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Martin Luther King Jr. Biography

2018-08-18T16:17:00.001-07:00

Martin Luther King Jr. Biography

Minister, Civil Rights Activist (1929–1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist, who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968.

Martin Luther King Jr. Facts

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King, a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s.

Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Through his activism and inspirational speeches he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the United States, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honours. He was assassinated in April 1968, and continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational African-American leaders in history.

Early Years

Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The King and Williams families were rooted in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had one child that survived, Alberta. Michael King Sr. came from a sharecropper family in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D. Williams' home in Atlanta.

Michael King Sr. stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He too became a successful minister, and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honour of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. In due time, Michael Jr. would follow his father's lead and adopt the name himself.

Young Martin had an older sister, Willie Christine, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while his wife's gentleness easily balanced out the father's more strict hand. Though they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. Martin Luther King Sr. fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. entered public school at age 5. In May, 1936 he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him. In May, 1941, Martin was 12 years old when is grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for Martin, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents' wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young Martin jumped from a second story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated though his first two years. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, young Martin questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father's dismay. But in his junior year, Martin took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision.

Education and Spiritual Growth

In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951, and elected student body president. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study. But Martin also rebelled against his father’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the affair.

During his last year in seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change. After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, including Yale and Edinburgh in Scotland, King enrolled at Boston University.

During the work on his doctorate, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott, an aspiring singer and musician, at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott and Bernice. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and earned his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. Claudette Colvin was arrested and taken to jail. At first, the local chapter of the NAACP felt they had an excellent test case to challenge Montgomery's segregated bus policy. But then it was revealed that she was pregnant and civil rights leaders feared this would scandalize the deeply religious black community and make Colvin (and, thus the group's efforts) less credible in the eyes of sympathetic whites.

On December 1, 1955, they got another chance to make their case. That evening, 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the "coloured" section in the middle of the bus. As the bus travelled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, and then several more white passengers boarded the bus. The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated. The driver asked her again to give up her seat and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

On the night that Rosa Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with Martin Luther King Jr. and other local civil rights leaders to plan a citywide bus boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing. But he was also new to the community and had few enemies, so it was felt he would have strong credibility with the black community.

In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s skilful rhetoric put a new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The bus boycott involved 382 days of walking to work, harassment, violence and intimidation for the Montgomery's African-American community. Both King's and E.D. Nixon's homes were attacked. But the African-American community also took legal action against the city ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African-American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. King's participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The organization felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register black voters in the South. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, and inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, Martin Luther King visited Gandhi's birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a deeply profound way, increasing his commitment to America's civil rights struggle. African-American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, became one of King's associates and counselled him to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence. Rustin served as King's mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. But Rustin was also a controversial figure at the time, being a homosexual with alleged ties to the Communist Party, USA. Though his counsel was invaluable to King, many of his other supporters urged him to distance himself from Rustin.

In February 1960, a group of African-American students began what became known as the "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students would sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores. When asked to leave or sit in the coloured section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse. The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April 1960, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with local sit-in leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed and for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August of 1960, the sit-ins had been successful in ending segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities.

By 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining national notoriety. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, but also continued his civil rights efforts. On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city's reputation, Atlanta's mayor negotiated a truce and charges were eventually dropped. But soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign, when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King. Kennedy expressed his concern for King's harsh treatment for the traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

'I Have a Dream'

In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families attended. City police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. Martin Luther King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration. From the jail in Birmingham, King eloquently spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation's capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers.

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." — Martin Luther King, Jr. / "I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963

The rising tide of civil rights agitation produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation's Jim Crow laws and the near century second class treatment of African-American citizens. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities. This also led to Martin Luther King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King's struggle continued throughout the 1960s. Often, it seemed as though the pattern of progress was two steps forward and one step back. On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capital in Montgomery, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. King was not in the march, however the attack was televised showing horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were hospitalized in a day that would be called "Bloody Sunday." A second march was cancelled due to a restraining order to prevent the march from taking place. A third march was planned and this time King made sure he was part of it. Not wanting to alienate southern judges by violating the restraining order, a different approach was taken. On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back. Alabama governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march; however, President Lyndon Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors. On March 21, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000, gathered in front of the state capitol where Dr King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

From late 1965 through 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young black power leaders. King's patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late and ineffective. To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War. He felt that America's involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government's conduct in the war discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multi-race coalition to address economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people.

