[国际新闻] 见证加纳50年

1957年3月6日，当夜幕笼罩，教堂钟声渐渐在阿克拉城中弥散开来。人们带着希望和喜悦，涌入议会前广场，在欢呼声中看英联邦的国旗缓缓降下，看绿色、金色、红色相间的加纳国旗在微风中缓缓飘扬。

　　临近的马球场上，总理夸梅•恩克鲁玛情不自禁地说：“今天，从现在开始，世界上多了新的非洲人。战争终于结束了，加纳，我们深爱的祖国，从此将永远自由。”　
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　　此时此刻，在加纳沃尔特省一个小小的村庄里，22岁的夸梅•德赫正和家人围坐在收音机前，透过嘈杂的电波努力辨别着总理的每一个字句。“我高兴极了，”德赫回忆说，“未来是属于我们的了。”

　　从夸梅起，德赫一家三代经历了加纳的发展与衰落、荣耀与哀伤，也见证了非洲在最初50年发展中的兴衰成败。 : I, A0 F9 M$ d% [% }2 x# p4 e
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　　●希望破灭 ; W! e; `- h$ B+ k

　　夸梅降生在一个小泥屋的地板上，还没到上学年龄时，父母就离了婚，做砖瓦匠和农民的父亲一个人把他养大。“夸梅”的意思是“星期六”，那是他出生的日子。夸梅的教名是莱纳斯，那是殖民时代每个人都要取的名字。在学校里，小夸梅唱的是《上帝保佑国王》，举手敬礼面向的是英国国旗。“那是纪律，”如今已经72岁的夸梅回忆说。
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　　和纪律一起，英国殖民者也为加纳带来了诸如学校、医院等现代化设施。但是，当年还是小小年纪的夸梅已经察觉到，“他们不会给我们带来我们想要的发展，他们只是对我们殖民的主人。” 人在德国社区; K% O8 t( ^$ \# k5 O# x5 L

　　离开学校以后，夸梅开始学习雕塑，为人雕刻墓碑糊口。从一个村庄到另一个村庄，夸梅注意到了这样一个奇怪的现象：居住在沃尔特省的人们对独立并不以为意。因为害怕会遭受加纳最大部落的歧视，很多沃尔特人希望独立能够一步一步进行，甚至有些人不愿意融入祖国这个大家庭。那时候，部族意识已经开始影响后殖民时代的非洲。
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　　夸梅自己非常渴望自由。他对美国《时代》周刊说：“我知道，独立对这个国家来说非常重要。加纳人需要工作，需要自食其力。” ! I9 t; f8 X+ Q( _& E

　　独立后的最初几年间，加纳的确充满了活力。很多在那一时期独立的非洲国家和加纳一样，经济状况远远好于后来成为经济强国的亚洲国家。20世纪50年代，加纳的人均GDP与韩国相同，但现在，加纳的人均GDP是550美元，而韩国已经达到了1.6万美元；尼日利亚的棕榈油产业曾经兴盛一时，但如今早已经被马来西亚远远甩在后面。

　　加纳独立之初，恩克鲁玛总理实施了一系列雄心勃勃的计划：建学校、修道路、筑房屋、兴工业。领导人们认为，加纳必须断绝与英国和其他殖民力量之间的贸易往来和投资，自行发展。于是，建筑业兴盛起来，夸梅也在建筑公司觅到了一份工作——为军队修建营房。
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　　当时，“人们都很开心，很多人开始学习贸易，到处都在开办学校，我们感觉很良好”。
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　　1961年，夸梅和妻子生下了大女儿苏齐。此后，夸梅离开家，到很远的地方为那些因修建沃尔特大坝而搬迁的居民修建房屋。沃尔特大坝也是恩克鲁玛总理雄心勃勃的计划之一。“生活仍然很困难，”夸梅回忆说，“但是你可以工作了，而且能够赚到一些钱。” 8 p* {5 U9 D7 G! _
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　　不过，为了实现恩克鲁玛总理的宏图大志，加纳付出了沉重的代价：政府将重点放在工业化上，耗费了大量金钱，却忽视了曾经为加纳带来大量外汇的传统出口产品——可可。 1 x, q, T% R+ g4 X
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　　1964年，恩克鲁玛宣布加纳成为一党制国家，自己是这个国家的终身领导人，此时加纳的经济已经开始崩溃。 + g& I; |; K, H" p8 Z8 I
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　　人们最初的乐观消失了，取而代之的是深深的失望。“当时存在的问题很多，”夸梅说，“人们吃不饱饭，恩克鲁玛向东方国家寻找帮助，但是事情并不如他想像的那样去发展。”

