Features
Focus on Africa
The bottom line to my submission today is that Sub-Saharan Africa has been fundamental for global prosperity and the West will ensure Africans remain impoverished so that their economies can prosper.
When the Europeans set their colonial and imperial eyes on Africa, only one objective was on their mind; to plunder our natural resources even if it meant annihilating the ‘natives’.
To achieve this goal they had to draw long-term strategies to take care of their economies for eternity. Their strategies were to be unfurled over time, changing and being realigned with the changing times. First was to find what was on the continent that could benefit them.
The question was how to go about it. They thought we were savages that could be tamed by either a direct confrontation or by religious chicanery. So the Crown and the Church commissioned ships to sail to discover what they thought was the Dark Continent. They came with the Holy Bible in their armpits and told our people of an omnipotent God whose son died to save mankind who subscribed to their faith, not by idol worship.
While their missionaries got the people’s attention to their God, their explorers were busy looking for economic opportunities. Aside from natural resources they surmised that the fastest was the human resource for their plantations in the Americas and Caribbean. The Slave Trade was thus kick-started. And the Crown and the Church took commission on each slave delivered to those lands alive.
Meanwhile, the missionaries established schools to ‘educate’ the ‘natives’. They built forts and castles on our coastlines, armed with cannons, to ward off rival European adventurers. Many of these forts served as dungeons to keep slaves captive till the arrival of ships to cart them away. Some of the castles served as their schools.
Those ‘natives’ who opposed the Europeans were subjected to brutal attacks and raids on their lands. Asante resisted and fought the British, Ethiopia resisted and fought the Italians as did Libya. Hundreds of thousands of Zulus under King Chaka in Azania were slaughtered. Indeed, because they had superior firepower, the Europeans were able to subdue some of the people, except Ethiopia.
It must be stated quickly that while the Europeans were arriving by sea to sub-Sahara, Arabs were also making inroads by land through the northeast of the continent with their Quran in tow. This focus on Africa was from many directions.
The colonialists started to establish systems of governance in the areas they had taken roots in. Having indoctrinated our forebears into their religions, the next strategy was numeracy, not education, to make our people behave to suit their taste. The missionaries established mission schools on strict doctrinal principles.
I say numeracy because our forebears were already educated on the norms and nuances of our culture and appreciation in the fields of farming, fishing, governance and religion. The colonialists could be credited with bringing numeracy and formality though.
Having established their governance they then set to plundering our minerals and other natural resources like gold, timber, cocoa, coffee, iron, among others to enrich their economies back home.
They pretended to trade with us, but ended up dividing our ranks by pitting one ethnic group against the other.
Things began to change after our men went to fight their war in Burma, a war that had nothing to do with us in Africa, and realised that even the Europeans could die in battle. It became apparent that the Africans could manage their own affairs. This was the catalyst for independence agitation. Prior to this, the impression was that the Europeans were invincible against any adversary.
In effect, the colonialists have so far brought us religion, democracy of their type and lately LGBTQ+. We have embraced their religion and we are resisting and rejecting their LGBTQ+. Their democracy is not working on the continent the way they want it to.
Taking a step into the past, it was not easy for them to grant us independence. It was a struggle. The Mau Mau uprising saw hundreds of the people of Kenya murdered in cold blood by the British. Their women were raped and maimed. Is it not a paradox or irony that in spite of their disdain for the Black Race, these Europeans found attraction in our women’s genitalia?
The Germans also unleashed terror on the people of Namibia, killing the people for sport just as the Belgians and French did in the Congo Basin where millions of our people were killed. It is estimated that more than twenty million people of the Congo were murdered. Now, when only six million Jews were gassed by Hitler’s Third Reich the whole world has been brainwashed to call that a Holocaust.
What name would they give to the millions of Africans killed? I charge African leaders to find a nomenclature for the genocide against Africans. Then we can harp on this every minute of the day so it registers on their minds.
Having granted us independence, their strategy of keeping us in perpetual penury was kick-started. Neo Colonialism was triggered. They set up the Breton Woods institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pretend to lend us money when we are unable to balance our books. They give us conditions like cutting public jobs, infrastructure development, and devaluation of our currencies so they can buy our raw materials cheaply.
It becomes a never-ending cycle of dependence on these financial institutions to the detriment of our own progress as a people. Sadly, for the African continent the West finds it more convenient to deal with our corrupt leaders. They keep these leaders on a leash of blackmail to dance to their music. These leaders abound on the continent. When a country’s leaders are criticized by the West, that government is doing the right things for their people.
How many of us have noticed that all the Patriots who led our countries to independence were educated in the West? Having lived among their colonizers, these Africans saw the strengths and weaknesses in their systems and their people. This spurred them on to come home and fight to take their countries’ destinies into their own hands.
These were selfless, nationalistic and patriotic individuals whose vision was the political and economic emancipation of their people. The Francophone had the likes of Sekou Toure of Guinea, Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, Modibo Keita of Mali, Francois Tombalbaye of Chad and Maurice Yameogo of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). We had Ahounmadegbe in Benin, Grunitzky in Togo, Patrice Lumumba in Congo and many others.
