Main Article Content
Abstract
On 26th—29th March, 2023, Kamala Harris, the Vice President (VP) of the United States of America’s leftist party visited Ghana. The visit couched as part of the US seeking to strengthen diplomatic ties with Ghana rather generated the opposite response from the Ghanaian religious constituency. In this article, the author argues that, the US’s VP’s visit was rather read by the country’s overwhelming religious constituency as a decoy on the part of the US to advance its neo-colonial cultural revolution as part of the 21st century globalism. Taking the argument from the beginning of the 21st century, the author maintains that, the utopian idea of the US-dominated world that would foster the end of autocracy and birth economic prosperity has arguably failed. The failure of the vision of globalisation is, as the author argues, because America’s pursuit of ideological politics in support of minority sexual rights runs contrary to the aspiration of family as a religious mandate in the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of Ghana’s religious constituency. Consequently, the author analysing online news report about the backlash that emerged from the US’s VP’s visit concludes that, both Ghana’s President and US VP were involved in making use of the word “we” in direct violation of the terms of the social contract that invest “we” in the people, not the presidents as individuals. Concurrently, compounded by a world reeling under the major disruptions that the coronavirus pandemic caused and the impact of the current impasse between Russia and Ukraine, the author maintains that, America’s cultural and social revolution remains the nemesis of the aspirations of globalisation.
Keywords
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Copyright (c) 2024 Charles Prempeh

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References
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Akokpari, J. K. (2000). Globalisation and migration in Africa. African Sociological Review, 4(2), 72–92. https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v4i2.23227
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Barkan, J. D. (Ed.). (2009). Legislative power in emerging African democracies. Lynne Rienner Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781626371118
Chang, H.-J. (2019). Bad samaritans: The myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chitando, E., & Van Klinken, A. (Eds.). (2016). Christianity and controversies over homosexuality in contemporary Africa. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315571928
Danjibo, N. D. (2020). The aftermath of the Arab Spring and its implication for peace and development in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Strategic Review for Southern Africa, 35(2), 16–34. https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v35i2.135
de Beauvoir, S. (2011). The Second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Vintage.
Friedman, T. L. (2012). Lexus and the olive tree: Understanding globalization (2nd ed.). Picador.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of history and the last man. Free Press.
Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Blackwell.
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Gyampo, R. E. V. (2015). Dealing with Ghana’s winner-takes-all politics: A case for proportional representation? The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 1(4), 41–46. https://arpgweb.com/pdf-files/jssr1(4)41-46.pdf
Gyampo, R. E. V. (2016). Proportional representation: A solution to winner-takes-all politics in Ghana? Governance Newsletter, 21(1), 1–12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326845507_Dealing_with_Ghana's_winner-takes-all_politics_A_case_for_proportional_representation
Gyesi, Z. K. (2023, March 29). Speaker urges President Akufo-Addo to be bold on LGBT issues [HTML]. Graphic Online. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/speaker-sends-strong-message-on-lgbt-to-president-akufo-addo.html
Harari, Y. N. (2018). Homo deus: A brief history of tomorrow. Harper Perennial.
Haynes, J. (2022, October 24). Christian nationalism poses a threat to human rights in Ghana [HTML]. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAJ.etc7evfa6
Hess, S., & Aidoo, R. (2015). Charting the roots of Anti-Chinese populism in Africa. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17629-1
Hobbes, T. (1904). Leviathan: Or the matter, forme, & power of a common-wealth ecclesiasticall and civill (A. R. Waller, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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Huntington, S. P. (2011). The Clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. Simon & Schuster.
Ibrahim, W. (2022, March 11). Interview with Wallee Ibrahim [Personal communication].
Jouet, M. (2017). Exceptional America: What divides Americans from the world and from each other. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520293298.001.0001
Kundt, R. (2015). Contemporary evolutionary theories of culture and the study of religion. Bloomsbury Academic.
La Fontaine, J. (2009). Gisu marriage and affinal relations. In M. Fortes (Ed.), Marriage in tribal societies (pp. 88–120). Cambridge University Press.
