Somewhere around 1460, when the first Europeans (the Portuguese) touched down at Edina (Elmina) on the Gold Coast, the local Fante community was divided, concerning the real intentions of the strange white men.
While some were ready to give the Portuguese land to build a local base, others no doubt warned that the strangers could not be trusted.
But, as is common in Ghana to this day, the gullible pacifists, seeking to please the white strangers above their own interests, won. So land was generously granted to the Portuguese to build their fortified castle at Elmina, between 1478 and 1482.
Well, the rest, as they say, is history. Over the next two centuries, unknown millions of locals were enslaved and shipped to the West Indies and the Americas, using the same castles and forts the natives had so naively allowed on their soil.
An indicator of our dear ancestors' friendly disposition, is the fact that the Elmina Castle was the first permanent European structure on mainland Africa.
Of the 49 slave forts and castles on the West African coast stretching from Senegal to the Cameroons, a staggering 43 are located in present-day Ghana alone. No other demographic in West Africa, was as naively welcoming and accommodating, as those living on the Gold Coast. Fact.
This reveals a gullible, obliging softness by our ancestors, in seeking to please the foreigner, and thinking that the White strangers could have no ill intentions. Yet, the Europeans took advantage of our ancestors' hospitality in the worst possible way, enslaving and oppressing them for centuries.
Fast forward to the present day, and we can detect our soft ancestors' direct descendants in our midst. They boast about our traditional hospitality to strangers, and are intolerant about any vigilant gatekeeping by the citizenry.
Meanwhile, in their zeal to please foreigners, they remain clueless about the creeping threats to our national sovereignty. They have not learnt any lessons from our history, and how our blanket hospitality opened the doors to our gradual domination by colonizers.
Incredibly, these 'sheeple' naïvely presume that even unruly foreigners with a global reputation for lawlessness and fraud, cannot possibly mean any harm in Ghana, though they have been driven out of several countries.
Are we so gullible?
Another immigrant demographic from the Far East, notorious for destroying our water bodies through mining, has incredibly been given the leeway to build large enclaves within Ghana, where their own language and home currency is exclusively used.
Are we even serious as a nation?
At a time when every serious country is placing strict limits on immigration, in order to keep out undesirables and protect national security, Ghana has left her borders wide open to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
It beggars belief, that to some Ghanaians, this reckless negligence of the national interest, equates "hospitality". Yet, even the Bible makes it clear in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, that "There is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing". Our leaders do not seem to have received the memo.
Mind you, hospitality to strangers is actually a good thing. However, it must never come at the expense of our national security, and social stability. And both Eastern and Western nations understand this very well.
Alas, it is 1478 all over again. We are still embracing every stranger, regardless of their ulterior motives, and giving them a piece of Ghana to build their exclusive enclaves.
What could possibly go wrong, apart from the gradual loss of our national sovereignty?
