User:Benard Mordedzi M/sandbox/Son of the Soil

This post was published to ReadAbout.damzinium.com at 2:28:55 PM 5/3/2017 Son of the Soil

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“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” These words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy during an inauguration address in 1961 got me thinking and wondering. I wanted to understand the connotation of his speech. Suddenly, the word “PATRIOTISM” occurred to me. On that day when he delivered this speech, he was asking his people as well as the world to be ready to sacrifice for the nation and the world at large in making it a better place. Kennedy at the time was necessitating his people to come on board and help in the development of the nation and the world at large. He understood that no successful nation depends on its government for better life. He was preaching to the nation and the world at large, to create the path upon which they desire to walk on. Either to keep depending on their government and other nations, eventually remaining poor or even becoming poorer or to work for the government or nation to ensure its progress without conditions. When I got this understanding of it, I ask myself, “Who can do this if not a true son of the soil?” “Who can do this without understanding the need to be patriotic?” I kept thinking if African can boast of such sons of its soil, if Ghana can be proud of having such sons of the soil. Ooh yes, I do remember now. Ghana and Africa at large can boast of having such sons but unfortunately only in histories. Talk about Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta, and Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe among others. These were true sons of the soil and they demonstrated this without doubts. I always say that these men demonstrated what a “true patriotism” should be. These men went to prison and were tortured at different angles, but they never gave up. They wanted to ensure that their country and its citizens are respected, to ensure that the citizens are fed well, to ensure that their dignity as human is restored and to ensure that they don’t live all their lives as slaves. Sometimes if I imagine the kind of torture they had to go through and how they neglected their families and their personal comfort to ensure things are done right, I can’t help but use them as the “true definition of patriotism.” My bother and question is, “are these men the only patriot ever created on the shores Africa?”, “Can’t we have more people dying and sacrificing for honorable course?”, “Why must we still be swimming in poverty and neo-colonialism after all these sacrifices?”, “Aren’t we grateful enough?” The answers to the numerous questions in my mind still remain unanswered. But I have hope that one day you and I shall champion the course of this nation and our continent. But this time, without greed, selfishness, hatred, prejudices and division. I have hope that one day we will be formidable. You may laugh at my seemingly impossible hopes and dreams but my hope only get renewed when I read the words of Nelson Mandela, and I quote “IT ALWAYS SEEM IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT’S DONE”