General

Collective identities and trauma memories are intricately entwined in our time. For example, the memories of past and present victimization serve as the foundation for the collective identities of the majority of ethnic minorities. Likewise, social trauma victims and their descendants frequently use explicit and purposeful remembering to empower and construct identity.  In contrast, the offenders and their offspring attempt to erase and cast doubt on the integrity of such memories, undermining the empowerment and identities they provide. This dynamic is more evident than ever in the North Atlantic experience, such as the history of slavery and the slave trade that occurred some four hundred years ago. The subsequent abolishment of this trade around 1807 led to what we now call the African Diaspora.  The term “diaspora” originates from the Greek “διασπορά” (Diaspora, literally means “scattering”). The word gained popularity within the English language with its use in the Jewish Diaspora before it started being used in a broader sense to include other populations (Brubaker 2005). That is to say, and as Palmer (2000) posited, the concept of “Diaspora” is not only confined to the people of African descent. Thus far, the term “African Diaspora” has been widely used to refer to a worldwide collection of the population of African descent, mainly from West and Central Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with the United States, Brazil, and Haiti having the biggest populations. However, Africans started migrating to Europe and the Americas in greater numbers in the late 20th century, creating new African diaspora populations that were not directly associated with the slave trade (Palmer 1998); hence, in the modern context, the term African Diaspora can be used to represent a growth industry for the people in Africa.  Thus, African Union (AU) defines the African Diaspora as “people of native African origin living outside the continent, regardless of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the continent’s development and the building of the African Union.” In line with this, the Africa Union’s constitutive act declares that it shall welcome and promote the full participation of the African Diaspora as an integral part of our continent in establishing the African Union and regards the Diaspora as its sixth area or region. Ergo, within the AU, there are six (6) regions: West Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, Central Africa, plus one last region, the “Sixth Region”, which is the African Diaspora. Converse to the wounds that the slave trade might have left on the African continent, the time for Africa is now. This is the period and opportunity to lick our wounds and take our destiny into our hands.  The Africans in the Diaspora have responded to this and are still contributing massively to the economy of Africa. Detty December has come to represent a time when the Diaspora comes into particularly West Africa in relatively large numbers for festive celebrations.  Away from the history lessons, let us now quantify the value of these contributions on the economy of the African continent as a whole and especially on the economy of Ghana. One of the most obvious connections between migration, Detty December, the Diaspora and development is remittances. After a decade of re-evaluating the relationship between migration and development, the conventional thinking that migration threatens chances for economic growth and results in stagnation and dependency has been challenged. International migration, defined as the coordinated or concerted improvement of economic conditions in origin and destination nations based on their complementarities, has been cited in United Nations publications as an ideal strategy for fostering development since 2006.  That said, African migration has increased more than from any other part of the world since 2010, yet most of these flows have been inside Africa. Thus, the overall number of African migrants in 2020 was 40.6 million. This represents only 14.5% of the global migrant population, far less than the shares between Asia (41.0%) and Europe (22.5%). Moreover, less than one-third of all African migrants (27.2%) reside in Europe. Other than Africa, African migrants account for less than 15% of the entire migrant population (Mo Ibrahim Foundation., 2022). In light of the above, evidence shows that the contributions from remittances far outweigh the official development assistance and foreign direct investment that low- and middle-income nations get.  Before the COVID-19 epidemic, the World Bank estimated that officially documented remittances in 2019 reached a record-high $714 billion, including $553 billion to low- and middle-income nations. Despite initial worries that the numbers might decline due to the epidemic, they remained constant in 2020.  According to recent predictions, global remittances are estimated to have reached $773 billion in 2021, with $605 billion flowing to low- and middle-income nations such as Ghana (Migration Policy Institute., 2022). A UN Report cited in The Economic Times (2022) also states that India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and Egypt were the top five remittance recipients of current US dollars in 2021.  Thus, if we’re to go by the report, India was the top remittance recipient among low- and middle-income countries, with $87 billion way ahead of China and Mexico’s 53 billion dollars, the Philippines (36 billion dollars) and Egypt (33 billion dollars). The United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland were the top four countries from which remittances were sent in 2020. Moving on, in the context of Africa, remittances are the primary source of international financing for development. Take, for instance, Nigeria, which received 19.2 billion US dollars’ worth of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa in 2021, a large majority of the region’s overall remittances.  Nigeria has consistently received the most significant amounts of all remittances sent to Sub-Saharan Africa over time. This is because Nigeria, the most populous African country, also has a considerable diaspora population. Ghana was the next recipient, with remittances totalling almost 4.5 billion dollars.  To this end, the ten (10) highest recipients of remittance inflow in

