The Revolution Has Begun
*****
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Ghana. It passed relatively smoothly.
It also marked a significant holiday in Ghanaian history - the June 4th Revolution. From the best I can tell (it’s a very contentious subject in some locations because of the circumstances), in 1975, a military government was established in Ghana, but remained under the guise of a democracy. In 1979, a man named J. J. Rawlins, a Scottish-Ghanaian man, led a coup to take over the government and restore the power to the people.
And now Ghana is what it is today, among other things, a very politically divided country. I try to steer clear of politics in any setting, but especially here. It’s the quickest way to a shouting match (not by me, but by everyone participating, even if they belong to the same party). Things are usually pretty good natured, but it’s a very passionate topic (like football in Brazil or presidential candidates around October). As an outsider’s observation, I think Ghanaians take a lot of pride in the stability and the democracy that their country upholds and politics, in general, are something of a responsibility for them to stay up to date on.
Maybe sometimes ‘older’ countries take that liberty a bit for granted because we don’t remember how hard it was fought for. There are people in Ghana still alive today that fought alongside Kwame Nkrumah for independence from Great Britain and I can’t believe that something like that doesn’t factor into their intensity.
The debate over the June 4th Revolution is a very sticky one, but as best as I can figure it there are two main beliefs about it. One is that it should be held as a national holiday, the other is that it isn’t. And from those beliefs, I’ve surmised that there are two separate reasons for dissention. One is purely political party based. Rawlins took over and was an NDC (the democratic party) man. While the NPP camp (more like Republicans) were appreciative of what he did, there was still the division where, okay, now the other party is in power.
Then there’s the love of peace that Ghanaians have. The country was saved from a military regime, yes - but only through the means of a coup. Some people would argue that even though the ends were beneficial, the means are a dark spot in their country’s fledging independent history. They don’t want there to be a celebration of something that was violent because it’s not something that they’re proud of. The other side is that, yes, it was a coup, but it was necessary and everyone has benefited from it. It made Ghana what it is today.
As I dig a little deeper, I still see political party lines alongside those sentiments, but it isn’t the end-all to the argument.
Rawlins was in Tamale yesterday giving a speech and the NDC colors painted the town. When the speech was over, I was in the town center with one of my friends and we had to step back from the roadside because of the mass of people that paraded down the street. There were galloping horses from the chiefs’ palaces, decked out in their finest ceremonial garb, motorcycles driven by exuberant ten-year-olds who’d just gotten their first glimpse of a revolutionary, smock-covered men dancing in groups as they played their gong-gongs and fiddles.
And amidst them all was the man himself - J.J. Rawlins - rumbling through in his motorcade that ran ten SUVs deep. He was sitting in the front passenger seat, window down, hand out, waving to all the supporters who were stopped dead in the street, shouting praise for their ‘Junior Jesus’ savior. He saw me - I tend to stand out in a crowd full of Ghanaians, bright pink shirt or otherwise - and pointed at me, then smiled and waved.
Regardless of political beliefs, it was a pretty cool moment.
Happy Anniversary, Class of 2011.
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Ghana. It passed relatively smoothly.
It also marked a significant holiday in Ghanaian history - the June 4th Revolution. From the best I can tell (it’s a very contentious subject in some locations because of the circumstances), in 1975, a military government was established in Ghana, but remained under the guise of a democracy. In 1979, a man named J. J. Rawlins, a Scottish-Ghanaian man, led a coup to take over the government and restore the power to the people.
And now Ghana is what it is today, among other things, a very politically divided country. I try to steer clear of politics in any setting, but especially here. It’s the quickest way to a shouting match (not by me, but by everyone participating, even if they belong to the same party). Things are usually pretty good natured, but it’s a very passionate topic (like football in Brazil or presidential candidates around October). As an outsider’s observation, I think Ghanaians take a lot of pride in the stability and the democracy that their country upholds and politics, in general, are something of a responsibility for them to stay up to date on.
Maybe sometimes ‘older’ countries take that liberty a bit for granted because we don’t remember how hard it was fought for. There are people in Ghana still alive today that fought alongside Kwame Nkrumah for independence from Great Britain and I can’t believe that something like that doesn’t factor into their intensity.
The debate over the June 4th Revolution is a very sticky one, but as best as I can figure it there are two main beliefs about it. One is that it should be held as a national holiday, the other is that it isn’t. And from those beliefs, I’ve surmised that there are two separate reasons for dissention. One is purely political party based. Rawlins took over and was an NDC (the democratic party) man. While the NPP camp (more like Republicans) were appreciative of what he did, there was still the division where, okay, now the other party is in power.
Then there’s the love of peace that Ghanaians have. The country was saved from a military regime, yes - but only through the means of a coup. Some people would argue that even though the ends were beneficial, the means are a dark spot in their country’s fledging independent history. They don’t want there to be a celebration of something that was violent because it’s not something that they’re proud of. The other side is that, yes, it was a coup, but it was necessary and everyone has benefited from it. It made Ghana what it is today.
As I dig a little deeper, I still see political party lines alongside those sentiments, but it isn’t the end-all to the argument.
Rawlins was in Tamale yesterday giving a speech and the NDC colors painted the town. When the speech was over, I was in the town center with one of my friends and we had to step back from the roadside because of the mass of people that paraded down the street. There were galloping horses from the chiefs’ palaces, decked out in their finest ceremonial garb, motorcycles driven by exuberant ten-year-olds who’d just gotten their first glimpse of a revolutionary, smock-covered men dancing in groups as they played their gong-gongs and fiddles.
And amidst them all was the man himself - J.J. Rawlins - rumbling through in his motorcade that ran ten SUVs deep. He was sitting in the front passenger seat, window down, hand out, waving to all the supporters who were stopped dead in the street, shouting praise for their ‘Junior Jesus’ savior. He saw me - I tend to stand out in a crowd full of Ghanaians, bright pink shirt or otherwise - and pointed at me, then smiled and waved.
Regardless of political beliefs, it was a pretty cool moment.
Happy Anniversary, Class of 2011.