Contributing Ghana memories to The Afro News since June has been a personally rewarding trip into my past and a stimulus to bring myself up-to-date on the country’s current reality.
Ghanaians deserve to be proud of the progress toward democracy and effective governance which led President Obama to choose their country for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa in July but more is needed. One of the major problems the country now faces is intertribal violence on its northern grasslands. Rooted in tribal relationships dating to the 15th Century or earlier and abetted by British indirect rule policies introduced in 1932, ethnic conflict in the north smouldered for centuries before erupting thirty years ago. The best historical overview, analysis of causes and consequences of recent violence and recommendations for positive change that I have encountered are in “Conflicts in Northern Ghana,” a paper by John Kusimi and others, Ghanaians all.