Assassination and Legacy

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on Martin Luther King Jr. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African-American leaders. Plans were in the works for another march on Washington to revive his movement and bring attention to a widening range of issues. In the spring of 1968, a labour strike by Memphis sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters at the Mason Temple in Memphis, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." The next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was struck by a sniper's bullet. The shooter, a malcontent drifter and former convict named James Earl Ray, was eventually apprehended after a two-month, international manhunt. The killing sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known African-American leader of his era. His life and work have been honoured with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C. But his life remains controversial as well. In the 1970s, FBI files, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that he was under government surveillance, and suggested his involvement in adulterous relationships and communist influences. Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech August 28 1963

2018-08-16T07:12:00.001-07:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our chlidren are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Bob Marley Africa Unite

2018-08-16T07:08:00.003-07:00

Africa, Unite

'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon
And we're going to our father's land

How good and how pleasant it would be
Before GOD and man, yeah
To see the unification of all Africans, yeah
As it's been said already let it be done, yeah
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher Man

Africa, unite 'cause the children wanna come home
Africa, unite 'cause we're moving right out of Babylon
And we're grooving to our father's land

How good and how pleasant it would be
Before GOD and man
To see the unification of all Rastaman, yeah

As it's been said already let it be done
I tell you who we are under the sun
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher Man

So, Africa, unite, Africa, unite
Unite for the benefit of your people
Unite for it's later than you think

Unite for the benefit of your children
Unite for it's later than you think
Africa awaits its creators, Africa awaiting its creators
Africa, you're my forefather cornerstone
Unite for the Africans abroad, unite for the Africans a yard
Africa, Unite

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF HIGHLIFE MUSIC IN GHANA

2018-08-16T06:55:00.003-07:00

Introduction

Music is an important element of human culture, and every culture that exists in human history has a form of music. Culture is generally defined as a way of life of a group of people. Culture thus includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, moral, music, laws, custom and religion of a group of people living in a confined space
. Music is inseparable from Ghanaian culture. In Africa, music permeates in all aspect of life hence an African is born, named, initiated, fortified, nurtured, and buried with music. In Ghana, Highlife and Hiplife music are the two most contemporary music genres. Highlife music was developed in the late 19^th and early 20^th century and it later influenced a new genre which is known as Hiplife in the 20^th century.

Evolution of Highlife Music in Ghana

The term “evolution” is defined as “the process by which a structural reorganization is effected through time, eventually producing a form or structure which is qualitatively different from the ancestral form.Ghanaian Highlife music has gradually evolved from a simpler form into a more complex one. Highlife as a Ghanaian music genre is believed to have been created in the late 19^th and early 20^th century from a fusion of three major musical elements namely: indigenous African music, European music and New World music from the Americas.

Highlife music developed from a fusion of military and regimental brass band music of the West African Frontier Forces and colonial administration; Jazz, Swing and other forms of popular music from America; Calypso, Samba Cha Cha Cha, Foxtrot, Meringue from the Caribbean and the West Indies; guitar music of Liberian Kru sailors, music of returning ex-slaves as well as music of ethnic groups in the Ghana and West African sub-region. Highlife music first grew as a sub-regional music in the then “British West Africa” before its articulation in specific West African nations, especially Ghana and Nigeria.

The Ghanaian elements in the Highlife music is made up of mostly Adowa from the Asante,Agbadza dance from the Ewe, Fanti Osibisaaba, Dagomba guitar songs and the Ga Timo & Kpanlogo which grew up from Ga dance-band and local drumming in the 1960s.The guitar two-finger plucking technique of Highlife was also borrowed from the Kru people of Liberia. These Kru people were sailors who sailed across the coast of West Africa: they used to travel the whole of the West African coast right down to the Congo both in their own canoes and as hired crew members on European and American trading vessels. They transported instruments such as the guitar and the concertina which met with the Ghanaian rhythms. Both guitar and concertina spread into the rural areas of Ghana in the form of palm wine music. Often palm wine music was a trio consisting of guitar, percussion and vocals that performed at venues where palm wine or its distilled form known as Akpeteshi were sold and also offered for the musician's motivation. Kpanlogo was influenced by Oge, which is a Kru traditional music introduced into Ghana by Kru sailors and later became popular in the 1950s. The originator of this Kpanlogo is called Otoo Lincoln who is a Ga and according to him, the name Kpanlogo was an imaginary name of a girl. Kpanlogo was formally promulgated in the 1965 at the stadium in Black Star Square when Otoo and other Kpanlogo bands were invited to perform to some prominent people including Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

