Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence leader, made two famous statements that are still regularly quoted.
The first one is “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa”. Ghana’s independence day on March 6 1957 did give added impetus to the independence struggle around the continent and, even though apartheid took much longer to collapse, it did so 13 years ago, and the whole continent is now free.
The second and more contentious statement Nkrumah made was: “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all others will be added.” The state of much of the continent would seem to disprove this statement. Bitter experience has shown that nothing will be added to the political kingdom or political independence unless there is good governance, sound economic management and a respect for human rights.
It has taken a long time for us to recognise and accept this basic principle.
I am a first-born child and so I know what it means to be constantly told that you have to set a good example for your siblings. There is no question that Ghana revels in the status of being the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence. But what have we done with this freedom?
We have had the best of times and the worst of times.
Having yearned for freedom for so long, Ghanaians did not appear to know the meaning of independence or what to do with it when it came in 1957 — at least, that is what Nkrumah, the first president, claimed. His answer was to stamp his face on the currency, postal stamps and anything else that was visible and that could make Ghanaians feel that they were now free.
The story goes that, within three weeks of its opening, all the crockery had disappeared from the magnificent Ambassador hotel that was built in Accra as part of the independence celebrations. The hotel belonged to the government, the government no longer belonged to the British, it belonged to us and people therefore felt free to help themselves to what was, after all, their own.
And so it continued. If it belonged to government, you were free to help yourself because Ghana was free. The colonialists were sticklers for punctuality and you had to come to work on time, but now we were free so you could saunter in at your leisure.
Freedom was good for culture. You no longer had to wear Western clothes to demonstrate that you were educated. The dress code on invitation cards to parties now included “traditional” as part of formal attire.
The fashion industry boomed. Never mind that the wax-print fabric that became known as Ghana cloth was for years manufactured in Holland. The designs and styles carved a distinctive niche in the fashion industry for Ghana. We felt confident to serve our own foods to visitors from other countries and Ghanaian music was reaching an international audience.
In sports, especially football, we had a head start on other countries, and the Black Stars, the national football team, conquered all before them.
Then we lost our way and, before long, Ghana was being cited for all the wrong reasons. Between 1966 and 1981, we had more coups d’état than a Latin American banana republic. The economy, which had boomed in the first four years after independence, collapsed spectacularly and Ghanaians, once the continental pacesetters, became known as the desperados who would live anywhere but in their country. In the Eighties more Ghanaians were seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom than citizens of any country experiencing civil war at that time.
So here we are at 50. Still in full voice, for that is the one thing we never lost throughout the years of wandering in the wilderness, much to the irritation of our neighbours and onlookers. We have rediscovered our path, and with it, added confidence. You can tell us a mile away: we are not quite as loud as our cousins the Nigerians, but we are insistent.
It has taken a while, but we Ghanaians are back, gradually growing back into our role of being the yardstick by which to measure Africa.
Elizabeth Ohene, a Ghanaian journalist who has reported from many African countries, was the deputy editor of the BBC’s daily programmes at the African Service and the award-winning Focus on Africa programme. She is currently a minister of state in the Ghanaian government