Goats and Soda : NPR

On my first Fourth of July in the US, I awoke within the morning, stretched and realized that my spouse was nonetheless in mattress.

I requested if she was going to work. She stated, “Oh, do not you realize right this moment is July Fourth?”

I seemed via our window. Nearly everyone in Fernley, Nevada, the city the place we lived, was on their option to Fundamental Road with chairs, umbrellas, drinks and snacks.

I used to be confused. What have been they going to have a good time? I used to be curious, too, so I bought our camp chairs and headed out to affix our neighbors. That is when my spouse advised me what was happening: “July Fourth is America’s Independence Day.”

I jumped out of my seat! This could not be true. Who might have colonized a terrific nation like America?

I believed colonization solely occurred in Africa, the place I grew up. I did not imagine her.

That was in 2014 — the 12 months I came upon that America was as soon as a British colony, similar to my native Ghana.

I’ve had the privilege of seeing two methods of celebrating independence — and alongside the best way have given a variety of thought to what independence actually means.

America’s fireworks: thoughts blown!

In Nevada, throughout my first Independence Day, we sat on the sidewalk, listened to drummers set the beat and watched the parade of extraordinary residents, veterans, Native People in conventional garb, college students. They marched and waved the American flag. Some have been on horses, others in slow-moving vehicles and others on foot.

Later that night I watched the fireworks broadcast on TV from Washington D.C. It was mind-blowing. I had by no means seen something like this!

As I seemed on the crowd gathered within the nation’s capital, I noticed not solely America but additionally the world. Each race, each ethnicity was current. Certainly, America is residence to the world, and to me, its best magnificence lies in its range.

Ghana’s celebration: Stress and soda

In Ghana, independence was, a minimum of for us youngsters, a worrying time but additionally a time for enjoyable. Our independence got here not that way back – on March 6, 1957. The three weeks previous to the celebration, college students at my faculty — and at colleges throughout the nation — would follow our marching. A drummer performed the drums loudly to set the marching rhythm, and we youngsters would line as much as begin marching, repeating the phrases “left,” “proper,” “benkum,” “nifa,” [in the local Twi language].

Lecturers made positive all of us raised our left and proper legs on the identical time so we marched in unison – and yelled at us and typically caned us if we did not. This coaching would go on for about 3 weeks; one of the best pupil marchers have been chosen to signify the varsity within the Independence Day marching competitors within the district capital, Kwame Danso.

In 2002, after I was 14, I used to be chosen to signify my faculty within the march however provided that I might get a faculty uniform. My household could not afford to purchase me one. Fortunately, a good friend lent me his. With pleasure, I washed the uniform, and the night earlier than the march, joined my different buddies on the marching group. Sharing one iron, we pressed our faculty uniforms. I couldn’t sleep for the anticipation I felt.

By 6 a.m. college students from all the realm colleges had gathered on the massive soccer discipline at Kwame Danso, the district capital. Underneath scorching solar and humid climate, we sweated and waited. After a number of hours, the district chief govt (DCE) and his entourage arrived. One after the other, groups from every faculty marched. As we method the DCE, our pupil chief shouts, “saaaaaalute!”

Every faculty group had 5 to 10 minutes to indicate their expertise. Authorities officers judged us on how nicely we marched (and dressed). I hoped we’d be among the many winners. We gained second place and obtained a brand new wall clock for our faculty.

After which got here one of the best a part of the day for my buddies and me: We every got a bottle of Coca-Cola.

For a few of us this was one of many few occasions within the 12 months that we bought to style soda aside from Christmas and Easter.

Within the night, we gathered on the pastor’s home to look at the one TV within the village — a small black and white set powered by a automobile battery. We would watch the marching competitors within the capital metropolis of Accra and see the recorded speech by our “osagyefo” – our savior — Kwame Nkrumah, who had helped lead Ghana to independence in 1957.

In his Independence Day speech Nkrumah acknowledged that the independence of Ghana is meaningless “until it’s linked up with the overall liberation of Africa.”

Ghana’s unbiased … but dependent

Nkrumah was criticized for his authoritarian fashion and financial misfires; he was finally ousted as president. However I feel again to his phrases and ponder whether Ghana — and Africa — are actually unbiased. Many initiatives in Ghana, starting from the development of roads and colleges to the supply of vaccines and fertilizer, rely on overseas help. The place is our independence once we rely on overseas help for our fundamental requirements? We have to begin considering of independence as a continuing battle. In some methods, we aren’t but really unbiased.

And after I take into consideration that assertion from Nkrumah, I take into consideration the nation the place I now reside. I have been struck by the indignant phrases and bodily assaults aimed toward folks due to their race, their gender, their spiritual affiliation. I’m wondering if all People right this moment share the ideology within the Declaration of Independence: “…that all males are created equal, that they’re endowed by their Creator with sure unalienable Rights, that amongst these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

However on July 4, I want to be an optimist. Although independence takes a variety of work – and is a piece in progress for nations each previous and new — it’s a second to savor. In order I watch the spectacular fireworks and marvel on the range of America’s crowds, I additionally bear in mind how independence might be present in small pleasures — like marching for my nation as a boy and ingesting that cherished bottle of soda.

George Mwinnyaa grew up in Ghana and now lives in Alaska together with his spouse and two sons. In Might, he graduated with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins College, Bloomberg College of Public Well being. He at the moment works for UNICEF and lives in Alaska together with his household.