One of the foreign elements which influenced the Highlife music is the piano music and hymns which were taught by the Christian missionaries and school teachers throughout Ghana’s colonial history, and it became popular with the educated African Christian elites in Ghana in the middle and late nineteenth century. However, the piano music and hymns influence on Ghana’s Highlife music is not much as compared to the local elements.

Another foreign element is the military band established by the colonial government of the British West Africa. In the 1870s to 1900s, the fife-and-drum and brass-band of West Indian Regiments began to make a notable musical impact on Anglophone West Africa, including Ghana, and acted as a catalyst in the formation of popular performance styles in Ghana. By the 1840s there were local indigenous band stationed at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana to play both martial and popular English tunes. In the early 1870s, West Indian Rifle Regiments which was made up of about six to seven thousand West Indians mainly from Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados were brought to the castle to help fight in the Asante wars of 1873/1874 and 1900. And they would often play their syncopated Afro-Caribbean music such as Calypso which influenced young Fante brass band musicians and by the 1880s they combined the West Indian clave rhythms and their own West-African styles with the brass band music to form a music called Adaha.

In conclusion, the genesis of Highlife started from time immemorial when Ghanaians began to sing and dance on beats produced using various traditional musical instruments. By 20th century, ethnic music which includes Dagomba guitar songs, Kpanlogo, Adowa, Agbadza, Osibisaaba, Oge, Timo etc. had already been developed by the various ethnic groups in Ghana. Ethnic music especially that of southern Ghana had West African influence from the Kru sailor who sailed across the coast of West Africa, including Ghana, in the 17^th century and introduced their instruments and music to the local people.Their music became popular in Ghana in the 1800s.

From the 1800s and as a result of European presence and colonialism, there was the introduction of foreign music to southern Ghana and sea-ports thus the regimental brass-band music of European and West Indian soldiers who were brought to help fight the Asantes in the 1873/1874 and 1900 wars, classical and ballroom music of western style dance orchestras, and the harmonies of Christian mission hymns introduced in the middle and late 19^th century.

All these external and internal elements helped Highlife music to evolve into a kind of music Ghana has today. It is true that Highlife music certainly had non-African influences from outside the African continent but the music retained its traditional elements hence could be said to be indigenous and traditional to Ghanaians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Davos, Jan. “The Evolution of Hip hop Culture.” Eindwerk Academiejaar (2006-2007)

. www.aawmconference.com/aawm2010/images/1aawmemielupaper.pdf accessed on march 2, 2017

Emielu, Austin. “Origin, Development and Sustenance of Highlife Music in Nigeria.” An unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, 2009.

Joseph Oduro-Frimpong. “Glocalization Trends: The Case of Hiplife Music in Contemporary Ghana.” International Journal of Communication, 3 (2009)

24 / 7 at Church : Stupidity or Blessing?

2015-10-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

The proliferation of churches in a country is not the solution to a nations problem.Likewise going to church to scream each and everyday in the week is not a guarantee for the individual well being or healing of the nation.

I find it difficult to understand why people refuse to work for something they need but pray ,fast ,go for retreats, all night and many more just for their problems to be solved without tackling the issue at Hand.

I believe in prayers,I have seen the end product of prayers and i have been blessed from prayers.But in certain situations,work about the problem while you pray.You should not be screaming and shouting to Your God without doing your best.For instance A student praying to pass his or her exam without learning ,it doesn't work that way. Neither can you say u want a job while your bed becomes your comforter without searching for a job,it doesn't

work that way too.

Go to church,Pray to God but do your own part to redeem the situation. Spending 24 hours a day in the week at church without confronting your issues i will term it stupidity because prayers don't work that way.

