President John Dramani Mahama has told the United Nations General Assembly that every human being belongs to the human family, stressing that no race is superior and no nation is inferior.
“I stand before you as President of the Republic of Ghana. Yet, we too often ascend these heights draped only in the robes of our titles, forgetting that alongside each of us stands a history, a people, and a legacy,” President Mahama said in his address at the 81st Session in New York.
He recounted his roots in Damongo, then a modest town in northern Ghana and now capital of the Savannah Region, as son of Mr Emmanuel Adama Mahama of Bole and Madam Abiba Nnaba Suluwu of Busunu, both of blessed memory.
“I belong to them. I belong to the foremothers and forefathers who birthed them, who named them, nurtured them, and passed down the enduring values by which I live,” he stated.
President Mahama said he grew up at the crossroads of several Ghanaian cultures and speaks multiple languages.
“I speak Gonja, a Guan language. I speak Akan and Ga. I am fluent in Hausa, spoken across the West African savannah and Sahel. I understand some Ewe. And I speak English. In a very real sense, I belong to all these peoples because their tongues have become my tongue. Language creates kinship, regardless of the historical complexities through which the kinship was forged,” he said.
He told world leaders that every person possesses an origin and carries inherited memories, values, rich cultures and distinct identities.
“Belonging anchors us; it reminds us that we are part of a human story far larger than ourselves. It is a vital wellspring of dignity and pride. But belonging also has a dark side. When weaponised by political expediency, it transforms into nativism, chauvinism, xenophobia and the dangerous prejudices extended to those who are deemed different. It becomes the pretext for discrimination, displacement, persecution, and war,” he said.
He further stated that “No race is superior. No nation is inferior. No child’s life is worth less because of the language they speak, the faith they profess, the colour of their skin, or the land of their birth.”
“This is the unyielding moral foundation upon which the United Nations must stand,” President Mahama added.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
