The Year Of Return: Focus On Agriculture
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The Year Of Return: Focus On Agriculture
We were told that in the beginning the troublesome and bad nuts of families were forcefully sold against their will and interest. Exactly 400 years ago the first batch of enslaved Africans; victims of the Tran Atlantic Slave Trade landed in Jamestown, Virginia.
The torture and the inhuman treatment they were served with, we speak against it with high level of grief. But watch this, this is the side they won’t tell you but I’m here to tell you.
The ones we called troublesome made America what it is today. You can urge, but that is what it is. Every Country develops from Agriculture; being able to feed yourself and produce raw materials for clothing and shelter is the first necessity even according to Abraham Maslow.
These slaves were the power behind what they ate, wear, built and even their trade gave most their financial gains.
Fast forward, it is August, 2019 and Ghana celebrates ‘The Year of Return’ to commemorate the cumulative resilience of blacks in the diaspora.
However, the saddest reality is this, if today there were to be ships along the coast of Ghana offering the opportunity for people to willingly get on board, trust me you will be wowed by the numbers.
This is evidential in all data gathered by International Organisation for Migration; as youths from Africa are continually involved in irregular migration knowing all the risk involved in crossing the desert or the Mediterranean.
I have a serious interest in The Year of Return; not just to see and hear the inspiring stories of successful blacks, but also if the ‘return’ could be localized for the youth on the streets of our cities.
It seems we no longer talk about rural-urban migration, which I believe is the basic and mother of all forms of migration.
Today when you walk on the streets of Accra, Kumasi and other city centers it is pathetic to see a lot of our brothers and sisters and even mothers who have left the village to seek greener pastures in an area where I doubt for their skills, knowledge and experience.
For most of them the issue of poverty and hunger that resides in their hometowns has compel them to take this route. Hearing the stories of how some made it in the same struggle in the cities is mostly what entice many but trust me, they are more inspired by those who made it right in the village.
Land accessibility problem, lack of the necessary input supports, inefficient market channels and poor price maladjusted their interest to stay in the village with farming as the prominent socioeconomic venture.
So, in my little thoughts, what of a ‘Local Year of Return’ next year with Sarkodie as the ambassador.
What of a return with the assurance that the challenges that emanate hopelessness in rural youths and women would be capped with some of the agriculture offers they know not about?
Coming back home with inputs supports and readily available market with good pricing can take mammoth of them off the street. At times we walk on gold gazing at a glass, CAN WE LOOK DOWN? Just around us, just on our streets some need a ‘YEAR OF RETURN’.
By Samuel Abroquah
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