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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Ghana and Israel's Americans and Their Thrill of Returning Home

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Today, roughly 3,000 American expatriates live in Ghana. Some view the arrivals as wealthy outsiders in a country where 30 percent of the population lives on less than $3.20 per day.Jul 4, 2020.  

Less than 200,000 US citizens are estimated to live in Israel, or roughly 2.2% of the total Israeli population. Hirschorn attributes this inflated presence of American Jews in the West Bank to a combination of ideology and the natural draw of the settlements to English-speaking religious immigrants.Aug 13, 2022.  (So mostly religious American Jews have 

returned to Israel).  Israel is made up of about 2% Americans,

and USA is made up of about 2% Jews.  Interesting.  

Perhaps the Ghanian Americans that have returned to Ghana can understand the thrill that American Israelis share with them of their Return Home.   These Black Americans feel at home here, and American Israelis also feel at home in Israel.  Both feel and share that ancient history that is in their genes.                     

                                                  
                Robin Roberts reporting on ABC:  

The "GMA" co-anchor also chats with "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" star Danai Gurira about the forthcoming film.
Chadwick Boseman, American Actor as star

They visited Ghana to explore the coastal capital city, Accra.  Black Panther is not the American political group, but about :Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M'Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T'Challa's death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with Nakia and Everett Ross to forge a new path for their beloved kingdom.

ABC  has their special on this morning of visiting Ghana and showing how modern it is.  Americans interviewed state how they have that feeling of "being back home."  The country sports fantastic creative woven prints and music and panoramic views of the bustling cities.  It's amazing.   Toward the end of the classical era, larger regional kingdoms had formed in West Africa, one of which was the Kingdom of Ghana, north of what is today the nation of Ghana.          

                                                        
                 Today's Ghana: total population of 28,102,471 with Muslim population of 5,058, 444=17.6% of population.  

Ghana has had quite a long history.  Right now they are in their 4th Republic.  The Republic of Ghana is named after the medieval West African Ghana Empire. The empire became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, the Ghana. 

                                               

     Jerry Rawlings has died at 73, The son of a Scottish farmer and a Ghanaian mother, Rawlings entered the Ghana Air Force, graduating in 1969. 

Fourth Republic (1993–present)[

The Constitution entered into force on 7 January 1993, to found the Fourth Republic. On that day, Rawlings was inaugurated as president and members of Parliament swore their oaths of office. 

By  1996, however, the opposition fully contested the presidential and parliamentary elections, which were described as peaceful, free, and transparent by domestic and international observers. Rawlings was re-elected with 57% of the popular vote. In addition, Rawlings' NDC party won 133 of the Parliament's 200 seats, just one seat short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution, although the election returns of two parliamentary seats faced legal challenges.


As a result of the Ghanaian presidential election, 2016Nana Akufo-Addo became President-elect and was inaugurated as the fifth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana and eighth President of Ghana on 7 January 2017. In December 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo was re-elected after a tightly contested election.

Ghana's religious history:  Portuguese Catholic missionaries arrived on the coast in the fifteenth century. This was the time of the Spanish Inquisition that took place even before 1492.

 It was the Basel/Presbyterian and Wesleyan/Methodist missionaries, however, who, in the nineteenth century, laid the foundation for the Christian church in Ghana. Beginning their conversions in the coastal area and amongools as "nurseries of the church" in which an educated African class was trained. There are secondary schools today, especially exclusively boys and girls schools, that are mission- or church-related institutions. Church schools have been opened to all since the state assumed financial responsibility for formal instruction under the Education Act of 1960.

Various Christian denominations are represented in Ghana, including Evangelical Presbyterian and Catholicism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The unifying organization for most Christians is the Ghana Christian Council, founded in 1929. Representing the MethodistAnglicanMennonitePresbyterianEvangelical PresbyterianAfrican Methodist Episcopal ZionistChristian MethodistEvangelical Lutheran, and Baptist churches, and the Society of Friends, the council serves as the link with the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical bodies. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, not a member of Christian Council, has a strong presence in Ghana. The Church opened the premier private and Christian University in Ghana.

Islam in Ghana is older than Christianity. The Larabanga Mosque, one of the oldest in West Africa, was founded in 1421. Islam made its entry into modern Ghana around the fifteenth century mainly through trading activities. Berber traders and clerics carried the religion into the area. Islam was introduced in the Dagbon by Yaa Naa Zangina who was involved in trade with neighbouring Muslim Kingdoms. Most Muslims in Ghana are Sunni, following Maliki school of jurisprudence.

Traditional religions in Ghana have retained their influence because of their intimate relation to family loyalties and local mores. The traditional cosmology expresses belief in a supreme being referred as [Nyogmo-Ga,  Mawu -Dangme and Ewe, Nyame-Twi] and the supreme being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped.

  So, though Christianity and Islam are here, their native belief 

systems still exist of  supreme beings. having at least 4 

different names.  


Reference:

ABC morning news 928/22

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ghana

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54916096

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