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A focus on the Ghana football team in Helsinki
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Ghana team
Today, as I continue with my narration of personalities or groups and their accomplishments within the Ghanaian community in Finland, I focus on the Ghana football team in Helsinki.
A focus on this football team is at the right time as the team prepares to represent the Ghanaian community in Finland in the annual all African Diaspora summer football tournament, which is scheduled to start in late June till July this year.
The Ghana football team has started the pre-season training for the TAT summer tournament this year. The summer tournament is organised every summer by the Toiminnan Avulla Työelämään (TAT), a non-profit programme under the Helsinki Young Men Christian Association, ostensibly as part of efforts for the integration of immigrants into the Finnish society, among others.
I focus on the Ghana team in Helsinki as a way to boost their morale for the competition ahead.
As I keep saying, there are a number of sports people (footballers, basketball players, track and field athletes, etc.), musicians and others of Ghanaian descent in the arts industry whose works deserve to be highlighted.
When the team was formed
According to Mr. Emmanuel Ampofo, a founding member who is also popularly nicknamed as ‘Payo’, the Ghana football team was formed in early 2000.
The main idea was to bring Ghanaian migrants together during the summer time. A Patron of the Ghana team, Payo used to be the sole sponsor of the group for the annual summer tournament.
He continues to be part of those who support the team with logistics. Payo, who owns a barbering salon in Helsinki and meets many immigrants, indicated to me that it is very important for immigrants to have the opportunity to come together and interact to promote unity.
Players and officials for the team
According to Payo, the team usually has talented players. Both former footballers and others who simply have an interest in playing football can be recruited to play for the team.
Also, since the competing teams in the tournament are usually allowed to feature some ‘foreign’ players, the Ghana team often features such players, including Finns, to the admiration of all.
The coach of the team, Mr Moro Abdulai, who joined the team in 2006 and became part of the technical team in 2015, reiterated the fact that through football and the team’s participation in the tournament, unity can be forged among the players and others in the Ghanaian community in Finland.
Even during the COVID-19 period when the lockdown was eased, the team was eager to play and keep up the much-needed interaction which had been reduced due to the social distancing and other restrictions resulting from the pandemic situation.
Mr Kofi Musa Essuman has recently been added to the technical side to assume the role of publicity/public relations.
He said he wanted to be part of the Ghana team in Helsinki to nurture players, due to his background with juvenile football when he was in Ghana. To him, interest among players in the team continues to grow.
Representing the Ghanaian community
Although the Ghana team initially brought together only some people who were interested in playing football and enthusiasts of the game, today the team is assuming a more promising role.
According to coach Moro, the aim is to get the team to be more representative and give further meaning to it as representing the Ghanaian community, so to say.
It is undoubtedly a laudable idea. I remember that when I was the President of the Ghana Union Finland (GUF), the association representing the Ghanaian community, there were discussions in 2019 to hand over the team to GUF. The COVID-19 situation delayed those plans, though.
Integration
There is no doubt that for migrants, such sporting activities engender social cohesion and improve their integration into the Finnish (host) society.
There are Finnish bodies and institutions as well as migrants’ associations or social groups that help to both prepare and expose people with capabilities to the world.
Such institutions and associations are thus networks that engage in training and educating the young people interested in sports and other fields of performances.
At the end of it all, it becomes part of the ways of ensuring integration of people, including such players and even those who go on to play Finnish teams or the national teams and thus represent Finland at the international level. Thank you!
By Perpectual Crentsil
The writer is a Ghanaian lecturer at the University of Helsinki, Finland
Email: perpectualcrentsil@yahoo.com
There is a culture that permeates all aspects of leadership in the advanced countries which I believe has contributed to the success in all aspects of their national lives. Citizens strive to excel so that they will not find themselves in a situation where they would have failed, to necessitate a decision to resign.
Countries where failure is frowned upon, it pushes the citizens to strive for success. In our part of the world, failure and mediocrity has become an accepted norm and therefore, there is no shame in failing in a particular position of leadership.
A head of an organisation mismanages the place and he does not see the need for him to resign. The appointing authority does not also see the need to sack him and so the merry go round continues.
It becomes friends and family as usual and if care is not taken, the rest of the world will leave us far, far behind.
The practice of resignation in parts of the world for failure in some parts of the world has to be institutionalised in our country too. It encourages the principle of accountability which is good for any organisation, sector of an economy or a country.
It promotes good governance, a necessary ingredient in the growth of the economy of any country.
When this practice becomes a culture, every individual, privileged to hold a position of trust, gives his or her full attention to the job assigned him or her, to ensure that objectives are achieved.
This trickles down to every individual down the chain of command and there are no rooms for errors.
That is how efficient systems are built over time and this is the difference between advanced nations and third world countries.
Where systems are designed such that people take responsibility for things that go wrong under their supervision or ultimate responsibility, there is evidence of development.
There are a few people that I admire in Ghana as far as this culture of resignation based on principled stance. One of them is the late Mrs Emma Mitchell. She was a cabinet member but chose to resign after the confrontation between late President Jerry Rawlings and late Vice President Kow Akaah.
She was not prepared to be part of a cabinet which was lying to the general public that Rawlings did not assault Akaah.
She was of the conviction that telling the truth is more honourable than telling lies and that if she was bound by confidentiality oaths to tell a lie, then she would resign and she did exactly that.
That is how we build a culture of truth and accountability. We have people in positions who have not lived up to expectation but are still holding on to their positions not prepared to let go of it.
This is a clear case of display of selfishness, trying to be a Boss instead of a Servant to serve the people, which leadership is all about.
The ineffectiveness of some leaders, often result in waste of resources which could have been channeled to other sectors of the economy which could have been more productive. A culture of voluntary resignation must be advocated for by all stakeholders, especially the CSOs, traditional leaders and the clergy.