　　1966年，恩克鲁玛梅总统出访中国时，军队夺取了政权。面对这一政治变化，夸梅不但没有担忧，反而却说：“我们那时都想等着看军队是不是能比政治家更能有所作为。”

　　但是，加纳人民失望了。在接下来的20年中，加纳饱受社会不稳定与经济混乱之苦。领导人更迭频繁更让民众对政府失去了信心，也让民众一次次失去了改变生活状况的机会。 2 ~7 e. x6 o- e  @# N% ?% j& E( z
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　　政变成了阻碍整个非洲大陆发展的顽疾：1963年，多哥人成功发动了撒哈拉以南非洲地区的第一次政变后，在接下来的40年中，非洲总共发生了至少200次政变，其中有80多次获得成功。非洲多个国家爆发内战，一些是为了争夺自然资源而发生的部族冲突，另一些则有外国势力的参与。人在德国社区- R5 o4 {3 k+ f+ D4 S

　　“当时，我们很害怕，”夸梅说：“我们失去了言论自由。军队无处不在，国家的经济状况更加恶化。” ' s- J; x9 M* Q  }% X
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　　20世纪70年代末，加纳陷入了一团混乱：干旱引起粮食价格暴涨，人们纷纷失业。“尽管贿赂和腐败在全世界范围内都存在，但是在这里，腐败扼杀了经济，”夸梅回忆说。那时候，夸梅和家人搬到了首都阿克拉，开了一家小小的建筑公司。

　　独立初期建立在加纳人民心中的希望渐渐渺茫起来。人在德国社区) F$ F8 Q' N& p5 D/ N* c
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　●生活重负

　　加纳第一次发生政变时，夸梅的大女儿苏齐只有5岁。如今已经46岁的她仍然对生活很快乐的那几年记忆犹新。“生活很容易，因为我的父亲有工作，”苏齐说，“一切都很好。”

　　父母搬到阿克拉以后，苏齐继续留在老家和祖父母一起生活。15岁时，她决定长大后成为一名秘书。但是加纳的经济状况不断恶化，建筑材料紧缺，这意味着父亲没有生意可作，也没有多余的钱给她交学费。 : i* x9 C& N. B
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　　上不了大学，苏齐在家闲呆了几年，其间她试过加入阿克拉警察部队，并轻松地通过了第一关的考试。但是由于没有钱贿赂考官，苏齐最终只能放弃了这个机会。苏齐说，“现在，如果通过了考试但却不能被录取，你可以提出质疑，但那时候，你毫无办法，你能去谁那里申诉？而且，就算你有胆量去申诉，也会被长官们一脚踢出去。” 0 E  n( i+ B8 U: U" R
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　　1980年，19岁的苏齐和年长她12岁的银行职员格申•阿卡结婚。婚后几年，家庭的幸福和国家的灾难在苏齐生活中交织上演着。
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　　虽然加纳从来没有经历过如同埃塞俄比亚在上世纪70年代初和80年代中期所经受的灾难性饥荒，但是这个国家却一直在饥饿中挣扎。援助组织为了这个国家的发展计划投入了大量资金，一些钱的确发挥了作用，但大部分却没有。“你不得不仍然去树林里找木薯，或者任何你能找到的东西吃，”苏齐回忆说。 ) h1 j: e& A% j
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　　此时，加纳仍然处于军政府的统治之下。1979年，杰里•罗林斯在政变后上台，并采取了一系列自由市场改革，使加纳的经济有了缓慢的发展。他的政策也得到了苏齐等加纳人民的支持。“武装抢劫比以前减少了，你可以在晚上出门了，”苏齐回忆说。不过，苏齐的丈夫格申仍然表示：“我还是觉得我们需要一些新的东西，我们还是不能随便说话，没有自由。”
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　　今天，加纳的民主程度已经大大提高，经济也在不断发展之中，但是苏齐一家仍然在为生存挣扎。被迫从银行退休之后，格申自己创办了一个小办公室，为客户提供秘书服务。但是他的电脑去年坏了，生意因此基本停滞。 + q7 [  B+ y. M- N/ v" E

