Blog (Page 12)

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 19 August, 2019 Last weekend Ga Mashie celebrated the Homowo (Hɔmɔwɔ) – the festival for hooting at hunger. On Saturday, Nuumo Blafo, the priest of the Blafo deity of Asere (Asɛrɛ) in Ga Mashie invited his friends to celebrate with him at the Asere ancestral home in Ga Mashie close to Usher Fort, Accra. The home has been in existence for over 300 years. Blafo is a deity the Asere took from the Akwamu in a compromise deal. The Ga gave it to Nii Oto, Otublohum Mantse to assist him during a war. The Otublohum people are the AkwamuRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 14 August, 2019 Last weekend at the 2nd Eastern Regional Ghana Journalists Association awards, the Okyenhene charged journalists to “speak truth to power”. We have in the recent past quoted DM Ofori-Atta, his spokesperson in the “Atewa Range Forest Reserve” article, “Okyenhene ɔse ɔnkasa biom,” meaning, “The Okyenhene says he won’t speak about the Atewa bauxite matter again”. But his message in Koforidua was clear and powerful: journalists should speak truth to power! What is he to do again when he has cautioned forcefully and tactfully against mining bauxite in a natural, protected, internationally recognized, West African Rainforest withRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Takoradi – 12 August, 2019 The recent death of Toni Morrison, 88, the revered African-American novelist and Nobel Prize winner has motivated us to revisit the debate about qualification for a teaching position in Ghana’s universities. This August, as a new semester begins, many lecturers are losing their positions because they are a “skirt and blouse”. As per the policy of our National Accreditation Board (NAB), “Skirt and Blouse” simply means your bachelor’s and Masters and or PhD are in different disciplines. And by NAB standards, you cannot teach undergrad students in your PhD field because that is not what youRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Takoradi – 9 August, 2019 The recent ill-advised comments by prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi have enraged the whole nation. But sadly stereotyping is not at all uncommon in Ghana. Many people place strange labels on Ashantis, Fantes, Ewes, “Northerners”, “Southerners”, soldiers, policemen or Whites; they make sweeping conclusions without any basis. What Ghanaians should learn from today is what my mentor has always said: “Academia and practice can never be divorced from each other”. Next time you declare something sweeping or even particular about say teenagers, give your audience “a reference point…..a chapter and verse” as my mentor has always insisted.Read More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 7 August, 2019 The Ministry of Education of Ghana (MOE) is hosting an education week from 6 to 9 August at La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra. “No one can fool us; nothing good is going to happen to education in Ghana” are the true words from my mentor. The so-called development partners including USAID who are supporting the government of Ghana deliver its education policies are certainly clear that no one can fool them either. Does anyone expect frank discussions about Ghana’s education – and with what consequence? Does anyone remember the injustice meted out to the Nigerian ProfessorRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH/Augustine WILLIAMS-MENSAH Accra – 5 August, 2019 At this time of the year, many organizations undertake half year reviews (H1), and so let us today reflect on the theme of death. What has death got to do with half year reviews? Well, in practical terms, some people will get fired for poor performance; there will be job losses; and others will decide to move on. In this sense, death has a symbolic meaning beyond the literal which many fear. But to the just and faithful, death has no terrors equal to the stain of falsehood and dishonour. Therefore, if you have toRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 2 August, 2019 Jon Benjamin (JB), a former British diplomat to Ghana, has given a Twitter mention of Major Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah, who has served as Queen Elizabeth II’s equerry since 2017 – and social media has gone gaga. But the tweet only confirms that on the subject of Ghana, JB dabbles in trivia as his path to relevance. No doubt, JB is quite popular among social media fans; he was also quite vocal when he served the Queen in Ghana. An analysis of his Twitter handle reveals these facts – JB has the flag of Ghana associated withRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH/Augustine WILLIAMS-MENSAH Accra – 31 July, 2019 Recently, Cecilia Dapaah, Ghana’s sanitation and water resources minister, was heard chastising an intern journalist with Adom FM. If she had just thought for a moment that the intern could be a mystery client, she certainly would have answered the caller whom she did not know more professionally. The problem however was caused by Adom FM, who decided to record the minister without her consent, kept the audio for more than a week, and exercised a poor editorial decision to publish it. Funnily enough the conflict has been resolved the ghanaian way – the ministerRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 29 July, 2019 The Thanksgiving Mass for the late Clement K. Tedam, 94, was held successfully on Sunday at the Martyrs of Uganda Catholic Church, Mamprobi, Accra. The usual church and state bromance was present – presidential delegation arriving late with a siren when the Gospel was being read; paid party hirelings chanting right into the entrance to disturb the solemnity of the occasion; soldiers and policemen moving about with guns; a poor address by a party general secretary who told us when introducing the delegation that “it is not in order of hierarchy” yet mentions POTROG in thatRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra – 26 July, 2019 Our blog, writersghana.com, is one year old today – and we have been publishing thrice weekly since 26 July 2018. To God be the glory. “The only way to learn how to write is to write,” says my mentor. So I started writing to elevate my writing skills and continuously improve. To do this we decided to subject any article or story written for this blog to international peer review. Today’s blogpost is number 153. The learning has been tremendous. For our prospective clients what this means is that any work we undertake for them meetsRead More →