Features
Blaming the Wrong Person
WHEN my bosom friend Kofi Kokotako was awarded a walking stick (Grade 9) in his Ordinary Level mathematics exam, he quickly blamed the maths teacher.
“He taught us the wrong things,” he claimed. I disagreed with him because others had Grade 1. Then he blamed his grandmother. “She is a witch,” he declared. After a while, he confessed, “I just didn’t practice.”
In Sikaman, the average human being blames others for his woes. Normally, the family witch is a stone, you can always swear that there is a spiritual reason behind it. Nothing happens by chance in Sikaman! Never!
If you wanted to wake up at 5.00 am to attend to some urgent business but slept too deeply and ended up getting up at 6.15 a.m., the old lady most probably engineered it electronically, by tuning your mind to a certain frequency far and above 99.7.
No wonder that news have been rife about people butchering, twisting the necks or stamping the buttocks of their mothers and grandmothers for electronically engineering their poverty, “I’ve been seeing her in my dreams telling me I won’t prosper”, they often claim. “Whatever business I do yields nothing. I’ve sold my house and all my belongings in order to survive. She deserves what I did to her. Looks like a bizarre way of judging suspects, you only have to dream and then look for a cutlass, sharpen it properly and detach your grandmother’s nose for no offence committed. And after her death, you still do not prosper!
My former classmate, Sir Kofi Owuo alias Death-By-Poverty, who has a lifelong alliance with Mr Joseph Poverty does not blame witches for his perpetual financial hypertension. He sees the world as one of unequals. ALL MEN ARE NOT EQUAL, at least financially.
Kofi Owuo is not that naive about the nature of the universe and wouldn’t stoop so low as to blame others for his hopelessness. He would rather blame himself for signing that unholy alliance after having refused to prosper. He won’t go and twist the ankle of his grandmother or pull his mother’s ears whether they are long or not.
Neither is he like the 48-year old teacher who created mirth in a Ho Circuit court on November 2 and when he decided not to blame himself. He stole 10 pieces of roofing sheets belonging to a Baptist church and when he was carted he decided to blame something else. He blamed the Economy of Ghana.
In a ‘Times’ report expertly penned by ace-reporter Alberto Mario Noretti, the teacher claimed, both my eldest wife and second child died in February this year, and in the following month, my youngest wife gave birth prematurely.” He ended by saying the prevailing economic situation compelled him to steal and pleaded with the court to deal leniently with him “since the offence was beyond my control.”
The judge was unsympathetic and explained to him that the economic hardships were global and not peculiar to Ghana. He fined him 200,000.
Well, blaming others for our predicament is as old as the beginning of time. When Adam was accused by God of eating the forbidden fruit, he quickly blamed Eve. “The woman you created gave me the fruit and I ate of it.” He didn’t state why he didn’t refuse to eat the fruit. He only wanted to escape blame. A smart guy there!
In Sikaman, blaming others unduly isn’t a new phenomenon. Ex-General I.K. Acheampong became disgusted with everybody blaming him when the rains were not falling that he was compelled to ask Ghanaians whether he was God the rain-maker.
Maybe Ghanaians thought the man was the representative of God on the Sikaman territory and therefore, knew all about the rainfall distribution and why the rains were not falling.
In 1983 when drought and bushfires destroyed our agriculture, many blamed it all on Flight Lt. Rawlings. If Rawlings had not been on the throne, there would have been no drought and no famine, they claimed. When then 1984/85 harvest was good and there was plenty to eat and belch noisily, everyone kept quiet and munched like mad, and never said, “Thank you Rawlings.”
FOOTBALL
Come to football! Any team that is beaten is not actually beaten. It has only been robbed. So the referee must take blame for the loss and if possible given a hefty slap so that next time round he won’t misbehave with the whistle. These days, however, some referees get themselves armed to the teeth before wielding the whistle. Some also engage in macho exercises and can deliver a terrible counter-punch when it comes to it.
In African politics, shifting blame is as old as democracy on the continent. No election has ever been free and fair. Tanzania today is embroiled in an electoral war with blames being apportioned left and right. Cote d’Ivoire has had its fair share and in Sikaman the so-called gurus of Ghana politics are yet to truly ascertain their claim to a stolen verdict. Whether another stolen verdict will be authored in 1996 is only a matter of time.
Well, blaming others for our failures and inconveniences has become part of the social culture. There is nothing wrong when we blame others for our woes so long as it is justifiable and provable. But to go about blaming the President for anything that is not even remotely connected to him is just unfortunate.
CONNECTION
When drivers of floating in Tema were recently being caught and harassed by the municipal authorities, thus causing inconveniences to passengers, some people blamed the government. When one man categorically stated that Rawlings must have ordered the exercise I was overawed. Luckily, another person around asked him whether what he was saying wasn’t stupid. If local authorities engage in an exercise, what earthly connection does it have to the man on top?
