The Onetime Farewell

            Ghanaians and most Africans believes in life after death. After all, we are all humans, we will all die someday and as it has always being, we perform a funeral rite for the dead.

As it is said in Gen.3:19 "By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

So whether rich or poor, young or old,whatever way we live our lives we shall surely be dead someday and so funeral has become a necessary evil for humans.

When a new baby is born, there is invariably joy and celebrations but death of an individual palpably is the exact opposite.

 Funerals, usually a ceremony that seeks to give farewell messages to the soul into the spiritual realm has become a major social event in Ghana.

In most communities in Ghana, funerals are organized differently depending on the status,tribe, age or religion of the deceased. Generally, they are organized on weekends with distinctive attires of black,red or dark brown. White is sometimes worn when the decease is above the age of 85.

In the olden days, in the Akan tradition, if someone's child has not died before, the first child to die is called "fea" and for such child no funeral is held.

Also people who are known to have died from bizarre illness, natural disasters, maternal mortality or is known to have committed suicide do not have any funeral rites performed on their behalf.

It was  believed that the person may have committed an offense which might have prompted the ancestors to punish him in such manner and therefore should there be any funeral, the wrath of the gods will be visited on the people.

However, in modern times most of these practices have been thrown away.

Funeral ceremonies are performed for all manner of people irrespective of the circumstances surrounding their death.

Immediately after demise of someone, rituals are immediately performed. Droplets of water are dropped on the mouth of the deceased. The faith behind this act is that the soul travels into the spiritual realm to his ancestors, hence the water. The chief of the community is informed and of course the head of the family.

Subsequently a family meeting is held and a decision is made on who oversees the funeral rites, who buys the coffin and the date that the ceremony is to be held.

In the case of whose responsibility it is to buy a coffin, it behoves the children to buy it when the father dies, and the father also buys it when the wife dies. Invariably, libation is pured and the dead body is bathed.

After which the body is carefully dressed and is laid in public for friends and relatives to file past it.

Relatives mostly present to the body, items such as rings, cloth, sponge and things the person is believed will need in the course of the journey to the afterlife. It is then taken to the cemetery before dusk for burial.

After the burial, a service is held the next day in his honour.

This is where the bereaved family accepts condolences and thanks the mourners and well wishers for the support.

Invariably, there is drumming, dancing and foods and drinks are also served.In modern Ghanaian societies funerals have become a place where people exhibit their wealth. A place of joy and celebration in contrast to the solemn nature of mourning.
Elaborate funerals are invariably performed in modern Ghanaian societies. Fancy caskets, banquets of all kinds, chairs and canopies being hired together with Djs who will entertain visitors. You should not be surprised when you visit someone and find his/her wardrobe full of funeral cloth because every funeral demands a special cloth bereaved families are supposed to wear.

However, originally food and drinks were provided to mourners who traveled long distances to attend the funeral and obviously didn't come from the community where the ceremony is being held.
Today, all that has being thrown to the  dogs. Banquets are held and mourners are expected to turn up in their numbers. The greater the number of mourners the better hence the colossal amount of money that is invested into the organization of these activities.
Consequent to this, huge debt are always incurred because families tend to organize showy funerals and spend extravagantly even if their financial situation does not  demand it.

Loans are contracted and this tends to worsen things. For once I can't believe that people contract loans just to organize funerals. Its no surprise that during the burial of the former president of Ghana Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, 3.5 million Ghana cedis or 1.8 dollars was spent whiles the poor people of Ghana languished in poverty.
As always when  families do this, nothing better is left of them  as they are chiefly forced into financial constraints.
As one of our legislators pointed out, it is indeed very sad that we are investing in the dead rather than the living.
It is my hope that Ghanaians will see the repercussions of these unwise spending and and manage their finances prudently.

Corruption, the treacherous act engulfing most countries.

All over the world, corruption is known for its enormous implications on government, institutions and individuals.
In the past, corruption is known to have invoked resentment among people thereby triggering the
toppling of many government in coup d'etat especially in Africa where most government are perceived to be corrupt.
Yet, we seem to be ignorant of the history of those government that were toppled in military coups.
Political corruption denotes the use of power by government officials for illegitimate personal gain.
Various forms corruption are known to exist ranging from bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism to patronage and embezzlement.
  
