I am Ghana, daughter of mother earth
Freedom and justice, love and hope, peace and stability
All slogans bandied about in my majestic wake
In a time not long ago, my children made me fearsome
A willful force of nature, that feeling was awesome
Everything at that point was at stake
My noble children won freedom for me
Willing to give all or nothing at all
Freedom at last could not be for one
I committed to ensuring my siblings savor its tastes too
In a quest for survival, my slogans became attributes
and mere tales transformed to legends
I stood as a lighthouse illuminating shorelines
Giving glimmers of hope to weary sailors
Summoning them towards a land of peaceful rest
Challenges nourished me like food to the body
I flourished exponentially with the passage of time
With leaps and bounds as a grasshopper,
progress made was tremendous and results admirable
Fast becoming the mecca of all attention from the West,
I gained yet another attribute: the Gateway to Africa!
I unapologetically surpassed expectations
Where death was expected, I thrived
I had recovered from my ailments of yesteryears,
more than capable to take on the world
My ambitions were fully fledged
I thought myself unstoppable
But I was in for a shocker!
My children were lost in their ambitions
Like a snake chasing after its own tail
They had lost focus of the ultimate prize:
of true independence and national sovereignty,
of economic freedom and judicial integrity
Gradually surrendering to their base nature,
my doors were left wide open
Slumber took them as with Adam
Sleep had relieved them of their guard
While not vigilantly watching,
enemy wolves in friendly sheep’s regalia
clasping stakes in one hand and bait in the other
penetrated my barriers, discharging copious dirty seeds
into the bowels of my virgin fields
Corruption like a cankerworm ate up my children
So unhindered were its effects
Leaving them hollow with festering sores
The pains of their predicament swelled
Yet making no attempt at a cure
Decomposition set in as with a rotting corpse,
disintegrating a seemingly united family
Corruption decimated me
Like in cases of the wasting disease,
once whole, I became uncoordinated
My growth stunted and progress abrogated
An auspicious nation budding with hope;
reduced to a runner on a treadmill!
Today, I cry
My heart broken again and the pieces scattered
I weep for children I boasted of and showcased
They have soured the whites of breasts that fed them
Forsaken the ways of wisdom taught them
Allowing stupidity and mediocrity
Exchanging invaluable gold for useless papers
Butterflies thinking themselves birds
They have given up on the lessons of process,
embracing instead the deceitful art of cutting corners
Driven by insatiable lusts for power and riches
Speaking of knowledge yet ignorant
Leaving home and never returning
Children once my pride, now break my heart
When they say mother Ghana, it’s just a mere platitude!
My eyes are filled with tears
Despite the blur, I see light
The light of a generation carrying revival in their bosom
My heart is lit with joy
as when a mother first sees the spark
in the eyes of her new born child
I have endured miscarried visions and aborted dreams
That tunnel was long and very dark
Often feeling dry and parched
like a dessert waiting for the kiss of rain
But at the end of every tunnel is light
As the rising of the eastern sun chases away the night
and awakens a new dawn, there’s light: shining!
Light that makes cowards brave, driving away fears
and the darkness which held my children captive
I see giants ready to stand upright
Marching militantly against all odds
Darning the pains of sacrifice
and paying the costs for propagating truth
I see a generation that will uphold laws
That would think of the next before itself
Fostering peace and promoting progress
Leaving behind the mindset and attitudes
that have unduly prolonged my dark ages
Paving ways through impossibilities
like a mighty river on a course of destiny!
I hear the clarion call for gatherings
Congregations of lions and eagles
Assemblies of great minds with foresight
establishing visions that transcend boundaries
of vast plains and of mountains
of seas and of forests, of oceans and skies
Spreading like a magnanimous conflagration
Leaving in its wake a united entity of diverse peoples
banded together like the proverbial broom
and with a true spirit of nationalism
integrate like a harmonious orchestra
singing to the tune of “God bless our homeland Ghana!”
Acknowledgement:
Evans Okpoti Sowah (PhD)