Christian readers can read the book of Nehemiah chapter 4 .I love the verse 17 and 18 it reads "Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked"

There was a plot against Nehemiah. Sanballat, Tobiah , Geshem planned to attack Nehemiah and the builders of the wall of Jerusalem.If it had happen here in this country some religious fanatics would have gone to Independence square to pray while the wall was brought down.But Nehemiah after prayers devised a plan to prevent the attack (Read verse 9 it says "but we prayed to our God and KEPT MEN ON GUARD AGAINST THEM DAY AND NIGHT) They did not pray to God and leave the problem to God. I rest my case.Pray but Work for God despises a Lazy Man...

#Selah.....

TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE IN GOLD COAST: A GENERAL OVERVIEW

2015-06-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

‘Slavery’ does not lend itself to a single and easy definition. There are many definitions for the phenomenon and this is because scholars define it to suit their cultural and social background. Moreover, the kind of slavery that existed in Africa was different from that of Europe.
Indigenous slavery existed in various forms before the arrival of the Europeans in Gold Coast. Indigenous slave was known as Odonko or Adihyifunafu or Akoa in Akan language. R. S. Rattray (1929) found out that in Asante, the term akoa did not mean ‘slave’ in the degrading European sense, but to anyone in a subordinate position such as the subject of a ruler. Again, Adihyifunafu was voluntary a slave who sought protection from powerful family whenever he or she was in crisis or hardship.

Indigenous slaves enjoyed certain rights and privileges before the introduction of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Gold Coast. Slaves could inherit their master, they could marry from their masters’ family, in some cases, they were treated as members of the household and could be set free from bondage. In some cultures, slaves whose master demised were to be sacrificed in order for him or her to serve that master in the underworld. Slaves were thus treated humanely and with dignity before the introduction of the TAST.

Trans-Atlantic slave Trade (TAST) and Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (TSST) existed in Gold Coast. TAST was the shipment of enslaved Africans from their homeland (Africa) across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The discovery of the new world (Americas), the introduction of Sugarcane and Tobacco plantation in the Americas increased the demand for slaves in West Africa and for that matter Gold Coast. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade lasted for almost four hundred years. Slaves were obtained through pawning and panyarring (unlawful seizure of a person to persuade a debtor to pay his creditor). Others were war captives, criminals and debtors. Slave raiders also raided smaller villages for slaves.

Slaves were acquired from the inland of Gold Coast and were then put in chains, and maltreated till they got to the coast. At the coast, these slaves were then sold to the European merchants for guns, mirrors, cloths, foreign alcoholic drinks, gold dust etc. The Europeans then housed these slaves in their castles and forts which were originally built as a warehouse for their goods and to serve as shelter for their merchants. The conditions of the slaves in the castles were very bad. Some were raped by the European slave masters, others were severely punished and some were even murdered and thrown into the sea. The surviving strong and healthy slaves were then transported in ships across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas where they were re-sold to their new owners and were to be used as plantation and domestic labour respectively. Here, the maltreatment of slaves didn’t stop but rather intensified.

The negative effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on Ghana are immense. The slave trade crippled local indigenous industries and agriculture because people became afraid to go to their farms and because other famers and craftsmen joined the slave business as a result of its lucrativeness. It also took away the cream of the society: strong and able bodied men were taken away as slaves whiles the weaker ones were left behind. These strong people could have helped build a better Ghana we are seeking for today and the last negative effect of TAST was that, it changed the character of the indigenous slavery: all privileges that slaves initially enjoyed were abolished and local slave masters began to maltreat their slaves as some kind of property.

In conclusion, TAST only had negative effects on Ghana and Ghanaians. The current Senior High School History syllabus highlights certain positive aspects of TAST which are in fact fallacies. Ghana did not benefit positively from TAST. Anyone who thinks Ghana benefited positively from TAST should name one lasting positive impact of TAST on Ghana up to the present times. Only the Europeans benefited positively from TAST and not Africans or Ghanaians.

BIBLOGRAPHY

Boahen, A. A. “Asante and Fante A.D. 1000-1800”. In A Thousand Years of West African History. Edited by J. F. Ade Ajayi and Ian Espie, 165-185 (Surrey: Ibadan University Press and Nelson, 1965).

