Moving around Ghana’s room: Path to unity

Ghana is often praised for its peace and unity, a story we hear in schools and at national events.

But beneath this, divisions run deep.

Politics splits families, religion divides neighbours and debates over tradition versus change tear communities apart. 

During elections, supporters of the two dominant parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), tout successes, such as, economic growth, good roads, improved healthcare and jobs. Each side calls the other’s claims lies.

So, I wonder: what if no one side holds the truth about Ghana? 

A roundtable political discussion watched on TV before the 2024 elections saw an NPP communicator highlighting GDP growth and infrastructure successes chalked, and his NDC counterpart refuting all claims.

Shockingly, both had facts to back their claims, while accusing the other of twisting the truth. I, for one, was left confused, not convinced.

Ghana’s political history offers some similarities. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first leader, championed a unified vision, but branded those who disagreed with his viewpoint as “colonial stooges”.

By 1964, he had abolished opposition parties, incarcerating dissenters like J.B. Danquah under the Preventive Detention Act, all in the name of stability.

Jerry Rawlings promised to fight corruption, but used executions in 1979 and detentions in the 1980s to silence dissent. 

These divisions are beyond politics.

Christians profess Jesus is the only way; Muslims say it is Allah.

Each claims their faith is the ultimate truth. 

To some, the patriarchy is a force for stability, while others call it oppressive.

Neither listens to the other.

On culture, some celebrate blending Ewe, Ashanti and Ga traditions into one Ghanaian identity.

Others worry this erases our roots, pointing to Europe’s struggles with immigration as a warning. 

The goal has always been the same: make one truth win and silence the other.

As a philosophy student, I read Bertrand Russell, a British thinker who tackled this idea.

He looked at a simple table and asked: What is its real colour?

In sunlight, it was light brown; in shadow, it looked darker.

Its shape seemed rectangular from one angle, different from another.

Russell realised that what you see depends on where you stand and acting like your view is the only truth is a mistake.

Truth, he said, comes from combining different perspectives.

Thus, Russell gave us a way forward.

He said what we call reality may never be known because it changes depending on your view—colour and shape shift with your position.

Russell did not say everyone must agree — that will be impossible; instead, he said to “move around the room” — see through the prism of other people’s experiences.

It is only through this that a well-functioning, realist society can exist.

Imagine an NPP member asking an NDC supporter, “Why do you trust your policy?” — not to fight, but to learn.

Picture a pastor and an imam talking about their beliefs or a feminist and a traditionalist discussing why equality or heritage matters.

You do not have to agree, just listen.

This builds humility, which we need in our discourse.

This practice is not new to Ghana.

There are various examples of ‘moving round the room’.

Both the Majority and Minority caucuses of Parliament argue, but find a compromise.

Chiefs settle land disputes by hearing everyone out.

It is not easy, but it works. 

In fact, Russell never solved the table’s true colour, but he taught us that no one has all the truth.

Let us move around Ghana’s room and build unity. 

The writer is a Level 200 Student, 
University of Ghana.