THE MOOD was jubilant as, after a forty-seven year hiatus, Ghana Day made a comeback in all its splendiferous glory last Sunday at the Mandela Avenue premises of the television station, HBTV, Channel 9. And, as one would expect with an event of this nature, food, clothing, music, jewellery and other cultural elements were an important part of the proceedings.
Take the food for example. When the Guyana Chronicle arrived at the venue, Sister Clementine Marshall of the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA) and a team of ladies were busy putting together a feast of traditional African dishes.
“This is accare,” she said, showing me a container of a delicious-smelling greens. The dish, she explained, is made from a combination of eddo leaves and ochroes.
Also being made at the time was two well-known and all-time favourite African dishes, namely callaloo cook-up and conkie. They were being made in the old fashioned way, Sister Clementine was sure to point out as we looked at the food cooking over a coal-pot.
As for the conkie, this was being made the old-fashion way of course, wrapped in a banana leaf. This was an important step, Sister Clementine explained, as the leaf gives a special flavour to the conkie. She noted that nowadays, people make conkie using aluminium foil, and as Sister Clementine observed, “That’s not conkie; that’s something else!”
Being a lover of books, I naturally gravitated towards those on display. As it turned out, they were mostly on holistic health and African history, which was quite uncommon. For example, I found one of the books of my childhood there:  Jethro Klosses ‘Back to Eden’, a book of natural recipes for natural healing.
One of my late father’s favourite books for as long as I can remember, the book was there in a 2005 updated and revised edition.
Providing the latest in traditional and modern African fashion, KKC Fashions, located in Bourda Market, was on the scene. Funny how I always thought cultural fashion was priced extravagantly and out of budget. There, you could have a dashiki top made of the finest natural material for just $3000 to $4000, about the same you’d pay to buy anything off the rack at the average retailer.
In case you’re wondering why the special emphasis on Ghana, ‘Ghana Day’ was being celebrated because Ghana was the first Black African country to gain Independence’ on March 6,1957 under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Also known as the Gold Coast, Ghana is located on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, a few degrees north of the equator. 
The celebration, which was discontinued in 1964 due to the political climate at the time, resurfaced as part of the United Nation-brokered  International Year of People of African Descent activities planned by the local cultural organization, ACDA. 

The Gold Coast: A brief history
According to Wikipedia, the first Europeans to arrive on the Gold Coast (as today’s Ghana is known) were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial deposits of gold in the soil.
In 1482, the Portuguese built the Castle of Elmina, the first European settlement on the Gold Coast. From here, they traded slaves, gold, knives, beads, mirrors, rum and guns. News of the successful trading spread quickly, and eventually English, Dutch, Danish, Prussian and Swedish traders arrived as well.
The European traders built several forts along the coastline. The Gold Coast had long been a name for the region used by Europeans, because of the large gold resources found in the area. The slave trade was the principal mode of exchange for many years.
The British Gold Coast was formed in 1821, when the British government abolished the African Company of Merchants and seized privately held lands along the coast. They also took over the remaining interests of other European countries, annexing the Danish Gold Coast in 1850, and the Dutch Gold Coast, including Fort Elmina, in 1871.
Britain steadily expanded its colony through the invasion of local kingdoms as well, particularly the Ashanti and Fante confederacies. The Ashanti people had controlled much of the territory of Ghana before the Europeans arrived, and were often in conflict with them. The Ashanti are the largest ethnic community in Ghana. Four wars, namely the Anglo-Ashanti Wars, were fought between the Ashanti (Asante) and the British, who were sometimes allied with the Fante.
During the First Anglo-Ashanti War (1863–1864), the two groups fought because of a disagreement over an Ashanti chief and slavery. Tensions increased in 1874 during the Second Ashanti War (1873–1874), when the British sacked the Ashanti capital of Kumasi. The Third Ashanti War (1893–1894) occurred because the new Ashanti ruler, Asantehene, wanted to exercise his new title. From 1895–1896, the British and Ashanti fought in the Fourth and final Ashanti War, where the Ashanti fought for and lost their independence. In 1900, the Ashanti Uprising took place, resulting in the British capture of the city of Kumasi and capture of the Golden Stool, Asantehene’s throne. At the end of this last Ashanti War, the Ashanti people became a British protectorate on 1 January 1902.
By 1901, all of the Gold Coast was a British colony, with its kingdoms and tribes considered a single unit. The British exported a variety of natural resources such as gold, metal ores, diamonds, ivory, pepper, timber, grain and cocoa. The British colonists built railways and the complex transport infrastructure which formed the basis for the transport infrastructure in modern-day Ghana. They also built Western-style hospitals and schools to provide modern amenities to the people of the empire.
By 1945, the native population was demanding more autonomy in the wake of the end of the Second World War and the beginnings of the decolonisation process across the world. By 1956, British Togoland, the Ashanti protectorate, and the Fante protectorate were merged with the Gold Coast to create one colony, which became known as the Gold Coast. In 1957 the colony gained independence under the name of Ghana.
First stirrings for Freedom: According to David Koeller, history professor at Chicago’s North Park University, nationalist opposition began to form during the 1920s in the Gold Coast when Great Britain introduced indirect rule to traditional authorities.  But it was during the 1940s that the movement gained momentum after the police opened fire in Accra, the capital of Ghana on a large contingent of former servicemen who were peacefully carrying a petition to the Governor to seek redress of their grievances.
Forming of Political Parties: In August 1947, Koeller says, Joseph Danquah and other leading nationalists founded the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and invited Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, to lead the group’s campaign for representative self-government.
In 1949, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), led by Nkrumah organized workers and farmers for the first time in a mass movement for independent and staged strikes.  A new constitution was introduced by Nkrumah’s government to provide direct election by universal suffrage in 1954. They were opposed   the National Liberation Movement (NLM), led by Kofi Busia and based on the Asante region, who criticized CPP for its limitation on the powers of chiefs.  NLM pushed for the establishment of a federal state with regional governments, while CPP advocated a unitary state.  Another constitution was approved on April 29, 1954, establishing a cabinet comprised of African ministers that were drawn from an all-African legislature chosen by direct election.  In the election, CPP won the majority of seat in the new legislative assembly.
Proposals for Independence: In May 1956, Prime Minister Nkrumah’s Gold Coast government issued a paper containing proposals for Gold Coast independence.  The British government agreed to a firm date for independence when a majority of British Togoland residents voted for unification with an independent Gold Coast.  On March 6, 1957, the state of Ghana, named after the medieval West African empire, became an independent country within the Commonwealth of Nations.
Towards the end of the month, the All African Guyanese Council (AAGC) will launch its Hall of Heroes. The public is invited to nominate their choices by sending their recommendations to commongroundguyana@mail.com.

The AAGC is calling for the public and schools to become involved in the development of historical information that can be put in Guideposts. The Council would like to be contacted by members of the public as it is seeking to write Guideposts on the numerous contributions of African Guyanese to medicine, nursing, teaching, science and sports. Interested persons can call 225-8420.