Wo Nyonko Da Ne Wo Da: Reviving Nnoboa System And The Concept Of Home In A Democratic Ghana

I often feel sad and vividly see my own powerlessness to help the many people I would really want to help. Until the institution of modern form of govermentality, people rallied behind their chiefs to embark on development. Among the Akan, and most other ethnic groups in Ghana, Nnoboa was a concept and praxis that ensured that all life-negating factors were held at bay. People felt the need to contribute to building their communities. Nnoboa was embodied in the lore of reciprocity: the obligation to help others, the obligation to accept help from others and the obligation to return help to others. This system ensured that pre-colonial governmentality was both humane and communalistic.

Following the institution of western governmentality, chiefs, the valve around which community mobilisation was done, were shorn of their powers. Powers were vested in one person in a form of a social contract. A new type of social contract displaced traditional form of social contract, which involved the non-bifurcation of the world into the esoteric and the mundane, and which also ensured that leaders lived up to their expectation. This new type of social contract creates a demigod out of a leader. A leader is far removed from his people. He only comes closer to his people when he needs to renew the social contract through fictitious and dubious elections. Indeed, Gaddafi was right, 'When it is time for elections, electorate queue for hours and drop in the ballot papers as if they were dropping pieces of paper into a dustbin."

For the past few days, I have been reading events in Ghana, and my heart bleeds. The failure of our political elite to put the interest of the ruled at heart creates a valid and cogent reason for us to revisit the type of social contract we had prior to the adoption of 'foreign' type of political administration. It also invites us to reconsider and also reinvent the Nnoboa system that obtained long before we made a blind leap to accept Westphalia type of governance.

Since the transfer of the capital of the colonial administration from Cape Coast to Accra in 1877, Accra has not only become the hub of socio-political and economic activities, it has become the epicenter of internal migration. Many people have migrated from other areas in Ghana to settle in Accra. This has given birth to a redefinition of the concept of 'home' for many people. In the past, wealth was measured in terms of how one had contributed to one's native home. Today, the concept of native home is simply nebulous and confusing. It is also lost on us!

We, therefore, have many people forgetting about their native homes. They build in Accra and live in Accra. And following the concentration of burial site in Accra, the concept of 'home' suffers the more. Most non-Ga people care less about what happens in their respective native homes. They all, as usual, expect the government to develop their native homes for them. The relocation of the powers of witchcraft from the cities to native homes has also worsened the chances of native homes receiving any mark of development. In the same way, the near breakdown of the extended family system, which has been made possible by many factors, inter alia, institutionalisation of wealth, has further casted a bleak image on the chances of native homes receiving any support.

When I was about finishing my first degree at the University of Cape Coast, my plan was to relocate to the Northern Region of Ghana both to fulfil my national service obligation and also contribute to building the North. (Un)fortunately, the University of Cape Coast did not allow me to leave the boundaries of the university. I was 'poached' as a teaching assistant, and that killed my initial resolve to go to the North. After my service, I had to move to Accra to pursue postgraduate education. But, I hope to fulfill my dream of relocating to the North to help my people there before I leave the earth.

Even so, when I moved back to my community, Maamobi - Accra, I was actively involved in voluntary services. For three months, I was able to teach older women who had never been to school to read and write Basic English. I taught for FREE in some schools. I was actively involved in cleaning my community. I prepared many young senior high school graduates for university education. At the Kanda Estate '2' Primary School, where I taught some of the pupils in my community, I wrote a poem that won the district award for the Kanda cluster of schools. I had no monetary interest. I did all this for FREE!

There is a lot of poverty and deprivation in the countryside, and yet most non-Ga people have no sense in contributing to their respective native homes. It was a shock to me that most of my colleagues from Northern Ghana refused to go back to their native homes to help their people. A few of my Ewe colleagues, including my 'twin' brother Kofi Semanu Atsu Adzei, go home regularly to help build their respective native homes.

Some centuries ago, the Akan had the practice of shaving and burying the hair of a newly born baby. The practice was to ensure that no matter where the child went, he would return home one day. In the event that the child could not be traced after leaving home, the hair was buried. Today, we have lost that culture, much as we have lost the concept of 'home'. It is also a common practice among some Northern groups to bury some specie of their deceased, who die in Accra, back home. Among the Asante in the past, when an Asante man or woman was travelling, he was told to remember Asanteman. It was this ethnophilosophy that inspired many Asante people to build in Kumasi or wherever they came from in Asante Kingdom. Today, this practice is becoming a relic of the past.

Until we reinvent some of our innocuous cultural values, the Westphalian democracy we are practising will continue to betray us. We need to go back to our native homes to help our people. Why can't we pull resources to provide basic water for our people? Why can't we provide electricity for our people? We can't we build libraries for our people? Why can’t we build bridges over rivers? If government fails our people, we cannot fail our people. We need to resuscitate our sense of collectivism. We need to define our humanity in terms of how we help others. The spontaneous rise in gated communities in the cities will do less to save us. We derive compassion from our fellow human beings, not our material acquisition.

The idea of welfare state is almost nil in our democratic dispensation in Ghana, but as a people we could do something to help those in the fringes of society. Let us all make it a point to help our native homes. Someday, God will ask us about how we used the talent he blessed us with. I trust that you will be encouraged to do your part in helping your native home!

Satyagraha!
Charles Prempeh (prempehgideon@yahoo.com), African University College of Communications, Accra