An Open Letter to Hon. Haruna Iddrisu: On the Anticipated reforms in Our Education

Dear Honourable Minister,
I greet you in the spirit of truth, wisdom, and Ancestral guidance.

It is with deep concern and unwavering hope that I write to you at this pivotal moment in Ghana’s history—as you lead the charge in reforming our nation’s education system. Your task is noble, and its impact will ripple through generations. However, the question we must ask is, what kind of Ghanaian is this reform shaping?

For far too long, our education system has operated as a foreign garment awkwardly draped over the African soul. We inherited a colonial structure that was designed not to liberate the African mind, but to domesticate it to internalize subordination—preparing our children not to lead Africa forward, but to serve as raw materials in the machinery of Western interests. Our textbooks, school rituals, and curriculum content continue to alienate our children from their roots, their ancestors, and their indigenous worldview.

One of the gravest casualties in this miseducation has been African Traditional Spirituality and its accompanying forms of religious identity. These sacred foundations of African life, which were once the heartbeat of our communities, have been systematically sidelined and maligned. Our children are taught about foreign prophets, saints, and holy books, while their own ancestors, deities, and spiritual philosophies are either omitted or demonized.

This was no accident. It has long been influenced by leadership within the dominant foreign religions—Christianity and Islam—who, for strategic advantage, have pushed to monopolize the spiritual and moral consciousness of our people through the education system. The result has been generations of Ghanaians who know the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Muhammad—but are never taught of their own ancestral sages, priestesses, cosmologies, or sacred proverbs.

Honourable Minister, Ghana and Africa are waking up. There is a growing movement of young people, scholars, spiritual leaders, and educators who are rejecting the lie that everything African is inferior or demonic. As this awakening deepens, the people will turn their gaze toward those in leadership, and they will ask, What did you do to honour and defend the soul of the nation?

We cannot consult Antoa Nyamaa, Tengzug, Sheawra Kramo, Akonedi, Nogokpo, Bruku, Segbo, Brekete, Klikor, Yabylli, or our Ancestors’ graveyards in secret and despise them in public for biblical and Qur’anic icons. It is unfair and has consequences in many forms. Again, Sir, please, when are our children going to learn about rivers—Afram, Ankobra, Anum, Assin Manso, Atakora, Ayensu, Bia, Birim, Densu, Daka, Mo, Nini, Ofin, Gyimi, Oti, Kulpawn, Pra, Pru, Sene, Sisili, Tain, Tano, Fraw, Dida, Pimpo, Oyoko, and Oda, among others who are older than any of us reading this letter? not just by name but why our towns and some great individuals are named after them and how their energies and memory can be used to better our society. There is a new study that water has memory (Benveniste, 1988; Dinan et al, 2015). Do these rivers hold the codes to the possibilities and breakthroughs of our past and future that we are destroying out of ignorance of decoding? Is it our fault? Maybe not, but because the essence of the country’s education alienates us from who we are and our environment.

Honourable Adun Gangdu, your name, your legacy, and your contribution to this educational reform will not only be judged by your technical adjustments but by the moral courage you show in restoring balance, truth, and justice to make the Dagbon Kingdom proud. In practical terms, we humbly demand:

1. Equal representation of African Traditional Religion in textbooks, religious and moral education curricula, and national examinations—on the same level with Christianity and Islam.
2. Inclusion of indigenous African philosophies, cosmologies, and symbols as part of the educational framework—not as folklore, but as legitimate knowledge systems.
3. Support for institutions and educators who are working to preserve and teach African traditional knowledge, language, and spirituality in schools and communities—Afrikania mission, National Association of Traditionalists and Ancestral Venerators (NATAV), Abibi Tumi, Institute for Indigenous Intelligence and Shamanic Studies, etc.
4. A clear break from colonial epistemologies that treat African knowledge as primitive and European knowledge as supreme.

We are not asking for the removal of Christianity or Islam. We are asking for justice, balance, and the right to our own voice. Ghana must no longer be a house that belongs to foreigners while the children of the land sit outside the gate.

Let this reform not be a repainting of colonial walls, but a rebuilding of the African soul.

We watch. We remember. And history will record.

In Ancestral honour,
In the Spirit of Sankɔfa,
Our Ancestors are with heavy hearts !!!

Nana Yaw Wi Asamoah Boadi (Traditionalist)

[email protected]

National Association of Traditionalists and Ancestral Venerators (NATAV);

Research Associate, Institute of Indigenous Intelligence