　　为了糊口，苏齐从阿克拉的中央市场购买食物，再把它们出售给自己的邻居。16美元一个月的房租对这个家庭来说仍然是沉重的负担。带着4个孩子的夫妇二人仍然要为吃饭问题操心，每周唯一的安慰和乐趣就是到附近的教堂礼拜。“我们给自己希望，”苏齐说：“我们希望得到更好的生活，”这似乎也是大多数非洲人的希望。2 }7 e9 {1 a. a1 ^
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●心向未来

　　苏齐夫妇的第三个孩子科菲•阿卡出生于1988年，那正是加纳经济开始发展的时期。如今已经18岁的科菲身材高挑而消瘦，有一种年少不知愁的轻狂。现在，他正在加纳最好的男子寄宿高中上学。人在德国社区6 w  a$ q; q9 x

　　对这个家庭来说，支付每年600美元的学费几乎是不可能的事情，但是两年前，苏齐说服了一名牧师为她成绩优秀的儿子提供赞助，于是，科菲成为了这个家庭繁荣的希望。

　　在非洲，一个孩子背负起整个家庭希望的事例并不少见。“你一定要让那个聪明的孩子成才，”夸梅说：“这样，他就可以成为整个家庭的经济支柱。” csuchen.de% @4 \: \  |  a* a

　　那些没有被父母“选中”的孩子无法得到学费，只能早早的去找工作。而那个“聪明”的孩子也不好过，科菲13岁就被送到祖父那里生活，为的是能在那里附近的一所好高中就读。 ) v1 p' X% W) |4 E
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　　“我感到肩上的责任很沉重，”科菲说：“能够学习然后干出一番事业是一件很好的事情。但如果我某次考试失败了，我就会觉得给我的家庭和资助我上学的牧师蒙羞，每个人都在紧紧地盯着你。” 人在德国社区5 H' p& F" s2 m* \* M! X* A! c
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　　科菲是个热情而惹人疼爱的孩子，他喜欢上学，也很明白教育的重要性。他在很多方面都与自己的祖父很相像，两个人的关系也十分好。放假的时候，科菲会回到阿克拉的家里和家人团聚。
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　　一次，科菲在放假时遇到了28岁的邻居杰里•尼纳特。尼纳特和很多非洲年轻人一样，梦想着能在欧洲或者美国找到一份工作。3年前，他登上了一辆前往尼日利亚经济首都拉各斯的汽车，然后辗转到了乍得。那时，尼纳特已经花光了所有的钱，也没有足够可以让他前往梦想之地的证件，于是只能打道回府。“可能当我拿到护照的时候，我会再试一次，”尼纳特说：“那是我的梦想，我知道，当我到了欧洲或者美国，我的人生就会从此变得美丽。”
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　　“欧洲很酷么？”科菲遇到尼纳特时问。
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The Deh family at home; from left, Suzzy Afua Deh, her 2 year old son Wisdom, (her father) Linus Kwame Deh, 72 yrs old and her son Delight Kofi Aka in Accra, Ghana

　　“我觉得是这样的，”尼纳特说。 csuchen.de- j3 K9 B, f8 i! Y: ]( m6 ]: S

　　科菲这一代的非洲人，即不像祖父那一代那样充分乐观，也不像父母一代那样悲天悯人。他们听闻过卢旺达大屠杀、塞拉利昂内战，同样也受到过像曼德拉这样杰出领导人的鼓舞。科菲和尼纳特相信，未来会比现在更美好。

　　“我想在大学学习化工或农业，”科菲说，“如果没有腐败，我们国家的前途会更美好。我们需要发展。你知道吗，虽然加纳有70％的人从事农业，但我们仍然需要从外国进口食品。如果我能成为农业专家或科学家，就能为国家做出贡献。加纳一定能成为一个富有的国家，但是我们需要时间，我们正在改变。”科菲对未来充满了希望。 - M) k4 e* A% N# R

　　全家人聚在一起的时候，夸梅会想自己能不能在死之前去一趟欧洲或者美国；苏齐则担心自己的房租，担心一个星期的吃饭问题；科菲则肩负着全家的希望，展望着未来更美好的生活。 ( W5 W, G1 c. G3 G/ K) X
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　　加纳独立50年，在古老非洲大陆上演着兴衰故事。一个普通家庭，仍拥有对未来的无限希望。3 H7 e8 \) M" M+ d

