The Price Of Independence I
By Prosper-Michael Ametu
What truly is the price of independence? As a young Ghanaian, I find myself asking that question every March as the month marks our independence. When Kwame Nkrumah stood on that stage and declared at the top of his voice “At long last, the battle is ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever!” to great fanfare, he declared not only the end of colonial rule in Ghana but the close of a transaction – our nation’s independence for a price.
This price has been debated upon by many and a consensus has been reached, albeit implicitly. The consensus suggests that the price of our independence is the blood of those who sacrificed their lives, the sweat of those who fought, and the tears of those who made losses. This seems an intuitive response; believable and unassailable in its factual and emotional appeal to our desire to romanticize our country’s freedom and the fight to attain it. It is in this same vein that the blood of revolution courses through.
This same rhetoric of blood, sweat and tears being the only means of taking back our country has been the anthem sung by military juntas in their coups and counter-coups in times past. Somehow the independence of our homeland Ghana has become a plant that can only be watered and nurtured with the blood, sweat and tears of the common man. As romantic as the transaction appears, it makes for a sad exchange, more so because the fruits of this plant that is our independence never seem to ripen for the common man. This transaction was costly for the common man.