Landman, K. (2023, June 16). Uganda’s anti-gay law will hurt all Ugandans [HTML]. Vox. https://www.vox.com/23750826/uganda-anti-gay-homosexuality-hiv-foreign-aid-trust-health-care
Larkin, B., & Meyer, B. (2006). Pentecostalism, Islam & culture: New religious novements in West Africa. In E. K. Akyeampong (Ed.), Themes in West Africa’s history (pp. 286–312). Boydell & Brewer. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/themes-in-west-africas-history/pentecostalism-islam-culture-new-religious-movements-in-west-africa/65388F6E383222716C9F0A5124BBCBE5
Lawson, L. (2007). U.S. Africa Policy since the Cold War. Strategic Insights, 6(1), 1–14. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA520352.pdf
Linskey, A. (2023, March 27). Kamala Harris pledges $100 million to West Africa nations to fight extremist threat. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala-harris-pledges-100-million-to-west-africa-nations-to-fight-extremist-threat-6f02504e
Locke, J. (1924). Of civil government: Two treaties. Dent.
Mamdani, M. (2005). Good Muslim, bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the roots of terror. Harmony/Rodale/Convergent.
Nhemachena, A., Makamani, R., & Mtapuri, O. (2021). Nature’s role in 21st century revolutions? COVID-19, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the repositioning of global capital. In A. Nhemachena, R. Makamani, & O. Mtapuri (Eds.), Global capital’s 21st century repositioning: Between COVID-19 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Africa (pp. 1–18). Langaa RPCIG; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1kgdf6k.4
Nkrumah, D. O., Ofosuhene, E. Y., & Gyasi, K. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and presidential directives: The brutalities of the Ghana Police Service. Acta Criminologica : African Journal of Criminology & Victimology, 33(3), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.10520/ejc-crim-v33-n3-a2
Nyabor, J. (2022, December 16). Ghana-Burkina: Akufo-Addo’s ‘Russia mercenaries’ comment sparks diplomatic rift [HTML]. The Africa Report.Com. https://www.theafricareport.com/269597/ghana-burkina-akufo-addos-russia-mercenaries-comment-sparks-diplomatic-rift/
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2000). “For many are called but few are chosen”: Globalisation and popular disenchantment in Africa. African Sociological Review / Revue Africaine de Sociologie, 4(2), 1–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487390
Oxford Analytica. (2024). Court ruling entrenches Uganda anti-homosexuality act. Expert Briefings. https://doi.org/10.1108/OXAN-DB286372
Prempeh, C. (2020). Secularism, interfaith marriages and reengagement with the study of Islam-Christian relations in Ghana. Journal of Liberal Arts and Humanities, 1(2), 39–54. https://jlahnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/4.pdf
Prempeh, C. (2021a). African agency, human rights and issues of homosexuality: Biden and Africa. In B. Wekesa (Ed.), Africa’s policy towards the US: The Biden Era (pp. 137–157). African Centre for the Study of the United States.
Prempeh, C. (2021b). Religion and the state in an episodic moment of COVID-19 in Ghana. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4(1), 100141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100141
Prempeh, C. (2022). “hijab is my identity”: Beyond the politics of the veil: The appropriations of the veil in an inner-city muslim area of Accra (Ghana) since the 1980s. Journal of Africana Religions, 10(1), 20–46. https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.10.1.0020
Prempeh, C. (2023). Gender, sexuality and decolonization in postcolonial Ghana: A socio-philosophical engagement. Langaa RPCIG.
Princewill, N. (2023, March 29). Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits [HTML]. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/africa/ghana-softens-lgbtq-stance-intl
Rousseau, R. (1973). The social contract; and discourses (G. D. H. Cole, Trans.). Dent.
Sulemana, M. (2015). Islamism in West Africa: Context and enabling factors. Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, 7(2), 19–23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26351319
Taylor, I., & Nel, P. (2002). “New Africa”, globalisation and the confines of elite reformism: “Getting the rhetoric right”, getting the strategy wrong. Third World Quarterly, 23(1), 163–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590220108225
Van Klinken, A. S. (2013). Gay rights, the devil and the end times: Public religion and the enchantment of the homosexuality debate in Zambia. Religion, 43(4), 519–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.765631
Vasireddy, V., Brown, N. E., Shah, N., & Crowell, T. A. (2024). Sustaining HIV service delivery to key population clients using client‐centered models during the debate and enactment of the Anti‐Homosexuality Act in Uganda. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 27(5), e26253. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26253
Westcott, N. (2019). The Trump administration’s Africa policy. African Affairs, 118(473), 737–749. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adz006
References
Adibe, J. (2017). Issues in USA-Africa relations under Donald Trump. African Renaissance, 14(1/2), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.31920/2516-5305/2017/v14n1_2a1
Akokpari, J. K. (2000). Globalisation and migration in Africa. African Sociological Review, 4(2), 72–92. https://doi.org/10.4314/asr.v4i2.23227
Anderson, B. R. O. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso.