When midnight arrived on March 6, 1957, church bells sounded across Accra. The crowds, which had filled the city streets with the hum of celebration and hope, pushed into the square outside Parliament and cheered as Britain's Union flag was lowered and the green, gold and red colors of the new nation of Ghana were hoisted in a light breeze. In a nearby polo ground, Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah broke into dance and then spoke of a dream finally realized. "Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world," he declared. "At long last the battle has ended. Ghana, our beloved country, is free forever." In Fodome, a small village in the eastern Volta region of the new nation, Kwame Deh, 22, and his family and friends gathered around a radio and listened through crackling static. "I felt very happy," remembers Deh. "The future was ours."csuchen.de j; W( {5 p- j6 |$ ~# `2 A

All births are incredible moments, but some are more momentous than others. When citizens of the British colony called the Gold Coast gathered to witness the founding of their new nation a half-century ago, they carried not only their personal hopes and fears but also the aspirations of a continent. As the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to break away from its foreign master in the post-1945 era of independence, Ghana was the symbol of a land throwing off its shackles, the first breeze of what British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan would later dub "the wind of change." "The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent," said Nkrumah that night.人在德国社区6 d8 ?/ L7 G" r. m) B9 |
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Fifty years later, Ghana, a country of 22.6 million, remains an uncannily accurate measure of Africa's successes and failures, its ambitions and broken dreams. As was true for many African states, the optimism of independence gave way to unrest, militarism and economic decline. As elsewhere, Ghanaians struggled back, rebuilding their country, renewing their democracy and securing fresh reason to hope. Today Ghana is a bright beacon for a continent the world too often sees only for its suffering. The country's rise and fall and rise again have given many Ghanaians--and many Africans--a more realistic understanding of what it will take to develop their continent's fragile fortunes than they had in the first flush of freedom. And it has left them with a deep appreciation of basic principles that others take for granted: stability, democracy, jobs.9 C5 s4 |) g0 ~0 _+ J
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This is the story of one family--three generations of Ghanaians--that has experienced the struggles and triumphs that define free Africa's first 50 years. In many ways, the Dehs--Kwame, Suzzy and Delight-- are unremarkable, average. But in their ability to keep mining Africa's most precious resource--its optimism--they are extraordinary. Just like Africa itself.0 T9 N/ v$ W! V) {' C1 s

Linus Kwame Deh of a mud hut. His parents divorced before he reached school age, and it was his father--a bricklayer and farmer--who raised him. Kwame means Saturday, the day he was born; Linus is his Christian, or colonial, name. At school, in the lush hills of the Volta region--an area that was colonized by the Germans but later came under British rule--the young Kwame sang God Save the King and saluted the British flag. "That's the training for discipline," remembers Kwame, now 72.6 x% ~7 j, l+ z2 K7 l8 N" t. i
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Kwame is sprightly for his age. When I first met him in April last year, he was wearing loose-fitting gold-colored trousers, a gold shirt and a small gold skullcap, all made from the same embroidered fabric. He welcomed me into his modest rented home on the eastern edge of Accra, Ghana's capital, pumping my hand with the energy and strength of a man 20 years younger. The living room was painted electric blue, and a gold vase of plastic flowers sat on the coffee table. There was a small television in the corner and a telephone that mewed like a cat when someone rang. More than once on my visits in April and again last August, Kwame repeated an adage that an old schoolteacher of his had used: There is no such thing as African time, the idea that things in Africa run slowly and behind schedule just because it's Africa. "There is no store in the world that sells an African watch or an African clock. We all use the same clock," he told me. "And yet Africans use African time as an excuse. We have to be serious."! s# X; u* b- x

After leaving school, Kwame trained as a sculptor. Working from a photo supplied by grieving relatives, he would mold the face of a mother or father or child for a gravestone or craft statues of Mary, Jesus and the saints for the many churches that were springing up across the country. Traveling from village to village, Kwame discovered a curious thing: people in the Volta region were underwhelmed by the idea of independence. Fearing that Ghana's bigger tribes would discriminate against them, many Voltans wanted independence to come in stages--or even the chance to secede altogether. Tribalism, which would later rear its ugly head in places like Nigeria and Rwanda, was shaping postcolonial Africa.

