Who Is the First-Class Ghanaian?

When author Albin Akansake was a young, orphaned boy from a northern tribe of Ghana, he was adopted by an Ashanti family in the south, bitter rivals to the tribe of the north. The verbal abuse and bigotries expressed about his new tribe drove Albin to such deep shame that he began to hide from who he was, believing that his adopted tribe was superior to the tribe of his birth.

Later, as a student at Ghana's University for Development Studies, Albin was shocked and disturbed by the culture surrounding school elections. In many cases, students supported candidates based entirely on tribal affiliations, ignoring other qualities or even deficiencies. That's when Albin realized that something was seriously wrong with his nation's internal politics.

Ghana is a divided nation. Tribes rival each other bitterly, and their rivalry is further perpetual zed by aspiring government officials seeking to use each tribe's negative feelings for one another for their own political advantage. In his remarkably insightful critique, author Albin Akansake explores tribalism and the ethnocentric world view, considering the ways in which they are used to keep the peoples of the world bitter and divided.