KOMFO ANOKYE'S BLUEPRINT FOR AFRICA
Komfo Anokye out of a then rather fragmented people who had a pressing need to unite established the first African confederation in recorded history. Of course he needed all the support he could get from his partner the Asante King, Nana Osei Tutu who shared the same vision and consuming passion to make that dream a reality in their lifetime.
The books contradict themselves as far as whether or not Anokye was originally an Asante. From all indications however, his psyche would not allow him to be such leanings.
Indeed right after he virtually single-handedly brought external domination over the people to an end, he introduced what are still referred to as the 77 Laws of Komfo Anokye which regulate the socio-political life of Asante. This was about three hundred years ago. And one curious edict in there is the one that outlawed the undue emphasis on one's origins if that was to lead on a trail outside of the new nation-Asante. To break this law called for capital punishment. That is how seriously he held issues of the larger unity. The Golden Stool; choosing one Asantehene and several other symbols of Asante unity have proven to be of more than fleeting signiticance. Everyone from any place was welcome to become an Asante. This law guaranteed the loyalty which has kept Asante relatively intact and enduring to this day like the sword that he planted that day at Bantoma.
Yes the variables have changed. We are faced with the challenge of cementing the oneness of Africa. The problems of unequal development have the guise of insurmountable complexities. Yet essentially it is basically the same puzzle that we're having to piece together. as one No doubt since King HAILE SELASSIE brought together the fragmented leadership of the micro-nations out their Casablanca, Brazzaville groupings and established the OAU (for which Ghana's first president Kwame Nkruma is credited as he was more spectacularly visible), generations of leaders have invariably done their bit towards this goal.
Unfotunately, most of them have spent too much time thinking first and formost as belonging to their clans, so-called tribes, micronations, then as Africans and then finally as humans. What a difference we would have made if the orientation was the other way round. We are still going to need the specialists in micro-nationalistic issues to focus on the questions on that level. Those who will lead on the Africa-level should spend/have spent a great chunk of their lives thinking Africa if we should avoid the tolerated pussy-footing we witness.
Conditioning our minds to think along these lines especially in this phase where the first question (not necessarily for any better reason than cynicism or to patronize) will take quite some effort. Books, tv, radio and the web may not have been the thing of his day. But Komfo Anokye didn't just throw up his arms in depair and say "It's tough coming by the information." You really need it? You'll go out and find it; or it will come finding you. That law of the universe is all so true. Life equips us for what we deeply yearn for. To succeed at blending them into the one essenTial common characteristic of the collective, he spent long years travelling and studying the cultures, political systems and history of not even only the Akan peoples. At the end of the day he had his finger on what runs through all the people. If we look, we'll see. That's how come it was easy for him to think strictly in terms of the larger unity.
The price of uniting at such a pace is too dear. The armed conflicts have bled us enough, the weak-position bargaining on the world scene has slowed us down too long. It's Time to pull together.Rise.
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AFRICA OUR ONE COUNTRY
AFRICA OUR ONE COUNTRY
AFRICA OUR ONE COUNTRY