The Anti-Akan Rawlings -Part II

Rawlings Represents Hitler to Most Akan(s) - Part 2
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

What is significant and interesting to observe about Peter Mawunyo Dzidza's rather hollow and shallow prolix titled "Professor Mike Ocquaye Worsens The NPP's Plight" (Modernghana.com 4/16/14), is that the author does not in any way attempt to contradict the erudite Prof. Ocquaye's assertion that former President Jerry John Rawlings has immensely contributed towards the seemingly pathological Ewe hatred for Akans.

What the critic actually does is to heartily celebrate Mr. Rawlings's anti-Akan revolution by generously supplying historical reasons as to why, in fact, it would be downright absurd and even suicidal for any Ewe to behave civilly and in a concilliatory manner towards THE MORTAL AKAN ENEMY. The critic, of course, is entitled to his personal opinion as to whether, indeed, the key operatives of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) are a hoodlum bunch of narrow-minded ethnic chauvinists poised to effectively running the Ghanaian ship of state aground, given the chance.

I find absolutely no need to debate Mr. Dzidza on this subject; for his argument is absolutely without merit. Besides, the governance records of both the Ewe-dominated National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Akan Ghanaian majority-dominated New Patriotic Party (NPP) are there for all who care to study them and draw their own conclusions. It is, however, inexcusably presumptuous for the critic to assert that in spite of all the widely documented and publicized records of anti-Akan atrocities perpetrated by the Rawlings-led juntas of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), Prof. Ocquaye, perhaps the most erudite Ghanaian scholar on our postcolonial political culture alive, has absolutely no relevant clue regarding the role and stature of Mr. Rawlings in our collective national memory and conscience.

To Mr. Dzidza, Rawlings ranks even higher than President Kwame Nkrumah in the measurable scheme of the two leaders' contribution to the socioeconomic and material development of the country. For the Ewes, according to the critic, the 19 protracted and extortionate years that marked Mr. Rawlings' single-minded dictatorial domination of Ghana's political landscape, also coincided with what may be aptly termed as THE GOLDEN AGE OF POSTCOLONIAL GHANA.

It is rather unfortunate that Mr. Dzidza does not explain what was, for instance, all-too-exemplarily romantic and "Akanophiliac" about Mr. Rawlings and the Tsikatas, and their other associates of Murder Incorporated, popping cartons of champagne after Cpl. Amedeka reported to them about the summary Mafia-style execution of the three Akan-descended Accra High Court Judges, namely, Justices Koranteng-Addow, Agyepong and Sarkodie and, of course, retired Army Major Sam Acquah, as related to Ghana's Reconcilliation Commission by Sgt. Matthew Adabuga.

Maybe it was the ancestors of these well-respected, distinguished and diligent Akan-descended Ghanaians who captured and executed Awadada Aboadzi, I, during the 1750 Nonobe War between the Anlos and Adas which Mr. Dzidza claims had been instigated by the Asantes. The problem with this form of retributive justice is that Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was Guan-descended, from Akuapem-Apiredi, as I have been reliably informed, while Major Sam Acquah, also of bona fide Guan descent, was born in Winneba.

As for the fact of Mr. Rawlings' marriage to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings attesting to the purported non-hatred of the Keta-Sogakope half-Scottish native for Ghanaians of Akan descent, we offer the equally striking example of infamous German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his longtime mistress, Hannah Arendt, a Jewsish woman philosopher, professor and thinker. Why did this widely known and documented romantic relationship between the German Nazi Chancellor and his remarkably cerebral Jewish mistress and confidante not prevent Chancellor Hitler from exterminating a conservatively estimated 6 million Jews?

If this truth told by Prof. Ocquaye stands to worsen the electoral chances of the New Patriotic Party come Election 2016, why, such defeat may well be worth the price of such unvarnished truth - a priceless cranial enlightenment and immeasurable moral edification. Significantly, though, Mr. Dzidza chose not to apportion reasons for Mr. Rawlings' deliberate and systematic fanning of the flames of Northern Ghanaians' hatred for their Akan compatriots. Maybe it is simply that he hasn't any. Or it could well be that Mr. Dzidza just brought the Northerners along for the proverbial ride.

We need to also remember that Mr. Rawlings never fielded any Northern Ghanaian running-mates during his two electoral terms, and fiercely resisted the selection of the now-President John Dramani Mahama as then-Candidate John Evans Atta-Mills' running-mate. And interestingly, Mr. Rawlings continues to harangue and harass President Mahama. I am also glad that I have a choice of whether or not to live in close proximity with rabidly anti-Akan Anlo-Ewes like Mr. Peter Mawunyo Dzidza.

On the question of who killed the Ewe military leaders in the 1967 counter-coup, Mr. Dzidza may do himself great good to read Prof. L. H. Ofosu-Appiah's modest biography on Gen. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, one of my personal heroes. He could also have been fair-minded enough to recognize the fact that there were also Akan-descended soldiers who died during the course of that putsch. Or are we here, once again, being given to understand that only Ewes are real human beings?

Then also, it ought to be borne in mind that the Akan leader of the 1967 counter coup detat, Lt. Arthur, was stationed at the Ho Motar Regiment. Could it, therefore, be that Arthur had been infected with the coup-prone Ewe bug? Personally, with the singular exception of the Kotoka-led 1966 coup detat, I generally do not make moral judgments on such pure acts of brutal usurpation of democratic and constitutional governance, and on even one military putsch against another.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
April 16, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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