Obama's Visit: A [trenchant] View from Ghana

It was always going to be difficult writing an entry about Obama, when all around me had written theirs, and I was found wanting.

For me, never in the short history of this twenty-first century has so much airtime probably been dedicated to one single person. From the blogs to the regular news—both opinionated and otherwise—everyone has been talking Obama—and whether you like him or not, he is the twenty-first century superstar President of no less than the United States and, who happens to double as a black man.

In the centenary of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, who advocated and promulgated the concept of the African personality, Obama’s meteoric rise could not have been more poignant. In my view, he has come to represent by becoming not just the 44th president of the US, but the first African-American president: the epitome of the post-modern African personality.

Forget the fact that the Black Man no longer has any excuses for getting where he wants to, and maybe consider this: with Obama, no longer will myopic white anglo saxon protestants and people of that ilk obsessed with the rigid preservation of division -- where blacks go this way and whites the other—be confronted by the distorted reality that Blacks are inferior, and that they cannot also have nuclear families with 2.4 children.

With Obama, no longer will it be cool to skip school, to feign helplessness in the assistance of those less fortunate than you; to pretend that your communities do not matter. With this man, no longer will it be cool to display machismo, disrespect the concerns of the opposite sex, and be polygamous in a marriage. With the "yes, we can"-grandmaster, no longer will it be a uncool for the Black man to be happily married, with a supportive wife by his side, who might also be educated. Nor will it be an issue for his progeny to be "only" girls.

For those of us who have been brought up to feel that having a son makes you great, let it be clear that your greatness does not depend on the sex of your progeny, but what you accomplish in your life.

Do they not say that it is not the degree that makes a man great, but the man that makes the degree?

When I set all this against the backdrop of President Barack Hussein Obama’s visit to Ghana, I cannot help but wonder whether his visit was more spiritual than political.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether it was not now cool to be a Black man; be happily married with kids that are girls; be highly-educated; be a listener and an engager?

For so long, the West has managed to perpetuate a picture of Africans being polygamous; having loose sexual morals and being uneducated. Despite the fact that many Africans have gone and come back home to improve the lot of their people’s, it has still taken an awfully long time for the rest of the world to cotton on to the fact that an African is also capable of managing his own affairs. To wit: be well-educated and have a good marriage, where the woman is supportive despite being herself a professional.

The insistence on this side of Obama may belie my sub-conscious—for I too aspire to have a good woman by my side who may be in a good job. I have never espoused the idea that a woman has to be kept at home before doing a good job with the children, and I am slowly and surely accepting that not having a son will not kill me.

As someone who greatly aspires to be a father some day, I believe that the significance of Obama as a family man must not go unnoticed. That he can visibly share intimate moments with his wife and children is a reflection of how far the African personality has come. And by extension, the post-modern African personality.


We know the politics already, and it has been discussed to the death. I am proposing that we use his visit as a filter through which we examine the African family, which for too long has been plagued by the absence of an omnipresent father.

His visit is also about giving hope to the youth, and empowering them to push the envelope in as many ways as possible. It is a serious irony that only this year, the AU declared 2009 to be the beginning of a decade that celebrates the youth of Africa.

I do not know about you, but I am hopeful.

We have always had change, but what ultimately we have with Obama is the quietly-confident capacity of the unsung hero towards existential change that is profound and transformative in a way that he can whisper in the shadows...

yes, we can!

Ghana 2, Morocco 0--a Resounding Trounce!

I could hardly believe my ears when I came out of the kitchen to hear that no less than Michael Essien, Chelsea superstar, had maximised the opportunity provided by a free kick to lop a goal into the Moroccan goal, securing our first goal in the match.

Essien has always confused the family: there's alot of international hype about him, but rarely had we seen him perform like yesterday. Oftentimes, we've heard how he manages the battle well in the mid-field, but then it's like he fades into dyspeptic significance. Yesterday was truly an exception--the man reputed to be the highest paid in the world of football really showed his style and skill--and teamwork.


Teamwork,because the second goal was delivered by Portsmouth-based Sulley Muntari, who executed a swift finish thanks to the cunning pass by Essien.

Many column inches will be written about this historic day, when some of the colleagues left the office a tad earlier to go the stadium to watch the match at the Ohene- Djan stadium, and the day when just pasisng GOIL on the Spintex Road, we would hear Ghana's scoring of the first goal, and be greeted by tooting horns, flashing lights from passing cars draped with the Ghana flag; and general hysteria for what would prove to be a resounding trounce of the Morocco.

[picture shows a digital camera capture of a member of the Black Stars team on television]

The Westernisation of Ghana: Modernisation vs Westernisation

Last week, I caught a taxi at the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange, which was going towards the Spintex Road. In it were two other men, and one woman who looked like a market lady. It was clear from the woman's attire that she was working class--it was a very paled dress--and she was crudely chewing gum. The other two men were a bit different. The one who sat next to me was wearing a tie, and carrying...a blackberry phone!.

Meanwhile, the taxi-driver was listening to a radio station--blasting contemporary music--from what looked like a rather swanky radio, with lights all over the place. I can definitively say that three of us in that taxi were carrying a mobile phone, and we were all heading towards a rather affluent part of Accra, which is what the Spintex Road is fast and furiously becoming.

As I plodded on home, I thought to myself, shaking my head in disbelief at the perceptions of affluence that one is bombarded with in this country. A blackberry phone?? and being used in a taxi at that?;-)

I wondered to what extent that suggested Ghana was being westernised--to the extent that some classes could use a phone like that to check their mail, by way of the mobile internet services available in the country, when there were plenty of internet cafes around. Even if it was the company's phone he was using--which I doubt--he must have been working in an impressive establishment, which some might consider rather modern.

But to speak of the modernity associated with this encounter--mobile internet; blackberry phone; affluent Spintex Road; swank car radio playing contemporary music; three out of four taxi users owning a mobile phone -- is not to say that Ghana has become westernised.

When I started thinking about this topic, I asked around, and some inter-changed modernity with westernisation. I do believe there is a distinct difference.

In my view, modernisation can mean good, tarred roads; access to latest mobile phones (with mobile internet access that is inexpensive); high-rise buildings; provision of social services; ample streetlights--to name but a few--but is that westernisation?

The reason why I would throw away the westernisation tag here is that even if Ghana possesses good roads, which we do and there are well-structured houses--both within and outside the Estate structures, as found in Manetville and Regimanuel, what proves Ghanaians have been westernised? Is it the life-styles and the attitudes taht are ever-changing?

You can pick an illiterate from the village, clothe him with either cheap (Chinese-made) clothes, or those from Woolworths; and put him in a fast-food joint like papaye. Would that make him Western or an illiterate in a modernised Accra?

Again, I belive that in any fashioning of a Westernisation argument, we arrive at a point when the critical and defining characteristic...starts with education--even a modicum of it--that compels the individual to make informed and discerning choices. As such, a greater acquisition of this education--or knowledge--would compel the Ghanaian to appreciate certain precepts and norms that the West has gotten used to. These include: self-discipline; implementation of laws by authorities; and regulation.

This raises another question: even if there is all of these in Accra at a rate that is acceptable to all, how far would it go in making Ghanaians westernised?

The quick-and-short answer to that, I would say, is that the three elements I have listed above would begin to mean something to Ghanaians once they started to become increasingly middle class.

Next week, I shall be looking at whether there is any self-discipline in Accra; whether there are implementation of laws by authorities; and the extent to which regulation works. I shall also look at whether there actually is a middle class. If so, are these the footsoldiers of what I'm calling a "westernisation" process?