The Anglophones were Siaka Stephens of Sierra Leone, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Milton Obote of Uganda, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and our own Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The list is endless. The Lusophones did not have things easy. Augustino Neto and Louis Cabral will tell you.
These were people who never amassed personal wealth for themselves. There are virtually little policy landmarks in their various countries that were not in the master plans of these visionary leaders. Everything they initiated was in the interest of their people. Their former colonialists realised they were losing out and had to revise their strategy.
First, the British came up with the Commonwealth of Nations. The French also had their Assimilation and France-Afrique. In spite of this they began to fund the opposition in these young countries to undermine their governments. Where there was no credible opposition, the military was courted to overthrow the regimes. The result was the spate of coups d’etat from the mid-sixties into the seventies.
I will soon do a five-part series on France and its atrocities in Africa, but let me state quickly that Dr Kwame Nkrumah gave Guinea under Sekou Toure ten million British pounds to get that country started after France took even the minutest of items as office pins when they were packing out of Conakry.
Any progressive leader in Africa must be taken out. In many cases, those who removed them did not fare any better with their paymasters. Once they found out they had been used by the West and the cloudiness cleared out of their eyes, the West was ready to take them out too. It has never been a win-win situation for Africa.
Today, the weak leaderships on the continent have allowed Western military bases on their soil. To me, this is colonisation all over again. Who is Ghana fighting to want an American military detachment in the country? France has military bases all over the continent under the guise of protecting their former colonies from Islamic Jihadist attacks. This falsehood flies in the face of our knowledge that these soldiers are on the continent to protect the loot of our natural resources by their surrogate companies.
And we have leaders who pander to the whims of these colonialist economic vultures who rather have the effrontery to tell us what to do with our lives. The least they can do is to back off and get their soldiers off our soil and territories. Left alone, we have the capacity to manage our own affairs.
Writer’s email address:
akofa45@yahoo.com
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
I have often been saddened by the condition of Sikaman musicians. Of course, some are not musicians. They are jokers who think anybody who can sing a hymn is a musician. And why wouldn’t they think so when people think that every man wearing a rasta hair is a reggae musician?
Well, these days, almost everybody is dreaming of becoming a musician, even some ministers and parliamentarians. And it is never too late for them to begin learning the solfas and composing songs like “If You Do Good You Do For Yourself,” after all, life begins at 60 these days. If you die three years later, that’s your luck.
For the jobless, becoming a musical star is an everyday dream. They think when you are a music maker, you automatically break alliance with poverty. They are often mistaken.
I know people who claim they are musicians but are always fasting not because they are devout moslems or are on a hunger strike, but because even one square meal a day is a perpetual wahala. And the only drink they can afford is the poor man’s holy whisky which has a thousand names including ‘Nyame Bekyere’.
Even most of the popular musicians we see in town claiming they are foreign-based stars are more of hustlers than musicians. When they tell you they are going on tour abroad, it is a careful way of saying they are going overseas to scrub the whiteman’s toilet or pick tomato or apples to save their neck from musical poverty.
When they are back to Sikaman, they appear quite flamboyant with chains hanging all over them. They change the few dollars they have scraped, spread it around and promptly get broke. Then they can organise another ‘tour’. In between tours, they struggle to release an album and that levels them up a bit on the financial balance.
It all points to the fact that the life of the average musician isn’t quite organised. He has no calendar, no programme and no concentration on the job. He has to wash plates, become a waiter, janitor and toilet scrubber while finding time to make music. No musician succeeds in life that way.
One musician I’ll always respect, who thinks deeper than the ordinary Sikaman musicians is Carlos Sakyi. He is not like the Kokoase guitar musicians who see the world just in terms of bitters, a willing girlfriend, constant supply of kokonte and jot.
Carlos, often loved for his percussive overtones in gospel music, and once a gospel-rock star, has studied the life of Sikaman musicians and has evolved a blue-print for a great improvement in their lives work, finances and comfort.
In short, he has simulated a Motown-style environment for musicians and his formula is working with accuracy with the five musicians he has started with. The blue-print is what has brought MEGASTAR into being. It was launched on September 15, 1995 at the National Theatre.
When it got launched, many probably thought Carlos was “too know or was dreaming more than he should and won’t think about himself. Anyhow, the MEGASTAR is now an institution musicians can look up to, a big phenomenon with lots of promise for struggling musicians.
Music business in the developed world is not the way we regard it cheaply here. A musician is never distracted by how his finances go; his contracts are entered, his engagements made, his interviews arranged, his personal security guaranteed.
Music is his business and that is where his mind is and his attention focuses. Other aspects of his life are programmed for him by his managers. They hire who has to light his cigarettes, massage him, drive his car and the one who will say “Good Luck” when he sneezes.
A bodyguard whose face is exactly like that of the devil is hired to scare off muggers, psychopaths and criminals in general. Sometimes his girls are organised for him.
So the only thing the musician does apart from sleeping and snoring is to concentrate on making music, and true to it, no one can succeed in any venture when he is distracted.
