Mr. Kwame Arhin, a Kumasi based legal practitioner and spokesman of the Union of Concerned Asante Lawyers, has cautioned Ghanaians to refrain from all anti-Asante feelings to move the nation forward.
His admonition emanates from recent claims and counter claims and expositions by one group or the other against the other.
Arhin is apparently not happy about the unfolding events, following what he called the “intransigence of the Gas” in the face of a statement by the government, urging all involved to exercise restraint in the name of peace and unity.
He noted that for some time there had been such anti-Asante feelings among a section of Ghanaians which, he said, if unchecked would cause disunity at the expense of peace and development.
Lawyer Arhin was reacting to seeming reactions by the Ga-Adangme Council (Daily Graphic- November 10, 2003) and a Ga Spiritual leader, Nuumo Gbelenfo II, (The Chronicle – November 26) to his presentation on the hard facts about Asante History as carried by a section of the media recently.
The lawyer, a one time student in Law with History at the University of Ghana, Legon said in this era of improved technology the unnecessary noise people make about visits by some foreign dignitaries to the Manhyia Palace, only goes to make mockery of Ghanaians in the international community.
Arhin said attempts by some Gas to embarrass the Asantehene when he was invited to participate in a function at the Mensah Sarbah Hall and the attempt by a section of the media to marginalize Asanteman and demean the authority of Asantehene amounted to gross disrespect for authority and a breeding ground for conflict, saying “these are major concerns that need to be addressed, or else the peace and unity we all yearn for might elude us.”
He deplored government’s silence and inaction to solve the impasse and suggested that the government organizes a dialogue at a common forum to put the matter to rest. “Mere statements would not serve any purpose,” he stated.
He said by virtue of the government directive, he felt constrained to let sleeping dogs lie but for the misinterpretation of his stance and explained that it had never been his intention to re-write history to project Asantehene or place him over and above every traditional ruler in Ghana, neither is he trying to fan tribalism to disunite Ghanaians.
According to him, the real import of the exercise was to correct distortions in history since history, which is not bunk, identifies a people and infuses a sense of nationalism in a particular people.
In response to the government’s allusion to the fact that by having recourse to history, a “parochial interest” was being sought, Arhin, who claimed to have a “genuine cause,” said there was nothing parochial in outlook in his exercise.
He said Ghanaians must be prepared to have respect for authority and to accept certain facts as the truth and warned that history must not be looked down upon with contempt in order to distort.
For this “genuine” concern, Arhin condemned the said Ga-Adangme exposition, which sought to create the impression that it had not been a vassal state to Asante. “ The impression is false and has no logical reasoning,” he said.
He also frowned on the castigation and inference by the Ga-Adangme in their attempt to distort and re-write history that eminent academics like Professor Adu Boahen and Ivor Wilks, who he quoted, fabricated historical facts.
Lawyer Arhin further referred to assertions by F.K. Buah, another eminent historian and a non-Asante, and W.E. Ward, a renowned historian, to buttress his account of the Akatamanso/Dodowa War of 1826, which Asante lost to Allied Forces of vassal states under the British Command.
“Admittedly Asante lost the war but they were not humiliated” he said, and that from 1921 any war Asante fought with the vassal states in the South was mainly war with the British and Allied Forces of all Southern vassal states. For this simple fact the Ga-Adangmes cannot take credit for the defeat of Asante in that war, the lawyer corrected.
