Who Is the First-Class Ghanaian?: A Story of Tribalism, Religion, and Sectionalism in Ghana and the Way Forward

By Albin Akansake

When author Albin Akansake was a young, orphaned boy from a northern tribe of Ghana, he was adopted by an Ashanti family in the south, bitter rivals to the tribe of the north. The verbal abuse and bigotries expressed about his new tribe drove Albin to such deep shame that he began to hide from who he was, believing that his adopted tribe was superior to the tribe of his birth.

Later, as a student at Ghanas University for Development Studies, Albin was shocked and disturbed by the culture surrounding school elections. In many cases, students supported candidates based entirely on tribal affiliations, ignoring other qualities or even deficiencies. Thats when Albin realized that something was seriously wrong with his nations internal politics.

Ghana is a divided nation. Tribes rival each other bitterly, and their rivalry is further perpetual zed by aspiring government officials seeking to use each tribes negative feelings for one another for their own political advantage. In his remarkably insightful critique, author Albin Akansake explores tribalism and the ethnocentric world view, considering the ways in which they are used to keep the peoples of the world bitter and divided.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475985382

Albin Akansake

Albin Akansake was born in the northeastern region of Ghana and raised in its southern Ashanti region. His multicultural experience gave him a unique understanding of the Ghanaian tribes’ view one another. He is currently a student aspiring to go to law school. This is his first book.

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Copyright © 2013 by Albin Akansake.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-8537-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8538-2 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013907059

iUniverse rev. date: 04/16/2013

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Mirigu

Asonkwa

Birem

Badu

Wenchi

Techiman

The Rwandan Genocide

The Apartheid In South Africa

The Holocaust

Unrealized Dreams Of Our Founders

PREFACE

My intention to produce this book came up first when I ran for the post of local National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) secretary at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale, Ghana, as well as during my subsequent contest for the position of general secretary at the national level. Numerous issues arose during the campaign, especially at the local level. Although the election is supposed to concern student activism, many people were voting based on which part of the country the contestants came from. I am therefore not surprised when I see some of these tribal loyalties reflected in our national politics. However, I still have faith and hope that this practice can be minimized, if not eliminated. For it to be reduced or stopped completely, everyone has got to play a role as a leader with respect to the people who are under his or her influence, through our daily conversations, our one-on-one talks, our public speeches when we are called to deliver them, our writings, and our deeds. I regard it to be part of a citizenship obligation to put these things together in writing here, especially relating it to my own life as someone who plays a pivotal role as a student activist and who belongs to the two major sections of the country and thus crosses the north and south dichotomies.

I hate politics of tribalism and discrimination, and that is exactly the status quo of Ghana. Politics of tactics and a Machiavellian kind of politics prevails whereby politicians believe that defaming their opponents and denigrating their reputations will provide them with opportunity to capture political power. Little do they realize that those comments have the tendency of sending our beloved nation into chaos. Respect, as they say, is reciprocal. This book will therefore help such people to value one another no matter which part of the country they come from, what food they eat, their particular economic background, or their religion, and it will endorse a transparent politics that is devoid of insults and personal attacks. For, at the end of the day, we have only one Republic of Ghana, a nation regarded as the beacon of African democracy, and the hope that, during a difficult time, we can represent the hope of Africa—as the black star in our national flag truly stands for.

Financial problems deferred the publication of this book, and things are still not well with me. Day in, day out, I battle within myself, especially the case during this year’s campaign for national election and during the results when properties were destroyed and the opposition even had to go to court to challenge the transparency of the results: a problem I consider to be purely tribal. Although I left the country to further my studies in the United States, my interest has always been to know what is going on in my country. Because, out of site, is not out of mind, Many people live our country to countries like the United States where there are many opportunities and turned to forgot about their own country, but I always believe that collectively, we can also make our own country even more than this, though, as a poor student who couldn’t provide food for myself during my school days and have to visit offices of government officials before I pay my school fees, life turn around for me in just less than two years in the United States, I bought my house in Accra, sponsored the production of this book myself, own three private cars, and expecting my baby in just some few months, just to mention a few. I did not let proud overtake me just because of who I am now, but still setting my mind back in my old days, and thinking about how to help that widow and her son full of potential but lacking money to pursue his dreams, and roaming in the street of Accra and have twisted his life for truck pushing, he is the reason why this book is published. I kept reading people’s articles and opinions published on the Ghana web, I listen to online radio every morning,