Asiedu-Addo, S. (2023, July 1). Assin North by-election—The trivia that made the difference [HTML]. Graphic Online. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ghana-news-assin-north-by-election-the-trivia-that-made-the-difference.html
Barkan, J. D. (Ed.). (2009). Legislative power in emerging African democracies. Lynne Rienner Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781626371118
Chang, H.-J. (2019). Bad samaritans: The myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chitando, E., & Van Klinken, A. (Eds.). (2016). Christianity and controversies over homosexuality in contemporary Africa. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315571928
Danjibo, N. D. (2020). The aftermath of the Arab Spring and its implication for peace and development in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Strategic Review for Southern Africa, 35(2), 16–34. https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v35i2.135
de Beauvoir, S. (2011). The Second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Vintage.
Friedman, T. L. (2012). Lexus and the olive tree: Understanding globalization (2nd ed.). Picador.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of history and the last man. Free Press.
Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Blackwell.
GhanaWeb. (2023, March 27). Watch Akufo-Addo, Kamala Harris’ response to the issue of LGBTQ+ in Ghana [HTML]. GhanaWeb. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Watch-Akufo-Addo-Kamala-Harris-response-to-the-issue-of-LGBTQ-in-Ghana-1738715
Graphic Online. (2023, March 28). What Prez Akufo-Addo and Kamala Harris said about LGBTQ rights during US VPs state visit [HTML]. Graphic Online. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/what-prez-akufo-addo-and-kamala-harris-said-about-lgbtq-rights-during-us-vps-state-visit.html
Gyampo, R. E. V. (2015). Dealing with Ghana’s winner-takes-all politics: A case for proportional representation? The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 1(4), 41–46. https://arpgweb.com/pdf-files/jssr1(4)41-46.pdf
Gyampo, R. E. V. (2016). Proportional representation: A solution to winner-takes-all politics in Ghana? Governance Newsletter, 21(1), 1–12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326845507_Dealing_with_Ghana's_winner-takes-all_politics_A_case_for_proportional_representation
Gyesi, Z. K. (2023, March 29). Speaker urges President Akufo-Addo to be bold on LGBT issues [HTML]. Graphic Online. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/speaker-sends-strong-message-on-lgbt-to-president-akufo-addo.html
Harari, Y. N. (2018). Homo deus: A brief history of tomorrow. Harper Perennial.
Haynes, J. (2022, October 24). Christian nationalism poses a threat to human rights in Ghana [HTML]. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAJ.etc7evfa6
Hess, S., & Aidoo, R. (2015). Charting the roots of Anti-Chinese populism in Africa. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17629-1
Hobbes, T. (1904). Leviathan: Or the matter, forme, & power of a common-wealth ecclesiasticall and civill (A. R. Waller, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Human Rights Watch. (2021a). World Report 2021: Events of 2021. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021
Human Rights Watch. (2021b, September 20). Ghana: LGBT activists face hardships after detention [HTML]. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/ghana-lgbt-activists-face-hardships-after-detention
Huntington, S. P. (2011). The Clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. Simon & Schuster.
Ibrahim, W. (2022, March 11). Interview with Wallee Ibrahim [Personal communication].
Jouet, M. (2017). Exceptional America: What divides Americans from the world and from each other. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520293298.001.0001
Kundt, R. (2015). Contemporary evolutionary theories of culture and the study of religion. Bloomsbury Academic.
La Fontaine, J. (2009). Gisu marriage and affinal relations. In M. Fortes (Ed.), Marriage in tribal societies (pp. 88–120). Cambridge University Press.
