...Sounds on da ground and seens on the see-ins

It's been almost three weeks since the World Cup in Germany came to an end. The Black Stars' dream ended earlier, as 'the boys' bowed out to defending champions, Brazil. The other team that managed to emerge victors over Ghana's golden footballers, Italy, won the tournament (for the fourth time). Watching ESPN, Univision and ABC's telecasts of the mundial, I couldn't hear the Ghanaian contingent's cheers. I managed to watch Ghana's games again on Africast and I especially loved the way Black Star cheer songs were played when Ghana scored goals. Unfortunately, I have none of the Black Star cheer songs, but I have and know one particular song that was played everytime Ghana played - the famous national anthem. It's time to pay some respect to its lyrics my people.

The Ghana National anthem was written by Philip Gbeho, prior to the lowering of the Union Jack on Independence day, 1957 and the lifting of the Red. gold, green Ghana flag. Philip Gbeho was a music composer and teacher at Achimota School. It is believed that the original lyrics were changed after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966. Growing up in the Ghanaian public school system, singing the national anthem was religious and was done every weekday at school assembly. I had no problem singing the anthem then, but after high school, it's been tough to run through it without hitches. You can find the national anthem's lyrics here.

The Black Star cheer songs enjoyed massive airplay during the World Cup and I hope that the radio stations continue to play them to remind us our national teams' mundial exploits. It should remind us of the encouragement we gave the Black Stars and the results they gave us. I hope to see the songs up for sale somewhere so I can purchase them and play at my own leisure as well.

I have been wondering how much inspiration the anthem gives the Black Stars as they do battle in Ghana's name. Do they think it is just a routine? Do you? I feel the anthem's lyrics are inspirational, as it calls on us to defend our nation forever and march on for ever more. Since other Ghanaian citizens like us don't get the chance to sing the national anthem or represent our country at various events, does this reduce our willingness to do battle for Ghana?

Now that the World Cup has ended, we should not let the patriotism that we exhibited during the World Cup go away quietly. We must turn it into positive energy and change and do battle for Ghana in our professions, our communities and our lives. For once, we had great news coming out of Ghana for the most part, which seemed to overwhelm the medical strikes, political party ramblings, etc. Football managed to unite the country, with people waving at and dancing with strangers in the streets. Ghana also made more friends, even becoming one of the top 5 searches at MSN.com at one point. People were proud to be Ghanaians, proud to be associated with Ghana, etc, etc. It was great time to call oneself a Ghanaian. And it must not end with the mundial. We should give ourselves more reaons to be proud. We must have feel-good stories. We must lend helping hands to fellow citizens and let them know we did so because we are all Ghanaians. Similarly, we must do the same for our fellow Africans. We must push for excellence and uplift our nation's name just the way we expect of our national footballers. You can listen to an instrumetnal version of the national anthem.

Sing along! Full national anthem lyrics.