Our Servitude Mentality Implications For the Economy -Rejoinder

I write this memo in response to your article “Our Servitude Mentality Implications For the Economy” dated 2003-04-25 and published on the GhanaHomePage.

I read your article with the understanding that you were going to explore the subject matter of mental servitude. Your title is well stated but the contents do not support the subject matter of ‘Our Mental Servitude”. What do you mean by Mental Servitude? What factors contribute to such servitude? These questions are just a few of the many I can fathom right now and I would be much obliged if you could address them.

The works of Fran Fanon succinctly treats the subject matter of “mental Servitude”: "Black Man in White Mask" and the "Wretched of the Earth". I recommend you read these books to get a fundamental understanding of the topics you're addressing. You may also read the book "Pedagogue of the Oppressed " and "Education for Critical Conscience " by Paulo Freire. I bet you will modify your article entirely after reading those books. These are not academic books however, but a realization of the factors that have shaped our present predicament. The problem is purely psychological and your very allegiance to a foreign religion as the basis of your “new found faith” is in itself “Mental Servitude”.

Nation building is not just a rhetorical exercise. It takes time and lot of sacrifice to implement a given agenda. "Self Government Now" was the mantra of the CPP government. However, if anybody could ask Nkrumah what did "Self government" mean at that time, he could not have given any practical answer. It could have meant kicking foreigners from the country and later chasing them for aid. Divulge from “Self Government Now” was the need to work collaboratively with whatever instrumentation available… foreigners or aliens to archive the self government – not kicking asses but working together to archive a given economic fortitude. However, Nkrumah policy on “African Personality” did wrestle the psychological biases of our times.

National Liberation Council of Afrifa and Kotaka did liberate Ghana from the shackles of Nkrumah. Did they know what they were liberating? They were liberating a messy situation to a messier predicament of tragicomic proportion. The psychological impediment to our critical conscience and the need to identify and solve our own problems are the basic problems of nation building and economic recovery for Ghana. You bearly described the symptom of “our Mental Servitude” and could not provide the alternatives for liberation. If you could liberate yourself from the religious servitude, which keeps you praying five times a day instead of gainful economic activities, then you can see the light for our economic recovery. Do a search on Marcus Garvey on the Internet and you will be empowered forever.

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