Ghana’s 58th Independence Anniversary: A Focus On The National Anthem

Walk into the compound of any public or private school in the early morning hours and you are sure not to miss the age-old melody of the Ghana national anthem. I witnessed one early morning assembly of a local public school and was mesmerized by a rendition of Philip Gbeho's famous patriotic musical composition-“God Bless Our Homeland Ghana”.

Against the school brass band, these smartly dressed pupils of different age groups struggled with the words of the historic tune then i knew something was amiss. I recall the days when my music teacher would assemble the entire school and teach us some words of patriotic songs and recitals among which was the national anthem. Today I wonder and shudder to know how often these recitals are taught.

How many Ghanaians can correctly recite the anthem? How many of us have really taken time off to examine it content let alone its implication for our nationality? The three-stanza anthem was originally designed and adopted in 1957 to evoke and eulogize the history, struggles and traditions of our forebears seems to have been overshadowed by other anthems including private and secondary school anthem, university and it affiliate hall anthem and even European football club anthem.

These have filled the lips of many young ones and have drifted their minds from their identification; hence questioning our sense of patriotism. We seem to have traded the dignifying words of our anthem with other alien ones. It terrifies me when I see young university or second-cycle student singing their hall or school anthem with so much ease but struggle with the national anthem and sing from a chocked muffled voice. How it is that one can recite the entire anthem of a club of a European team but tumble with a simple line of the national anthem?

Well maybe because we do not see the content of the anthem reflecting in our lives. I am further horrified when I see movements or private conversations going on in the middle of the anthem. For Christ sake it smacks of gross disrespect not only to our forebears but the entire nation. I thought the anthem should remind us of the sacrifices made by our leaders who have and are serving in various fields of national developments.

In my quest to find out what the tune of the anthem means to some heroic figures, Azumah Nelson revealed to me in a telephone interview that, hearing the national anthem being played reminded him of the gift God had given him to bless Ghana. “The national anthem inspires me and makes me know that the whole nation was behind me” The boxing professor added. Azumah Nelson who won 39 fights and lost 6 said during his heydays he was not so much motivated by human reward but that for him it was God first.

With the first line of the first stanza reading: “God bless our homeland Ghana, and make our nation great and strong”, I think it is in order to say that God has indeed blessed our land with great and strong men. Ironically however, the last two lines of that stanza expose our weakness and hypocrisy. No wonder we struggle to recite that part of the stanza-“Make us cherish fearless honesty, and help us to resist oppressors rule”.

But as a nation, are we honest people? Take the recent crises on the minds of many-“Dumsor” well; if only our leaders would be honest about the situation we would have made significant progress in solving these crises. We seem to view national issues with political lenses and hence unable to provide objective contributions for development; hence resulting to the blame game. And did I read in the dailies that Ghana has signed a bail-out agreement with the international monetary fund (IMF)? This tells me that even though the banner of Ghana may be freely flying, it's not hoisted on the soil of Ghana. After fifty-eight years of independence, we still have difficulty with our financial discipline? May God have mercy and bless our land.

“God bless our homeland Ghana
And make our nation great and strong
Bold to defend forever
The cause of freedom and of Rights; Fill our hearts with true humility

Make us cherish fearless honesty
And help us to resist oppressors rule
With all our will and might for
evermore.” - Philip Gbeho.

Frank Adjei'
Accra,
E-mail:[email protected]