Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lectures
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Item “Yen Ara Asaase Ni" Remix - Tuning Up the Contribution of Law in the Ghana we Desire.(University of Ghana, 2023-04-27) Mensa-Bonsu, H.J.A.NThis second Lecture focuses on the constitutional framework in general, and issues arising thereunder, in particular. Through the lens of state-resilience, I share ideas on some constitutional issues that have featured in public discourse this past decade. As advocacy and agitations for constitutional review have increased in tempo, so has the need to address the average citizen’s appreciation of the issues at stake. For this reason, I discuss the nature of a constitution, its purpose, and its beneficiaries; and also reflect on the challenges our ethnic, religious and class diversity pose for us in our efforts to build one nation out of these many peoples. I then highlight the basic underpinnings of our Constitution, such as the principles of the rule of law and how these support state-resilience. I also discuss the citizen’s duties and note that it is the part of the bargain of democracy that is much less popular than its converse: rights. I make the point that sustaining constitutionalism and democratic governance is not just about enjoying human rights, but also about performing reciprocal duties, such as honouring one’s tax obligations. Finally, I also examine issues that are pertinent to some categories of vulnerable citizens - the aged and persons with disability - towards whom we have a duty of humanity. Such persons require more support of the State, and from the State, to enjoy their human rights – a fact which the Constitution itself recognises with appropriate provisions. Is the State doing enough in this regard, beyond passing a Disability Act? Are State agencies doing their utmost to assure their welfare? I conclude with the position that the Constitution, even in its current state, is capable of serving its purposes as it has done these thirty past years. However, Constitutions do not implement themselves and so we must do our part, first to sustain its integrity, and then support its institutions to deliver on their mandate, so that, harnessing the technologies of our time, the State can continue to play its role in providing a fulfilling life for all its citizens.Item "We are Watchers of a Beacon, Whose Light Must Never Die" - Contemporary Musings on the March from the Ghana we have, to the Ghana we Desire(University of Ghana, 2023-04-26) Mensa-Bonsu, H.J.A.NResilience’ is the capacity to withstand stress and return to one’s shape after being stretched. In today’s world, it means a state or institution’s capacity to withstand threats to its survival, and even to thrive in difficult terrain. The myriad of challenges facing the state in these times require a measure of state resilience purposefully cultivated and intentionally nurtured. Ghana’s current state is the Ghana we have. Our dream of what Ghana could be, is the Ghana desire. In between these two states, are the threats either in our neighbourhood or from within, which could affect even what we have, and derail our march to the Ghana we desire. In this first lecture, I identify some of the socio-economic phenomena which pose an existential threat to Ghana. These include: rapid urbanisation occasioned by rural-urban migration; changes to our demographic profile and its associated problems; and growing inequality. These internal distortions, make us more vulnerable to external threats from the subregion, and must cause us to take active steps, mostly envisioned under the 1992 Constitution, to address them in order to protect the Ghana we have, so that we might progress to the Ghana we desire. I also discuss the positive effect and influence of the use of technology, as well as the challenges occasioned by these new technologies, adapted for peaceful and not-so-peaceful, uses respectively. I conclude with recommendations on what needs to be tackled in the immediate future, to face off the threats to the Ghana we have, and ensure our march to the Ghana we desire.Item Heart surgery: yesterday, today and tomorrow(2020-03-19) Frimpong-Boateng, K.For a long time the heart was considered outside the limit of Surgery. In 1881 Theodore Billroth, one of the leading surgeon in the world had remarked that: "any surgeon who dared to operate on the heart would lose the respect of his fellow surgeons". In 1896, the usually perceptive British historian Stephen Paget wrote: "Surgery of the heart has probably reached the limits set by nature to all surgery; no new method, and no new discovery can overcome the natural difficulties that attend a wound of the heart". However, things started changing in the late 19th Century. Through the work of brave surgeons and other health workers who risked their careers and reputation and their patients who risked their health and lives, heart surgery