Kwame himself longed for freedom. "I knew independence was very important for this country," he told me. "We needed jobs and employment to come to Ghanaians, to black people. The top administrative level was taken by the British." It wasn't just the colonial authorities Kwame chafed under. Around the time of independence, his father and stepmother chose a girl for him to marry. "But I didn't like her. You know, we didn't love each other," he says. Kwame started wooing Theresa Afua, another girl in the village, instead. Within months they married, beginning their lives together in a country that was finally free.csuchen.de: \) N* w: x5 p3 ^: Q, C" O
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Ghana's early years were full of energy and excitement. At the time, many parts of newly independent Africa were far richer and better developed than the countries that would later become Asia's tigers. In the late 1950s, Ghana's per capita GDP was equivalent to South Korea's; today it is about $550, compared with South Korea's $16,000. Nigerians still lament that they once had a massive palm-oil industry but it has long since been overtaken by such Asian countries as Malaysia, which were better run and less corrupt.

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3月6日，在加纳首都阿克拉举行的加纳独立五十周年庆典活动上，加纳总统库福尔（中）向群众挥手致意。

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在加纳首都阿克拉举行的加纳独立五十周年庆典上，一名男子用加纳国旗的颜色涂满脸部，跳起舞蹈。

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加纳首都阿克拉举行的加纳独立五十周年庆典上的舞蹈。

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发表于 2007-3-10 11:08 | 只看该作者

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Nkrumah, Ghana's founder, embarked on an ambitious program, building schools, houses, roads, a new port, factories. The idea was to wean Ghana from trade and investment with Britain and the other colonial powers. But Nkrumah's policies came at a high price. Industrialization cost millions, and the government neglected cocoa, Ghana's traditional export crop, which brought in most of the foreign exchange. Ghana's economy began to fall apart. In 1964, in a move that would be repeated by other African leaders in the decades to come, Nkrumah declared Ghana a one-party state and himself leader for life. The early optimism was replaced by a deep sense of disappointment and lost opportunity. "There were a lot of problems," Kwame says. "People were getting hungry. Nkrumah was looking to the East for help. He kept paying everyone's salaries, but things were not working how he planned." In early 1966, with the President on a visit to China, the army seized power. "We all waited to see if the military could do a better job than the politicians," says Kwame., ]% J  m' @2 L! G0 e4 A7 [
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It could not. For the next two decades Ghana was racked by instability and economic mismanagement. A revolving cast of military leaders left people with little faith in their government and no chance to change things. It was a cancer eating the entire continent. Beginning with the first successful coup in sub-Saharan Africa, in Togo in 1963, at least 200 attempts were made to seize power in Africa over the following four decades; 80 or so were successful. Bitter civil wars erupted, some of them tribal struggles for natural resources, some of them prompted by foreign powers. By the 1970s, Africa had become one of the hottest fronts in the cold war. "We had lots of fears. There was no freedom of speech," says Kwame, about the time of troubles. "You go about, and you see the army. The economy was getting worse." By the late 1970s, Ghana was a mess. A drought had pushed up food prices; jobs had disappeared. "Bribery and corruption is all over the world, but where it is too glaring, it kills the economy," says Kwame, who moved his family to Accra and opened a small construction company. The hopes of independence had vanished.  Z- ^5 j0 Y: ^) V3 @: {

Kwame's daughter Suzzy Afua Deh was 5 at the time of Ghana's first coup. She remembers those early years with fondness. "Life then was easy because my father worked," she told me as we sat outside her two-room concrete-block house in Lapaz, a poor neighborhood of dirt roads and street hustlers in northwestern Accra. "Everything was O.K." Suzzy, now 46, stayed behind with her grandparents in Fodome when her parents moved to Accra. The extended African family has always been a welcome insurance policy when times get tough.
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After school, Suzzy decided to continue her studies. She was 15 and wanted to be a secretary. But Ghana's economy was collapsing, and a crunch in the supply of building materials meant there was no work for her father and no money for fees. Some people's lives are changed by poor grades or a bad decision. For Suzzy, it was a cement shortage. Unable to afford college, she drifted for a few years. At one point she tried to join the police force in Accra. After Suzzy aced her exams, the senior officer refused to let her start training, apparently because she didn't have the money for a bribe.) s0 [5 n/ |" \& m

