GHANA AT 70
Internationalist Solidarity for True Decolonisation
2027 marks 70 years since Ghana's independence from the British Empire under the leadership of Osegyafo Kwame Nkrumah - a world historic moment as the first Sub-Saharain nation in Africa freed itself from Colonial rule - a victory that emboldened decades of independance struggles and victories all across the continent!
However, as Kwame Nkrumah showed in his monumental book "Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism" the process of decolonisation is not smooth and the old masters will keep their hooks into a people and their land as long as possible. As we near 70 years we're honoured as The RYSE to be invited by our Ghanaian siblings to ask "how free really is Ghana? And what use can we be as internationalist allies from Britain in the struggle for True Decolonisation?"
Our Gbetowo Siblings have long been championing a Planet Repairs pathway of development for Ghana driven from the grassroots up through Transforming Education, Sustainable Community Initiatves and Traditional Indigenous Leadership
Step 1 - The Sankofanunyansa-PRALIG
This September (2026) members of the RYSE will be travelling to Ghana for a month long PRALIG (Planet Repairs Action Learning Internationalist Grounding), to link with grassroots organisers, educators and traditional leaders to learn about their work and plans for the 70th anniversary of Ghana’s independence next year. We're honoured to be invited by Elder Kofi Klu and community groups such as the Pan-Afrikan Youth and Student Council of Ghana and will be grounding with them to understand how best to interlink our work in the UK and their's in Ghana.
The intentions of this journey are baked into the indigenous name of the process - SankofaNunYansa:
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SANKOFA - Akan word for “going back to find what we need and learn from the past”
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NUNYA - Gbetwo word for Knowledge
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NYANSA - Wisdom (used across much of West Afrika)
That together mean: “Going back to find the pathway to advance Knowledge into Wisdom”
Where knowledge alone is us saying “Internationalism is essential for our movement”, but only when this is applied in practice can it begin to become wisdom through us actually learning how “Practical Internationalism" operates across contexts as active equal participants in a process of repair.
In essence, this study visit is about the practical ‘how’ not the abstract ‘why’ of Internationalism and we’re honoured to be stepping into this work for the repair of relationships across our communities, among ourselves and with our Mother Earth. We'll be bringing back these learnings to join and support ever more people who want to ‘walk the walk’ of true internationalism here in the UK and continue to work with our siblings to make sure 2027 is a real inflection point in the fight for a truly sovreign Ghana!
---> Read more about the Study-visit and how to follow along here on the full in-depth blog <---
---> And make sure you follow the team's journey on our Tiktok or Instagram <---
Why Ghana?
The UN recently passed a motion brought by Ghana to recognise enslavement of Africans as 'gravest crime against humanity' - of course the UK and other European leading enslavers abstained from the vote...
Since the first British slaving fort was set up in 1631 in Kormantine the relationship between our peoples has been overwhelmingly dominated by British violence and greed. Millions of humans trafficked in horrific conditions, priceless stolen artifacts and treasured culture items; deliberate racist denegration of Afrikan indigenous culture, resource and commodities extraction; and hundreds of other brutal acts are the very defintion of Dis-Repair.
For us, by stepping into this internationalist work we're beginning to walk the path of Repair - of reconnecting as grassroots communities forced onto opposite sides by our Elites and their crimes. This separation has lasted hundreds of years and denied us the chance to work together towards a shared future of collaboration and justice. When Ghana won its independance and forced the conversation of Pan-Afikanism as a key tool against Neo-colonialsm onto the world stage did the activists and communities of Britain listen - some, but not enough because of this seperation forced between us.
Why is Kwame Nkrumah, as a leading freedom fighter against British domination, not read by all those struggling for justice in Britain today? Surely we have much to learn from those who beat the British elite in the past?
In times of global economic, environmental and societal crisis we must think global to understand even local problems - with 400 years of entangled history it is ludicrous to imagine we can understand the problems of modern Britain or Ghana without deep dialogue between us as progressive forces. The Elites and their institutions will never foster this true peoples-to-peoples dialouge so its up to us to step forward and get to work!
Key Areas of Work/Study
PRIGMALT:
Our first key project is the Planet Repairs Internationalist Grassroots Media Action Learning Training (PRIGMALT) is a skillshare and media development programme of collaborative work between the RYSE and the PAYSCOG (Pan-Afrikan Youth and Student Council of Ghana). Led by our Roma we’re sharing our social media, critical journalism skills and production skills to support community journalism from young activists across Ghana. The first program trained 8 young journalists with the second cohort starting soon - all towards putting the power of truth-telling directly into the hands of our siblings on the ground who know the situation and potential solutions the best!
We're really excited for how these trainings will support more young leaders and their communities to join in active internationalist work, sharing their context, keeping allies up to date and promoting Planet Repairs education locally - check out PAYSCOG's social media for all the content coming out at the link here.
Screenshots from interview videos conducted by PAYSCOG members as part of the course to practice local truth-telling
Education Beyond the British Empire:
As the RYSE we’re working to decolonise the British education system because we know it was built as a tool of the Empire and has never really changed from these foundations which consistently put it at odds with our communities and mother earth. But we also know that because of this the "British Education System" is a global system forced on our siblings from India to Jamaica and yes of course in Ghana too. A system that we can't hope to truly understand, let alone transform without working alongside each other to challenge current failings and to imagine more beautiful educational futures where our schools and universities work for the people not the powerful!
Check-out these "myth busting" videos we've been making about the recent MOU signed between Cambridge Uni and the Ghanian Education Department!
And this starts with "Myth-Busting" - especially the myth that education is great in Britain and so our institutions (like Cambridge University) and methods should be seen as world-leading examples or places to learn from. Well we say no! Here in Britain there is growing popular understanding that there are many things wrong with the education system - showing up in mass dissatisfaction with graduates prospects, millions of students classed as "persistently absent", a growing mass of teachers who have quit from stress and many communities feeling they have no say over the direction of school. But around the world our education system is still lauded by the likes of the British Council, hungry to ensure the knowledge of local and indigenous communities is still seen as lesser than the Colonial Schooling of the West.
We'll be working to put the British Education System under the spotlight and promote national/international dialogue and truth telling at all levels about its current failing and efforts to change it - all towards a shared vision of Education beyond the British Empire!
Follow the Project
