What's your view on this?
Lena Mansah Barnes
Autism in Ghana
By Abdulkadir Khalif
Ghana is a West African country neighboring Nigeria. It was a British colony until 1956 when it became the first sub-Saharan African country to attain independence from colonialism. The only other Black African countries which were free at that time were Liberia in West Africa and Ethiopia in the east. Together, those three countries encouraged and finally succeeded in freeing the rest of Africa. Ghana has had a turbulent history starting from time when its first president Kwame Nkurumah was overthrown by a military junta that ruled Ghana until very recently. Ghana has produced very prominent politicians and statesmen, the most famous of whom is Kofi Annan the last Secretary General of the United Nations.
Ghanaians are among the most educated Africans today, and Ghana as a country is considered by many to be a shining example in economic stability, political maturity and as a leader in intra-African affairs. It is also amongst the least corrupt in West Africa maybe because unlike Nigeria it has not been devastated by oil exploration and exploitation and thus escaped all the corruption that goes with such economic trends. Today Ghana is an island of peace in a turbulent region of Africa.
Ghana’s peace and development brought with it all the “perks” that come with that status. It has a sophisticated physical infrastructure and academic institutions it can be proud of. Ghana is self-reliant in food and is the home for the beverage called cocoa. Earlier in its history, Ghana’s children were devastated by a disease called kwashakor. The people of Ghana described it as “the disease the old baby gets when a new baby is born.” Scientists have since given it a new name – malnutrition.
I am not surprised that autism is in Ghana.
I expect Ghanaians to be proactive in the fight against autism. In many parts of Africa, diseases generally are still view as some form of a curse, especially when its cause cannot be easily determined by a doctor. Voodoo is big business especially in West Africa, and it does not matter how wealthy or educated one is. But as in every society there are people who will confront and fight local beliefs, biases and prejudices. Autism advocates in Ghana are representatives of such groups. But let it not be forgotten that those afflicted by this disease are inevitably the affluent and the educated in any society, because of their beliefs and trust in chemical medicines.
Abdulkadir Khalif
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