The President of the Music Council of Ghana (MCG), is not at peace with himself with regards to how Rastafarians are discriminated unfairly in the country simply because they smoke marijuana popularly known as ‘wee’.
A veteran Highlife/Reggae musician, a Rastafarian, and also a proponent for justice and equal rights, Ekow Micah, in an exclusive interview with Razz Newspaper, he let out his disappointment at the age-old discrimination against Rastafarians in the country.
“I am blaming the whole nation because there has been discrimination against Rastafarians! They say democracy is freedom of worship but where is the freedom of the Rastafarian?," he said.
Adding, "We don’t get anyone to speak for us! The herb, I mean wee, is Rastafarians spiritual or part of their religion and anything about religion must be well-acknowledged and respected.”
Giving accounts of how Rastafarians are , the ‘Mesiwohemaa’ hitmaker said, “A car will be going with only one Rasta man in it. They get to a police barrier, and the police will single out the Rasta man to come out of the car and search him. We are sick and tired of this!"
He further noted, "this is pure discrimination that is dangerous against the international community. When you watch these Kumasi movies, in some part they will get some hair and design someone like a Rastaman and give him a bad role to play.”
Ekow Micah disclosed that he has faced some discrimination in recent times on his way to Kumasi.
He also lamented on how Rastafarians are chased by the police at their smoking centers, “we are elderly people. We are not aliens in our country! I will be seated somewhere doing my thing without bothering anyone, but the police will just pounce on you and chase you as if you are a thief! Meanwhile, you are not a thief! It’s very bad."
Per Ghana’s narcotic laws, marijuana or wee is an illegal drug and so possessing or smoking it, amounts to an illicit act, but according to Mr. Micah, “It is not illegal, it is our Constitutional right and our human right."
"No human being has the right to stop someone from doing his wholehearted wishes as far as it is not wrong. If I buy my wee, roll it and smoke it, does it pierce into another person's skin? So what is your problem?” he queried.
He asked if he presently smokes wee, he stated temerarious, “Of course yes! I smoke. I will not hide it from anyone; I smoke the wee. From the days when I recorded 'Mesiwohemaa' which you people have danced to all these years till now.”
“I am a pure believer and a pure participator of marijuana! I smoke ganja! I will not hide away,” he added.
According to him, its due to our societal hypocrisy that is why those who smoke wee are not confident and proud to make public their act, "There are a lot of musicians who do it, but they deny. Do you know what you are doing to your soul and body? You don’t know you are deceiving yourself?”
In his candid opinion, smoking wee is better than drinking alcohol, and that government of Ghana should consider making laws to make the mass plantation of marijuana a reality because it can boost out GDP more than Gold.
Ekow Micah also lamented at the high rate at which the youth of today are abusing the intake of alcohol. “Today, the youth have taken to alcohol! If you don’t know someone who is mad, look at a drunken man? What is the difference between a drunkard and a mad man? Who will smoke wee and drink from the drain? But drunkards do.”
In order to push their case, Mr. Micah intimated that he and others in the persons of Ras Puni, Ras Shamo have formed a movement known as the ‘Rasta Union Movement of Ghana’ and are about to send a petition to Nana Oye Lithur, the President and Parliament to pass a law that guarantees the freedom and right of Rastafarians in Ghana.
