Learning to Become a Patriotic Ghanaian

By Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo

Attorney and Counselor at Law

The question of patriotism is now a question in vogue, given that the present government is perceived to be patently corrupt, and the political stage is now a theater for the final act in the quest for chicanery and the salacious satiation of congenitally inherent avarice.

First of all, fraudulent practices leading to the payment of huge judgment debts, the contrivance of illusionary projects leading to huge losses to the state, and the commonplace ineptitude leading to unsustainability of commonplace utility services all give cause for grave concern. This is not to mention the recent conduct by Ghana’s Black Stars at the World Cup, where the government and the people were held hostage before the whole world, while the players demanded appearance fees before playing their fixture against Portugal. All these lead to a deep feeling of ennui only akin to the atmosphere in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” or Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet born”. This article faults ethnocentricity as one visceral cause of our lack of patriotism.

T.S. Elliot’s poem begins with the unexpected aridity of April: where spring should bring life and freshness, it turns out to bring barrenness and hostility. Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel describes the detritus of corruption in a society whose dream of freedom has turned into a veritable nightmare. Looking at the present situation in Ghana, one is bound to agree that the nation is contiguous to the dark and scatological imageries invoked in the aforementioned creative works. Indeed, many are the times when reports emanating from the motherland exude hopelessness in those of us here in the diaspora.

But building the nation is not the singular responsibility of its government, although the buck may stop at the highest apparatus of its political leadership which must collectively act as the inspiration of the people. Building the nation is also a matter of individual conduct, for it is individuals that make up communities, for communities to make up societies before societies will come together to make up a nation. If individuals are bad, the overall effect on the nation will be bad. And for me, I have begun to feel that most Ghanaian intellectuals are simply bad people, much against the grain of my childhood notions that our people are generally and necessarily good. Most Ghanaian intellectuals are bigots. In the secret sanctum of their hearts, they breed the dirty notion that their language group is superior to others and use the residue of their intellectual capacity to advance this unpatriotic cause. Strangely, these people do not see any relationship between nation building and the unity of the people….The fact that the whole basis of nationhood is structured on national unity and respect for one another is not something that has yet dawned on them. So these people continue to brand and tag others with subhuman epithets while pontificating about abstract means and ways for building the nation. If you don’t see the leadership of the country as comprising men and women of your blood and kind, you will not be capable of the kinds of patriotic actions and goodwill that will further their vision and mission. You will rather be involved in those actions that will bring them down. Thus, instead of looking at the whole country to find what you can do to enhance the chances of her citizens, you will be busy looking for ways to sabotage their well-being. And corrupt and nepotistic actions will be your stock in trade because you cannot perceive your responsibility in terms of the wider national goals. For example, if you are a judge, your opinion will not be based on justice, but rather on the ethnic origin of the individual before you. And if you have the power to award contract, it is not going to the most efficient of the bidders but the one that speaks your native language. If you are an educationist, all scholarships will not be by merit but by kinship. And if you are an employer, those given jobs will have them because they are from your clan.

So I hereby identify this whole deep-seated and widespread ethnocentric behavior as one main reason why our nation has now sunk into the doldrums of hopelessness. Therefore our journey to solid nationhood and economic prosperity lies in the question of our unity as one people with one nation and a common destiny. To me, this is where nation building truly begins. A vision of unity conjures all the requisite images of solidarity with all the country’s people, and that solidarity in turn leads to collaboration and cooperation…it will lead to sacrifices for each other and for the whole nation!

Once, in a conversation with my good friend Dr. Michael Bokor, I told him that my reason for not getting into Ghanaian politics is that I have always feared that if my money gets co-mingled with some national fund, people can easily accuse me of corruption and seize my property. What I did not tell him is that the issue has to do more with the bigotry of the typical Ghanaian. It is easier for people to accuse others of corruption for the simple reason that they belong to a certain language group.

T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland” is as much about death as it is about birth. And Ayi Kwei Armah’s “Beautyful Ones” despite its dark ambience, denotes final hope even if that hope has not yet materialized. In an interview with the latter author in 1997, I asked him whether there was light at the end of the tunnel for our country. He responded that there was abundant light at the end of the tunnel. What I failed to ask that sage was when this light would shine on our country. I believe that that light will begin to shine when the country’s scholars and people realize the simple fact that Ghana is one country, indivisible…….

Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Doctor of Jurisprudence, is a general legal practitioner resident in Austin, Texas. You can email him at sarfoadjei@yahoo.com.