Goats and SodaExBulletin

Students cheer from the stands during Ghana's 65th Independence Day celebrations on March 6, 2022. The country gained independence on March 6, 1957. This writer recalls his childhood celebrations, which included uniforms, parades and a free bottle of soda. Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images .

Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

On the first 4th of July, when I was in the United States, I woke up one morning, stretched and realized that my wife was still in bed.

I asked her if she was going to work. She said, “Oh, don't you know today is the 4th of July?”

I looked out the window. Almost everyone in Fernley, Nevada, the town where we lived, was heading to Main Street with chairs, umbrellas, drinks and snacks.

I was puzzled. What were they going to celebrate? I was curious too, so I grabbed our camping chairs and headed out to join our neighbors. That's when my wife told me what was going on: “July 4th is America's Independence Day.”

I jumped out of my seat! This couldn't be true. Who could have colonized a great country like America?

I thought colonization only happened in Africa, where I grew up. I didn't believe her.

It was 2014, the year I discovered that America was once a British colony, just like my native Ghana.

I had the privilege of seeing two ways to celebrate independence, and along the way I thought a lot about what independence really means.

American fireworks: breathtaking!

In Nevada, on my first Independence Day, we sat on the sidewalk, listening to the drums beat the beat, and watching the parade of ordinary citizens, veterans, Native Americans in traditional costumes, and students. They marched and waved the American flag. Some were on horseback, others in slow-moving cars, and still others on foot.

Later that evening, I watched the fireworks broadcast on television from Washington DC. It was breathtaking. I had never seen anything like it!

As I looked out at the crowd gathered in the nation’s capital, I saw not only America but the world. Every race, every ethnicity was there. Indeed, America is the home of the world, and to me, its greatest beauty lies in its diversity.

Ghana Party: Stress and Soda

In Ghana, independence was, at least for us children, a stressful but also a fun time. Our independence came not so long ago, on March 6, 1957. For three weeks before the celebration, students in my school and other schools around the country would practice marching. A drummer would play loudly on the drums to set the pace for the march, and we children would line up to start marching, repeating the words “left,” “right,” “benkum,” “nifa,” [in the local Twi language].

The teachers made sure that we all lifted our left and right legs at the same time so that we marched in unison, shouting at us and sometimes hitting us with sticks if we didn’t. This training lasted for about three weeks; the best marchers were selected to represent the school at the Independence Day marching competition in the district capital, Kwame Danso.

In 2002, at the age of 14, I was chosen to represent my school in the march, provided that I could afford a school uniform. My family could not afford one. Luckily, a friend lent me his. Excitedly, I washed the uniform and the day before the march, I joined my other friends in the marching team. We shared an iron to iron our school uniforms. I could not sleep because of the anticipation I felt.

By 6am, students from all the schools in the area had gathered at the large football field in Kwame Danso, the district capital. Under a scorching sun and humid weather, we sweated and waited. After several hours, the District Chief Executive Officer (DCE) and his entourage arrived. One by one, teams from each school filed out. As we approached the DCE, our student leader shouted, “saaaaaalute!”

Each school group had five to ten minutes to show off their skills. The government officials judged us on how we walked (and how we were dressed). I hoped we would be among the winners. We won second place and received a new wall clock for our school.

And then came the best part of the day for my friends and me: we were each given a bottle of Coca-Cola.

For some of us, it was one of the few times a year we could enjoy soda, outside of Christmas and Easter.

In the evenings, we would gather at the pastor's house to watch the only television in the village, a small black-and-white set powered by a car battery. We would watch the marching competition in the capital, Accra, and watch the recorded speech of our “osagyefo,” our savior, Kwame Nkrumah, who had helped bring Ghana independence in 1957.

In his Independence Day speech, Nkrumah said that Ghana's independence had meaning “only if linked to the total liberation of Africa.”

Ghana is independent… but dependent

Nkrumah was criticized for his authoritarian style and economic failures and was eventually ousted as president. But I think back to his words and wonder if Ghana and Africa are truly independent. Many projects in Ghana, from building roads and schools to providing vaccines and fertilizers, depend on foreign aid. Where is our independence if we depend on foreign aid for our basic needs? We must begin to view independence as a permanent struggle. In some ways, we are not truly independent yet.

And when I think of that statement by Nkrumah, I think of the country I live in today. I have been struck by the violent language and physical attacks targeting people because of their race, their gender, their religious affiliation. I wonder if all Americans today share the ideology of the Declaration of Independence: “…all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But on the Fourth of July, I prefer to be optimistic. While independence is hard work and a work in progress for nations old and new, it is a moment to be savored. So as I watch the spectacular fireworks and marvel at the diversity of American crowds, I also remember that independence can be found in small pleasures like marching for my country as a child and drinking that precious bottle of soda.

George Mwinnyaa grew up in Ghana and now lives in Alaska with his wife and two sons. In May, he received his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He currently works for UNICEF and lives in Alaska with his family.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/07/04/g-s1-8237/independence-day-july-fourth-ghana-fireworks-soda The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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