Editorial (The Daily Searchlight, April 4, 2022)
In the olden days, the armies of Europe fought behind the banners of their kings. In Africa, in times of war, soldiers were guided by the drumbeats of their camps and chiefs. In both Europe and in Africa, the soldier that strayed away from their banner, or the sound of their drums, tended to end up dead.
In time, significant monuments like flags, standards, coat of arms, and others have stood for the spirit and standards of nations, organizations, and institutions.
Flags, standards, coat of arms, and others represent the history, background and standard by which old achievements were recognized, and are to be cherished.
The report on our front page today (The Daily Searchlight, March 5, 2022) that documentation and correspondence intercepted between the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), and the National Sports Council (NSC) reveal that the four African Cup of Nations won by Ghana, are missing, must be one of the saddest pieces of news reported in modern Ghana, in recent times.
If Ghanaians can lose such cherished national monuments, then Ghanaians are truly lost, and would continue to founder in a soulless and spiritless wilderness of a people who have lost the sound of the drums of home. We can no longer see our national banner, our national standards, and it is sad indeed.
The Ghana Black Stars have won the Africa Cup of Nations four times (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the third most successful team in the contest’s history, along with Cameroon.
However, correspondence intercepted as at April 4, 2022, suggest that all four cups have disappeared without trace.
The last time they were documented was on 17th December, 1991, in the custody of the National Sports Council, ahead of EXPO 91 at Ghana’s International Trade Fair Centre.
To us at the Daily Searchlight, this is a true tragedy of national proportions, and all effort must be made to trace these national assets, and to restore them so that future generations may see the achievements of our forebears, and copy them.
That said, we believe that the time may have come for the GMMB to start collecting memorabilia from recent tournaments engaged in by our Black Stars, and other national figures, so that future generations may also come to enjoy them.
For now, we are losing our history at an alarming rate, and the consequence would be that future generations would also be lost as to guidance on how our leaders did it in the past.
(To be continued).