Sport in Ghana has grown rapidly since the Colonial era when there was little consideration for an organized schedule of activity other than the daily drill known as physical training (PT). After gaining independence from British Colonial Rule in 1957, the Gold Coast began a course of rapid development with a focus on seeking national identity and receiving recognition on a global scale in all fields of endeavour within the broader context of an “African identity” (Baba 2000). Ghanaians (at the time, residents of the Gold Coast) had fully embraced organized sport by the turn of the 20th century. This prompted the establishing of the first sports organization, the Gold Coast Football Association (GCFA, now known as the Ghana Football Association), in 1920. Following this, the Gold Coast Amateur Athletics Association (now known as the Ghana Athletic Association) and Gold Coast Olympic Committee (now known as the Ghana Olympic Committee) were established in 1944 and 1951, respectively. Ghana, then known as the Gold Coast, took part in its first Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, in 1952, along with British Togoland, which included the present-day nations of Togo and Ghana’s Volta area. Ghana’s speedy sporting development over the years made her an example for other colonies looking to construct an African sports image. Schools and colleges in Ghana had implemented comprehensive interscholastic programs with excellent planning under a law requiring all students to participate in intramural sports.  Most schools and colleges had physical education departments set up with mass gymnastics and competitive sports (such as soccer, track and field, boxing, table tennis, and cricket) that were part of the Empire Day events. Teachers and former service members taught and oversaw these sports activities. Looking back and counting our achievements since independence until now, our country Ghana has become the first nation on the African continent to earn an association football medal after its athletes won a total of four Olympic medals in its thirteen Summer Games participation, including three in boxing and a bronze (BBC News., 2011).  Ghana has competed in various competitions, winning four African Cup of Nations titles, participating in four FIFA World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, and 2022), and one FIFA U-20 World Cup. Ghana, following Cameroon and Senegal in 1990 and 2002, became the third African nation to go to the quarterfinals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  The Black Satellites, Ghana’s national U-20 football team, are arguably regarded as the team that develops into the country’s national football team. Ghana is the first and only nation to win the FIFA U-20 World Cup on the African continent and was runner-up twice, in 1993 and 2001. The Black Starlets, Ghana’s national U-17 football team, have won the FIFA U-17 World Cup twice, in 1991 and 1995, and have finished second twice (in 1993 and 1997).  Additionally, the nation has produced several top-tier boxers, including Joshua Clottey, Ike Quartey, and three-time world champions Azumah Nelson, DK poison and Nana Yaw Konadu. Thus, it is often argued that the successes of these boxers put Ghana’s name on the map. That said, despite the successes and strives of the other numerous sporting activities, including athletics, tennis, swimming, tennis, handball, hockey, cricket and even local ampe her in Ghana, boxing and at the very extreme, football, appears to have taken the centre stage and have received maximum attention, sometimes even at the detriment of what has been termed “the lesser sports”.  Ghana is by no means a two-sport country, but there is also no denying the fact that boxing and, especially, football have dominated everything from Olympic medals to individual triumphs, to moments that left us stunned, happy, and sometimes sad. Take, for instance, the penalty missed by Asamoah Gyan in the 2010 World Cup against Uruguay (GhanaSoccerNet., 2017). Alternatively, more recently, the penalty miss by Andrew Ayew against Uruguay in the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup. The entire nation gasped in both cases. Football is a blessing. But riddle me this: is football the only sport that Ghana has to concentrate on to the detriment of the other sports? What successes, if any, in other sports, have brought some nations together? Fortunately or unfortunately, the apparent maximum concentration on football dates to the era of the first president of the Republic, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Football in this era was used as a Pan-African tool to promote unity and call for mobilization among participating countries. Thus, Nkrumah participated in some local clubs’ fundraising games and even ‘kicked-off’ one game between Accra Hearts of Oak and Standfast.  When it became clear that independence would soon come, Nkrumah took on much more of a direct role in football management, which allowed him to project his vision for the sport as a means of forging the kinds of cultural and emotional ties that he thought were essential for the establishment of a peaceful Ghanaian state and pan-African unity (Darby, 2013).  The importance of Nkrumah’s use of the Black Stars to promote pan-Africanism is emphasized by Benjamin Koufie, a former player and assistant coach of the national team, who recently recalled that, since Nkrumah utilized football to reach every country on the continent, he wanted to make sure that the Black Stars of Ghana were a shining example.  Ghanaian football has not been without its many controversies. Those in the sports fraternity and the ordinary Ghanaian have often argued and wondered why the government of Ghana continues to spend relatively more on football. Football apparently unites Ghana like no other sport does. But is this limitation organic or self-imposed?  As mentioned early on, the focus given to the football fraternity is sometimes to the detriment of other sports. For instance, the Ghana Basketball Association of Ghana was cited in 2011, almost lamenting their neglect by the Sports Authority. Thus, after nine months of qualifying for the 22nd Africa Women’s Basketball Championship 2011, hosted by Mali, their call for support fell on deaf ears. It took the benevolence of well-wishers and private individuals to get