This is the only way the needed growth in every sector of our national life would manifest.
Presidents, Prime Ministers, heads of reputable organisations have voluntarily resigned by taking ultimate responsibility and it is about time, we started seeing it manifest in our country.
The people in charge of our sports especially our soccer, can initiate this long desired culture and resign in view of the embarrassment witnessed from the defeat of the Black Stars by Gambia. God bless.
BY LAUD KISS-MENSAH
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THE QUR’AN FORBIDS RELIGIOUS PROVOCATION
There is a remarkable verse in the Qur’an which every Muslim preacher should memorise.
Allah says:
“And do not insult those they invoke besides Allah, lest they insult Allah in hostility without knowledge.” (Qur’an 6:108).
Think about this carefully.
Allah knows that the unbelievers worship false gods.
Yet Allah tells Muslims: Do not insult their objects of worship.
Why?
Because your speech may provoke an even greater offence.
This establishes a profound principle:
A Muslim must not fight religious provocation with religious provocation.
If someone insults what we hold sacred, we do not respond by insulting what they hold sacred.
If someone attacks Islam, we defend Islam with knowledge.
If someone misrepresents Muhammad (pbuh), we explain who is Muhammad to him.
If someone lies about Islam, we answer with truth and knowledge.
We do not allow another person’s bad behaviour to dictate our own morality.
LOOK AT MUHAMMAD (PBUH) — HE WAS INSULTED BEFORE WE WERE
Servant of Allah,
Sometimes we speak as though the Prophet (pbuh) lived in a world where everyone respected him.
No.
He was mocked and insulted. Quran 37:36, Quran 15:6
He was called a liar, magician, and a mad man. Quran 51:52, Quran 17:47
He was ridiculed. Quran 6:10
His followers were tortured, and some were killed. Quran 85:8-10
He himself was persecuted, leading to his migration to Madina.
Yet he remained the Messenger of Allah.
Allah said:
“Indeed, we know that your heart is distressed by what they say.” (Qur’an 15:97)
Allah acknowledged the Prophet’s pain.
Islam does not say that insults do not hurt. They hurt.
But the question is: What do you do with the pain?
THE DAY OF TA’IF: WHEN THE PROPHET (PBUH) COULD HAVE CHOSEN
REVENGE
One of the most powerful examples is the journey of the Prophet (pbuh) to Ta’if.
He went seeking support for his message.
Instead, the people rejected him and incited their children and others against him.
He was chased.
He was insulted.
He was struck with stones until his feet bled.
He was physically and emotionally exhausted.
Then the Angel of the Mountains came to him.
The two angels offered to crush the people of Ta’if between the mountains.
The Prophet (pbuh) could have said: “Do it.”
But he did not.
Instead, he hoped that Allah would bring from their descendants people who would worship Him.
This account is recorded in the authentic hadith literature, including Sahih Muslim (Muslim, 1795).
What a lesson!
The Prophet (pbuh) had suffered injustice.
But he did not turn his pain into indiscriminate revenge.
He saw beyond the offender.
He saw the possibility of tomorrow.
And this is one of the greatest characteristics of prophetic leadership:
The Prophet (pbuh) did not merely ask, “What punishment does this person deserve?”
He also asked, in effect: “What can this person become?”
THE PROPHET IN MADINAH: LEADER OF A DIVERSE SOCIETY
When Muhammad (pbuh) migrated to Madinah, he did not enter an empty city.
Madinah contained different communities, including Muslims and Jews, and there were also Christians who interacted with the Muslim community.
The Prophet became the political and communal leader of Madinah.
The Sahifah (A Covenant) of Madinah, preserved in the early sīrah (Prophet’s biography) tradition, established arrangements concerning mutual obligations, security, justice and relations among the communities of the city.
This is important:
The Prophet did not build Madinah by teaching Muslims to hate everyone who was not Muslim.
He built a society governed by covenant, responsibility and justice.
Allah says:
“Allah does not forbid you from being kind and just to those who have neither fought you because of your religion nor driven you from your homes. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly.” (Qur’an 60:8)
This is not weakness.
This is Islam.
THE PROPHET DEALT WITH JEWS IN MADINAH
‘A’ishah (Wife of the Prophet) narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) bought food from a Jewish man on credit and gave him his iron armour as collateral.
“The Prophet purchased food from a Jew on credit and mortgaged his iron armour to him.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 2068)
Think about it.
This was Muhammad.
The Messenger of Allah.
Yet he conducted lawful commercial dealings with a Jewish citizen.
He did not say: “He is not a Muslim, therefore I cannot deal with him.”
No.
Islam gave him a relationship governed by justice and trust.
Jabir رضيهللاعنه narrated:
“A funeral procession passed before us and the Prophet (pbuh) stood up, and we stood with him. We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is the funeral of a Jew.’ He said: ‘When you see a funeral procession, stand.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 1311)
Another narration records his response: “Is it not a soul?” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 1312–1313)
What kind of heart did Muhammad (pbuh) possess?
A heart that recognised human dignity even in death.
THE PROPHET AND THE CHRISTIANS OF NAJRAN
The Prophet also received the Christian delegation of Najran.
They disagreed with him theologically.
Yet when they requested a trustworthy person, he did not choose someone because of hatred.
He selected Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah.
The Prophet said:
“I shall send with you a man who is truly trustworthy.”
He then appointed Abu ‘Ubaydah.
This is authentically reported in Sahih al-Bukhari 4380–4381.
Notice something profound:
The Prophet could disagree with people without becoming dishonest toward them.
That is the standard we need today.
The author is the chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governance Expert.
