Features
Mfantseman Kuw in Finland’s New Year party
LAST Saturday, January 10, 2026, the Mfantseman Kuw Finland Association organised a New Year party in Helsinki.
Organised under the theme “Unity and Progress,” the colourful event was aimed at ushering in the association’s activities for the year 2026.
It was well attended and graced by representatives of Ghanaian migrant groups such as the Ghana Union Finland, Asanteman Finland, Brong Ahafo, and the Ghanaian Muslim community, as well as Finnish friends and other nationalities.
A history of Mfantseman Kuw Finland
The Mfantseman Kuw was registered in Finland on February 25, 2013. It was started when a group of Ghanaian migrants in Finland thought of bringing together people in Finland who are from the Fante ethnic group in southern Ghana. Later, members of other ethnic groups and Finnish people were welcomed to join the association.
The Mfantseman Kuw was formed mainly to assist its members to be informed and well integrated into Finnish society, and to seek the general well-being and advancement of its members as good citizens and residents in Finland.
It also aims to assist members in times of need and in celebrations of personal achievements. Such areas include death and funeral support, youth and gender advocacy, support in social activities, education, and counselling on civic participation, to ensure that the association is beneficial to its members in as many diverse ways as possible.
Unity in diversity and exciting displays
Last Saturday’s event featured impressive and diverse cultural displays from the Akan culture in Ghana, of which the Fantis form a major part. The event was spiced with rich cultural dance performances and colourful attires, which were a delight to watch.
The association often collaborates with others at events where its members adorn colourful kente and other Ghanaian fabrics. In line with its mission to showcase Ghanaian or Akan/Fante culture in Finland as a way to promote unity in diversity, the association also treated the audience last Saturday to typical Fante highlife and other types of Ghanaian music.
Invited to the stage by the Master of Ceremonies, Mr Frank Aidoo, who is also the Abusuapanyin of Mfantseman Kuw, various individual guests and representatives of associations delivered inspirational messages.
A particular side attraction was a competition in which children danced to highlife music, coordinated by Mr Kofi Essuman, the Okyeame of Mfantseman Kuw, and Madam Miriam Boateng, one of the organisers of the association.
Collaborations
Social networks of family, friends, and migrant associations have become important points for interaction, securing information, and education about various issues.
The way forward for 2026
In the year 2026, the Mfantseman Kuw Finland aims to work even more on collaborations, networking, and other activities to promote unity, peace, and the wellbeing of its members and others even outside the association.
Mfantseman Kuw strives to be a network that creates important social capital, as well as an outlet for sharing information and knowledge. Public agencies, migrant associations, and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Finland have been publishing information to help educate people about issues concerning health. For example, one important way Mfantseman Kuw supports its members is by helping to organise burial or funeral rites of a deceased member. This is also a good way to display Ghanaian culture, as many people mostly wear Ghanaian-style funeral clothes and designs made with fabrics from Ghana.
Mfantseman Kuw has been collaborating with other organisations such as Asanteman, Brong Ahafo, the Ghanaian Muslim group, and the Ghana Union Finland—the major Ghanaian migrant group in Finland—to promote the wellbeing of Ghanaian migrants in Finland. The association hopes to increase such activities in 2026.
Generally, migrant associations formally create awareness among their members and other migrants, usually in collaboration with some Finnish institutions, and are thus an important tool for several migrants to be positively active in society. Mfantseman Kuw hopes to support such efforts by contributing its quota as best as it can.
As stated previously, the role of migrant associations acting as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants—through participation in the decision-making process and by acting as a representative voice—is highly appreciated in Finland.
By Perpetual Crentsil
perpetualcrentsil@yahoo.com
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This week I have a very strong desire to put on my Apostolic Cap and talk about the power available to children of God which we can utilise to generate positive outcomes, in our lives.
There is a phrase in the Bible that if Christians meditate on, can immensely transform their lives. In Matthew 28:6 there is a phrase “… as he said…” according to the King James Version.
Thus phrase forms part of a statement declared by an angel of God to two women who were disciples of Jesus who had gone to his tomb early in the morning on the third day after his death.
According to the Biblical account, the stone covering the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away and an Angel was sitting on it and he made the statement to the effect that the Jesus they are seeking is not there and that he had risen, as he said before his death.
His resurrection affirmed the authenticity and dependability of the word of Jesus and therefore the word of God.
Christianity has to do with faith in the word of God. Pastor Mensa Otabil said if we view Christianity as an inside out view, you would go inside to operate the power that is in you.