Der, B.G. The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana. (Accra: Woeli Publishing Services, 1998)

Falola, T. “Power Relations and Social Interaction among Ibadan Slaves, 1850-1900”, African Economic History, Vol.16 (1987): 95-114.

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION: EXAMINING DEROGATORY NAMES USED FOR DESCRIBING THE RELIGION OF AFRICANS

2014-07-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

POSUBAN SHRINE AT ANOMABO.(GHANA)

African Traditional Religion (ATR) refers to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. ATR affects the way of life of most Africans.
African Traditional Religion, African Indigenous Religion and African Traditional Religions are all common terms used to discuss the faiths found within of Africa. Each term is debated among scholars and some challenge the word “Traditional and prefer ‘Indigenous” since traditional means the religion is outmoded.

J. Omosade Awolalu, in his work “Sin and its Removal in African Traditional Religion” writes;

When we speak of African Traditional Religion we mean the indigenous religion of the Africans. It is the religion that has been handed down from generation to generation by the forbears of the present generation of Africans. It is not a fossil religion (a thing of the past) but a religion that Africans today have made theirs by living it and practicing it. This is a religion that has no written literature, yet it is “written” everywhere for those who care to see and read. It is largely written in the peoples’ myths and folktales, in their songs and dances, in their liturgies and Shrines and in their proverbs and pithy sayings. It is a religion whose historical founder is neither known nor worshipped; it is a religion that has no zeal for membership drive, yet it offers persistent fascination for Africans, young and old (1976: 275).

African religion is traditional for the following reasons:

(I). It is a religion that evolved from the personal experiences of the peoples of Africa.

(II). It is a religion that links the people who now live it and practice it with their forebears.

(III). It is regarded as traditional because it originated from the peoples‟ environment and on their soil (Awolalu and Dopamu, 1979: 28).

(IV). African Traditional Religion is traditional because Africans were not converted into it like Christianity or Islam and others. It was not imported into Africa neither was it preached to Africans rather “each person in Africa was born into it, lives it, practices, and is proud to make it his own” (Awolalu and Dopamu, 1979: 28). The word Traditional is therefore meant to distinguish it from other religions that came into Africa through missionary zeal and propagation.

Bolaji Idowu (Olodumare, 1962: 137-202) has enunciated five component elements of African Traditional Religion. These five elements he called the structures of African Traditional Religion, while Awolalu and Dopamu see them as the features of West African Traditional Religion (1979: 32-35). In this work we shall look at these five elements as the philosophical foundation of African Traditional Religion. These five features are belief in God, belief in divinities, belief in spirits, belief in the ancestors and belief in the practice of magic and medicine.

These five features are the philosophical pillars on which the study of African Traditional Religion rest. Apart from the study of the nature of the religions of Africa, these five elements form the central tenets of African religion and philosophy.

Misleading terms used by the Western media and scholars to belittle ATR

While we commend the effort of the foreign investigators and media for committing to writing their Investigations about African Traditional Religion, we need to point out that a great number of them used are misleading and derogatory term in describing the African beliefs. Among such terms are; primitive, savage, fetishism, juju, heathenism, paganism, animism, idolatry, and polytheism. We need to examine some of these words and bring out their connotations.

(I) Primitive: The New Webster Encylopedic Dictionary defines primitive as “pertaining to the beginning or origin; original; first; old fashioned; characterized by the simplicity of old times”. It should be obvious from the dictionary meaning that this word cannot be appropriate in describing the religion of Africa or those who practise that religion. In what sense can we describe the people as old fashioned or describe their religion as simple? The idea behind the use of such an expression is engendered by racial pride. The Western scholars and media often use this term to distinguish between their society (which is regarded as civilized) and the African society which they consider as uncivilized and old-fashioned-just because African society does not have or adopt the same norm as that of theirs. Anthropologists and Sociologists like to justify their use of the word on the ground that the culture is adjudged to be that which is original in the history of the human race. African Traditional Religion has been evolving; there is in it the element of continuity as well as discontinuity. Since it is a religion practised by living persons today, changes are to be expected. Thus, strictly speaking, religion in its pristine form is no longer in existence. Every aspect of it cannot be described as original. Whatever happens, the use of the word primitive by Western scholars is derogatory and, therefore, obnoxious.