This is how the Michael Jacksons, Lionel Richies, Dolly Patons and Whitney Houstons have made it with dollars packed and over-flowing. They aren’t any better than Sikaman musicians. The only difference is that they know how to organise their lives.
I managed to corner Carlos Sakyi and asked him to tell me how MEGASTAR was doing. He is the Managing Director of Megastar Limited, a music company that has a board of directors and a chairman. Carlos Sakyi shares the proprietorship with a partner. Carlos himself was one great musician who played for a band that beat Eddy Grant on the charts.
“Megastar is in fact a concept born out of the idea that the future security of the Ghanaian musician which has always been in jeopardy can now be guaranteed. Artistes spend too much of their time doing things on their own, chasing money and not concentrating on music. So their full potential is never realised. Some are in fact producing at quarter-rate. That is why they aren’t making much headway,” he told me.
“Megastar is now giving them the chance of the lives. We handle the interviews of Megastar artiste, their press releases, costume, engagements and everything they hitherto used to do themselves. We get them exposed on M-Net and we have contacted BB to get on their programmes. We handle their finances pay them salaries and bonuses, so they only have to concentrate on music
“Most importantly,” he continued, “we do not make all the decisions. Management always meet with the musicians to take the decisions that affect them.”
But who are the Megastar musicians? One is the great Amakye Dede, a star from birth delivered onto the earth with music on his lips; he is the man who feeds hungry ears with musical salad and harmonic sausages. He is the recipient of many national awards.
Next is Naana Frimpong, a latter-day Carlos-groomed songbird with the voice of an angel. She sings to kill. Her beauty has charmed her audience and they stare and stare at her.
The sensational and fantalising Tagoe Sisters are the next. The twin music machine is one that has produced the cream, arguably the very best, of gospel music all these years. I hear they are inseparable; not even their better-halves can keep them apart. Are they Siamese? They dance, and when on stage, they move the crowd.
Then comes Reverend Yawson who is a known songwriter. He is imbued with the Holy Spirit, speaks in tongues and of course sings in tongues. He is God’s representative on the group.
What about my good friend and super-heavyweight, Jewel Ackah? He is a star figure. His appearance is awe-inspiring, his voice golden. A great delight to be-hold when at his best in stage-craftsmanship, he has beaten his contemporaries to it both on land and on sea.
They are the pioneers of the Motown idea. They are all releasing new albums this year. Let’s see how it all goes.
In recent years, the term “female rage” has gained significant traction, symbolising a collective shift in how women’s emotions are perceived and addressed.
This phenomenon is not merely a fleeting trend but a profound movement rooted in centuries of systemic injustices, personal betrayals, and societal expectations.
As women increasingly reclaim their anger, it is imperative to understand the multifaceted nature of female rage, its causes, and its implications for individuals and society at large.
The historical context of female anger
Historically, women’s emotions have been subject to dismissal, ridicule, and pathologisation. The term “hysteria,” originating from the Greek word for uterus, was used to describe women’s emotional states as irrational and uncontrollable.
This legacy of silencing and shaming has contributed to a culture where women’s anger is often suppressed or stigmatised.
However, with the rise of feminist movements, women are challenging these narratives, asserting their right to express anger and demand change.
The anatomy of female rage
Female rage is not a monolith; it is a complex and multifaceted emotion driven by various factors, including:
1. Societal expectations: The pressure to conform to traditional roles of passivity, politeness, and emotional labour.
2. Gender inequality and pay gaps: Frustration stemming from systemic discrimination in the workplace and beyond.
3. Sexual harassment and abuse: Trauma and anger resulting from pervasive violence and objectification.
4. Emotional labour and burnout: The unsustainable burden of managing emotions and responsibilities in personal and professional spheres.
5. Hormonal fluctuations: The impact of hormonal changes on emotional states, often overlooked or dismissed.
The power of anger: Reclaiming female rage
Far from being a destructive force, female rage can be a catalyst for change. When acknowledged and channelled constructively, anger can drive advocacy, policy reform, and resistance against inequality.
The #MeToo movement, women’s marches, and increased representation in politics are testaments to the power of collective female anger.
Addressing the Stigma: Towards a more inclusive dialogue
To fully harness the potential of female rage, society must address the stigma surrounding women’s anger. This involves:
1. Validation and recognition: Acknowledging women’s emotions as legitimate and worthy of attention.
2. Creating safe spaces: Providing platforms for women to express anger without fear of backlash.
3. Education and awareness: Challenging stereotypes and promoting understanding of women’s experiences.
4. Support systems: Offering resources and support for women dealing with trauma and systemic injustices.
Conclusion
The age of female rage is a moment of profound transformation, where women’s anger is no longer silenced but celebrated as a force for justice.
By understanding the roots of female rage and addressing the societal structures that fuel it, we can move towards a more equitable and compassionate world.
The journey is complex, but the destination-a society where women’s emotions are respected and their voices are heard is worth the struggle.
References:
[1] Chemudupati, P. (2022). _The Rage of Women: A Historical Perspective_.
[2] Traister, R. (2018). _Good and Mad:
By Robert Ekow Grimond-Thompson
