The Womb That Carried The Preacher And The Politician

It is often argued by Pan Africanists and African freedom fighters, that the ship that brought the bible and the missionary was the same ship that brought the guns and chains that colonised us with terror and impunity and even segregated us on the basis of skin colour like it happened in the land of the legend Mandela as Apartheid.

As such, following the sequences of events that unfolded before colonisation; firstly the advent of Basel missionaries for evangelism and subsequently barter trade: where the whiteman capitalised on the economic nativity and ignorance of our ancestors on a valuable commodity like gold and traded their wine, mirror and candies for our gold which at the time of Don Diogo de Azambuja and later commander Hill were not scarce like currently experienced, where Ghanaians need to battle illegal chinese miners to have access to our own gold on our own land but was commonly used by great Ashanti kings and warriors as pebbles to play the game called 'oware' and as such, since the ship that brought the bible also carried the guns and chains that enslaved us, it was a well orchestrated plot by our colonial masters to use the bible and it's content ( word of God ) as a bait in luring Africans to finally enslave us with the chains and guns under the terror of the slave trade.

Moving forward, the womb of one woman gave birth to Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah ( General overseer of the Royal House Chapel International ) a man who preaches the gospel with passion and love and Elvis Afriyie Ankrah (embattled former minister for sports).

Similarly, among the two brothers, Rev Sam Korankye Ankrah is the older haven't been born before his brother Elvis. In comparison with the whiteman's ship that brought the bible before the guns, the womb of the woman also carried the reverend minister before giving birth to Elvis Afriyie Ankrah. While the reverend minister preaches the gospel, the sports minister like a magician miraculously turned Gh¢ 35 to $ 34 to fraudulently dupe and rob Ama Ghana a revelation that came during the sitting of the committee that was created by the office of the president to iinvestigate Ghana's participation in the 2014 FIFA world cup

So, l ask colleague Pan Africanists and African freedom fighters that since it was a single womb that gave birth to the honourable man of God and the embattled former sports minister, can it also be said, that the womb of their mother also orchestrated and planned to deceive Ghanaians by firstly producing a man of God to preach the gospel and subsequently giving birth to a politician perceived by the court of public opinion as crook and corrupt who miraculously turned

Gh¢35 to $34 ? Was the woman responsible for how nature chose to make her a mother ? Continuing this argument of the ship and the womb in the final part of my article, lets check this out.

I followed keenly, the live coverage of the work of the presidential commission of enquiry into Ghana's unprecedented shameful participation in the 2014 FIFA world cup . Based on the shocking confessions and revelations from the sittings of the commission, one thing is certain: never trust a politician.

Like one BBC journalist and writer rightfully puts it,

'never trust a politician, after shaking their hands, count your fingers.' If you want to know why Ghana has been poor and is still poor, kindly get the relevant day to day proceedings of the sittings of the committee.

Concluding on the ship and the womb debate, history has it, that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prof Mills and Jerry Rawllings were once students of Achimota School. They all passed through the famous Achimota School where Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia another national leader also taught. They were equally given the same educational training and philosophical upbringing the great Achimota School is noted for. Although they all rose to become national leaders, Dr Nkrumah a visionary leader chose to become a socialist dictator who had no room for his political opponents. His cruel political prosecution of Dr J. B Danquah, a man who purchased Nkrumah's plane ticket from London to Accra through Arkoh Adjei in the name of the pro- independence movement the United Gold Coast Convention, clearly portrays his intolerance for political opponents. Obetsebi Lamptey died at the Nsawam prison without his family's knowledge till his body was exhumed after Nkrumah's overthrow.

Unlike Nkrumah, Rawllings after Achimota pursued military exploits instead of academia. He also became a national leader through blood spillage. As a young and impatient soldier, he had no time for the ballot papers and boxes. As a soldier, he feared no blood and spilled that of Akufo, Acheampong, Afrifa and others enroute to becoming Ghana's president. Then came the professor, John Evans Attah Mills also a product of Achimota.

While Nkrumah and Rawllings both share a trait of revolutionary dictatorship, the professor was an advocate of free speech and political tolerance. His calm demeanour, respect for the rule of law and his humour towards hot political issues earned him the title 'Asomdwee-Hene' meaning prince of peace.

These three national leaders might have passed through the same Achimota School which possibly might have shaped their thoughts and beliefs about leadership yet, they all had different leadership styles. Similarly, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah might have have been born through the same womb and possibly given the same training and upbringing by the same mother yet, one chose to be a preacher of the gospel and the other a very corrupt politician as perceived by the court of public opinion based on based on his conduct during Ghana's participation in the 2014 Fifa world cup in Brazil.

The whiteman's ship brought people and materials of all kinds. Some chose upon arrival to be evangelists. The Ramsyers and other Basel missionaries became great preachers of the gospel even at the peril of their own lives. They couldn't withstand and survive the tropical mosquitoes of the sahara, they died miserably and painfully of malaria yet, they accomplished their mission and left a legacy as being the first missionaries to have brought the gospel of truth and faith to Ghana. Then followed the crook businessmen. With their diabolic mindsets they traded gin and wine for gold capitalising on the ignorance of our forefathers on the economic value of gold.

They duped our ancestors who had no knowledge of the economic value of gold in the land of snows. The businessmen also traded in humans Across the Atlantic, pacific and Indian oceans, black Africans were packed like sardines under inhumane conditions and sent to Europe and America where they laboured under the pain of the whiteman's whips to build what is now modern day America and England yet the cruelly deny us visa to their countries forgetting that it was the blood, sweat and toil of our ancestors that laid the foundation of the rails of London and built the factories of Birmingham from the scratch. That it was the blood, sweat and toil of our ancestors that built the foundation of Americas industrial revolution. Whether they have conscience is their own palaver.

The politicians as usual were the last to come. Whiles some came us businessmen, others came us educationists. Before we realised, they were ruling us.

Such is life and nation building. Like the whiteman's ship that brought many Europeans to the shores of the Gold Coast, some chose to be missionaries while others chose to be dubious and wicked businessmen and later self imposed political administrators over us. We are all born as Ghanaians. Whether we become responsible or irresponsible citizens, corrupt or honourable politicians and hardworking or lazy public servants depends on our individual choices. We can either choose to make Ghana the economic and industrial giant in Africa or not. Whether Ghana develops or remains in the abyss of poverty depends on our individual choices. You can choose to either make Ghana better or worse.

A nation and continent calls for duty now!!!!
God bless our homeland Ghana and make us great and strong.

Michael Kwadwo Nketiah ([email protected])