Up to date July 04, 2024 at 06:24 AM ET
On my first Fourth of July in the USA, I wakened within the morning, stretched and realized that my spouse was nonetheless in mattress.
I requested if she was going to work. She stated, “Oh, do not you understand as we speak is July Fourth?”
I seemed via our window. Nearly everyone in Fernley, Nevada, the city the place we lived, was on their option to Foremost Avenue with chairs, umbrellas, drinks and snacks.
I used to be confused. What have been they going to rejoice? I used to be curious, too, so I obtained our camp chairs and headed out to hitch our neighbors. That is when my spouse informed me what was happening: “July Fourth is America’s Independence Day.”
I jumped out of my seat! This could not be true. Who might have colonized a fantastic nation like America?
I assumed colonization solely occurred in Africa, the place I grew up. I did not consider her.
That was in 2014 — the yr I came upon that America was as soon as a British colony, identical to my native Ghana.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing two methods of celebrating independence — and alongside the way in which have given quite a lot of thought to what independence actually means.
America’s fireworks: thoughts blown!
In Nevada, throughout my first Independence Day, we sat on the sidewalk, listened to drummers set the beat and watched the parade of strange residents, veterans, Native Individuals in conventional garb, college students. They marched and waved the American flag. Some have been on horses, others in slow-moving automobiles and others on foot.
Later that night I watched the fireworks broadcast on TV from Washington D.C. It was mind-blowing. I had by no means seen something like this!
As I seemed on the crowd gathered within the nation’s capital, I noticed not solely America but in addition the world. Each race, each ethnicity was current. Certainly, America is dwelling to the world, and to me, its best magnificence lies in its variety.
Ghana’s celebration: Stress and soda
In Ghana, independence was, at the least for us children, a tense time but in addition a time for enjoyable. Our independence got here not that way back – on March 6, 1957. The three weeks previous to the celebration, college students at my faculty — and at colleges throughout the nation — would observe our marching. A drummer performed the drums loudly to set the marching rhythm, and we children would line as much as begin marching, repeating the phrases “left,” “proper,” “benkum,” “nifa,” [in the local Twi language].
Lecturers made certain all of us raised our left and proper legs on the identical time so we marched in unison – and yelled at us and typically caned us if we did not. This coaching would go on for about 3 weeks; one of the best scholar marchers have been chosen to signify the college within the Independence Day marching competitors within the district capital, Kwame Danso.
In 2002, once I was 14, I used to be chosen to signify my faculty within the march however provided that I might get a faculty uniform. My household could not afford to purchase me one. Fortunately, a buddy lent me his. With pleasure, I washed the uniform, and the night earlier than the march, joined my different associates on the marching group. Sharing one iron, we pressed our college uniforms. I couldn’t sleep for the anticipation I felt.
By 6 a.m. college students from all the realm colleges had gathered on the large soccer subject at Kwame Danso, the district capital. Underneath scorching solar and humid climate, we sweated and waited. After a number of hours, the district chief govt (DCE) and his entourage arrived. One after the other, groups from every faculty marched. As we strategy the DCE, our scholar chief shouts, “saaaaaalute!”
Every faculty group had 5 to 10 minutes to indicate their abilities. Authorities officers judged us on how properly we marched (and dressed). I hoped we’d be among the many winners. We gained second place and obtained a brand new wall clock for our college.
After which got here one of the best a part of the day for my associates and me: We every got a bottle of Coca-Cola.
For a few of us this was one of many few occasions within the yr that we obtained to style soda aside from Christmas and Easter.
Within the night, we gathered on the pastor’s home to look at the one TV within the village — a small black and white set powered by a automobile battery. We would watch the marching competitors within the capital metropolis of Accra and see the recorded speech by our “osagyefo” – our savior — Kwame Nkrumah, who had helped lead Ghana to independence in 1957.
In his Independence Day speech Nkrumah acknowledged that the independence of Ghana is meaningless “except it’s linked up with the overall liberation of Africa.”
Ghana’s unbiased … but dependent
Nkrumah was criticized for his authoritarian type and financial misfires; he was ultimately ousted as president. However I feel again to his phrases and wonder if Ghana — and Africa — are actually unbiased. Many tasks in Ghana, starting from the development of roads and colleges to the availability of vaccines and fertilizer, depend upon overseas assist. The place is our independence after we depend upon overseas assist for our fundamental requirements? We have to begin pondering of independence as a continuous battle. In some methods, we aren’t but actually unbiased.
And once I take into consideration that assertion from Nkrumah, I take into consideration the nation the place I now stay. I have been struck by the offended phrases and bodily assaults geared toward individuals due to their race, their gender, their spiritual affiliation. I ponder if all Individuals as we speak share the ideology within the Declaration of Independence: “…that each one males are created equal, that they’re endowed by their Creator with sure unalienable Rights, that amongst these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
However on July 4, I favor to be an optimist. Though independence takes quite a lot of work – and is a piece in progress for nations each outdated and new — it’s a second to savor. In order I watch the spectacular fireworks and marvel on the variety of America’s crowds, I additionally keep in mind how independence might be present in small pleasures — like marching for my nation as a boy and ingesting that cherished bottle of soda.
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