God Bless My Homeland

I galloped along with my grand mother through the bushes to the river side to wash and fetch water for the household early in the mornings. I was 6 years old.

Sometimes I bathed my grand father’s sheep in the rivers and find them pasture. Other times I stayed on his farm to drive away fowls from picking sow corn. The neighbors’ mango plantation was a recreational centre for my peers and me as we plunged mangoes and played.

As we moved to the city, I had a different experience and perception of land. As a Primary School girl land meant different to me as I sang our national anthem passionately.

“God bless our homeland Ghana,
And make our nation great and strong,
Bold to defend forever

I did not fully understand the words and the phrases they touched me strongly and I felt connected to my Country.

Land means my home land-Ghana; my country of meaningful color, strong connection and rich culture.

The red color in our flag represent the blood of our fore father’s shed for our independence, the yellow represent our mineral wealth, green symbolizes the country’s rich forest and the black star means hope for Africa.

Land is the sacred matter that holds my feet on this life journey on earth, feeds my stomach with its fruits, eyes with its beautiful nature, nose with its sweet smells, my ears with the chirping of the birds.

From childhood till now land means life and friendship to me and preserving mother land is a sacred responsibility.