Embracing My Country For Its Positives

_{A representation of the Ghanaian flag which can be found in the Ghana National Museum.}

We find ourselves in countries or areas where we either have no say in the matter or we moved there on our own. Sometimes, we move to some places due to some reasons beyond our control only to love them later. Other ones we never love because no matter what, we simply cannot bring ourselves to liking those countries.

I am a Ghanaian by decent, birth and maybe everything else. I was raised and continued to be raised in Ghana by my parents. I’m not quite independent just yet. Ghana is a place that can give you a lot of emotions. You can simply love the country today and absolutely dislike it tomorrow. However, everyone agrees that when you have money, you’ll enjoy Ghana.

If I want to complain about Ghana, I would write a 2000 word article and it would still not be enough. In as much as my body kicks to write about it, I will try to be positive. That sets up my first reason for liking Ghana. I like that we the citizens can be very positive. Despite the number of uncertainties in the country, we are often very positive and always hoping for the best. It’s not always easy but you know you’re not the only going through it. That translates to the hospitable nature of the citizens in Ghana.

In a world where almost everyone is looking out for themselves and being quite selfish, Ghanaians are still hospital. I must admit Ghanaians are not as hospital as they used to be but we haven’t completely gotten rid of our culture. I remember when I was very little, everyone used to be very helpful to one another but I guess that has slowly depreciated.

Our culture is also one thing I love about Ghana. No matter how western we have become, we still do very well to stick to some aspects of our culture. The barbaric ones if I may say are being eradicated from the system but the ones that are still good, are still being used. It is always a beautiful sight to behold when you get to see a cultural display in Ghana. Homowo, Damba, Adowa are some of the known festivals we celebrate here. There’s always a unique story to whatever festival is being celebrated.

I also like that in Ghana, everyone tries to have as much fun as they can. I mean what can you do aside try to have fun? There are a lot of things that are beyond your control as a mere citizen and the sooner you acknowledge that you have little to control over them, you get to have fun like everyone else. There’s no way the country is sad when you have stable network connection and data. Man, you’ll laugh from morning to evening.

It is amazing how we Ghanaians are able to make fun of the situation in our country. You find hilarious videos everyday of Ghanaians, our leaders and even our presidents. During Covid when we were locked down, some people would intentionally just come out to see if actually the military was around. You’ll get chased when seen and possibly punished severely but some people still had fun with that. You could watch videos during that time of soldiers chasing citizens and delivering some hash punishments to them.

I also like my country for some of the tourist sites we have. We have a good nature that when you actually take your time to visit, you will enjoy so much. Our environment is green and can be very nice and refreshing. We have good natural resources but unfortunately we haven’t taken good advantage.

Ghana is a place you can actually enjoy everyday of your life as long as you’re financially stable. You will still the country if you do not have a lot of money but then you would likely be compelled to argue and be frustrated about the negative aspects of the country.

Haha let me stop here before I bore you guys with this write up. Please do engage and let me know what you love about your country as well.

All pictures were taken by me.