Ruby Ofori

Writer, Executive Producer Driving Park Production Company

[Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor @barkervogues]

Letter to my dear Bongo Brother!

1. This letter is addressed to my brother Manasseh Azure Awuni (@Manasseh_Azure). But in truth it is intended to be read by all interested in the conversations evoked by his recent writings.

2. Precisely because of that wider target audience, I apologize in advance. For my writing will be a little dense and perhaps too academic for how I usually write on social media.

3. For all who follow me; you know that I try to separate my academic work from how I engage here because I want to carry along the most amount of people when I write. Many say they appreciate how I make law accessible.

4. But issues at hand beget their own manner of responding. The issues are at once academic and dense, so forgive.

5. Manasseh is correct. Correct in that African merchant involvement as middlemen in this barbaric enterprise must be catalogued and be part of the broader reparations conversation.

6. Now in having that conversation we must do so to educate and enlighten so we can better acknowledge how we too repair. YES ! WE TOO MUST REPAIR!

7. My worry however, is that we must be careful that we do not tether too closely to the ever regressive argument which holds that the participation of African merchants and polities in the transatlantic slave trade somehow negates or dilutes the moral and legal case for holistic repair.

8. Still, this line of reasoning which many find in your writing, deserves serious engagement, because it touches on genuine historical complexity. Yet, I find that it ultimately rests on a conflation of complicity with causation; or worse, it conflates moral imperfection with an imposed forfeiture of justice.

8. Now, let us be precise about what the historical record shows. Yes, African rulers, merchants, and intermediaries participated in the capture and sale of enslaved persons.

9. This is neither new scholarship nor a suppressed truth. It has been extensively documented by historians from Walter Rodney to Toyin Falola. The question is not whether this happened. The question here is what follows from it, legally and morally.

10. This is what I feel you address inelegantly, if at all!

11. Consider an instructive parallel. During the Holocaust, some Jews run the Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, Jewish police units in the ghettos tasked with maintaining order and, in some cases, facilitating deportations to extermination camps.

12. The moral anguish of that role has been the subject of profound reflection, from Hannah Arendt’s controversial treatment of the Judenräte to more recent and more sympathetic scholarship recognising the impossible conditions under which these individuals operated. And yet no serious person has ever suggested that the existence of the Ordnungsdienst undermines the case for Holocaust reparations, restitution, or even the basic moral claim that what was done to the Jewish people constituted an unparalleled crime.

13. The reason is straightforward: the system was not designed, or imposed, by its victims, even where some among the victimised were drawn into its machinery as key players.

14. The same structural logic applies to the transatlantic trade. The system of racialised chattel slavery that defined the Atlantic world from the sixteenth century onward was conceived, financed, legislated, and enforced by European powers and their colonial successors.

15. The legal architecture of the Code Noir, the Slave Codes of the British Caribbean and the American South, the asientos, the joint-stock companies chartered by European crowns: none of this originated in Africa. African participation occurred within a system whose terms, prices, destinations, and ultimate purposes were determined by external demand.

16. To put it bluntly, treating the middleman as the architect is to confuse a distorted market response with the market’s creation.

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

Bravo President John Mahama for fighting for more equitable terms from Western and Asian extractors of Ghana’s mineral wealth. https://t.co/w5dZXyf8YA

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@DavidHundeyin Asking respectfully: Are you implying that Abacha made positive impact and if so, why?

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@BBSimons “Ghana’s potential losses due to mining royalty agreements are largely framed in terms of long-term value, with recent projections suggesting the country risks losing approximately $172 billion over the life of certain lithium projects to foreign entities,” according to the IEA.

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@pazunre Please message me

[Ibrahim mahama @ibrahim_mahama]

What a way to end the year receiving the inaugural Art Basel Award in the Established Artist Category. thank you @artbasel Thank you Ghana and most importantly the city of Tamale for giving me the room to express my thoughts and imaginations. Still more to come.:) #artbaselawards

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@CallmeAlfredo When Ghanaians speak up they become targets of vilification and smears. @BBSimons has consistently sought to educate the public about the workings of our governance system and shed light where it is needed.

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@Thomas_Ampem_ @rajjlucas Please does your plan include parks and walk ways and bike lanes around the Volta ? Whenever I pass through that area long to stop and enjoy the ambience.

[Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor @barkervogues]

There’s absolutely no way any person should follow the political class to abolish the OSP.

Sperate your dislike for the occupant from the Office. The office is important.

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

https://t.co/Owhsdj8pK0
Pitch and Finance Forum

LIVE ACTION APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN
Presented at the DFM annual market
Each year, through an open application process and two independent selection panels, the Durban FilmMart Institute selects 20-30 official African fiction

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@BBSimons @BBSimons can you please quantify what will be lost to Ghana if the royalty rate stays at 5%?

[Bright Simons @BBSimons]

1. I am quite saddened by how we have been treated by Ghana's Mines Minister & Head of the Lands Committee in Parliament.

2. They are hell-bent on passing the Atlantic Lithium lease in Parliament and are using very unfortunate tactics to do this.

3. First, the Mines Minister claimed that lithium prices have dropped from $3000 to ~$630, making the original business model of Atlantic unprofitable.

