REPUBLIC DAY TRIBUTE
Ghana's independence day is the 6th of March.
Anytime independence day is getting closer, I feel anticipation and excitement building up within me.
Now, I could regale you with scintillating tales detailing how I have demonstrated enormous loyalty and devotion to my country and how the thought of celebrating our national birthday leaves me all warm and fuzzy inside.
If that was what you were expecting, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you.
The truth is, the seventh of March, just one day after Independence Day is my own birthday.
I celebrate my birthday because I have the opportunity I have to celebrate as a citizen of a free country.
I celebrate the community that surrounds me and the group of people who have shared my struggles and my triumphs.
People who have never hesitate to share their insights with me—sometimes unwelcome and in very rare cases unneeded— but always, always coming from a place of care and compassion.
Surprisingly, on Republic Day all I think about is that day on the 6th of March in 1957.
I imagine being part of that gigantic crowd.
Of a group of people linked together imperceptibly, intangibly.
Bound unbreakable ties.
Woven out of blood and sweat and toil and death.
Of starvation and arrest and protests and killings.
Of war and exile and deception and betrayal.
I imagine that cord, and I think to myself
I still carry that cord, deep down within me even if I can't feel it there
And I tell myself
Ann, don't be the one to sever those ties.
Don't give up your heritage, your identity, and your community.
Just so you can chase the illusion
That to flourish and bloom
That to be a deep, verdant green
Is to be on the other side.