(II) Savage: The dictionary meaning is: “pertaining to the forest or wilderness; wild; uncultured; untamed violent; brutal; uncivilized; untaught; rude; barbarous; inhuman”. In one word, savagery is the opposite of civilization. Our remarks are the same as we indicated under primitive. We should also add that there is an element of savagery in every one of us and it should not be made the exclusive trait of a particular people. One should not forget that Africa is the cradle of civilization. Civilization started from this part of the world. Dr and Mrs. Leakey discovered a wealth of early human fossils in the Odulvai Gorge in northern Tanzania in 1959 and this established that Africa is the provenance of life on earth, in other words, Africa is the source of Humanity and Civilization.

(III) Fetishism: Linguists claim that the word is of Portuguese origin. The early Portuguese who came to Africa saw that the Africans used to wear charms and amulets and so they gave the name feitico to such things forgetting that they themselves wore Rosary, crucifix and such like. This is the same word as the French fetiche. The dictionary meaning of fetish is any object, animate or inanimate, natural or artificial, regarded by some “uncivilized” races with a feeling of awe, as having mysterious power residing in it or as being the representative or habitation of a deity”; hence fetishism is the worship of, or emotional attachment to, inanimate objects. But Rattray corrected this wrong notion of the early investigators when he said: Fetishes may form part of an emblem of god, but fetish and god are in themselves distinct, and are so regarded by the Ashanti; the main power, or the most important spirit in a god comes directly or indirectly from ‘Nyame’, the Supreme God, whereas the power or spirit in a fetish comes from plants or trees, and sometimes directly or indirectly from fairies, forest monsters, witches, or from some sort of unholy contact with death; a god is the god of the many, the Family, the Clan, or the Nation. A fetish is generally personal to its owner. We see, then, that it would be quite wrong and racial to describe the religion of Africa as fetishism. There may be an element of this in the day-to-day life of the Africans, but it is incorrect to describe it all as fetishism. Many writers used the word indiscriminately. Prayers said during worship by Africans have been described as fetish prayers instead of Traditional prayer; the functionaries of a cult have been described as fetish priests instead of Traditional priests; herbs prepared by African priests have been labelled fetish herbs, and not medical preparations, though these herbs are effective and taking an oath has been described as undergoing fetish. This is ludicrous. Parrinder has remarked that the word fetish is a most ambiguous word, and the time has come for all serious writers and speakers to abandon it completely and finally.

(IV). Juju: The word juju is French in origin and it means a little ‘doll or toy’. Its application to African deities has been perpetuated by English writers. For example, P. A. Talbot in his Life in Southern Nigeria devoted three chapters to Juju among the Ibibio people and discussed the various divinities among them. How can divinities, however minor, be described as toys? Africans are not as low in intelligence as to be incapable of distinguishing between an emblem or symbol of worship and a doll or toy. Juju is, therefore, one of the misleading and derogatory terms used by investigators out of either sheer prejudice or ignorance.

(v) Paganism and Heathenism: We choose to treat Paganism and Heathenism together because the meanings applied to them are similar, if not identical. The word pagan is from the Latin word paganus meaning peasant, village or country district; it also means one who worships false god; a heathen. The question is which God is the false God? When the meaning is stretched further, it means someone who is neither a Christian, a Jew nor a Muslim. Heath, on the other hand, is a vast track of land; and a heathen is one who inhabits a heath or possesses the characteristics of a heath dweller. A heathen, according to the New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary, is a pagan; one who worships idols or does not acknowledge the true God; a rude, barbarous and irreligious person. these words are not correct in describing the indigenous religion of Africa because the people are religious and they do believe in the Supreme Being which is the true God. If the only religious people are the adherents of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, then the other entire world religions become either heathen or pagan, and so, uncivilized! Are all Europeans and Americans religious? Presumably these terms are used in an attempt to distinguish between enlightenment and barbarity. What has this to do with religion? We think such terms are more sociological and racial than religious.

