Tete wɔ bi ka, Tete wɔ bi kyerɛ; Asɔre nso wɔ bi yɛ: Reflecting on Two Key Steps toward Fixing the Country

Even though most of the issues discussed in this paper have been on my heart for several years now, the immediate impetus for writing this paper came from my personal reflection on the issues that were raised or/and discussed at the 42nd Synod of the Sunyani Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana. As the norm has been, the Annual Synod is a time to take both retrospective and prospective reflections on the activities of the Church.

In the process, national issues are raised and discussed. Prior to this year’s Synod, many people had called on the government and leaders of Ghana to fix the country. The expression “fix the country” had become a household expression and the “fix the country” campaign had received huge public attention.

When people say “fix the country” they mean something should be done to stop the pollution of our water bodies; they are saying something should be done to stop dumsor; they are demanding that something should be done to address the socio-economic challenges the country is facing; they are lamenting over domestic violence, ritual killings, abuses in contemporary Christian ministry and others.

The nation will be considered fixed when (among other things) people get portable water to drink, people are provided with social amenities, there is justice in our judiciary service, and when mismanagement and misapplication of state funds are checked.

Different people have shared their views about the issue and two main opinion seem prominent. One group hold that it is the responsibility of the government to fix the country. They argue that it is the government who has been entrusted with the nation’s wealth; therefore, the government has the (sole) responsibility of making the country a better place for the citizenry.

On the other hand, another group argue that the individuals calling the government to fix the country should fix themselves first. Their point is that unless people fix themselves there is nothing the government can do to fix the country. People must do the right thing wherever they find themselves (whether private or public). The individual efforts towards fixing themselves with translate into fixing the entire nation. In the view of the writer both the government and the citizenry have key roles to play in fixing the country. There is the need for both the government and the individuals living in the country to play their parts to make the fixing of the country reality.

This year’s Synod had a number of political, traditional and church leaders addressing the participants. I do not intend to state what every speaker said. The summary I offer below serves to provide a sort of socio-politico-theological framework for my discussions. It is interesting to note that each of the speakers touched directly or indirectly on the issue of “fixing the nation.”

The main title of this paper, “Tete wɔ bi ka, Tete wɔ bi kyerɛ; Asɔre nso wɔ bi yɛ”, was the concluding statement of the Bono Regional Minister, Hon. Justina Owusu-Banahene, who in her address to the Synod stressed the role of culture (and for that matter the state) and the Church in addressing Ghana’s problems. Before her address, the Diocesan Bishop of the Sunyani Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana, The Rt. Rev. Daniel Kwasi Tannor, had drawn attention to a number of socio-economic project that the Church had embarked on in her attempt to contribute to national development.

The Bishop also outlined how the Church could use the teaching ministry to affect the lives of Christians who in turn would impact the society positively. The Presiding Bishop’s address, which I will later turn to, also has a lot to offer toward fixing the country. The Abesimhene, Barima Kumi Acheaw II asked the question: “Are you a Christian or a Church goer?” which kept me thinking throughout the day. On his part, the Member of Parliament for Sunyani East, Hon. Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh also encouraged believers to live in accordance with what they preach. The State of God’s Work in the diocese was delivered by Rev. Dr. Isaac Ishmael Arthur with a focus on the issue of LGBTQI+.

In what follows I raise two key issues for national development based on the various addresses at the Synod.

Tete wɔ bi ka, Tete wɔ bi kyerɛ (Sankɔfa tradition)

The proverb, Tete wɔ bi ka, Tete wɔ bi kyerɛ (which roughly translates as “Our Past has something to say, Our Past has lessons to teach”) highlights the fact that our cultural heritage has many contributions to make toward national development. This proverb underlines the thought expressed in the Sankɔfa Adinkra symbol (shown below). Sankɔfa (lit. “Go back and get it”) is the short form of the Akan proverb, “Sɛ wo werɛ firi na wosan kɔfa a yɛnkyiri” (“It is not taboo to go back and get/take something after you have forgotten it”).