Landman, K. (2023, June 16). Uganda’s anti-gay law will hurt all Ugandans [HTML]. Vox. https://www.vox.com/23750826/uganda-anti-gay-homosexuality-hiv-foreign-aid-trust-health-care
Larkin, B., & Meyer, B. (2006). Pentecostalism, Islam & culture: New religious novements in West Africa. In E. K. Akyeampong (Ed.), Themes in West Africa’s history (pp. 286–312). Boydell & Brewer. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/themes-in-west-africas-history/pentecostalism-islam-culture-new-religious-movements-in-west-africa/65388F6E383222716C9F0A5124BBCBE5
Lawson, L. (2007). U.S. Africa Policy since the Cold War. Strategic Insights, 6(1), 1–14. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA520352.pdf
Linskey, A. (2023, March 27). Kamala Harris pledges $100 million to West Africa nations to fight extremist threat. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala-harris-pledges-100-million-to-west-africa-nations-to-fight-extremist-threat-6f02504e
Locke, J. (1924). Of civil government: Two treaties. Dent.
Mamdani, M. (2005). Good Muslim, bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the roots of terror. Harmony/Rodale/Convergent.
Nhemachena, A., Makamani, R., & Mtapuri, O. (2021). Nature’s role in 21st century revolutions? COVID-19, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the repositioning of global capital. In A. Nhemachena, R. Makamani, & O. Mtapuri (Eds.), Global capital’s 21st century repositioning: Between COVID-19 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Africa (pp. 1–18). Langaa RPCIG; JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1kgdf6k.4
Nkrumah, D. O., Ofosuhene, E. Y., & Gyasi, K. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and presidential directives: The brutalities of the Ghana Police Service. Acta Criminologica : African Journal of Criminology & Victimology, 33(3), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.10520/ejc-crim-v33-n3-a2
Nyabor, J. (2022, December 16). Ghana-Burkina: Akufo-Addo’s ‘Russia mercenaries’ comment sparks diplomatic rift [HTML]. The Africa Report.Com. https://www.theafricareport.com/269597/ghana-burkina-akufo-addos-russia-mercenaries-comment-sparks-diplomatic-rift/
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2000). “For many are called but few are chosen”: Globalisation and popular disenchantment in Africa. African Sociological Review / Revue Africaine de Sociologie, 4(2), 1–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487390
Oxford Analytica. (2024). Court ruling entrenches Uganda anti-homosexuality act. Expert Briefings. https://doi.org/10.1108/OXAN-DB286372
Prempeh, C. (2020). Secularism, interfaith marriages and reengagement with the study of Islam-Christian relations in Ghana. Journal of Liberal Arts and Humanities, 1(2), 39–54. https://jlahnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/4.pdf
Prempeh, C. (2021a). African agency, human rights and issues of homosexuality: Biden and Africa. In B. Wekesa (Ed.), Africa’s policy towards the US: The Biden Era (pp. 137–157). African Centre for the Study of the United States.
Prempeh, C. (2021b). Religion and the state in an episodic moment of COVID-19 in Ghana. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4(1), 100141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100141
Prempeh, C. (2022). “hijab is my identity”: Beyond the politics of the veil: The appropriations of the veil in an inner-city muslim area of Accra (Ghana) since the 1980s. Journal of Africana Religions, 10(1), 20–46. https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.10.1.0020
Prempeh, C. (2023). Gender, sexuality and decolonization in postcolonial Ghana: A socio-philosophical engagement. Langaa RPCIG.
Princewill, N. (2023, March 29). Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits [HTML]. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/africa/ghana-softens-lgbtq-stance-intl
Rousseau, R. (1973). The social contract; and discourses (G. D. H. Cole, Trans.). Dent.
Sulemana, M. (2015). Islamism in West Africa: Context and enabling factors. Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, 7(2), 19–23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26351319
Taylor, I., & Nel, P. (2002). “New Africa”, globalisation and the confines of elite reformism: “Getting the rhetoric right”, getting the strategy wrong. Third World Quarterly, 23(1), 163–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590220108225
Van Klinken, A. S. (2013). Gay rights, the devil and the end times: Public religion and the enchantment of the homosexuality debate in Zambia. Religion, 43(4), 519–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.765631
Vasireddy, V., Brown, N. E., Shah, N., & Crowell, T. A. (2024). Sustaining HIV service delivery to key population clients using client‐centered models during the debate and enactment of the Anti‐Homosexuality Act in Uganda. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 27(5), e26253. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26253
Westcott, N. (2019). The Trump administration’s Africa policy. African Affairs, 118(473), 737–749. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adz006