A Stranger In My Own Country

I have been to Ghana recently and would like to share my experiences with you, after living in Britain for nearly 20 years I decided that I have had enough and so I went to Ghana for a 4week break, now if you are an African and have not been in your country this long you know what I am talking about here, it is not just a matter of throwing a couple of clothing into a bag and heading off, this require careful planning and at least six months preparation which consist of  shopping for presents for all the immediate and extended family, you know the ones I mean your mother's brother's wife's uncle, they all have to be included because as soon as you touch down, the earth sends messages to everybody who is related to anybody who is related to you and "woe betide you" (this is a phrase my Aunt frequently used when I was a child, I don't to this day understand what it actually means but I am quoting it nonetheless) if you forget that lady who used to sew your Grandma's kaba like a hundred years ago, then you will have to improvise and somehow come up with a present and pretend it was especially bought with her in mind. I think it means that something bad will happen to you if you don't, the" woe betide you".

If you have been burning the candle at both ends, you have not been eating properly or taking good care of yourself then this is the time to start doing so, as people in Ghana have their own idea of how somebody who lives in "aburokyere" twi for (overseas) should look like in terms of skin texture nails and hair, if you don't fit into that category then it will be like na wei na yese ote  aburokyire yi?  (so this person lives overseas?) also your clothes should reflect the same.

Anyway so after all that organization, preparation and a couple of thousands of pounds out of pocket I boarded my plane with great anticipation, as you know Ghana is fast becoming an international ( whatever that word means) country with people from all over the world either immigrating to or visiting, I met some very interesting people on the plane, one in particular, a young lady from Egypt who surprised me by speaking twi, she told me her family live in Ghana and she spends all her holidays in Ghana as she was at university in Egypt, I had done some research on Ghana as would someone from another country prior to visiting,  I have become  so accustomed to the British way of life to the point  where I had to read a lot of British Expat blogs about how they cope with life in Ghana to help me to know what to expect, I know, sad but true, so speaking to someone in person was even better, she knew more about my country than I did, talk about being a stranger in your own country, so I was very excited if all these people are happy to be going to my country then it must be good right? wrong!

I do not aim to trash my own country but one must be realistic, come on, this country has been going on for years and I was sad to see that it is still the same if not worse, when other countries are moving forward (contrary to what some political party's motto infer,) we are in fact moving backwards, when I was a kid we used to have running water in Kumasi  in the 1970s I don't remember having to  go to fetch water and we had the occasional light offs, but now? and to make matters even worse we now have Armed Robbers, what in the name of God is going on in this country? why have we allowed foreigners in our country to terrorize our people and introduce such atrocities to our young men?
When I say foreigners I mean a small number of Nigerians and people from other African countries,  they are the ones giving the others a bad name because I know for a fact the the vast majority of foreigners live by our laws and are peaceful.

I remember there was a time when our young men travelled to other African countries to try and better themselves as these countries were better off than ours, I have heard stories of how hard these young men worked and the treatment that was meted out to them, they never enjoyed any freedom  that is now being enjoyed by these foreigners in our country some were killed in the most horrific ways, but instead we let these people abuse our hospitality and terrorize our people? we used to be able to sleep with our doors open or outside, I know the whole world has changed and we have to lock our doors now, but surely behind locked doors we should feel secure? people who have worked hard to better themselves now have no peace in their own homes because of fear of being killed or raped by armed robbers, this has only recently been imported from Nigeria and we must stop them before they get completely out of hand.

I am proud to be a Ghanaian, we are recognized globally for our hospitality, hard work, kindness and generosity why should we tolerate people who come to our country to abuse our generosity and ruin our reputation? because theirs  is ruined the world over? WE MUST LAY DOWN THE LAW! live according to our laws or LEAVE!!

 I am by no means trying to instigate violence or unrest (I am a strong believer in equality and tolerance but I hate it when people take advantage) but meekly giving our country  and our freedom away to Armed Robbers  is just like going back over about a hundred years  ago with the absence of Yaa Asentewaa.                                         

                                                             

Enough of my rambling about Armed Robbers, lets move on.