Therefore, Tete wɔ bi ka, Tete wɔ bi kyerɛ within the context of this paper suggests that established Ghanaian conventions and traditions of dealing with socio-economic challenges which have been ignored by the present generation should be revisited to enhance the nation’s efforts at fixing its problems. The Sankɔfa symbol not only teaches the wisdom in learning from the past to help improve the future of humanity but also teaches people to cherish and value their culture heritage and avoid its negative adulteration. In this section, I use traditional wisdom on innovation and creativity to explain this point.

Innovation and Creativity

One of the key national heritage that we need to kɔfa (“go back and take”) as we aim at fixing the nation is Ghanaian innovation and creativity. In the past, before our encounter with foreigners, Ghanaians/Africans had our own ways of solving our problems. For example, herbal medicine was used for healing before orthodox medicine came into the system. With the introduction of orthodox medicine the development and promotion of our herbal medicine has not seen much success.

The establishment of the Department of Herbal Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and other department dedicated to the development and promotion of herbal medicine need to be commended. There are many herbal medical practitioners but only few of their medicines are prescribed by our doctors in our hospitals. I belief that if we had continued developing herbal medicine as if we had no alternative medicine, we would have gone very far by now. The reason is that people become very creative when they are in need. That is not to say we should reject orthodox medicine in totality; the point is that we should promote our own traditional wisdom and practices related to healing without neglecting alternative approaches entirely.

That creativity is enhanced by necessity is expressed by Ghanaian highlife musician Moses Kwaku Oppong, the founder of the Kakaaku Band, in a song entitled “Ohia ma adwendwene.” The song depicts two animal characters, a tortoise and a mona monkey, as two close friends. The monkey’s mother died and it asked the vulture to inform the tortoise about the bereavement.

Upon hearing the news, the tortoise told the vulture to express the tortoise’s condolences to the monkey and tell the monkey that tortoise will be there to mourn with the monkey on the day of the funeral. The vulture mocked the tortoise since the tortoise had no wings to fly to the top of the tree where the funeral was to take place. After a while, the tortoise told the vulture that on the day of the funeral the vulture should come to the house and pick up a sack and place at a given location and take it to the monkey, informing the monkey that the tortoise was on the way.

On the day of the funeral celebration the vulture came and picked up the sack, carried it to the monkey and told the monkey what the tortoise had said. The monkey wondered how the tortoise could attend the funeral. After opening the sack, the monkey found the tortoise in it. Clearly the tortoise’s lack of wings to fly made it invent a way to get to the destination. This story perfectly illustrates the Cameroonian proverb, “Knowledge is better than riches.”

Kakaaku’s song depicts an African ideology of nation building in that it draws attention to the need to be creative in the midst of our poor state. African creativity came to bare in many regards in the heat of the COVID-19. For example, when Ghana needed nose mask and could not get them from outside because of the closure of the nation’s borders, indigenes began to manufacture her own nose mask.

With the closure of our border, the “other people will provide, so let us wait for them” mentality was discarded and the country made progress with our local industries. If this pandemic had not come, who knows how long it would have taken us to know that we could manufacture our own nose masks! What happened goes to authenticate the assertion that “Poverty makes one think (creatively), or causes one to be creative.”

Certainly poverty does not take away a person’s ability plan or think. We may be poor socio-economically but rich intellectually. By putting our intellectual capacity into appropriate use in accordance with God’s ill and purpose, we are bound to overcome our material poverty. Africa’s attitude of comfortably relying on other continents for virtually every manufactured good must be a thing of the past.

Ghana must, for example, stop importing toothpick, something made from bamboo plant which is abundant in Ghana. The attitude of “other people will provide, so let us wait for them” (which correspond to “The Grasshopper mentality” of Numbers 13:33) is a key main reason why Africa continues to import things which could easily be manufactured on the continent. To fix the nation we need to shelve our “Grasshopper mentality.” We need to make use of what we have to solve our own problems. In addition, our traditions regarding wealth creation and its use, dressing, marriage and others must be promoted to enhance national development.

