Where Is The Face of God?

Hello, Community. We have a lot of catching up to do this time around, you know? How are we doing lately? Taking things a step at a time, I hope. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing in today’s post, so stay with me. Eventually it’ll all make sense. 

Have you heard of the Schengen countries? These countries signed an agreement that allows their citizens to cross the internal borders of member countries without having to go through passport checks. A Schengen visa therefore would allow non-European Union nationals to enter and temporarily visit countries in the Schengen area for a period of 90 days. Did you know that in 2022, the rejection rate for Ghanaian applicants was 43.6%, and that seven out of the top ten rejections were African countries? In an interview this year, a migration scholar explains that part of the reason is that our passports just aren’t strong enough.

Remember the time the Ghana army invaded Ashaiman and subjected the residents to humiliation and physical abuse? This was March 2023. The soldiers made the residents take off most of their clothes, kneel on the ground and even roll in mud, with guns pointed at them. Eventually a Committee was set up to investigate the issue. Part of their findings was that about 247 people suffered various injuries as a result of the violence the army inflicted on the Ashaiman residents. 

Tamale Teaching Hospital is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, 2024, and is currently crowdfunding to build a dedicated paediatric block. The Overlord of Dagbon who is collaborating with the Tamale Teaching Hospital on this project invited individuals, organisations and philanthropists around the globe to support the hospital with financial contributions. Yes, a major teaching hospital that has existed for fifty years is crowdfunding locally and internationally, to be able to provide healthcare services to children. 

On the 17th of September, the Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana announced that they’ll be withdrawing their services with effect from the 26th of September, until their demands are met. Their demands include Personal Protective Equipment, salary payments from 2020 and the COVID-19 bonus for mortuary workers which the President announced years ago. “It must be noted that the recorded death of Mortuary workers in recent times is alarming. We shall therefore not leave any stone unturned”, they wrote in their notice to the Minister of Health and others.

40% of basic school pupils have no furniture. Africa Education Watch, with support from Oxfam and ActionAid, developed a report on education financing in Ghana. According to the report, between 2017 and 2022, the government of Ghana spent 56.6% of the education sector’s goods and services expenditure on Free Senior High School and Technical and Vocational Education and Training, and 5% on basic education. “This phenomenon goes to confirm the assertion by some stakeholders that the government has over the years focused on secondary education at the expense of the other levels of education, especially basic”, the report reads on page 13. 

In 2017, Akufo Addo promised to make illegal mining a national issue. In 2024, Ghana Police arrested multiple Ghanaians for protesting against illegal mining, among many other issues in the country. Doctors have linked increasing illnesses and disabilities to the pollution of water bodies as a result of illegal mining activities. These mining activities have countless negative effects on the environment: water pollution which has caused kidney failure, cancer, blindness, abdominal pain and skin irritations, air pollution causing lung diseases and difficulty breathing, and land destruction and deforestation which reduces the quality of life of the people in the community. 

In September, Ghanaians organised a protest in Accra against illegal mining (Galamsey) and other issues in the country. 53 “protesters” were arrested and jailed by the police for 48 hours with no access to food, water, their lawyers or their family members. Most of them were protesters and others were passers; a pregnant woman and her boyfriend, the husband of a woman delivering their child at 37 military hospital, a man dressed in church clothes, and a member of the FixTheCountry movement who wasn’t part of the protests at all but was arrested most likely because his mobile money number was used to accept donations for the arrested persons. Lawyers spent the day of the protesters’ arrest chasing police buses and visiting various police stations across Accra in search of the arrested people. The lawyers of the arrested protesters were given none of the necessary information such as the reason for the arrest, the stations the protesters were being held in, or the court they would eventually be taken to. As at the 25th of September, only two batches have arrived before court. Those protesters were denied bail when they appeared before the court. They were remanded into custody until 8th October, with some of them transferred to prison because the jail cells were full. It was in court that the arrested persons were charged with “conspiracy to commit crime”. The crime in question is “unlawful assembly”, the same charge under which 21 people were arrested in Ho in 2021. The Ho21 were denied bail on four occasions; they spent 22 days in jail before finally being acquitted by the court. 

Our land and our water bodies are being destroyed; our water is unsafe for consumption and the existence of aquatic life, which makes all our food unsafe as well; protesting, which is a right, is being treated as an offence; arrested people are denied their right to bail and their right to speak with their lawyers; basic schools have woefully inadequate furniture and textbooks, leaving children sitting on the ground and using pavement blocks as tables; a major teaching hospital is crowdfunding to be able to build a paediatric unit; the army is violently and unnecessarily involved in civilian interactions; the police have no respect for constitutional rights of citizens; health service workers have not been paid their full salaries from 2020; mob violence and lynching continue to occur with no significant public address on the issue by members of parliament or heads of state; the rate of unemployment, poverty and homelessness in the country is high; and because of the socio-economic status of the country, ghanaian passports are weak, so even leaving the country is a challenge. 

So I wonder what exactly people mean when they say God will punish Ghana if we accept homosexuality. As in Ghana is doing well and it’s when we say a resounding “YES” to homosexuality that the country will suddenly fall into ruin? 

Last year, the Overlord of the Gonja kingdom said our ancestors won’t forgive us if we sit back and allow the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Ghana to be affirmed. I have a feeling our ancestors are more upset by us sitting back and allowing our land and water bodies to be destroyed, and our people to die in the process, so that rich Ghanaians and foreigners make money. (Also, FYI, our ancestors were queer) I’m very sure the state of our natural resources is more concerning than what gay people are doing with their lives. 

Really, what could be more hellish than what we’re living through? The belief that God will turn away from us as a country because of homosexuality is a very popular one among Christians thanks to Leviticus 18. Maybe religious people could go through all this post, which is really just a fraction of the troubles in this country, and tell the class what exactly they mean by “God will turn his face away from Ghana”. If they could point out God’s face to us when they see it, I’d be grateful. I’ve been looking everywhere for him.

Maybe he’s inside the debt this country is in, or the pit-turned-swimming pool where the national cathedral was supposed to be? Could he be in the contaminated water bodies that are causing blindness, kidney diseases and other disabilities? I’ve never looked at this country and thought God is smiling on us, or even looking at us. I’m not in denial about the state we’re in. We have a lot to worry about, and protest for, but for some reason we choose to worry about the things we can’t change (LGBTQ+ people). 

Homosexuality might be a problem for some Ghanaians, but that doesn’t make it a national issue. Our national issues are countless. We should apply pressure to the government, and put in the work in our own little ways so that it’s actually believable when we say things like “God will turn away from us”. Right now… LOL.