Ghana: We Need to Have a Greater Sense of National Pride (PERSPECTIVE)

Last week, HUMNEWS was the first western news agency to break the news of a case in the West Africa nation of Ghana, where a young Ghanaian woman, after being told by a foreign restaurant owner in Accra that she was not welcome to become a club member, turned to Facebook to stir up public opinion. Her efforts quickly led to the restaurant being closed down by the authorities. In the column below, the victim, Elizabeth Okoro, expressed her feelings about the threat such discriminatory acts pose to society.

By Elizabeth Okoro

(HN, November 10, 2011) - Looking at the comments that have been posted in my Facebook Group and also considering my own experience living here, in as much as there seems to be an upsurge in establishments that exclusively target white foreigners, it is also evident that discrimination in Ghana is not only inter racial.

We also have Ghanaians practising a form of reverse racism against their fellow citizens due to a misguided belief that a foreigners' money is more worthy than our own or that anything foreign automatically equates to superiority. 

What a situation when a taxi driver can speed past a waiting Ghanaian by the roadside to the other side of a road where a white tourist waits - or when a server in a restaurant saunters past a table of Ghanaians waiting to be served to a newly arrived group of white business men.

I believe that this is symptomatic of a graver, deep-set psychological barrier that refrains us from attaining the soaring heights that our founder, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, foresaw for us. 

It is something we need to work on as a nation, and in order to achieve this, we need to have a greater sense of national pride and ownership of our country. This will take a revolution of the mind set of the average Ghanaian.Growing expatriate populations in Africa, including at this beach-side club in Bujumbura, could create more tension about different service levels for locals and expats. Credit: HUMNEWS

We need once again to believe in our rich culture, our bountiful resources, our colourful history,our individuality as well as our diversity, our world renowned hospitality and our potential to be an even greater nation than we are now.

Collectively as a nation, we must begin to seek answers of our leaders and to question the status quo.

We also need to stop sitting idly whilst our self-seeking leaders sell off our hard fought inheritance to Oliver Twist-minded foreigners traipsing in with their bottomless bowls. 

We are physically located at the centre of the world and it is my fervent belief that Ghana has the potential to be just that; the centre of all great things. The centre of political transparency, the centre of great education, the centre of excellent health care, the centre of outstanding individual achievements and the centre of technological advancement. 

Once we start treating each other with the respect due, and acknowledging our own worthiness, every other nation and race will have no choice but to follow suit.

The time for making excuses for our lack of development is past, it is now time to take action. We have demonstrated that as long as we speak out together, our voices CANNOT and WILL NOT be drowned out.

We need to use this new found voice to crumble the deep foundations of the establishment who prefer social and economic stagnation in the name of party politics. It is the only way to shape a better Ghana and a better future for us all. 

Okoro, 26, was born and raised in Ghana by a Ghanaian mother and Nigerian father. She studied in England from the age of 16 culminating with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from King's College London. She moved back to Ghana in 2008 and has been living and working there since.