THIS LAND IS NATURAL GOLD COAST, NOT “GHANA”

I was highly delighted when I read in your editorial comment on Thursday, October 28, 2010, that the reason why this Land was called the Gold Coast is still alive for everyone to see, with Gold still covering every part of the country. God bless you for that observation and comment.

In fact, this land is living to its past and present bidding and that there can be no argument to challenge what we see physically on this Coast of Gold. Gold Coast is a natural name of this land, as is overwhelmingly accepted. Yes, every land thrives on its natural Name. As ordained by God, no land succeeds without its natural name.

For the past 53 years, the question that has been on the lips of people has been whether we did well in throwing away the Natural Name Gold Coast for that clumsy outlandish Sahel Arabic epithet which has no bearing whatsoever on this land. And there have been various signs that call on us to revert to the Natural name to save this nation. Why are we still adamant?

One might be tempted to ask: what did we see before we changed the Gold Coast to “Ghana” and what has been the effect of throwing away the natural name for a strange name “Ghana” which was cast away as far back as 1076 in the Sahelian region of Africa? Advocating for the change of the name “Ghana” has never waned and there have been several signs to support the reason and the initiative.

Were the politicians playing with the land which contains all sorts of physically powerful living spirits like rivers, mountains, rocks, minerals, lakes, lagoons, hills and other God’s creations on our physical map? Was Ghana adopted as a real name or just a nick-name? Eh, politicians!

It will be recalled that during the Limann regime, Gold sprang everywhere in the country, and a Gold Endowment Seminar was held in Accra. In his speech President Limann said “it was not for nothing that this country was named the Gold Coast.” That phrase “not for nothing” was repeated over and over at various exhibitions on “Gold” which were followed in several trade fairs in Europe and America. The great name GOLD COAST made for huge tourist attraction in this country.

Limann’s vision to revert to the Gold Coast was a good premonition, but however overwhelming it was, it did not see the light of day, until his overthrow. It will be recalled that when a Moroccan team called WAC came to Kumasi to play Kotoko in an African club championship, in the late 80s, their captain was called El Ghana and when he was confronted to tell us where he got that name, he in turn asked journalists where we stole the name from.

It was a shame to us when he asked what “Ghana” meant to us, and from which dialect we got the name. It was a clear significance that we should revert to our natural “Gold Coast” there and then, but who was there to bell the cat?

Then again, it will be recalled that in one of the American space travels, the rotating earth they saw from space showed a special light which was thrown from this planet and in their puzzle to unravel the mystery, they opened their camera aperture wider to confirm it was from the light thrown by the Gold from no other place, but from this Land.
This was the eighth wonder of the world and it was seen in this Coast of Gold. Wonderful eh? Yes, they brought the video clip here in the late eighties to be shown to Rawlings at the Castle, knowing that the wonderful natural sign would impress him to think of reverting to the glorious natural name Gold Coast, but, it ended there. What a pity!

Ghana is an outlandish Arabic epithet stolen from the old Sahara Kingdom and since all Lands thrive on their natural names, one wonders why with all the wisdom endowed on our Religious leaders, politicians and intellectuals it has never dawned on any of them to realize that Ghana is a misplaced identity that works negatively against our PRAYERS and that it has had a harmful effect on the country for the past 53 years.

Events happening in this country show that there are serious spiritual predicaments that can only be overcome with the change of name and the adoption of our strong spiritual, natural name “The Gold Coast” which was hastily thrown away on the eve of independence for the adoption of Ghana without checking on its veracity and future ramifications. Oh what a hell of mistake!

Visible signs of backsliding are being shown all over and the various ruling elites have unfortunately not had the spiritual gift to see how bad the name is. Ghana is odd as far as this Land is concerned; it is not feared, it is not loved, it lacks that grit of belonging. One wonders why Dr. Danquah who suggested its adoption later declared at a rally at Paladium in Accra in 1956 that it was a treacherous name and that he had gone to discuss it with Nkrumah, yet Nkrumah went ahead to proclaim it and declared himself the “founder” of Ghana.

The issue here is that we are looking on sheepishly as all our heavy investments under the dreadful name “Ghana” collapse in front of us - Ghana Airways, Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC), Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC), Ghana Black Star Line (GBSL), Ghana State Fishing Corporation (GSFC), Ghana Food Production Corporation, Ghana Food Distribution Corporation, Ghana State Construction Corporation, Ghana State Hotels Corporation, Ghana State Transport Corporation, Ghana Railways Corporation and many more. Do we take such failures and disasters for granted? It is not too late. Let’s be serious.

Under such a situation, is it any wonder that the nation is breeding hungry unemployed young men and women, some of whom have adopted the wicked acts like thugery, armed robbery, prostitution, forgery and other anti-social canker which are challenges to various governments without finding answers? Oh, Mother Gold Coast, come and see outlandish Ghana!

I remember when Ghana was adopted, (I was then working at the Ministry of Education) and it looked as if everything went weird, despite all the sweet legacy left by the British and those were the days of the refrain: “Ghana woyoo”, “ibi Ghana we dey”, or Ghana na yewo no”, literally meaning “we are now in Ghana”, as if Ghana did not belong to anybody. That was the beginning of all the “I don’t care,” corruption and other social vices.

If “Ghana” was a living body like our Gold Coast, I don’t believe we would turn our backs to it and care less whether it would collapse or not. All lands have close connection with their names, as they happen to be accepted and loved as existing living entities in the countries of origin. Check out on African, European, Asian and American countries and find out how we fall short of ideas.

Shall I say that we have to pacify and glorify our land and its Creator with the adoption of a Natural Name and all other things shall be added unto it. And from that moment the difficulty in governance would be easily mitigated! And we will be surprised to see how our Oil will flow in abundance at Saltpond, Cape Three Point and Keta.

Please let us throw Ghana back to the Sahel where it belongs and let us have our Gold Coast and see its effect on our life. Period! “Ghana” is an age-old mistake we are correcting, and it will cost us next to nothing, probably only the ink. Am I talking to somebody? Is lucky Prof Mills alive to this? Let me repeat again: BLESSED IS HE WHO WILL CHANGE THE NAME!