As a Christian, the spirit of God and therefore the power of God, dwells in you. Anyone who is aware of this truth, does not go around seeking to have a so called powerful person resolve his or her spiritual issues.
Most Christians who move from prophet to prophet, do not believe that the spirit of God which operates in a Pastor or Prophet, is the same spirit that dwells in him or her.
In fact , that Christian may be more ‘powerful’ than the Prophet or Pastor he is going to for prayers because he is living a holy life, which is pleasing to God, for God is no respecter of persons according to Acts 10:34-35.
God does not give out his spirit in different measures to indwell believers. The spirit of God that dwells in a new convert, is the same spirit that dwells in a Bishop or a Prophet or an Evangelist or an Elder or a Deacon.
All you need to do as a child of God is to believe in the word of God and know that it works and that according to 1 John 4:4 we, Christians, that the Spirit of God dwells in us have overcome the world and Jesus in us, is greater than the Devil who is out in the world, wrecking havoc all around.
If we realise that we have overcome the Devil and everything he controls, then we can believe and act in faith and make declarations and just as Christ declared that he will die and on the third day, he will rise from the dead and it manifested as he said, there shall be a manifestation of our declarations also.
The problem of modern day Christians is that, a lot of them, do not study and meditate on the word of God, so they do not witness the manifestation of the power of God, in their lives.
Such an experience over time, give them the impression that the spirit of God dwells in different dimensions in believers. This then leads them to seek solutions to their challenges from so called powerful men of God.
Some Pastors also fall into this misconception of the measure of the spirit of God in believers. When the size of a Pastor’s church for instance, is not increasing the way he had been praying for self-doubt sometimes begin to set in.
Especially, if he begins to compare his church with that of say a colleague from the same Bible School, then he begins to wonder if there is not a spiritual secret he is not aware of.
This is when, if care is not taken, fellow Pastors who appears to be very successful in the ministry but are using occultic powers, could sway them from the narrow path and get them trapped in the Devil’s clutches and eventually and inevitably, destroy their lives. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Introduction
You have been there. Twenty tabs open comparing laptops. A blank page for an email you’ve been “thinking about” for three days. A menu with 30 options and you leave hungry.
This is decision paralysis: the state where the volume of information, options, or perceived stakes prevents you from making a decision at all. It’s not laziness. It’s a cognitive overload response.
In a data-rich environment, it’s becoming the default mode for both individuals and organisations.
This article breaks down why it happens, how it shows up, what it costs, and how to break it.
1. What decision paralysis actually is?
Decision paralysis is a failure of the decision-making system to convert information into action. Psychologists call it ‘analysis paralysis’ or ‘choice overload.’
It has three components:
1. Cognitive overload: Working memory can hold between four to seven chunks of information at once. When you try to track 20 variables, the system freezes.
2. Anticipatory regret: You overestimate the pain of making the wrong choice. The brain avoids the emotional cost by avoiding the choice.
3. Ambiguity aversion: Humans prefer known risks over unknown ones. When outcomes are uncertain, we stall.
The result is not neutral. Not deciding is a decision. It costs time, momentum, and opportunity
2. Why it’s getting worse now
2.1 Infinite options
Amazon has 350 million products. Netflix has 6000+ titles. Dating apps have unlimited profiles. The paradox of choice: more options increase initial satisfaction but decrease final satisfaction and increase regret.
2.2 Information abundance without synthesis
You can find 50 studies on sleep. Each one has caveats, conflicting results, and different methodologies. Without a framework to integrate them, more data creates more confusion, not clarity. This connects directly to the “data-rich, wisdom-poor” problem.
2.3 Reversibility anxiety
In the digital age, most decisions feel permanent. A bad post goes viral. A bad hire is public on LinkedIn. A bad career move is visible. The fear of irreversible error makes people delay.
2.4 Algorithmic mirroring
Platforms show you what you already engage with. This creates an illusion that there’s one ‘best’ option you are missing. You keep searching, convinced the optimal choice is one more scroll away.
3. How it shows up
Personal Level
Cannot pick a career path after six months of ‘research’
Spend two hours choosing a movie and watch nothing
Delay sending an email because it ‘isn’t perfect’
3.1 Organisational level
Teams spend 80 per cent of time in meetings gathering data, 20 per cent deciding
Product teams delay launch waiting for “one more data point”
KPIs multiply but no strategic choice is made
3.2 Common cognitive tells:
Endless comparison tables
Asking for one more opinion
Reframing the problem instead of solving it
Feeling drained after thinking but not acting
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