Elucidating few of these, bribery is a payment given personally to an official in exchange of his use of power or authority. it most often than not involves two individuals.
Nepotism means favoring of relatives and favoring close acquaintances(cronyism).
 Embezzlement being filching of entrusted funds.

In the history of Ghana, corruption is known to be one of the main rationale behind the rise of military coups in relation to other significant factors. The National Liberation Council (N.L.C)  that overthrew the Nkrumah's government led by E.K Kotoka on 24th February 1966 had economic hardships, mismanagement and corruption as one of its reasons for toppling the government. Likewise National Redemption Council(N.R.C) led by col. Ignatius K. Acheampong on January 13, 1972 and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (A.F.R.C) led by J.J. Rawlings.
From Wikipedia; since 2006, Ghana's score and ranking on the
Transparency International Corruption Index has improved, ranking higher  than Italy and Brazil. She ranked 64th in 2012 tied with Lesotho.

Currently, it's no news that Ghana is experiencing economic hardships, mismanagement and corruption. Even before that, previous governments both the National Patriotic Party(N.P.P) and National Democratic Congress(N.D.C) is known to have engaged in corrupt activities.
Also cropping out are scandalous corrupt activities that is raging in the incumbent
government.
Some of these revealing activities  are the fraudulent acts that were exposed by the investigative journalist Anas Amereyaw Anas in his documentary "Enemies of the nation|" at the Tema harbor.

Sub sequent to that are the saga erupting from the Ghana Youth Employment
and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (G.Y.E.E.D.A), Sahara Accelerated Development Authority (S.A.D.A), ISOFOTON and Subah Infosolutions relating to corruption at the top hierarchy of the institution.
The recent one which is more disturbing is the Victoria Hammah brouhaha that has being dubbed "vickieleaks of Ghana" in which the deputy minister was heard on a leaked secret tape saying she will not quit politics until she has gotten $1 million.
She was also heard traducing deputy minister of gender, children and social protection, Rachel Appoh, as a "loud, ugly, senseless and egoistic" woman who has been fighting her boss Nana Oye Lithur, wife of the presidents lawyer in the just ended election petition hearing.
Since then she has always being on the headlines of most media in the country.

Having said this, there was news from  the Daily Guide that in 2011, the N.D.C
 paid judgement debt running into several millions of cedis to Alfred Agbesi Woyome to which former attorney general Martin Amidu  popularly known to be a vigilante consistently pursued against the case in court and won in the apex court of Ghana.

In my candid opinion, corruption stems from a number of factors. Among them are the lack of investigative reports from the media.
In this respect, I applaud Anas Amereyaw Anas for his brave efforts in fighting corruption with his investigative skills.

Additionally, serving as a source of corruption is lack of control from the government to which the civil service is so weak, bureaucratic process in the judiciary together with its lack of independence is crippling it in prosecuting those who flaunt the law, and the inability of government to protect whistle blowers.

Furthermore,is the weak accounting practices in our government ministries and institutions enabling individuals to carry out activities that inimical to the economic status of the country.
Others which include lack of information, in respect, citing the delayed legislation on the freedom of information bill in parliament and the negligence of exercising freedom of speech.

The consequence of this act is indeed enormous which continues to be augmented when more of it are engaged.
Prominent among them are undermining the democracy and good governance of a country by subverting formal process. It also reduce accountability and distorts representation in policy making thereby misrepresenting peoples views.

Additionally, it cripples government to finance budget expenditures thus deficit financing. This is so because a lot of revenue is lost through tax evasions by corrupt officials and individuals likewise institutions.
For instance, in Nigeria, more than $400 million was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999~Wikipedia
The case is not different from what we are witnessing here Ghana.

Besides, this insidious act causes inflation and reduced investment leading to reduced goods and services.
This is apparent in the increase in inflation from single digit to double digits.
We also have inferior infrastructure with substandard materials and so is reduced commitment from donor agencies because they believe that funds are diverted through other channels rather than its intended purpose.