Ghana is located in the western part of Africa and is the closest location to the centre of the world. Formerly the Gold Coast, Ghana has a total land size of 238,533 Square Kilometers. The nation serves as a crucial West African anchor for stability. For many years, Ghana has successfully pushed for greater regional integration and a sound policy framework for neighbourly collaborations.  Ghana’s economy mainly relies on the export of a small number of goods, primarily gold, crude oil, and cocoa. The primary source of revenue and contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the Agricultural and service industry. The tourism sector, thus, is the third-largest GDP contributor and recipient of increasing levels of foreign investment each year (Oxford Business Group, 2022). Ghana made the transition to lower-middle income status in 2010. However, the amount of development in the economically robust coastal region and the level of growth in the country’s north varies significantly. Ghana accomplished many of the Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 deadline-related goals. Ghana was the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa to successfully reduce poverty by half since 1990. There have been several economic restructuring and revenue mobilization mechanisms since 1982.   Regardless of these macroeconomic obstacles, the performance of the creative and art industries (tourism industry) post-covid-19 has seen marginal improvements. If not for the onset of the virus, the tourism sector, in the events of “The Year of Return” campaign in 2019, contributed 5.9% to Ghana’s GDP, with revenue of $ 3.7 billion (Oxford Business Group, 2022).  That not surprising at all because, in Ghana, tourism has long been a significant economic driver that produces foreign exchange revenues, wealth and job creation, and promotes other economic sectors. With 1.2 million arrivals, tourism is presently the fourth-largest source of foreign exchange revenues, estimated at US2.2 million (Ekow, 2022). In addition, 393,000 individuals were reportedly employed directly or indirectly by the tourism sector in 2015, including management of tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, and other businesses (Ekow, 2022).  There are lots of potential in the tourism sector. However, in the era of post-Covid-19, where travel restrictions have been removed, and in the events of the “Beyond the Return” campaign, the question begs, can art and tourism serve as an alternative source of income for our ailing economy? What lesson can we learn from countries like Dubai that derive much income from tourism?  To Start this, Ghana abounds with many tourist sites like the Paga crocodile pond, Castles in Elmina and Cape Coast, Kakum canopy walk, and Fiema monkey sanctuary, to mention a few. Historically, Ghanaian society did not effectively rely on tourism as a source of income, which represented a missed opportunity to contribute to the economy’s diversification… until the Rawlings regime. The Rawlings regime spotted this area of potential, seized the Ghanaian culture, and employed it as a source of cash. As a result, the Rawlings administration successfully promoted tourism at the expense of capitalizing on Ghanaian culture through the restoration of castles that were once used for the slave trade, the creation of public memorials honouring Ghana’s “illustrious sons,” and encouragement from the government through incentives for private investments (Pierre, 2013). Ghana’s tourism sector is renowned for promoting ecotourism, which encompasses cultural, heritage, leisure, adventure, and event tourism. Heritage tourism concentrates on the past of the slave trade whereas cultural tourism concentrates on festivals and activities. Vacationers can experience theme parks and beaches thanks to recreational tourism. While event tourism focuses on resources and conventions, adventure tourism explores rainforests and game parks (Yankholmes, & McKercher, 2015).  Thus far, there are well over forty-one (41) tourist sites in Ghana, spread across the length and breadth of the country.  Take, for instance, the Kintampo waterfall in the Bono East region, the Elimica Castle in the Central region, the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in the Bono East region, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in the Greater Accra region, Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti region, the Mole National Park in the Northern region among many others.   Moving on, the immense contributions of these arts and sites to the economy of Ghana cannot be over-emphasised, but there is a lot of potential yet untapped. This will require much effort and dedication from industry authorities, Private Sector players and the government. This has been necessitated by the fact that every tourism product competes with every other at its price point in today’s globalised market.  Thus far, even though the individual traveller is the primary decision-maker, the world tourism industry, represented by tour operators, travel agencies, and transportation services in the countries of origin of tourists, significantly determines the amount of tourist flow to a specific destination. Destinations can impact these external industry managers through successful and ongoing promotion, marketing initiatives, and multinational strategic collaborations.  Still, these efforts will only be fruitful if there is a high-quality product to sell that is competitive in value and price. A good example is the unique silk thread on fibreboard art pieces pioneered by Ghana’s Kwabena Yeboah of YEB Gallery; a push by the nation’s Arts industry could see us positioning one of our own in the upper echelon of contemporary art, which would serve Ghana’s image significantly. In this vein, countries like Rwanda, Gambia, Seychelles, Mauritius and Dubai have strived to position their citizens and institutions as the number one destination centres in the world for top-quality Arts and Tourism experiences. Take, for instance, Rwanda, against what can be described as one of the most horrific events in recent memory, killing a million people and shaking an entire country to its core; they have licked their wounds and have evolved as the premium experience Wilderness Safaris. In addition, two more premium names, Singita and One & Only Resorts, are opening facilities near the park in 2018 and 2019, making Rwanda a new centre of luxury tourism.  Today, Rwanda is considered one of the safest places in Africa for quality tourism experiences. More so, tourism, in particular, is booming. With a 30 per