🇬🇭 69 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE: A Reflection from Eʋe Ɖukɔ

Opening Proclamation — In the Name of Eʋe Ɖukɔ

On 6 March, the state now known as Ghana commemorates the historic Ghanaian Independence, when the former Gold Coast and British Togoland were brought together into a single nation.

For many, this moment represents triumph over colonial rule. Yet for the Eʋe people (whose homeland stretches across what are now Ghana, Togo and Benin), that same history also carries a deeper question: 

An independence that divided families and ancestral lands must be examined with honesty.

Today, one question echoes beneath the celebration: is Ghana truly "independent", or still "in dependent" - separated only by a single space, but defined by the reality of political freedom alongside enduring colonial structures?

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The Unfinished Story of Independence

The birth of modern Ghana was shaped by the 1956 British Togoland plebiscite, which determined that British Togoland would integrate with the Gold Coast as independence approached.

This decision created the nation that exists today, led at independence by Kwame Nkrumah, whose vision inspired liberation movements across Africa.

Yet the historical context is often simplified. Long before colonial rule, Eʋe communities existed across a continuous cultural landscape along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, between the Volta River and Mono River through to Dahomey. European partition and later geopolitical decisions fragmented that landscape, leaving one people separated by borders that did not originate from their own institutions.

The result was not only political change but cultural disruption; families divided, histories reorganized, and ancestral territories absorbed into modern state boundaries.

Recognizing these realities does not weaken Ghana. It strengthens the nation’s understanding of itself. A mature country must be able to confront the full complexity of its birth.

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Independence and the Question of Sovereignty

Nearly seven decades after independence, the deeper challenge remains.

Across much of Africa, political independence did not immediately dismantle the economic and intellectual systems inherited from colonial rule. Many nations, including Ghana, continue to operate within global structures shaped long before independence arrived.

Resources often leave the continent in raw form while value is added elsewhere. Education systems frequently prioritize foreign frameworks over indigenous knowledge. Cultural confidence struggles under the weight of narratives that once dismissed African systems of thought.

These realities reveal a difficult truth: independence is not a finished moment in history; it is a continuing process.

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Closing Call to Consciousness - A Message from Eʋe Ɖukɔ

Independence must be measured not only by annual anniversaries, but by sovereignty of mind, culture, and economy.

For the Eʋe people and for all peoples within Ghana, the future depends on strengthening language, history, and indigenous knowledge while building economic systems that serve the land and its people.

Only when cultural confidence and economic self-determination stand beside political freedom will the nation truly embody the meaning of independence.

Until then, the question remains open - not to divide, but to awaken.

This reflection is offered in the name of Eʋe Ɖukɔ.

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Final Reflection

An independence that divides a people and preserves colonial structures is not the end of history - it is the beginning of a deeper struggle for true sovereignty.

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Written by:

~ Tɔgbɛŋlɔ Amlima Mawuvi

With Endorsement from:

- Eʋe Ɖukɔ

- ŊZILA Foundation

- Be Afrikan Now (BAN)