Ghanaians Abroad: Do We Deserve To Be Insulted?

“It appears some people have stayed outside Ghana too long and have unfortunately arrogated to themselves the right to determine what sort of government is good for us back home. The real truth is this: if you feel so strongly that the...is not performing, please leave the comforts of the US, come back home and change things. Otherwise, use the off-toilet cleaning time you have to propose wise policies. We don’t care two hoots about…all we want is to have fertilizers and Wellington boots delivered (sic) on time before the farming season and to have buses to convey us when we need to move. I think you are watching too much TV in America but then again, that’s what happens when you escape from farming in Ghana to clean white man’s toilet. Poor you indeed and sorry for your confused blabbering.”

Toilet Cleaners

This statement above was posted on this website on the 8th of November, 2006 by one of the responding commentators to a feature article on the same day. It looks petty for me to turn my attention to this comment but I strongly take issue with this particular response in exclusion of all others that I read about this article and about other past articles. The traded insults in the comments section of this website often enliven the discussions but I take exception to this comment because of the implied insults directed at all Ghanaians who live outside Ghana either by choice or by necessity. This is not the first time that I have come across comments from Ghanaians similar to this one. This commentator (I refer to him here as “respondent”) did what many poorly thinking Ghanaians do. He completely ignored the content and direction of the article. He chose not to respond to the opinions and the concerns of the author of the article. He rather decided not only to insult the author but to make wild assumptions and denigrate all Ghanaians who live outside Ghana. He implied in his response that Ghanaians outside of Ghana have little or no right to participate, even remotely, in the management of their country of birth. He intimated also that proffering opinions about Ghanaian politics and the behaviors of authority figures who have their hands in Ghana’s pot should not be the concern of any Ghanaian who has lived outside Ghana for “too long”

This respondent makes the assertion that Ghanaians overseas should not arrogate to themselves the right to determine the type of government that is appropriate for Ghanaians at home. First of all, on behalf of my colleagues who live outside Ghana, I can freely say that we can easily shrug off this statement as idle and unwarranted. Those of us outside of Ghana constitute an infinitesimally small number, percentage-wise, compared to the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians at home who elect their leaders through the ballot and live with the type of government suitable to them. I bet this respondent knew also that his baseless allegation is impractical and unthinkable. But he still went ahead and attributed it to all Ghanaians abroad. He also had the nerve to admonish the author not to participate in Ghana’s issues from the US and dared him that if he did not like what’s going on in Ghana that he should leave his life of “comforts” in the US and go live in Ghana and change “things.” This respondent conveniently forgets that our elected leaders are the same people who every four years plead with ordinary euphoric citizens (our brothers and sisters) during the election season to vote them in power; in order words, they want the citizens’ approval for jobs which they know they will use the attendant powers after they get into office to lord it over the same citizens who elected them. And yet, we are being admonished that we are not supposed to examine and criticize their untoward behaviors because we do not live in Ghana now.

His harshest and rudest insult to the writer, simply because the respondent did not agree with him, was that he wasn’t only a confused blabber but he cleaned the white man’s toilets for a living. In the same breadth, however, the respondent jumped straight into the usual Ghanaian defeatist and subservient begging-for-alms trance in asking that the writer would be a better Ghanaian if he helped in providing Wellington booths, fertilizers and buses because the Ghana farming season is quickly approaching. The respondent sounds like someone who is highly involved in one of the government offices for agriculture.

What’s Wrong Here?

It saddens me to think that this is clearly how Ghanaians wrongly perceive one another. Speaking on behalf of those of us who live outside Ghana, I am very humbled, privileged, and plain lucky that my family and I made it to a foreign land. I do not, for the life of me, think that we are better than those we left back in Ghana. I don’t believe that any of us here carry a chip on our shoulders just because we live on foreign soil. But we do not deserve to be insulted and to be told that we cannot participate in the affairs of Ghana by the simple virtue that we happen to live outside Ghana. If anyone needs to be analyzed closely and critically it is those contemporaries we left at home who are currently in charge of running the country. I believe that criticism should flow from Ghanaian subjects inside Ghana and from all other Ghanaians outside Ghana to the leaders and officials at home and not the other way around.

Those of us who live outside Ghana perceive those in charge at home as innately corrupt, thieving, inane, narrow-minded, undisciplined, power hungry, brutal, uncontrollable, bribe-taking, egocentric, promiscuous, vacuous, unpatriotic, tribally narrow-minded, clannish, untrustworthy, slave-minded and colonial-subject-minded beggars. If you live at home, does it hurt when you read these descriptions of you? I could go on and on but it is clear right here that it is in our vested interest to respect one another whilst maintaining the right from this end to criticize and take our leaders at home to task constructively. From this end, I still don’t believe you have any right or reason to direct insults from Ghana to us abroad. You do better by rather listening to and learning from us. And you know why.