developed at a fast pace and has advanced to a stage where even the complex procedures do not make news any more. Development of products and processes in related fields aided the rapid progress in heart surgery. These include development of intubation anesthesia and modern anaesthetic drugs that made positive pressure ventilation possible. The development and introduction of synthetic, monofilament, non-absorbable sutures such as prolene in the 1960s made vascular anastomoses on both small vessels such as coronary arteries and large vessels including the aorta possible. The discovery of the immuno-suppressive drug Cyclosporin dramatically improved survival after heart transplantation. All these have facilitated significant advances in cardiac surgery as we know today. Heart surgery has become very routine. There has been advances in equipment, such as the use of robotics and development of assist devices for the failing heart as well as improvement in techniques such as minimally or non-invasive management of valve replacement, aortic aneurysms, coronary artery disease and congenital heart repair. In spite of all these developments, there will continue to be coronary bypass and valve surgery, arrhythmia ablation, heart failure procedures, and endovascular treatment of aneurysms as well as repair of congenital heart disease. What will be debatable is who do perform the different procedures. The lines of division amongst cardiac surgeons, interventional cardiologists and interventional radiologist are blurring. The important question in medium to short term will be about the timing of service-line integration and who will do what procedures to which patients. This calls for a close look at the concept of the heart team that calls for complete and close collaboration among clinical cardiologist, interventional cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists and cardiac surgeons, the nursing team to achieve the best results patients. In the area of transplantation the question will be whether devices can be developed and miniaturized that will replace the function of the heart on long term basis or whether gene editing and gene manipulation and introduction of human genetic material into suitable animals, such as pigs, will allow those animals’ to produce transgenic hearts that can be transplanted into human with any rejection reaction.Item The heart: what it is, how it works, when it fails(2020-03-18) Frimpong-Boateng, K.For centuries, the human heart seemed beyond human understanding. Every aspect of the human heart elicits fascination. Thus, every age, every culture, every civilization and every religion has developed theories and beliefs about it, which overlap, support, and sometimes undermine one another. The heart is celebrated as the home of faith, love and courage, the seat of the soul. No other organ has inspired so many poets, writers, painters, and religious thinkers, and references to it abound in advertising, cultural kitsch, song lyrics, and everyday language and imagery. The heart is a hollow muscular organ slightly bigger than a clenched fist. The adult human heart weighs between 200 and 425 grams. It is located between the lungs in the middle of the chest, behind and slightly to the left of the breastbone. From the moment it begins beating until the moment it stops, the human heart works tirelessly. It beats 60-72 times per minute in an adult at rest but can accelerate to 160-180 beats per minute during exercise, anxiety or fear. In a day the heart beats 100,000 times. In an average lifetime, the heart beats more than three billion (3,000,000,000) times without ever pausing to rest. Work performed by this amazing muscular pump is equivalent to a human being lifting 6kg of weight to a height of 1.5 m every minute. The heart propels 5 liters of blood through the circulation every minute. If all the blood vessels in the body could be lined up, the distance covered will be about 90,000km, which is more than twice the distance round the world at the equator. The heart pumps 7000litres of blood through this labyrinth every day. At that rate it could fill a 10km long goods train with blood in 60 years. It generates enough power to drive a lorry round the world in 4 years.Item Democracy’s Keepers: The Rise of the Activist Generation in Africa(2019-03-21) Levinson, K.R.In recent years, civil society has proved itself to be the most important check and support for good governance in Africa. It is particularly the ‘activist generation’ and its contingent organizations and movements which have proved to be the greatest pressure in strengthening demographic institutions and checking corruption. This lecture argues that civil society, particularly groups and movements from the ‘activist generation’, merit support from international and domestic communities. In discussing why, this lecture explores key movements from the ‘activist generation’ as civil society across the continent. Particular attention is paid to how the ‘activist generation’ has succeeded in checking corruption and providing critical support for democratic processes. Recommendations for providing support to the ‘activist generation’ are discussed.Item Nkrumah and the Making of the Ghanaian Nation-State.