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Opinion

Asantehene’s progressive philosophy

The significance of Asantehene (King), Otumfuo Osei Tutu II's years-long 10th anniversary festivity on his ascension to the Asanteman Golden Stool goes beyond the remarkable cultural displays, the high sounding speeches, the need to deepen the Ghanaian democracy, and the bestowing of honours on persons deemed to have contributed to Ghana and human progress. At the deeper developmental level, the Asantehene, over the past 10 years, has exhibited what is inadequate in Ghana's and Africa's progress - firm confidence and psychology, fully grasp of the interplay between Ghanaian traditional values and the global neo-liberal ones as progress performances. At the philosophical level, the Asantehene's 10th anniversary also reflects the gradual emergence of a new progress philosophy that attempts to blend or juggle the traditional with the neo-liberal, with equal respect and dignity, where the traditional work with the neo-liberal in resolving the contradictions within the development process as means of pushing the frontiers of Ghana's progress. The Asantehene is here exuding understanding for motivation, against pressure to progress, that is in short supply, in Ghana's progress. The thinking here is that you can't adequately develop Ghana without factoring in its traditional values, in all moral considerations, as Botswana will tell you, that have served as the basis for meaning and value for the 56 ethnic groups that form Ghana, most of whom still function traditionally, for more than a thousand years. To do that, as the Asantehene is attempting to avoid, is to lose any hardcore traditional perspectives on Ghanaian progress, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth that emanates from within the Ghanaian culture as part of the global prosperity act. Whether from his projects, in concert with global development agencies such as the World Bank, such as the Otumfuo Osei Tutu Charity Foundation that attempts to tackle the nitty-gritty of local economic problems using traditional mechanisms or using traditional methods to resolve modern conflicts, the Asantehene, over the past ten years, has been able to rationalize from within the Ghanaian culture, and practicalize his thinking that durable progress will occur fully by playing with the two values any time it is necessary. In the Asantehene, the Ghanaian culture, as development fodder, isn't alienated but used as bridge between the traditional and the neo-liberal (that heavily runs Ghana still), thus making the Asantehene the tunnel for balanced progress based on his enormous credence. The German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche argued that the privilege class, or in Africa the "Big Man," have the luxury of thinking or contemplating about progress issues because they aren't part of the struggling class that do not have the comfort and time to contemplate. By his station and immense gravitas, the Asantehene has the luxury to contemplate about how to play with the development values running Ghana, using his ancient Manhyia Palace as laboratory. The Asantehene becomes the master player of the traditional and the neo-liberal. But as the master player, the Asantehene operates from his deep grasp of the Ghanaian traditional values, appropriating the good parts while attempting to refine the inhibiting ones. Part of Asantehene's luxury in using his Manhyia Palace to brew an enhanced and balanced Ghanaian development values is his vast contacts with academia, civil society, traditional institutions, bureaucrats, journalists, "Big Men/Women, international institutions, and ordinary people. The Asantehene can easily lobby the National House of Chiefs, currently toothless and the key convergence of the Ghanaian cultural values, as a rallying cry in his new progress thinking - it will be part of the awakening of traditional institutions and values for progress.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.