Features
Ghanaian migrants and wellbeing in Finland
Improving the lives of Ghanaian migrants in Finland
Today, I write something about how Ghanaian migrants living in Finland generally pursue their wellbeing.
They do so in so many ways. And today, I bring you some of these various ways in which the Ghanaian migrants make the effort to pursue and enhance their wellbeing.
Social relations or sociality is very important and should never be taken for granted. Being able to meet each other and have physical contact or face-to-face interaction is something Ghanaian migrants cherish and such opportunities are usually presented through events organised by their associations (or organisations) and even by individuals.
Ghanaian migrant associations, social lives and wellbeing
There are many Ghanaian migrant associations. These associations are formed and dedicated to how to im¬prove the social lives and wellbeing of the Ghanaian migrants in Finland.
For example, the Ghana Union Finland (GUF) is an umbrella association for Ghanaian migrants in Finland with the main aim to bring together all Ghanaian migrants resi¬dent in Finland.
It also promotes cultural activities in Finland for better intercultural and multicultural understanding among its members and help to integrate them into the Finnish society, while upholding the good image of Ghana abroad.
Belonging to such associations and participating in their social events create social relations and sociality, which greatly reduces stress and improves health.
Diaspora expertise and entrepre¬neurship
As I wrote some time ago, many Ghanaian migrants in Finland have acquired huge expertise, knowledge and resources (academically, economically, technically or technologically, etc.). They would like to get back home to establish something productive.
While many of them are gainfully employed either as paid workers in Finnish public and private sectors, others have become entrepreneurs or self-employed and have set up their own businesses either in the health ser-vices or cleaning sector, shop keeping or salon/ barbering business.
Some are engaged in the freighting business to transport goods in containers to Africa, while others own small companies and other businesses particularly in the services sector in Finland. Others are likely to have plans of establishing similar businesses back home in Ghana.
I even hear that others have plans to establish consultancy services; it could even be that some of them are already engaged in that venture.
Other potential areas
An interesting question came up on a social media platform about the Ghanaian diaspora some time ago.
The question was, how many members of the Ghanaian diaspora have established “kente,”“batakari” or other production of Ghanaian or African goods. That question was asked because the person seemed to think that Ghanaian Diasporas only delight in importation and exportation of foreign goods to achieve their self-actualisation.
While one may think this question is a cruel criticism, a deep analysis should reveal that it is rather relevant and to be appreciated as a way to draw attention to potential areas of economic opportunities for members of the Ghanaian diaspora to take advantage of.
In all, the efforts to boost the wellbeing of the Ghanaian migrants also go a long way to enhance the integration of people into the Finnish society.
Thank you!
By Perpetual Crentsil
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
