How Ghana Media Machinery Turned a “Blouse” Social-Media Comment Into a Success Story for their President
There is nothing more uniting than a factor ghat evokes national identity and national sovereignty.
Some young Zambians on social-media commented about President John Dramani Mahama’s choice of outfit when he arrived calling a strange top as a “blouse”!
Wode Maya (real name Berthold Kobby Winkler Ackon) Ghana’s most influential social media personality and travel vlogger, picked up the mockery and “educated” Zambians anout the Fugu.
The Ghanaian President’s Fugu—also widely known as the Batakari or simply the Ghanaian Smock—is a traditional handwoven garment originating from Northern Ghana that has become a powerful national symbol of leadership, unity, and identity
You can excuse the young ones. They have no recollection when our founding fathers, to appear anti-western and anti-colonialism or wear african identity adopted the Toga amd wore the Kente cloth, a traditional handwoven textile from the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups, often draped in a toga-like style over one shoulder.
Further the PR machinery of the President of Ghana horned on this arguement and amplified an insignificant comment on social media by a Zambian and created a big story out of it which made Ghanaians defend their attire and their President with pride, and Zambians also reacted to Ghanaians on Social Media.
The winner in all this is the President of Ghana; his image has been boosted across party lines back home. Everywhere in Ghana, people have been wearing or showing off pictures adorning the Fugu and praised, with admiration, their President for produly show/casing their traditions and culture abroad.