4. Think tanks like IMANI explained clearly that: a) At the time the agreement was signed with Atlantic in 2023, lithium prices were around $2200; b) Atlantic used $1587 as the benchmark price to build it's financial model; c) current prices are ~$1150 per ton; d) total costs per ton for Atlantic is $610 hence e) Atlantic's payback period being just ~19 months in the original business plan.

5. So, as you can see, none of the figures provided by the Mining Minister were reliable. No one should be allowed to drive policy with hallucinatory numbers.

6. Most important of all, the current price of lithium gives Atlantic a gross margin of ~45%. How many businesses can boast of a gross margin of 45% today in Ghana?

7. Atlantic will be making gross profit of $540 per ton. They say they can't pay $115 per ton to Ghana as royalty and the country should be satisfied with less than $60 per ton. WHY SHOULD A PATRIOTIC MINISTER & PARLIAMENTARIAN LEADER DEFEND THIS?

8. The latest argument from the Lands Committee Boss in Parliament now is that the law ties their hand. He claims the law limits Ghana to 5%.

9. We have explained carefully that THIS IS ALSO NOT TRUE.

10. The law he is referring to dates back to 2010 (Act 794). The royalty portion of that Law was repealed as far back as 2015 (see attached).

11. Why are we fighting over 15-year old and 10-year old laws? Why are top Ministers and MPs fighting think tanks whose daily burden is research on numbers and analysis in such a trivial matter?

12. The CURRENT state of the law (Act 900 - see attached) says that a company pays royalty AS PRESCRIBED by the Minister. Thus, in Ghana, royalty is set by regulation not general statute/law.

13. Any terms agreed by the Minister n an Agreement and ratified by Parliament also become special law ("lex specialis") because the constitution, which is supreme, gives Parliament that power. That is why some mining companies in the country have special "stability agreements" and "development agreements".

14. In short, the Minister can walk into Parliament tomorrow with a new Executive Instrument containing a sensible royalty rate that then applies to the lithium agreement. He can even restrict that royalty rate to strategic minerals like lithium. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TIES THE MINISTER'S HANDS and locks Ghana to a 5% royalty rate.

15. Why then the sheer force of will to shove this new agreement down the country's throat?

Read the detailed IMANI statement below:

https://t.co/P1f7iQ5nAw

[SOCIAL CHANGE & DATA @CSCD_World]

The general consensus is there is religious tolerance in Ghana across all high schools.

People are just making issues out of nothing.

Wesley Girls had a specific guideline. They do not allow all students to fast regardless of religion.

If you wish to do so, there is provision for a parental consent. There are reasons for this.

Once again, the Education minister has shown he lacked the temperament for it.

What he should have done was to listen, interrogate and come tell us true story than trying to join the debate and take sides, on a platform like the parliament of Ghana.

That for me wasn’t a good leadership trait.
What if someone is just throwing in something to divide the country and throw it into chaos?

We expect leaders to have temperament for situations like this in an increasing fragile and divisive world

[Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor @barkervogues]

I want to express personal Gratitude to Lolan Ekow Sagoe-Moses (@LolanEkow) for offering to cover 3 months of our subscription to a legal database to help with research for the Wesley Girls Amicus brief.

I also want to acknowledge @AfricaEduWatch for offering to donate to support some of the filing and administrative expenses on the case.

We build a Republic this way. None of them are Muslims.

Shalom.

[Kawu Garba @KawuGarba]

Listen to this young woman, you can’t dismiss her intellect, wisdom, and understanding for Nigeria and its complexities.

She didn’t only dispute the false narrative that it’s only Christians that are targeted by the terrorists; she went ahead and laid down a powerful recommendation for the Nigerian government.

[Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo @Fentuo_]

1. Do a rail line connecting all three countries
2. Do a 6 lane highway connecting all three countries
3. Introduce water transport connecting all three countries
4. In each country, build rail connecting major cities (Acc-Kumasi, Abidjan - Yamoussoukro, Lagos - Abuja)
5. Build express ways connecting major cities
6. Build 16 new stadia in all three countries (fully airconned)
7. Build 96 high quality training facilities across the 3 countries
8. Three international airports in each country with 200-250k daily passenger capacity
9. Build fan villages, cruise ships options and new hotels
10. Build a. Broadcast center

Sure, seems like a walk in the park for these three giants 🙄

[Manasseh Azure Awuni @Manasseh_Azure]

On Monday, terrorists abducted 25 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria. Somehow, it's not getting the needed attention. #Africa

[Laylah Ali Othman @Laylahaliothman]

Nigeria breathes easier when we stand together. The violence tearing through our communities is not a genocide against Christians or Muslims, but a tragedy against humanity itself. Let’s refuse the fear, reject the division, and hold on to the harmony that has always carried us. United, we can face the real enemy: the insecurity threatening us all.

[Ruby Ofori @Rubyabenaofori]

@daddyhope Somewhat disagree that South Africa is the continent’s powerhouse. Though Nigeria’s GDP is less than SA’s Nigeria is Africa’s powerhouse.

[Prof. Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah @ProfDrGADanquah]

Addressing the critical issue of maternal mortality in Ghana. As a health professional and member of parliament , I'm committed to championing improved healthcare services for expectant mothers, aligning with President John Dramani Mahama's vision for women's health to ensure safer pregnancies for all Ghanaian women.

#EKC
#WomanAtWork
#NewEssikadoKetan
#MaternalMortality
#GhanaHealth