Ghana Quotes

“Surely, there's strength in being dressed for a storm, even when there's no storm in sight?”
― Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

“Productivity is about turning valuable inputs into valuable outputs. Individual people are more productive when all the elements of the permaculture economy are at work in their lives. When individuals are productive, then businesses become productive. When businesses become productive, the nation becomes productive.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“My parents are not special people, they’re ordinary, and one of my problems is that I’m expecting perfection from ordinary people. They’re not saints or masters of knowledge just people, people who have children, which, last time I checked, required no proficiency test. People who continue to make mistakes, attempt to learn from them and repeat, until death.”
― Jessica George, Maame

“In order to retain money in savings, you have to feel in your subconscious mind that you deserve to keep the money.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“I think about how the language I’ve mourned never learning has on some levels already been taught. A language I thought too difficult to warrant effort has already embedded itself into me.”
― Jessica George, Maame

“People tend to buy more at a lower price and less at a higher price. Also, people who produce goods or supply services tend to produce more at higher prices and less at lower prices. This juxtaposition constitutes equilibrium.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“There is a lot of money in Africa. There’s a lot of value being created by the people of Africa, from Egypt to Ghana to Zambia and everywhere in between. Ideas are flowing from African minds, innovations are emerging from African intellect, African businesses are providing solutions and valuable products and services. We are seeing it now and we will see it even more as the century progresses. As an investor, I’m putting big bets on Africa.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“Education is no barometer for superstition”
― Karen Palmer, Spellbound: Inside West Africa's Witch Camps

“Youth is the backbone of nation-building.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“If I’d realised how much that pressure would build inside me, the slow descent into a dull existence, days blemished with concern for my dad and whether I’m looking after him properly — well, I would have stayed out late some nights, lost my virginity at sixteen instead of still having it, developed a fondness for alcohol, sat at bars, smoked weed, danced at clubs, and turned strangers into friends.”
― Jessica George, Maame

“Cups and Rings and Drawings.

I stopped by a famed park,
Picked a blank sheet
And drew a cup.

For me, it represented me holding myself up in a storm,
It represented the start of life,
Something to pour out every lesson learnt
Out of every misfortune we’ve ever been.
The cup — the container to hold chocolate drink
Water. Wine and strawberries.

I drew a ring,
A marriage between blessing and joy
The bloom of flowers in spring
The sprouting of leaves in midsummer
And the smell of fresh grasses at night.

I drew Monalisa
I painted art
I became Michaelangelo
Da Vinci
I became the Renaissance
I healed through art

“Don’t you know that you are gods?”

So the first day,
I cleared the storms out of my life.
The second day,
I dried all my tears
The third day,
I reinvented myself.
The fourth day,
I finally remembered what it felt like to be happy
Like two children drawing arts on a canvass.
Delilah & Annabelle
Arts curled out of girls trying to reinvent the world
Or the colours of the rainbow.
The fifth day,
I opened the windows wide
To let the lights shine in.
“When I’m down on my knees you’re how I pray.”
The sixth day
I created my favourite masterpiece — Baroque.
The seventh day,
I admired myself in the mirror.

I missed me
I missed the time I had so much optimism
I miss you
And I miss writing so innocently.”
― J.Y. Frimpong

“This is one of the things I love about Ghana, it allows you, if you want, to learn so much, because regularly, people are unhelpful and if you turn it around so it’s of benefit to you, you learn a lot. I couldn’t find anyone who would cartoon for me, so I spent six months, often up to fifteen hours a day, teaching myself and creating cartoons that would work for me.”
― Alba Kunadu Sumprim

“May this marriage be blessed with leaves and fruits like the date tree;May this marriage be laughing forever, today, tomorrow, like the hours of paradise.”
― Nana Adu-Boafo Jnr

“Rawlings himself had never taken a hard line against the Bretton-Woods institutions. As explained earlier, he had never really taken an ideological position. It appeared that all along, what he was looking for was what was in the best interest of Ghana; what would work for Ghana.”
― Kwamena Ahwoi

“Maybe fear is not an accurate word to describe the awe in which some of Rawlings’ appointees held him. The fact is his personality was over-powering and one needed a certain courage just to be in his presence.”
― Kwamena Ahwoi, Working with Rawlings

“There is nothing lacking in the land.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“The glory of the youth is their strength. In a country, where the youth are deprived of work, what a waste of valuable human resources.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Don't say GOOD MUSIC when you come to Ghana, say NdwomPa.”
― DJ Tizo gh

“Am hot not because i'm in problem...Ghana sunlight dense.”
― DJ Tizo gh

“He'd been to Ghana once, when he was little, and all he remembered about that trip was heat and a man with no teeth his grandmother had haggled with at an open-air market. Africa didn't feel familiar to him, with too many differences--and it would be too far away from Dad. Too far away from his whole world.”
― Tannarrive Due

“Building of the country lies on work force of the youth while harnessing the wisdom of elderly people.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“The progress of this country relies on hard-working discipline citizens.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Anansi, your four gifts raised to Nyame grant you no power over the stories I tell, stories that build like dew, alerting you but creating no music when they drop onto the drums of our sky. Take my ‘gift ’, words bound in time, directly to him and tell me if his features betray recognition or sorrow.”
― Derek Owusu, That Reminds Me

“I would be the first to caution against falling for any man who comes bearing the visible signs of humility on their foreheads, wearing white, and posing for photos with their hands in front of them like pious Catholics queuing for the Holy Communion. Even if they speak with the softer version of Archbishop Palmer-Buckle's voice, it is not enough to fall for their "humility".”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“Civil society organisations in Ghana historically align with the NPP. The NDC's revolutionary background and the unrepentant attitude of some PNDC descendants made it almost impossible for the NDC to successfully court the affection of Ghana's media and civil society when it was formed.”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“These and many other attacks on journalists and media houses in the Akufo-Addo era silenced some journalists. Even the most critical media houses are now cautious. Self-censorship is the new normal, and journalists who have a negative story or opinion about the government would first consider their safety before deciding to publish”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“An activist who protested with Akufo-Addo in the Rawlings era, Charles Wereko-Brobbey, thinks Akufo-Addo's presidency has been worse than the Rawlings regime…. . In an interview for this book, Wereko-Brobbey said the things he said and wrote in the Rawlings era and went home without ever being arrested would have got him in serious trouble in the Akufo-Addo presidency.”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“Some MPs however told me in separate interviews that bribery and cash inducements were a common feature of Ghana's Parliament.”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“He however admitted making intermittent calls to the Chief of Staff when members of the Appointment Committee approached him with demands for "motivation".
"I'd call the Chief of Staff and say, Our members have sat, and they're demotivated. You expect us to sit for long hours and finish, so you'll have your government quickly. Can you motivate members?' They [the Chief of Staff] would say, 'Okay, how many are they?' Then they would bring in money for members.”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got

“Mr. Boakye Antwi said the nature of Ghana's constitution made it almost impossible to hold the president and government accountable. He said MPs of the governing party must support the government in everything or get into trouble.
"If your party is in office, you cannot go against the government.
MPs are here like robots. You have to support the government, whether it is right or wrong. The party is weak when it comes to the government because nobody can tell the President what to do. It applies to both parties, not just the NPP. The Constitution has given the President far too much power, and we don't have powerful institutions to check the President. CHRAJ, Supreme Court and all those institutions are appointed by the President. And as an MP, once you disagree with the President, they will unseat you.”
― Manasseh Azure Awuni, The President Ghana Never Got