasted GDP growth of over 6% which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting, drives the potential for retail growth on the continent significantly through increased purchasing power and consumer demand.”. So EPA wants to close it in

We are told that not signing the EPA will cost or make us lose $300m per year. Big deal . Can we not save the $300m by cutting down rice imports by half? Rice imports cost us $600m per year we are told . Then we produce more poultry and beef on our own God given land and so turn the deficit into a surplus. But our leaders want to prove our detractors right. “ The Blackman is better off as a slave”. Had we listened to this great man and had a United Africa or a common market would we be subjected to this threat today?

With Nkrumah it was always “ before the problem is , the answer or solution was”. He gave us the solutions and we threw them out . Where is our Moses? He was a product of a Jewish slave who grew up a prince in Pharaoh's house hold. He gave it up to liberate his people from slavery . Our own, become “ assimilados” , assimilated Black Europeans , ready to do the bidding of the master, for trickles from the high table. How can they be so trusting of a people who traded their fore fathers as “commodity” for 400 years ?

Branding Under Ex Prez Mills a lot was being done to Brand Ghana. Ghana is going to the world cup and we need to use it to brand the Nation . “ Ghana , the Home of Pan Africanism” . Dr Nkrumah is a well known Pan Africanist and we can use his legacy to promote, the Ghana Brand and hence tourism .We follow this up with the “ Founder's day Celebrations” . Do I need to remind Ghanaians , that Israel is doing it with Jerusalem , and Saudi Arabia with Mecca . Every dollar that comes in sorts out the problem of the depreciating cedi

'The best way of learning to be an independent sovereign state is to be an independent sovereign state. Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them'

'Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.' We hear people shouting about an “ Arab Spring “ type revolution . This is counter productive . What we need is a revolution of character and mind .

June 4th should be used for cleaning up the society from corruption, cleaning up the cities and towns and our residencies. We should focus our minds on INVESTMENTS starting with our local communities . We should be development oriented ,instead of causing mayhem and disruptions.

Next year by that time, we measure the number of patents of new products and what have come on stream . That is what party conventions used to be, collation of developmental agendas of the various local councils, districts and regions for implementation . This is called ' Ubuntu” , togetherness

“The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart'----Kwame Nkrumah

Let us remember we need to sacrifice , work hard if we are to be INDEPENDENT

Forward ever and backward never!!!

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is a Pan Africanist who believes African unity is the solution to our underdevelopment