All that said, I am aware that many of you Ghanaians at home, on the other hand, disdainfully consider Ghanaians who live outside Ghana as a sorry bunch who are slaving and toiling in menial employments in the white man’s land, whilst at the same time welcoming our financial contributions to the economy of Ghana to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the form of remittances and other investments. You welcome those remittances and other contributions but admonish us not get involved in the affairs of our land of birth. I would like those Ghanaians at home to seriously contemplate this: while the flow of remittances are from this end to Ghana because we care, some of our elected and appointed leaders are so disappointing that they turn around and steal from the public coffers, take bribes from desperate Ghanaians, and insanely give the ill-gotten funds to their foreign girlfriends and to foreign banks. We are trying to help but some of you, with your uncaring and destructive behaviors, make things difficult for our parents and siblings at home and for us. The question here is that: do we, foreign Ghanaians, have the right to offer comments, to criticize and suggest solutions when we live so far away and when we have been gone for “too long?” The answer is an emphatic YES! Yes, we have every right to be concerned and participate in how our country is managed or mismanaged. We have parents, siblings, and relatives at home who often become victims of your inequities but rarely the beneficiaries of your indeterminate good deeds.

A clear distinction exists between the character and behaviors of Ghanaians who have a direct hand in the economic and political affairs of the country and those who live elsewhere for varied lengths of time who have no direct hands-on participation in the day-to-day running of the country. Ghanaians abroad may not be privy to the little nuances, intricacies, and the back door deals that go on in the government, but we are at a vantage position to see through all the mud at home because we have removed ourselves from the midst of the problems at home. I strongly believe that you can get a better perspective of a problem when you are not an active participant in it. Once you leave Ghana and you have other experiences to compare with, you become sharply aware of what was wrong with what you took for granted when you participated in it: the filth, the bribery, the corruption, and all the other evils you used to live in.

This is why I become easily incensed when I read from time to time the denigrations and slander and the putdowns of overseas Ghanaians by fellow Ghanaians at home as if their lives are better than those of us abroad. Of course, here in the US, Ghanaians maintain varied income and lifestyle levels just like all Ghanaians at home, but I am yet to encounter any Ghanaian or African in my medium-sized city who, for any length of time, regularly cleans toilets for a living. An overwhelming number of the Africans around here and the major cities in this area are professionals and highly educated people who hold mid-level and high-level white-collar positions. A good many of them are medical doctors, attorneys, college professors and instructors, pharmacists, engineers, accountants, nurses, and civil servants in management positions. Remember that a Ghanaian immigrant to the US is currently the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

At the mid and lower levels, you can also find self-respecting Africans around here who are store clerks, auto mechanics, taxi drivers, and factory workers. There are also the rapidly rising numbers of successful African small business owners in merchandising, auto repair, restaurants, and groceries. Many of the Africans I know even in the janitorial business are contractors grossing an average of $50,000 to $100,000 a year.

Just as much as you will find successful Africans in the US, there are also the struggling Africans here and in other foreign lands. Most of them are recent arrivals. It often takes ten or more years for most of the new arrivals, who are often students, to find their footing. And, yes, they have to sometimes sweep floors, clean offices, and do other backbreaking jobs in order to pay their way through college. Of course, it’s not an easy life, but this is the only outlet for new law-abiding Africans, for that matter Ghanaians, to pay their life’s dues when they are new and fresh to these strange and difficult environments. Our noble first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, even survived in college in America the same way. These same struggling new Africans have excellent potential for success and do not deserve any form of denigration and abasement, especially not from those up-your-nose Ghanaians and Africans at home who probably obtained their overseas education the same harsh way and to whom we attribute most of the current ills in the country and on the continent.

In spite of the occasional bad apples, the moral fiber of Ghanaians abroad is often nobler than those at home. Most have maintained excellent and solid family structures. The children of Ghanaians abroad are often decent well-behaved citizens who are likely high performing better educated individuals. Many of the parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, nephews and nieces at home in Ghana depend on and have greatly benefited from these Ghanaian expatriates. We should not forget the steady flow of remittances from Ghanaians abroad that have helped put Ghana on a relatively steady economic footing. Most of the growth in infrastructure development and in the establishment and expansion of small and medium-sized businesses in Ghana in the last 15 years clearly came from the investments of expatriate Ghanaians. Homes are being constructed everywhere in the country with private Ghanaian remittances.

Our Kindness

In addition, empathy and philanthropy reign supreme with Ghanaians and other Africans overseas. Whenever we can, we readily go to all lengths to assist schools, hospitals, and even the government. One major cultural desire in all Ghanaians or most Africans is to help those left at home. Of course, we have to take care of ourselves and our children first, but we so very much want to help. I know Ghanaian doctors and other professionals who have singly spent their hard-earned incomes and done so much for Ghana, sometimes anonymously; or they have sometimes collaborated with Americans and European doctors, teachers, religious leaders, non-profit organizations, and concerned foreign individuals to support and set up clinics, schools, and send medical and educational supplies to help the needy at home.