(VI). Animism: Western media like BBC often use this term in their media. A news article entitled “Sudan foes sign wealth deal” goes on to state that “...it sets out how they will share the revenues, mostly from oil, after 20-year civil war between Muslim north and Christian and animist south..”(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3374637.stm ).N/B: Animist was even spelt with small “a” in the news article. The great advocate of the theory of animism was E. B. Tylor in his work Primitive Culture. Many writers still describe the African Traditional Religion as animistic. This means attributing a living soul to inanimate objects and natural phenomena. From our own study of the African Traditional Religion, we find there are unmistakably elements of animism. For example, the Odum tree is not an ordinary tree; it is believed to be inhabited by a spirit; the Volta lake (in Ghana) is believed to be more than an ordinary river because the spirit dwells in it and this makes the river efficacious in many respects, especially during barrenness. Lightning and thunder are manifestations of the thunder god. But when we have said this, we also need to add that it would be wrong to categorize the whole religion as “animism”. Every religion has some belief in the existence of the spirit i.e. Holy spirit in Christianity, kami in Shinto and even Christianity sees “God as Spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and truth”( John 4:24). In other words, animism is a part definition of every “religion” and not ATR alone. But to say that the African Traditional Religion is animistic would be incorrect and racial.

(vii) Idolatry: Idol means false god; and so idolatry is the worshipping of false gods or that which is not real. The word idol is used to describe the object which is an emblem of that which is worshipped by the Africans. The object may be a piece of wood or of iron or a stone. These objects are symbolic. Each of them has a meaning beyond itself, and therefore is not an end in itself. It is only a means to an end. If, for example, a piece of wood representing Obatala (a Yoruba deity) is eaten by termites, the worshippers of Obatala will not feel that their god has been destroyed by the termites, because the piece of wood is only a symbol, serving as a visible or concrete embodiment of that which is symbolised. Symbolic representation is not peculiar to African Traditional Religion. It is found in most religions like Christianity, Buddhism, and Shintoism etc. It is used principally to aid man’s perception and concentration and to remind the worshipper of the divine presence. If this is the object of the symbol, it must be wrong to describe it as an idol. But experience shows that material representation often becomes a danger in religion when the worshippers make the emblems an end in themselves. In this way, the difference between the material object and the reality represented by it becomes obscured. African Traditional Religion is not essentially idolatrous, but it has a tendency to become so if the cult and the symbols of the divinities are so emphasized as to exclude the Supreme Being. The various divinities that are represented are in fact technically representatives or servants of the Supreme Being. It needs to be emphasized that the Supreme Being cannot be represented like the divinities. We must also point out that, to the Africans, the material has meaning only in terms of the spiritual and not physical. It is the spiritual that gives meaning and importance to the visible material object. The symbols or emblems may fall into disuse or crumble or be replaced, but the spiritual entity represented never changes. See E. B. Tylor, Primitive Cultures, Vols. I and II.

(viii) Polytheism: “In West Africa,” said Parrinder, “men believe in great pantheons of gods which are as diverse as the gods of the Greeks or the Hindus. Many of these gods are the expression of the forces of nature, which men fear or try to propitiate: These gods generally have their own temples and priests, and their worshippers cannot justly be called animists, but polytheists, since they worship a variety of gods. Here, while Parrinder was trying to discourage the use of the term animism in connection with the religion of Africa, he created another problem by suggesting the term polytheism. We can understand what the problems are. In a proper polytheism, the gods are all of the same rank and file. The difference between that type of polytheism and the structure of African Traditional Religion is that in Africa, the Supreme Being is not of the same rank and file of the divinities. The origin of the divinities can be traced; the divinities can be represented; they are limited in their power; they came into being by the power of the Supreme Being who is unique, wholly other and faultless and who owes His existence to no one. The Africans do not and cannot represent Him in the form of an image as they can do with the divinities. Parrinder made this mistake because in his West African Religion he claimed that the Supreme God or Creator is “sometimes above the gods, sometimes first among equals”. This is not correct. The Yoruba, for example, never rank the Supreme Being, Olodimave with the divinities (orisa), neither do the Akan confuse Nyame with the divinities (abosom). The truth of the matter is that Africans hold the Supreme Being as a venerable majesty who has several servants (the divinities) under Him to carry out His desires. He is in a class by Himself. This is why it is not appropriate to describe the African Traditional Religion as polytheistic. Indeed it will be hypocrisy to call the religion of Africans as polytheistic and Christianity as monotheistic since the concept of trinity suggests an existence of three Gods.