For me, if only government would revise the red tape procedure in issuing permit and obtaining other documents to carry out simple tasks, at least the rate of corruption would decrease by some margin.
It is equally my hope that the media carries out its duties effectively and independently to uncover any act of corruption. This would in effect go a long way to reducing corruption in the country to some extent.

Strengthening the judicial system would also aid in the fight of corruption. Prosecuting offenders and speeding up the process in doing so, would probably help curb the menace.
Likewise formulating and implementing stringent policies by government to help fight the act that sometimes even cost the life of people, cost a nation  millions and billions of money and undermines the integrity of the country.

There is an adage that says a piece of broom can easily be broken but a group of them is hard to even bend. So if the fight against corruption will be victorious it will be the efforts of you and I.

The Pride of the Ghanaian Society "Festivals"

Ghana indeed has a colorful, rich and a vibrant culture.
Festivals specifically being essential part of the Ghanaian culture is chiefly celebrated throughout
the year in the country by every community to solicit the ancestors for protection and blessing to usher them into a new traditional year with confidence and hope.
These festivals also reunite the people, brings developmental projects for the various communities as
well as renew allegiance.

     From the north to the south, festivals are celebrated every month with grand durbars to climax it.
Some of these festivals include the odwira of the Akuapems(thus harvest/purification), Dipo of the Krobo(rite of passage), Aboakyir( deer hunting), Bakatue(fish hunting), Hogbetsotso of the Anlos, Damba and Fiok(war festival).
The Dipo of the Krobo for instance celebrated in February apparently is a rite of passage entailing ushering of young girls into womanhood.
The puberty ceremony allows the girls to parade the principal streets cladded in amazing  traditional  attires amidst drumming and dancing.

The Aboakyir festival celebrated by the people of Winneba in the central province is commemorated by sending two clans on a hunting expedition.
The clan to return  the animal(deer) first is regarded as brave and thereof purification.
The odwira festival (harvest) and purification is equally commemorated by the Akuapims to purify the society.It is mostly celebrated in September. The festivity commences by cleaning the community and the royal mausoleum believed to be the paths that would be used by the ancestors to grace the occasion.
It is then followed by the lifting of the ban on eating of new yams, mourning to remember the dead, preparation of the sacred mixture which is presented to the paramount chief and cleansing of the black stool which takes place in the evening of Thursday then on Friday, chiefs are carried in palanquins to parade the principal streets to which a grand durbar is held.

The significance of all these festivals transcends across every aspects of the Ghanaian life from social, political, economical, moral, to religious.
In the religious sense, the chiefs and the people solicit prosperity and protection as well as thank the ancestors for what has being done in the preceding years.
Socially, families reunite, freinds are made and mostly its serves as periods when family issues are settled.
Politically, the citizen get to asses the efficiency of their leaders where as the leaders also initiate developmental projects at durbars.
Sub chiefs also engage in the renewal of allegiance to the superior aiding unity.
Recently the Akuapem state was in a chieftaincy dispute for two decades after a communal violence between the people of Akropong and Abiriw.
Consequently some of the chiefs specifically Aburi chief, Larteh and Adukrom broke away from the Ofori Kumah stool at Akropong to form their own paramountcy, but  the five divisional chiefs of the area on August 27,2013 reunited by signing an accord and declared that they were reunited.

Historically, youths are enlightened about their history thus origin and how various communities hitherto came to settle at their present  settkement.
The Homowo festival distinguihes this feature.
Economically, most festivals have become scences of attractions. Visitors contribute to the development of the towns.
Besides, businesses are established in the process.
All these numerous benefits establishes the reason why our cultural festivals and heritage should be maintained and promoted.

Guilt

There are things that we have done in our lives. Some, nice and some very aweful and weird but that doesn't mean you don't deserve a second chance.
Even Yahweh has given man a second chance to repent.
The fact is we really can't change who we are but sometimes our past catches up with us. Probably because they're not the things we are proud of doing. Sometimes you  want confess but seriously you can't because you fear you'll be cast away like a devil of your time but presently the remorse that you have can't be seen by those around you. Nonetheless you try as much as possible to right your wrongs by letting them go. That's a good thing!! You also have to bear in mind that man can never be perfect no matter how hard you try but there has to be an improvement. Mistakes are made in the process and as time goes on we all learn from our mistakes