It is not strange, though. The President has been blamed for many things he is not culpable for. I won’t be surprised to hear people blaming their failed marriages, inadequate breakfast and natural floods on the President. He may even be responsible when some people constipate or develop kooko.
If for a change we could individually look more into ourselves than at others, we would be finding solutions to our problems. The very instance you keep blaming others, it means you’ve lost sight of your problem in the first place. And you’ll keep looking in the wrong direction for solutions that will never come today or tomorrow.
This article was first published on Saturday, November 11, 1995
By Merari Alomele
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MY bosom friend Kofi Kokotako once told me that a person’s haircut portrays his character. I disagreed with him and said a person’s character portrays his haircut. All in all, we agreed between us that a presidential aspirant whose haircut is excessively punk cannot win even a unit committee election, much more a castle-bound one.
One thing I hated as a kid was getting my hair barbered because I never had the style I wanted. Usually, it was my father who was the tormentor-in-chief, and he chose the kind of design that would suit the shape and nature of my head and that of my elder brother Christian, whose name is more civilised than mine.
When we were through, we looked quite different from the other kids. I didn’t know where my Pop learnt that kind of style but I realised it was very colonial in form and outlook and I became sad when the girls giggled at my design.
Actually, it was something resembling a half-bow with a line cut through at about 38 degrees to the perpendicular. After the ordeal we looked half like the resident catechist and half like a fierce Regimental Sergeant-Major.
When I told my daddy that I had had enough of the ancient cut and wanted an Afro or at least a Tokyo Joe, he quickly explained that Tokyo Joe was for ruffians and that his style was tailor-made for aspiring doctors, lawyers, engineers and great states-men. He didn’t mention journalists though.
So I went and told the giggling girls that my hairdo was a magical one that was going to transform me into a doctor whether they liked it or not. I added that their brothers who had modern haircuts invariably were going to be labourers and tangas (town council). They laughed at me even the more.
They referred me to the conservancy labourer not far away who always wore my kind of cut and asked me why he wasn’t wearing a white gown with a stethoscope hanging from his neck, if that kind of haircut was indeed miracle-performing!
My Dad was quite scrupulous and dished us the haircut in its hardest form just before Palm Sunday. It helped boost our religious conviction and the Holy Spirit almost descended and settled on our wonderful heads.
At Sunday school one Palm Sunday, the lady teacher asked me to stand so that she could admire my hairdo. I was quite flattered and happy that I was the centre of attraction on a great occasion like Palm Sunday. So I quickly stood up and turned round like a model for all to see and envy my design.
It was when the teacher asked me whether my daddy was a policeman that I lost heart. At the mention of policeman, everybody started laughing and I concluded that the teacher wasn’t admiring my head after all. All she wanted to do was to predict my daddy’s occupation using my head as a determinant. I wasn’t pleased with the attempt.
Today whenever it is getting to Palm Sunday 1 remember the incident. And actually I have always enjoyed Palm Sunday because deep within me, I’m a very religious person and I believe that once God will judge us by the purity of our hearts and not the bottles of beer we quaff, I shall also be in heaven together with Korkorti.
Now if you observe properly, you’d realise it is those who are not believers who celebrate Easter to the fullest. They understand the real meaning of Palm Sunday because they equate it to the birthday of palm wine. They actually mourn the death of Christ and rejoice at his resurrection using palm in the form of wine.
Palm Sunday is best marked in the rural areas where palm wine is always available from dawn to dusk and vice versa. Normally, people start Palm Sunday at exactly 4.15 am when the freshly-tapped wine starts arriving. But you have to begin slowly otherwise you’d be in coma before the sun rises.
Easter is due again and this time as usual, the action is right in the countryside. Kwahu is going to shake, Tapa Abotoase will somersault and Peki would explode. All over the world, these three Sikaman towns are ranked as places where Easter is best celebrated with a hangover assured.
People from Britain, Germany and Holland come down either to Obo Kwahu or Avetile Peki to celebrate Easter. They never miss it. It is a yearly ritual. They save towards the occasion.
So during the celebrations, people from all over the country also converge on these places and the celebrants compare haircuts and note carefully those who have grown lean and those who are neither growing lean or growing fat.
In fact, people assess their fellow human beings to ascertain whether they are becoming prosperous or are chewing grass. News is also brought from all over the globe and those from Germany (Jaaamani) are the loudest. The way they talk, you would never know they are cleaning the whiteman’s toilet to make some dough. You’ll think they are Managing Directors of a multinational corporation in Dusseldof. Such is life.