(University of Ghana, 2018-03-15) Akyeampong, E.K.Nkrumah’s vision of creating an industrialized Ghanaian economy hinged on the new Akosombo hydroelectric dam, which Nkrumah viewed as key to his industrialization scheme. The dam would be financed primarily by American interests, a country very much at the centre of Nkrumah’s formative experiences as an intellectual. The cost of this scheme was to be borne by the cocoa industry. While Nkrumah appreciated the cash cow that was cocoa, he was ambivalent about its pre-modern infrastructure and the dominance of small family farms, which he considered inadequate as a driving force for his industrialization schemes. The balance between agriculture and industry, and the role of smallholder farmers have remained perennial issues in Africa’s developmental agenda. Nkrumah’s policies undercut the cocoa industry, though the results would not be evident until the 1970s, as Ghana declined as the world’s leading producer of cocoa and the Ivory Coast emerged as the premier producer. Nkrumah’s state-led industrialization scheme was not successful either, leaving Ghana handicapped in both its agricultural and industrial sectors. What are the lessons for the present and future?Item Nkrumah, Cocoa, and the United States: The Vision of an Industrial Nation-State.(University of Ghana, 2018-03-16) Akyeampong, E.K.Nkrumah’s vision of creating an industrialized Ghanaian economy hinged on the new Akosombo hydroelectric dam, which Nkrumah viewed as key to his industrialization scheme. The dam would be financed primarily by American interests, a country very much at the centre of Nkrumah’s formative experiences as an intellectual. The cost of this scheme was to be borne by the cocoa industry. While Nkrumah appreciated the cash cow that was cocoa, he was ambivalent about its pre-modern infrastructure and the dominance of small family farms, which he considered inadequate as a driving force for his industrialization schemes. The balance between agriculture and industry, and the role of smallholder farmers have remained perennial issues in Africa’s developmental agenda. Nkrumah’s policies undercut the cocoa industry, though the results would not be evident until the 1970s, as Ghana declined as the world’s leading producer of cocoa and the Ivory Coast emerged as the premier producer. Nkrumah’s state-led industrialization scheme was not successful either, leaving Ghana handicapped in both its agricultural and industrial sectors. What are the lessons for the present and future?Item African Socialism; or the Search for an Indigenous Model of Economic Development in Ghana?(University of Ghana, 2018-03-16) Amartey, E.A.Few African countries explicitly choose "capitalism" on independence, and for those who followed capitalism it was a default model or a residual pattern. On the other hand, "African socialism" was popular in the early decades of independence and pursued by several countries including Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, and Tanzania. African socialism had multiple meanings, and its advocates were quick to stress that they were not communist, some that they were not even Marxist. What did socialism mean to Nkrumah and how did he pursue a socialist economic agenda? This paper explores the argument that African socialism was a search for an indigenous model of economic development for a generation that was justifiably ambivalent about capitalism, but wary of being put in the communist camp in an era of Cold War. Importantly, advocates of African socialism, particularly Nkrumah, often proposed bold and transformative visions for their countries that might be worth revisiting devoid of the paradigm of socialism.Item Power from the Margins: Opening up African Political Systems to Women, Youth and Other Disrupters(University of Ghana, 2019-03-22) Levinson, R.K.More than half of the world’s population growth will occur in Africa between now and 2050, making the continent the fasting growing region of the world. Yet African economies are not projected to keep pace with the rising population, largely due to failures by governments and mismanagement of resources. I argue that, if they can become part of the political process, women, youth and other marginalized groups can bring transformative change to African governance and are therefore key to the future of the continent’s democracies. In discussing how political outsiders can come into the political process, this lecture draws on case studies from recent elections in Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. Recommendations for integrating political outsiders into future democratic processes are also discussed.