Conversations from the Black Star Square
I attended Ghana's 57th Independence Day celebration at the Black Star Square earlier today. Today's celebration was a special one. The rains it special and so did the insertion of the National Pledge. Let me talk about the picture below before I continue. I think it was my best shot of the day. Can you see the glee on the girl's face? She's the future of Ghana.
I got to the square a little after 07:00 and spent some time taking pictures and eavesdropping. I am always curious to find out people's motivations for attending such events. I could just ask but I prefer eavesdropping. As usual, there were a lot of vendors at the square selling food, memorabilia and later, umbrellas!
I saw two disheartening scenes after. The first was 3 security personal urinating right outside a urinal. They were not the only ones. Several security personnel and civilians did the same. The other was the rush for "Made In Ghana" t-shirts. It turned out that "Made In Ghana" was a theme for the President's address.
Before the President arrived, the dark clouds loom. I was particularly happy. I hadn't till this day witness an Independent Day parade in the rain. I was curious to see who would stay to the end. Well, the president stayed to the end and so did some of the members of the Diplomatic Corps. I was also interested in the reactions and we're all curious to find out what the front pages will be tomorrow. Let me share some of the conversations at the Black Star Square.
The first reaction I got was a woman who kept screaming "Showers of Blessings o." For her and many other people and as we will hear in the coming days, the rains were "showers of blessing."
I heard two other men slamming the Ghana Metrological Agency for not forecasting/warning State Protocol about the rain. One with a straight face said "Those people are useless. They just pick it from BBC." Of course everybody burst into laughter. No one disagreed with him on that.
The third is one we will see playing a lot too. Several people in the stands were commending John Mahama for inspecting the parade in the rain and staying all through. "W'ayɛ adeɛ paa" is what they said. I'm curious to see how the politics of it all will play out.
It was an interesting ceremony for me and I will talk about it for years to come. I won't share my opinion in all this now. I will also not talk about our problems after 57 years. That, we talk about everyday.
Happy 57th Independence Anniversary, Ghana!
