Ga memorial day III

This is the concluding part of the article I started celebrating the Ga memorial day.

Ga (Accra) became the colonial capital of Ghana (Gold Coast) in 1877, after the overthrow of the Ga State and Government of King Taki Tawia to pre-empt an attempted invasion of the Asante Kingdom by Ga forces assisted by the Dwaben refugees led by King Asafo Adjei. Today, the Dwaben people are still refugees in Koforidua. King Taki was later detained at the infamous Ussher Fort where several prominent Ghanaian politicians have tasted prison life, including President John Kufour who slept in Ussher Fort on the eve of January 13, 1972 when a military coup ended the Second Republic.

The Ga people have seen a sudden decline with uncontrolled destruction of Ga State farmlands within the past 40 years. In 1959, the Government of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah deported over 12,000 Ga people from Tema and demolished over 500 homes to build a national harbor and industrial city, Tema. Today, the Government’s Tema Development Corporation (TDC) sells all those illegally seized lands as technology lands to businesses. Also, the Ghanaian government has refused all calls by the Ga to return Victoriaborg, seized in 1877 back to the Ga king and the removal of 40,000 refugees from the Agbogbloshie wetlands in Sodom and Gommorah, which has caused environmental disaster to the sacred Korle Lagoon and Odaw River.

Over 100 villages in rural Ga (Accra) have turned into urban towns within a short period of time and had brought untold hardship to several village populations whose daily livelihood is threatened by real estate developers, assisted by government soldiers. Many Ga farmers who used to supply foodstuffs to the 28 markets in urban Ga (Accra) have all gone out of business. Ga is filled with filth, fire disasters and a growing human and social pressure on the city's infrastructure created to handle less than a population of two million people.

Other issues facing the GaDangme people are the use of its language in Ga. The Ga wants Ga and Dangme to be declared the teaching languages in all basic schools in Ga State like it is practiced in other areas of Ghana.

The Ga Farmlands Society wants the destruction of farmlands and pristine wetlands by the Mahama government agents, Mayor Oko Vanderpuiye and Regional Commissioner Debrah to cease immediately in Kpon and has made a request to Barclays Bank of Ghana, Ghana Commercial Bank and Chartered Standard Bank to pull out of all real estate investments on Ga farmlands.

Ga State wants all Ghanaian soldiers and combat police officers to leave Ada Songhor and return the 2 billion a year salt resources back to the Ada people, and the repeal of PNDC Law 287.

Will Ghanaian people listen to the Ga people or recent oil discoveries in Ga coastal shores trigger the Ga people to declare an independent Republic of Accra as envisioned by the great Gold Coast Colonial architect and scholar, Dr. James Africanus Horton in New Jersey on Memorial Day weekend? Welcome to New Jersey and the cities of Elizabeth and Newark 2013.

Henry Kpakpo Allotey

kpakpogh@yahoo.com

0243370764