Alienation. Reification. Inversion. These are thought processes identified by the great German thinker, Karl Marx, as sequentially constituting an integrated process that leads to mystified thinking. The author of the article, 'Change the Black Star', Daily Graphic of March 20, 2008, has specialised in that mode of thinking which he constantly inflicts on the Ghanaian conscience. Let's demystify this mystification. Alienation is the process whereby in some human thinking the predicate or object of a subject is removed (that is, alienated) from that subject and accorded an independent existence. For instance, in the statement 'Kwame Nkrumah is great' the predicate 'great' is alienated from the subject in a statement like 'Greatness kissed Kwame Nkrumah' - so that that which is the attribute achieves majestic independence. This independence is even enhanced by investing the predicate with an active principle: this is the process of reification. By this process, that which has no power is endowed with power or energy - thus, an attribute like being great is now asserted to affect its subject in one way or the other in a determinate fashion. Yes, in a determinate fashion: hence completing the dialectic through this process of inversion. By this latter is meant the reversal of roles whereby that which is the predicate or object of the subject, becomes the subject of the subject which now becomes the predicate. This ends the mystification. In the light of the above, what do we make of the author's assertion that "When we consciously choose a symbol, we transfer to it all the natural and human attributes that we have, infusing it, as it were, with ... numinous power"? He is saying that if you choose a stone, for instance, and accord it your attributes (predicates) which it then comes to symbolise you have given it an active power over yourself. The collection of predicates (the symbol) can now determine your destiny. Alienation! Reification! Inversion! To illustrate his meaning further he confusedly says this about the fetish priest: "When the fetish priest erects an image for his god at his shrine, and begins to libate to it, and perform other rites, he transfers to that inanimate object some power, and the object begins to respond to his thoughts and commands and, in time, starts to direct him, in response to his faith in that object". Poor show. The gentleman who pretends to be very knowledgeable in matters of religion does not appear to realise that the fetish priest does not divest himself of any of his attributes but submits himself to an active principle (spirit) which enjoys its own primordial independence. The erected image symbolises the spirit but not the collection of the priest's own human attributes. What is active here is not the image but the spirit ("his god") which responds to and directs the fetish priest. The example is bad and diversionary. But it is this confusion which combines contradictory phenomena in the thought of the author that conditions his uninformed positions on the Black Star. No Ghanaian accords the Black Star any human attributes. So that even if the author's arguments are valid, the necessary condition for the Black Star to be active or influential in our lives as a nation is obviously missing in the equation. A symbol, as a predicate or object, is as inert as the material used to fashion it. It is nonetheless a very useful object of identification. The presence of the Black Star anywhere in the world only indicates to us a Ghanaian presence. The presence of the Black Star in a continental football tournament may inspire fear or reverence in the hearts of the opposing nations not for any belief that the Black Star as such has any power of its own to determine who wins the tournament but rather knowledge of what the people (Ghanaians) whose symbol it is can do with the ball. Having discussed the author's inversed mode of thinking, which dabbles in mystification, it becomes necessary to address the substantive issue of colour. In spite of his claim that black connotes death, evil and all that is negative, our learned author says that "Black, as a colour, absorbs all other colours into itself ... " As a teenager, we were told by A. E. K. Appiah that "Black is rich". Consciously or unconsciously we have since had great respect for that black star. Human societies all over the world ascribe meanings to words and colours according to their own circumstances and understanding. Sometimes one gets confused about some words and colours. Our august author says that "In Ghana, our funeral cloths of black are used on occasions of death". If you are a regular at Ghanaian funerals you are likely to observe that funeral cloths of white and of red are also used on occasions of death. In fact, we learn that in Guinea, the funeral cloth is white. There, white is the colour for sadness, evil, experience of tragedy. In Lome, Togo, the surname of a prominent family is Toto. A Ga indigene in Ghana would certainly violently resist his daughter being married into a family where she would later be known and called Mrs Toto. Yet, Togolese who marry into that family would feel proud and honoured being called Madame Toto but never Madame Koto which is a Japanese name. The point has to do with the meaning attached to the term/word in the particular society. The founder of the Ghanaian nation-state, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, inspired by the ideals of the Pan African Movement of black people all over the world, certainly saw the awakening of the long oppressed Black race. This awakening he envisioned as a rising star, the movement of black people making itself felt in the comity of nations. It is that movement that he captures as the Black Star (the awakening and rising of the black people) by adoption from Marcus Garvey. There is no suggestion anywhere that he ever asserted the existence of a celestial black star. And woe unto whoever might be tempted to assert the existence of a celestial white star! For, the celestial star is brighter than white and no other colour approximates to it in intensity. It is only an unjustifiably agitated author filled with dislike to the brim who claims for Osagyefo the assertion of an existing celestial black star and by extension the existence of white, gold, green or blue star. Yes, "symbols are more than they seem, carrying some awesome loads" which, we say, are only attributes of the subjects they represent - nothing more. It is not the Swastika as such that evokes fear in the Jewish heart but rather the presence of what evil the Nazi, whose symbol the Swastika is, can visit upon a less careful Jew in a dark spot. The sight of the Swastika indicates a Nazi presence. By itself the Swastika is powerless and cannot affect an ant just as the fetish priest's image is powerless though the active principle that it symbolises is potent - a potency that cannot, however, stand the power of God! Let the Black Star therefore remain unchanged. It symbolises the awakening and movement of the black race to assert itself in the comity of nations. It is not a symbolisation of any presumed black celestial star shining indiscriminately upon humanity and its environs and invested with negative human predicates enabling it to influence the nation. Wherever the Black Star appears, let the vibrant spirit of the quest for world peace and racial equality and excellence be felt and pursued. Will the offending author say 'Amen'? Source: T. Kodjo-Ababio Nubuor/Daily Graphic