Features
A focus on the Ghana football team in Helsinki
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
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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