RE: Ethnocentrism and Akan Persecution In Ghana

Nathan Harvey, Why Do You Hate Ewes So Much?

A thorough perusal of Nathan Harvey’s article, titled “Ethnocentrism and Akan Persecution In Ghana,” leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader that this person, who very certainly employs a pseudonym to mask his own cowardice, has unfettered bitterness toward all Ewes. It leaves me completely shocked when someone communicates such defamatory and false statements about an entire tribe: the Ewes. What could possibly be gnawing at Nathan Harvey? Well, let us try to dissect Harvey’s piece and see if we can render him some spiritual assistance and emotional support. Honestly, there is no need to expose the Internet Protocol address of Nathan Harvey, not only because it is illegal to do so in the U.S.A., but because what the man really needs are our love, support and forgiveness.

Nathan Harvey begins his article by citing the dismissal of Col. Damoah – and the deaths of Lt. Col. Amponsem-Boateng and Brigadier Mensah Wood – as the “weeding out of Akan military personnel” from the Ghana Armed Forces. When Col. Damoah was dismissed from the Ghana Armed Forces a few months ago, I condemned it via an article, which, fortunately, Francis Akoto’s Ghanaweb.com carried. I did not condemn Damoah’s dismissal because I was of Ewe descent and felt sorry for an Akan officer – but I did because the military should never be politicized.

Now, for Nathan Harvey to call the dismissal of one officer, although a very unfortunate event, the “weeding out of Akan personnel” from the Ghana Armed Forces is the very essence of propaganda! And just how did the omniscient Nathan Harvey know that Lt. Col Amponsem-Boateng “died suddenly owing to pernicious juju of Ewe origin”? And how sure was Mr. Harvey that Brigadier Mensah Wood was poisoned (the writer did not say where and how Wood was poisoned, or who did the poisoning!), so as to pave the way for “an Ewe man to take his place”? I hope the reader can understand why Ewes who read Harvey’s piece would be shocked to see how a whole tribe can be castigated in order to score cheap political and ethnic points. What have Ewes done to Nathan Harvey and his fellow warmongers to deserve such wanton castigation?

There are so many inconsistencies in Harvey’s piece, one can only point to the writer’s wicked desire to paint all Ewes as evil. Mr. Harvey has informed us about the sinister and surreptitious plan by Ewes in Ghana to engender the merging into one nation the three neighbors: Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso. What Nathan Harvey has done is certainly a treasonable act, and were he an American writing about Canada and Mexico in such manner, he would obviously be called in by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for questioning. I hope Mr. Harvey realizes that his treatise is nothing but a hate speech meant to further stoke the embers of hostility against the good Ewe people of Ghana.

What amazes me about some of Nathan Harvey’s rants is the fact that the man does not realize that Ghanaians are discerning enough to know that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is neither synonymous with nor an extension of the good Ewe people of Ghana! Why does Mr. Harvey repeat the same mistake others have made in the past, by assuming that the NDC is a vehicle for the Ewes to dominate Ghana? Well, this dangerous individual would, in his devious piece, ask his fellow Akans to “wake up,” but many of us know that our brothers and sisters who form the majority Akan population are aware of the fact that Rawlings does not represent all Ewes, and certainly the NDC does not represent all Ewes!

I hope Nathan Harvey would rather spend his bottomless energy to help a different party come to power in 2013, so the fear and bitterness he is attempting to stoke in many Akans would no longer be necessary. We all know that no one can persecute Akans in Ghana, simply because Akans make up half of the population! We need to stop fomenting hate in our country, folks! Hate is dangerous and will lead to nothing but chaos in the end!

Anyone can produce a skewed list of appointees and civil servants to serve as “evidence” that one particular tribe has dominated both the civil service and political stratum of the nation. And I have seen such lists many times on Ghanaweb.com, purporting to show how Ewes have been given the “juiciest” positions in the nation! So, are those who produce such lists saying that there are only 100 or so important jobs in the entire country? We ought to know that others can also produce Akan-leaning lists of government operatives and civil servants, so there is nothing spectacular about such lists! Ever figured out how the word “propaganda” came into being?

Like Samantha Hammond, Nathan Harvey is misrepresenting Ewes’ receipt of Ghanaian Government scholarships, a “slogan” that appears to be gaining ground among despisers of Ewes. I hope Nathan Harvey would understand that people were awarded scholarships based on merit, not because they spoke a particular language! Instead of conjecturing and trying to sow discord between Ewes and other sister tribes in Ghana, Nathan Harvey should simply produce lists from the Scholarship Secretariat to buttress his argument. It was the same thing I said to Samantha Hammond as well. Why embark on this heinous and false crusade against a minority group, just to create more divisiveness and anger within the Ghanaian populace?

For Nathan Harvey to use the word “servitude” to describe the conditions of his fellow Akans in Ghana is, perhaps, the most repulsive of all the statements he has made in his piece. Servitude? How dangerous can this individual be? Akans have a greater presence in every sector of Ghana’s economy, which should be expected from a compendium of ethnic groups, making up 49-percent of the nation’s population. Nathan Harvey should understand that no one gains anything from a major conflict, so his plodding in that direction is both dangerous and gratuitous. Ghana is neither a lawless country nor a fiefdom, so we should not turn it into either. We are fortunate to have independent courts where we can all seek redress if we feel wronged, abused or violated. Ultimately, the ballot box is the most important tool of change for replacing an “ineffective” administration with a better one, so let us promote a nation in which the ordinary citizens decide their own future.

Nathan Harvey must be ashamed for referring to Ewes as a “rapacious bunch”; “of Togolese [,] mostly [,] and Beninois origination and nationality”; “very [deep-rooted] ethnocentric insulars”; and “of a dubious Ghanaian nationality.” Wow, what is eating deep into Nathan Harvey’s mind to say such disgusting things about his fellow Ghanaians? Certainly, Mr. Harvey’s statements are those of a nutty supremacist! Ghanaian Ewes are not citizens of Togo and Benin; they are bona fide Ghanaians, like all the other Ghanaian tribes and/or ethnic groups. We need to stop this castigation of Ewes, please! Enough is enough! And I implore the reader to also pray for Nathan Harvey, so that his heart will be cleansed of hate. I was also quite disappointed that Justice Sarpong and Eric Bottah did not come out to vehemently condemn Nathan Harvey’s piece, as both men are held in high regard by many readers on Ghanaweb.com.

Written and submitted February 1, 2010.

The writer, Daniel K. Pryce, holds a master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University, U.S.A. He is a member of the national honor society for public affairs and administration in the U.S.A. He can be reached at dpryce@cox.net.