Asɔre nso wɔ bi yɛ (Teaching-and-action theological approach)

The expression Asɔre nso wɔ bi yɛ (“The Church also has a role to play”) in fixing the nation is a charge to the Church to play its part in addressing the country’s challenges. Considering the fact that majority of Ghanaians profess to be Christians one wonders why there are so much social evil in the country. In this regard, the 2021 connexional theme for the Methodist Church Ghana, “Discipleship: Teaching Everyone to live like Jesus Christ” is very appropriate.

Here, four key points that the Sunyani diocesan bishop raised come to mind. According to Bishop Tannor (address to 2021 synod), the teaching ministry of the Church is expected to (among others) help Christians: To discover what Scripture says; to know what Scripture means; to know how to apply Scripture and to respond appropriately to God’s word.

In his address to synod, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, the Most Rev. Dr. Paul K. Boafo lamented the high level of nominalism in the country despite the proliferation of Christian churches (Representative agenda, p. 17). In the view of the Presiding Bishop, the teaching ministry of the Church “must have spiritual and social ramifications” wherever Christians find themselves (Representative agenda, p. 17).

“The Church as the cosnscience of the nation, must live up to its mandate of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We must rise to the challenge to call for interventions to avert further occurrences [of sad and gruesome incidents of spousal killings, armed robbery, and carnage on our roads, among others] in the future” (Representative agenda, p. 17). The teaching ministry of the church of the church “must lead to chatting a new path of hard work, integrity, and the desire for genuine acquisition of wealth as a nation” (Representative agenda, p. 18). People’s source of wealth must be brought under scrutiny.

Christian spirituality should not undermine the need for hard work. Hard work must be promoted and laziness discouraged. Genuine spirituality, says Nihinlola “is a holistic concept, a balance of good relationship with God and meaningful co-existence with fellow humans” (Nihinlola 2013, p. 143). What the Church needs at the moment is a balance between worship (prayer) and work, a balance between time spent at worship centers and time spent on work. As Nihinlola adds, “Church vigil becomes false spirituality when it is not combined with or if it hinders practical work” (Nihinlola 2013, p. 143).

A churchgoing contractor who executes a government contract poorly is not spiritual. A church leader who evades tax or import expired goods is not spiritual; neither is a church member who cheats in an examination. A churchgoing civil servant with a lackadaisical attitude towards work lacks spirituality. By developing true Christian spirituality African countries can be freed from bribery, corruption, and mismanagement of state funds, which hinder the continent’s socioeconomic progress. Such unspiritual attitude which is the result of the dichotomization of “Church” and “society” into “spiritual” and “secular” realms respectively, cannot fix the country.

In addition to teaching believers, the Church must also be involved in social interventions. The fact that Christ is the Lord of both the Church and the world in which we evangelize supports Christian involvement in social responsibility. As the Creator, God owns belongs and has absolute control over everything (Ps. 24:1). The redemptive purpose of Christ will culminate in the unity and subjection of all things under Christ’s control through the church (Col. 1:15-20, Eph. 1:9-10). As the Lord of all things (Phil. 2:9), Christ must be the Lord of both the Church and the world. Against that backdrop, the Christians are expected to care for and be involved in all spheres of life (including social concerns) in order to make all things conform to the will of God.

Conclusion

This paper advocates for church-state partnership. This is important because even though Christians are not of this world, they live in it and are also affected by the social, political and economic conditions in their societies. A lot could have been said, but time and space limitations only allowed for the discussion of two main points, namely, the sankɔfa ideology and the teaching-and-action theological approach. Everyone who has the nation at heart should do something toward improving the society. The nation cannot be fixed unless we do the right thing at the right time in the right way in accordance to God’s will and purpose. Government must not only create a congenial atmosphere for the citizenry to contribute their quota but must also channel the state resources toward improving the society in which we live.

References

Nihinlola, Emiola (2013). Theology under the Mango Tree: A Handbook for African Christian Theology. Lagos: Fine Print & Manufacturing .

Sunyani Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana (2021), 42nd Annual Synod Representative Agenda. Sunyani: Cobby Designs.

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