I have personally put my little drop in Ghana’s bucket over the years but I would like to talk about the others that I know. I currently live in the same city with Africans who have actually advocated their spare time to do what they could to help their home countries. An excellent example is an older friend and the most respectable gentleman I have ever met who came to the US many years ago from a West African country. [To protect this fine friend and his family, I choose not to identify his country of birth or his name.] After raising very beautiful and very successful children and as soon as he retired as an engineer from a major auto manufacturing company nearly 20 years ago, he has devoted all his time and energy to his country of birth. With the help of his American friends and other caring individuals, he rebuilt his alma mater secondary school. The school is now an imposing two-story structure rebuilt from the ground up with funds from him and his good friends. Additionally, he has organized many American citizens around here to adopt and sponsor each student in the school. All that the Americans do is pay for the students’ school fees and supplies. A high percentage of the students have graduated with high honors and have proceeded to attend universities abroad. In addition to all he has done, he continues to ship donated hospital and school equipment, supplies, medicines, and medical books in 40-foot containers to his birth country at least four times a year. This admirable gentleman has been able to accomplish all of this even after his old school was razed and destroyed during an armed insurrection that victimized many of his own people. In order to further protect his identity, I will not say anymore about the many other specific significant activities that he personally has done in the last 18 or so years for his country.

I have other examples of Ghanaian doctors, professionals, religious and other caring individuals who on their own or have collaborated with Americans to set up permanent and temporary health and dental clinics and schools in some villages and towns at home. If I can relate to the kindness and philanthropy of the Ghanaians and Africans around where I live then imagine what other successful Africans across America and Canada have done and want to do to help our people. I bet there are many more examples of acts of African kindness that I am not aware of but other Ghanaians are privy to that you are welcome share in this forum.

Reciprocity

The big question, or the elephant in the room, is: what have those at home, like the respondent to the feature article, done for Ghanaians overseas? Ghanaian friends and relatives at home are often asked to be caretakers of large sums of remittances and to manage projects and businesses for the hardworking Ghanaians overseas. The elephantine question: what has been your integrity in Ghana under those circumstances? Many of you have been disingenuous, selfish, deceitful, dishonest, downright thieving, callous, and sometimes plain evil. You are notorious for misappropriating your own relatives’ and friends’ assets. We have even encountered many chiefs who extort millions of cedis from unsuspecting returning Ghanaians and sell phantom lands and sit back and watch the sad trusting Ghanaians get into deadly fights over land claims. I know that many Ghanaians overseas have unending true stories to tell about how they have been taken or duped by those at home even when we continue to help and have hope that things will get better someday. After many years of personally losing thousands of dollars to supposedly trusting individuals at home, Ghanaians here and even at home caution me and others here that we should get on the plane and come to Ghana to personally invest in our projects and businesses and not to entrust them to relatives and friends. The trust factor is extremely low at that end of the ocean and not from this end. But we have not given up on you. We have this irreparable defeatist hope that you will someday reform; therefore, we continue to work with you and to help you. Why? Because it is the consanguineous line that we find it very difficult to break. Or, like the Americans say, we are just a sorry bunch of suckers like that!

Officials are no exception. At my son’s graduation this past June, his girlfriend’s mother related a sad story about her experiences in Ghana on her very first visit there. This nice big-hearted caring lady is a high school teacher who worked with her friends to gather school books and supplies in a 40-foot container and shipped it to help schools in the Eastern Region. She did not want or expect anything in return from Ghana. She could not believe her encounters with Ghanaian customs officials who had to be bribed in order get the free donated school supplies to the intended destinations. Her two-week trip of philanthropy and sightseeing in Ghana turned into six weeks of nightmare as a result of the “go-and-come” behavior of the Ghanaian authorities. She spent most of her time chasing after customs officials and clearing agents and could not find the time to do what she came to Ghana for in the first place: sightseeing and getting in touch with her roots. When I spoke with this warm nice caring lady, she did not seem discouraged. She is currently involved in some philanthropic teaching projects in China and a couple of Far Eastern countries and she wants to turn her attention to Ghana again as soon as she returns to the US next spring. She has asked for my help to avoid a repeat of her first experience in Ghana and I don’t know what but I have promised to do what I can.

All I am asking the respondent to the feature article and other Ghanaians like him is for us to respect one another. It’s in our mutual interest to do so. Ghanaians overseas who often offer ideas and comments about conditions at home are not social commentators and we are definitely not low-life dumb people. We really care about Ghana and Africa very much. The ideas and comments by Ghanaians abroad come from really concerned and intelligent individuals. Those of you Ghanaians in charge at home carry the one-sided heavy burden of creating conditions for all Ghanaians, both at home and abroad, so that those of us who left can feel welcome and comfortable whenever we return. That is, either to stay for good or when we visit. There is no need for contempt and up-your-nose disdain on your part towards us. On our part, we should not relent in taking you to task for your actions that affect us and our parents and relatives we left behind. You are definitely accountable not only to Ghanaians at home but also to those of us who live outside Ghana. Behave well and we will have only good things to say about you.