Rawlings lauded for displaying African grooming culture

All succeeding presidents after Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah have failed to demonstrate the African, and for that matter Ghanaian, culture in their style of grooming, apart from former President Jerry John Rawlings, says Ahuma Ocansey known as Daddy Bosco, President of the Rastafari Council of Ghana.

While contributing to a discussion on patriotism on TV3, Saturday June 18, Daddy Bosco said: “Patriotism does not rest with whether you are poor or rich; there are many rich Ghanaians who will not sacrifice a dime for the country. So, I will not equate the absence of patriotism to the presence of poverty.

“Like I’m saying rich people are not patriotic, poor people are not patriotic …On the eve of independence Osagyegfo [Kwame Nkrumah] declared independence wearing a smock. Since then, if you look at our succeeding leaders, what identity do they represent? And I can say since the days of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, there has been no leader who has represented that Ghanaianness…[except] Jerry Rawlings to a certain extent and I’m not talking Rawlings politics and things; I’m talking about representing what you stand for, your culture or your people.

He added: “I want to believe that the moment our leaders start demonstrating that, ‘Look I’m proud to be African and this is how Africans adorn ourselves,’ it will start planting certain [patriotic] seeds.

“What is happening is our society is aping a certain culture and that could also be fertilising that lack of patriotism because then it seems like anything Ghanaian is not worth dying for.”