Anigyee: celebration (twi: the language of the Ashanti tribe)
The irony of celebrating independence of a country that was stolen from its true natives and filled with slaves from a distant land goes best with hot dogs ....relish please....and a little bit o' mustard. Its ...bittersweet.
l arrived to Nigeria and Ghana during their Independence Day holidays.
Three days ago, on July 1st, I left Nigeria and arrived in Accra, the capital of Ghana. July 1st is Ghana's Republic Day. It marks the day in which Ghana became independent from British rule back in 1957,and built the Republic in 1960. Ghana was actually the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule in Africa. To my fellow black Americans, after they took us away in chains, our precious motherland ( with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia) was colonized by European powers.
Here's a quick version of the story. See what had happened was...(lol) The biggest European powers had a series of meetings in which they divided the entire African Continent amongst themselves. ( google the Berlin Conference) Think of it as a serious game of monopoly played between countries. Except they were trying to put down their little blue houses on already inhabited African lands and unfortunately these inhabitants were not at the table.
After the French,Portuguese, British, German, Italian and others claimed their turf, they went to war with these African countries, resulting in 90% of Africa under European rule by 1902. Things fall apart ....smh.
Anyways I arrived to Ghana on Republic Day! Once In Ghana I was greeted by warm airport employees welcoming me. There were also multiple signs that said "Akwaaaba: welcome to Ghana." I go through customs, collect my bag and meet my friend who is waiting patiently for me.
In college I befriended some really awesome African students. I imagine them seeing this Afrocentric girl with very little substantial information on Africa (uhhhm wikipedia.....random Google searches..... Roots, Sarafina the movie....Kwanzaa celebrations... and scraps of facts collected during black history month) and teaching me what their culture was actually about. To all those friends, I appreciate you. Your stories inspired me to take this journey. Thank you for sharing them with the misinformed black american!
One of these African students was a Ghanaian named Emmanuel. My outfits of choice in college were T-shirts, flip flops and a blue jeans. Emmanuel however, would wear dress shirts polos and sometimes suits to class. Because of his professionalism, everyone took him seriously. He is now a successful businessman, married with children in the States.
I contacted Emmanuel about the possibility of me visiting Ghana. He immediately put me in touch with his family members there. His cousin was my maim contact, a young man I will call Wednesday in this blog.
So Wednesday was patiently waiting when I arrived in Ghana with one of his buddies. Wednesday is a calm mature family man. Although he has no children of his own, he is really fond of his family members and specifically his niece and nephew here in Ghana.
Wednesday lives in Kumasi which is four hours away from Accra. I will stay in Wednesday's family home for a week. We get in Wednesday's red Honda and are on our way to Kumasi.
The vibe of the Ghanaians I came in contact with on Republic Day was chill. The common message was, "things aren't perfect but we're going to celebrate and have a good time". This is how we do it in the states as well.
Thank God, that the only constant in the world is change. So...Ahem...this is a toast to all the beautiful people of the world( my African drink of choice is palm wine). Cheers to the fight against oppression, suppression, corruption and imperialism. Let freedom ring and bottoms up!
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