It is during church service on Easter Sunday that the been-tos and the locals alike display whatever they have under their sleeves. The gentlemen are often resplendent in suits and black shining pairs of shoes, and the way they walk can be a clue as to where they are sojourning. With seamen for instance, it can be quite psychedelic. It is a real sight to behold especially if they hail from Kromanti, Moree or Abandze.
With the ladies, the spectacle is breathtaking. It is unbelievable! You can’t comprehend it using the human senses. You have to employ spiritual means. The kaba styles are of different kinds, styles, colour and combination of colours. Some of the styles are complemented with wings and when the lady wearing it is hurrying to “chapel” you’ll think she is actually airborne. She is practically a human vulture.
Then comes the picnic sessions which are normally well-attended by gate crashers, mental patients and political strategists who are also well-versed with what is going on between Kwame Pianim and kukrudu. So they brief their listeners and prophesy the outcome of court cases and election results. In exchange, they are well-fed, well-boozed and all.
But things do not happen only during the day time. At night, the devil usually takes over. Friendships are entered into, old girlfriends are re-baptised and there is love and romance.
By Easter Monday, marriages are broken, new marriages contracted, girlfriends are jilted and pregnancies are on the way awaiting abortion. Every year it happens, and this year it is going to happen again. The death and resurrection of the Lord will really be marked in both righteous and evil ways.
Perhaps, this is not how Judas intended it to be celebrated. Judas was the architect of the Holy Friday coup d’état against the Son of Man.
This article was first published on Saturday March 30, 1996
The Ghanaian community in Finland on Saturday, March 14, 2026, celebrated Ghana’s 69th independence anniversary in an impressive event in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland.
The event was organised by the Ghana Union Finland (GUF), an association of Ghanaian migrants in Finland. It was an occasion well attended by many people from the Ghanaian community in Finland, Finns and other nationalities.
The occasion was graced by the Special Guest, Her Excellency Abigail Naa Adzoko Kwashi, the Ambassador of Ghana to Norway with concurrent accreditation to Finland and Iceland. In her speech, the Ambassador encouraged Ghanaians living in Finland to pursue unity, actively participate in, and support the Ghana Union Finland to build a stronger body better positioned to advocate for its interests and goals.
Also present at the event was the Honorary Consul of Ghana in Finland, Mrs Kati Kivisaari, who has replaced the retired Ms Ulla Alanko. Mrs Kivisaari urged Ghanaians in Finland to remain good ambassadors of Ghana in their lives in Finland.
The event saw the inauguration of new executive members of the Ghana Union Finland. The team was inducted by Elder Samuel Anini, Patron of the Ghana Union Finland.
Earlier, a “royal entry” was performed by leaders of the Asanteman Finland and Mfantseman Kuw and other personalities in their colourful kente attire adorned with ornaments, amidst traditional music and adowa dance to usher in the Ambassador.
Unity and harmony
I see such events, especially the ones marking independence anniversaries, as ample display of unity and harmony in the Ghanaian migrant community as well as in the larger Ghana and Finland relations.
Some personalities present at the event were Nana Ekuoba Gyasi Gyimah and other leaders of Asanteman Finland, Mfantseman Kuw Finland, as well as representatives of other Ghanaian ethnic groups.
It was a very colourful occasion with dance and other performances such as poetry recitals. The audience was also treated to tasty Ghanaian dishes such as jollof rice, fried yam, and soft drinks.
For me personally, whenever I think about Ghana’s Independence Day anniversary every 6th of March, my mind also goes to Finland’s own day on 6th of December. The two dates always give me such a special, positive feeling. As soon as one of the dates ends, I begin a countdown to the other (next) date.
Last year on December 6, 2025, when Finland celebrated its 108th independence anniversary and I participated in two events marking the celebration in Helsinki, I started looking forward to Ghana’s 69th anniversary this year. Now that Ghana’s anniversary is over, I am looking forward to Finland’s 109th anniversary on December 6, 2026. That’s the beauty of it all for me.
Ensuring integration
What I see in all this, especially for Ghanaian migrants in Finland, is the chance for members of the Ghanaian diaspora in Finland to integrate into the Finnish society through such celebrations that are marked by social activities, affiliations and ideas of inclusion.
Inclusion is key to integration, and the two ideas undoubtedly build a sense of belonging. As I previously wrote, Finland sees the role of migrant associations as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice, which is highly appreciated in Finland.
As I keep pointing out, Finland encourages migrants’ participation in the planning of issues concerning the migrants themselves, using such a strategy as one of the efficient ways to improve their inclusion.
Thus, there is an enabling environment created within the Finnish cultural ecology that undoubtedly helps migrants to integrate into the host Finnish society. Thank you!
By Perpetual Crentsil