In 1980, at just 19, Suzzy married Gershon Aka, a bank clerk 12 years her senior. The first few years of married life were a strange combination of personal joys and national disaster. Suzzy and her husband had two children--son Jubilant, now 25, and daughter Nutifafe (Peace), 23--but drought and hunger were tightening their grip. "You would go to the forest and search for cassava," says Suzzy. "Whatever you could find."$ M6 h5 k) P, K- l
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The country remained under military rule. In 1979, Flight Lieut. Jerry Rawlings deposed another military government in another bloody coup. But Rawlings was different from earlier leaders. Although guilty of human-rights abuses in those early years, his government instituted a series of free-market reforms that slowly got the economy moving again. Suzzy, who today lies awake at night worrying whether her children will make it home safely, liked Rawlings' emphasis on security. "There was not much armed robbery; you could move about at night," she says. Gershon shakes his head. "Suzzy hadn't seen anything different before, so she couldn't compare," he says of Rawlings' time. "I felt we needed something new. You could not speak freely. There was no freedom."

Today Ghana is democratic, and its economy is growing. Yet Suzzy and Gershon still struggle. After being forced to retire from the bank, Gershon opened a small office offering secretarial services. But his computer broke last year, and he rarely gets any business. To make ends meet, Suzzy buys food at Accra's central market and then resells it around her neighborhood. The family is perpetually behind on its $16-a-month rent, and when I visited last August, the power in the house had been switched off after a meter reader said the meter had been installed illegally. The couple, who now have four children, including Wisdom, 2--Suzzy calls him "our surprise"--often wonder how they will eat.

Suzzy's two hours of joy a week come on Sunday at the Global Evangelical Church, a large building filled with simple wooden benches a 10-minute bus ride from her home. Gershon goes to a more traditional Presbyterian church--a certificate of honor on the wall of the family's tiny living room commends him for being "a reliable choirmaster"--but Suzzy and the kids prefer the excitement and entertainment of evangelical preachers. Christianity, especially Evangelicalism, is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else on the planet. Promising riches not just in death but here on earth, the churches often provide Africa's urban poor their one chance to hope. For Suzzy's third-born child, that's especially true.
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Delight Kofi Aka was born in 1988, just as things in Ghana began to improve. Now 18, Delight is tall and lean, with the naive swagger of someone who has not yet known failure. He is in his final year at a boys' Catholic boarding school in the Volta region, one of the best in Ghana. The family cannot afford to pay the school fees (some $600 a year), but two years ago, Suzzy convinced her pastors at Global Evangelical that her son was gifted and deserved a scholarship. Grandfather Kwame paid the $150 entrance fee, and Delight was handed the best chance in years of securing the family's prosperity.

It's common in Africa for massive expectation to be invested in a single child. "You have to force out the one that is intelligent," says Kwame, "so he can be the breadwinner for the family." That's tough for those left behind--Delight's older brother and sister both left school at 16 and struggle to find work. It can be tough on the chosen one too. Delight was singled out at a young age and sent off at 13 to live with his grandfather so he could attend a good junior high. "I feel responsibility," he says. "It's a priority to study hard and become something, and if I fail any of my exams, it will be a disgrace to my church and my family. Everybody's eyes are on you."

For school, Delight is reading The Gods Are Not to Blame by Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi, which transplants Sophocles' Oedipus Rex to Africa. Delight talks about his hope to study chemical engineering or agriculture at university. He pronounces Catholic "Cad-lick" in his lilting Ghanaian English. In the family house there is a small table in the corner with a stove sitting on it. Pots and pans stack up under chairs that line the walls and on the shelves of a bureau that also holds a tiny color television. There is a small refrigerator, the insulation in its door showing through the rust. Clotheslines crisscross beneath the plasterboard ceiling. "I'd like a new house," he says. "That's my dream. That my family can live in a better home."
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NATIONAL PORTRAIT: The Deh family at home; from left, Suzzy, holding her 2-year-old son Wisdom, Delight and Kwame
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Such are the tempered hopes of Africa these days. Delight is neither as optimistic as his grandfather was at independence nor as pessimistic as his mother. His generation has lived through the time of the Rwandan genocide, in which Hutu militias killed 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu; the brutality of Sierra Leone, with its arm-chopping gangs of child soldiers; the elemental fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, beginning in the mid-'90s, known as Africa's First World War, a series of conflicts that killed 4 million people. But he and the millions of young Africans like him also have the incredible leadership of Nelson Mandela and the redemptive tale of South Africa to inspire them and, in places like Ghana and Mozambique and Tanzania, the sense that the future will be brighter than the past. The Dehs are one family, one story, in a continent that is just getting started.

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