AN EMAIL TO A DEAR FRIEND!

Pity, Graham - I was counting on him taking the project forward. There is something in the make-up of the average Ghanaian that makes him or her prefer to deal with lighter-hued people – and the DIY solar project idea would have been a roaring success as a result of that: as people would have bent over backwards to help him. Sadly, at the moment, the womenfolk of Akim Abuakwa Juaso are much keener on working for a surface gold mining entity – than empowering themselves with knowledge about operating a green micro-enterprise in the renewable energy sector. That is why they have not taken up the DIY solar idea, yet. However, one lives in hope.

As it happens, my family happens to be the biggest landowners there (please note that I say that only in a matter-of-fact fashion, not boastfully) – and to counter the baleful influence, and unwelcome intrusion of the surface gold miners, into our lives, we are gearing up to use eco-tourism to preserve our part of that marvelous gift of nature to humankind. We have set up the P. E. Thompson Nature Resource Reserve (PETNRR) as a tool for conservation – by opening up our large and pristine private rain forest to the public: as a community-based eco-tourism destination for lovers of nature, birdwatchers, extreme-hikers, tree-spotters, bird-watchers, researchers, etc. etc.

The DIY solar idea will begin to make sense to the villagers when the eco-tourism starts bringing in wealth to the area – and they realize that preserving that beautiful part of our country, rather than pandering to the whims of wealthy and selfish surface gold miners, as well as engaging in the rampant illegal logging that goes on daily there, will give them a better standard of living, and a better quality of life, too. Unfortunately, as a result of the endemic poverty of the area’s cocoa farmers, the surface gold mining company, Sola Mining, has succeeded in buying a vast swathe of farmland from the inhabitants of the village, and is busy raping Mother Nature there - even though, incredibly, it does not even have a mining permit from the EPA.

Our off-reserve land is part of the Atiwa Range upland evergreen rain forest (and part of it also lies within the government's forest reserve) – an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot. The surface miners have even bought the farmland of our immediate neighbours, the traditional authorities of Akim Abuakwa Jauso – although they are currently operating in the foothills of the Atiwa Range. Amazingly, they have actually been stopped twice from continuing to operate by the EPA – but have carried on regardless. Irritatingly, that confounded company seems to be contemptuous of the laws of the Ghanaian nation-state – a common characteristic of our largely greedy, ruthless, and thoroughly corrupt elite.

The irony in all this, Graham, is that the Paramount Chief of Akim Abuakwa, Osagyefo Amoatia 11, is known widely here (and elsewhere around the planet Earth) for championing the cause of conservation and spreading environmental awareness. It has even gained him the friendship of your Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles, no less. Yet, the owner of Sola Mining, a Mr. S.O. Lamptey (or is it S. O. Lartey, I wonder?), actually mentioned his name once, whiles haranguing me over the phone, for being so presumptuous as to want to halt mining in Ghana’s Eastern Region – giving one the distinct impression, that somehow, they were fast friends: and that that royal personage was obviously aware of their perfidy. If that were true, it would make him a hypocrite of the very worst sort. Hopefully, if he (or any of his many cousins) reads this, that egregious example of the disregard for the natural environment displayed daily by so many of the players in the mining sector of our nation’s economy, will be swiftly halted once and for all – if for nothing, at least just to save face, for the Okyenhene and Ofori Panin Fie.

That is Ghana for you, Graham – an apparently well-run African nation-state with a world-wide reputation for good governance. Sadly, however, beneath the patina of the peaceful and stable nation peopled by a civilized African people, possessed of a vibrant emerging economy, lies the harsh reality of a country of lawlessness and indiscipline – jam-packed with moral cowards, hypocrites, and sycophants. Quite frankly, Graham, the Okyenhenes of our country, make me sick. They are the progeny of our pre-colonial feudal ruling elites – and inherited privilege, as you and I know, is the greatest enemy of any meritocracy. They are largely responsible for much of the superstitious-ridden mambo-jambo, which underpins the retrograde mindset of so many of our people – that makes them lack self-belief, and holds our country back, so.

Yet, our nation’s founder, Osagyefo Dr, Kwame Nkrumah, had that vital ingredient of success, in such abundance. Perhaps it might interest you to know that such was the fear of his influence on Africans, that the Western powers conspired to have him overthrown (by local quislings acting in consonance with our military) on the 24th of February, 1966. This little gem from the then British High Commissioner to Ghana, a Mr. Snelling, writing a dispatch to the Foreign and Commonwealth office and the British secret service on September 15, 1961, encapsulates perfectly, the concerns of the imperialist exploiters of our continent at the time: “”His, (Nkrumah’s) knack of giving expression to the feelings of so many Africans, who are all the time rapidly becoming more politically conscious, is exasperating….We are better off without him.” One hopes that young Ghanaians will be inspired by his writing to become Africans imbued with Nkrumah’s abundant self-belief and supreme confidence in the abilities of members of the black race worldwide.

Incidentally, yet another example of just how worried the imperialist powers were about Nkrumah’s influence on the mind’s of Africans, can be gleaned from a declassified CIA memo (from a Johnson Library National Security File, Vol. 21, 3/3/66-3/20/66) to President L. B J. Johnson, written by Robert R. Kromer, Acting National Security Adviser at the time, who stated, inter alia: “The coup in Ghana is another example of a fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine or interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western.” Do note their derision for those stooges for neocolonialism who overthrew Nkrumah – in sharp contrast to their fear of Nkrumah’s intellect and influence in Africa. Lastly, let me point out that contrary to the West’s propaganda, Nkrumah was never actually a communist. Sadly for our country, most of Ghana’s post-Nkrumah leaders have been mostly of the ilk of those traitors to the black race (who run our country for the benefit of foreign exploiters after his overthrow) – who colluded with the enemies of Africa to remove that great pan-African leader from power in 1966. He will remain in the Pantheon of the greatest leaders of the world till the very end of time – long after his detractors have sunk into oblivion and been forgotten. His equal has not yet been born; I am afraid. Hmmm, life…

Google: “ghanapolitics”.

Telephone (powered by Tigo - the mobile phon network in Ghana, that actually works): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartfone: + 233 (0) 21 976238.