The RYSE are going to Ghana!
- The RYSE Team
- Aug 28
- 7 min read
Since 2021 The RYSE has been dedicated to making space for young people in the UK to learn how to change the world for the better. Core to this has always been Internationalism and Reparations - connecting Glocally (locally and globally across the world) to build practical learning relationships that repair the harms of colonisation. In this we’ve been honoured to work alongside our siblings and Elders in the ISMAR (International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations) who have taught us a lot about why the world is the way it is and expanded our imaginations of what a truly repaired world would look like.
Our Uncle Kofi is a key UK-based voice in the ISMAR - here he is (left) at a gathering for Ghanaian traditional leaders in 2025 and with us (right) planning this work.
Most people who know us will have heard us talk about this either in our media or during our education as we look to step into the powerful traditions of Internationalism - the abolitionists, Sylvia Pankhurst, the anti-apartheid movement - that has long been a driving force of UK changemaking - and is catching fire again in the UK as people recognise the power of Internationalist relationships for learning about the true nature of our world and building power to transform it. These past 5 years of our existence we have learnt a lot and built strong Internationalist foundations, from which brings us to one of our most exciting projects so far:
(Planet Repairs Action Learning Internationalist Groundings)
A month long Study-Visit to Ghana from the 16th of September 2026 to connect and learn with our siblings - especially those of the Gbetowo community - as we approach next year when 2027 will mark 70 years since Ghana's independence from the British Empire under the leadership of Osegyafo Kwame Nkrumah. This world historic moment saw the first Sub-Saharain nation in Africa free 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 such, on the brink of 70 years we're honoured as The RYSE to be invited by our Ghanaian siblings to join them in asking "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 - who have invited us - have long been championing a Planet Repairs pathway of development for Ghana driven from the grassroots up through Transforming Education, Sustainable Community Initiatives and Traditional Indigenous Leadership
We've already been working on this for 9 months with fortnightly learning circles about the social and economic history and present of Ghana. We've held sessions like a deep dive into the ideology and philosophy of Kwame Nkrumah, known as consciencism, and an exercise where we mapped the districts of Ghana and learnt about the history of the indigenous groups across the country. Plus of course beginning to meet with our siblings, especially the youth of PAYSCOG - the Pan-Afrikan Youth and Student Council of Ghana - who we'll be working directly with on the ground.
Much of this relationship building has happened through one of the core threads of work:
The Planet Repairs Internationalist Grassroots Media Action Learning Training (PRIGMALT)
This program, which is led by our Roma, is sharing our social media, critical journalism and production skills to support more community journalism from young activists across Ghana. The first 3-month long 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. With the study-visit around the corner we're excited to keep building on these skills and you should follow PAYSCOG to keep up to date with all their work!
Screenshots from interview videos conducted by PAYSCOG members as part of the course to
practice citezin's journalism.
And we're very excited to keep developing the other key thread of this work:
Education Beyond the British Empire!
As the RYSE we’re always 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 these imperial beginnings 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!
During the study-visit we'll be grounding with students, educators and communities to understand their current struggles and successes in fighting for and education system that can raise people to repair our world not keep destroying it. Work that must centre local and indigenous knowledge forms - work our Uncle Kofi calls "Cognitive Justice" - if it is to counter the western-centric focus on modern mass schooling. As such, we're honoured that the intentions of this journey are baked into the name of the process - SankofaNunYansa:
SANKOFA - Akan word for "to retrive" and here means “going back to find what we need and learn from the past”
You can read about our previous "Sankofa" actions to recover radical histories of Stroud here!
NUNYA - Gbetwo word for Knowledge
NYANSA - Wisdom (used across lots of West Afrika)
That together mean: “Going back to find the pathway to advance Knowledge into Wisdom” - a depth of meaning that simply couldn't be communicated in English and even if it was wouldn't fit the living nature of Ghana's land and her communities.
It links to one of our favourite quotes from Sven Lindqvist: “You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions.”
This mission is especially important to us at the RYSE where we see knowledge alone as saying “Internationalism is essential for our movement” - something we feel we've got quite good at articulating. But this knowledge only becomes wisdom through practice - through learning on the ground the "how" of practical internationalism - learnings that will inform and improve our educational offering as The RYSE to movements here in the UK where more and more people want to ‘walk the walk’ of true internationalism.
But Why Ghana?
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 denigration of Afrikan indigenous culture, resource and commodities extraction; and hundreds of other brutal acts are the very defintion of DisRepair.
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 independence and forced the conversation of Pan-Afikanism as a key tool against Neo-colonialism onto the world stage did the activists and communities of Britain listen - some, but not enough because of this separation forced between us.
Additionally, we've personally been building and cultivating these relationships with our Ghanaian sibings for years. Keen of eye and strong of memory Friends of the RYSE will remember the study-visit in 2024, when Akorfa Gakpa and Dzigbordi Agbo came and met community members at the Centre for Science and Art in Stroud. They spoke about their ABLODENUNYANSA Communiversity, decolonial education in their indigenous Gbetowo Nation (which spreads across the European imposed colonial borders of various states in West Afrika today) and their engagement in GCEPRA (Global Citizenship Education for Planet Repairs Action) endeavour in Ghana - all projects we'll be visiting and learning more about on the ground!
We’re less than 3 weeks now from our take-off to Ghana and busy with final preparations, plus more excited everyday to finally connect with our siblings in person. We aren’t exactly sure at this point what the specific work going into next year will look like after this visit - that’s why it’s a study-visit - but we’ll be communicating as it unfolds and hosting a community dinner in Stroud on the 21st of October to update everyone!
Follow Along:
If you want to follow our progress, we’ll be posting regular updates to:
Our new Tiktok @the_ryse
On the Blog here - Ghana at 70 category!
Or message us to join our community whatsapp Friends of the RYSE where we'll be posting lots of regular updates and answering questions!
And as always please email with your questions - theryse@riseup.net
And finally,
This work is related to the push from our siblings at PRALER this year for People-to-People's Internationalist Diplomacy - a concept originally outlines and used by Zhou Enlai of the CCP for the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA). It has four main principles:
Our work as peoples compliments and facilitates non-governmental diplomacy
Our work is based in direct friendship between peoples
Our work required resilience and long-term dedication to collaboration
Our work must keep pace with the time and break new grounds
In going on a study-visit, we are seeking to identify and advance places for direct friendship and internationalism between the peoples of the UK, as we seek to face our role in the imperial system, and the peoples of Ghana, as they look towards true decolonisation.
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