In conclusion, after reading this article, one should be careful when using these terms. The name of the religion of Africa is none of the above misleading terms but African Traditional Religion or African Traditional Religions or African Indigenous Religion. Do not think you don’t adhere to this religion because that will be a big lie. You adhere to this religion when you celebrate the various Traditional Festivals, when you attend and participate in the Traditional Marriage rites, Naming ceremonies and just to mention few. Our religion can be found in our Culture and therefore respect and uphold it.

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References

Awolalu, J. Omosade & Dopamu, P. Adelumo (1979). West African Traditional Religion, Ibadan: Onibonoje,.

Idowu, E. Bolaji (1962). Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief. London: Longman.

Awolalu, J. O. (spring, 1976).what is African Traditional Religion? Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 10, No. 2,1-10.Retrieved from

http://studiesincomparativereligion.com.

For further details see John Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa, S.P.C.K., 1970.

E. B. Idowu, Olodumare, Longmans, 1962, p.202f.

E. B. Idowu, African Traditional Religion, p.106f.

THE TRUE AKAN NAME: THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFACANT OF AKAN NAMES AND WHY THEIR USAGES ARE DECLINING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

2014-07-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

A 'name' is a term used for identification purposes (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). An Akan indigenous name is given to Akans.

Akan is an indigenous ethnic group located in modern Ghana and they form about 47.5% of the population of Ghana, some of the major Akan group includes the Fante, Asante, Akyem and Akuapem.
The criteria for choosing a child's name differ from one culture to another however; most Akans name a child after one week of being born to the family. The child is named during the traditional naming ceremony which is held at the father's house. The name is chosen by the father and this is because he is the family head.

The father normally chooses the name for the child based on the particular day he or she was born and the other name(s) is/are chosen for the child from the extended family, this means that , the father can decide to name the child after any member of his family for instance a child born on Sunday can be given 'Kwesi' this because Kwesida in Fante means Sunday and if the Grandfather of the child is called 'Nana' then the child will be called 'Nana Kwesi'.

Names are considered to be very important in the Akan ethnic group. This is because Akans hold the view that names have spiritual effects on the individual bearing the name. Non-Africans may refute this claim .let us examine a passage in the Bible where the names 'Abram' and 'Sara' were changed to 'Abraham' and 'Sarah' after God called Abram (Genesis 17).

This clearly shows the spiritual significance of a name to the Jews during the ancient time. Let us examine the spiritual significance of an Akan name; names like Donkoh, Kaya, Adakaasa and Ababio are given to children who die during child birth or shortly after child birth and are believed to have been reborn into the same family.

However, there has been a decline in the use of the Akan names and still others who use it blend it with foreign names like 'John','peter' etc and this is due to Cultural, Religious, and psychological colonialism which is commonly known in our local circles as 'Modernisation'. The first European nation to reach the shores of Gold coast in 1471 was the Portuguese and last of them to leave Gold Coast after its independence in 1957 was The Great Britain and therefore colonisation of area occupied by the Akan started in the 15th century and ended in the 20th century. Slavery begun in the 1400's and ended in 1800's (about 400 years) and during those period, Akans were forced to accept foreign cultures and religion, i.e. dressing and most importantly European names.

Christian names like John, Paul, peter and the rest became the common names following the acceptance of Christianity by the Akans whiles names like Kojo, Osei, and Nana declined greatly and this is what I call 'identity theft'. The worst of it is that our forebearers accepted these names without knowing it meaning and negative implications. Why not use Akan names like 'Yeremiah' (Jeremiah), 'yona' (Jonah), 'josua' (Joshua) , 'yohane' (John) ? Akans now consider their indigenous names as 'outmoded' and 'local' and foreign ones as 'modern' and therefore began to transform their names into so called 'modernised' ones i.e. 'Bosompim' became 'Bosomfield' and 'Dua' became 'Woode', what a clear 'Mental slavery'!.

Akans now see their indigenous names as inferior to the foreign ones and this explain why Akans now see themselves inferior to the Europeans. We now see everything from the Europeans as 'modernisation' and ours as 'ancient' and if Akans continue these absurd practices, then their identity will be erased sooner than later.

Finally, if Akans want to prosper in freedom, then they should re-use their indigenous names, the names that brought up powerful people like Yaa Asantewaa, Okomfo Anokye, Obiri Yeboah and Asebu Amenfi.

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