One of the prestigious schools in Ghana and Africa, Achimota School has refused to admit two young students into their institution on the grounds that they have dreadlocks.
One of the parents, Raswad Menkrabea whose child was affected took to Facebook to spill out his frustration with the turn of events.
In his relatively lengthy post, he vowed to fight this matter to its logical conclusion because he feels one’s culture (keeping dreadlocks- Rastafarianism) does not in any way violates the constitution of Ghana.
Fellow Comrades and Friends, This morning, the school authorities of Achimota School claimed that their rules do not allow students with dreadlocks to be admitted. The school authorities denied two brilliant dreadlock students from being admitted after having been posted there by the Computer School Placement System. My son was one of the affected children and the other student was also refused on the same grounds.
We have no option but to battle against this gross human right violation. As a child he has every right to his culture in so far as such culture do not breach the 1992 Constitution. He equally deserves the right to access education within his culture just like other cultural believers.
As a Rastafarian, I think that dreadlocks do no way cause any harm which should even be a basis to be asserted by the school authorities. The fundamental questions to ask is what does our law say about right to one’s culture? Do you deny a child access to education based on his/her culture? Do public school rules override the supreme law of the land? Tomorrow I will be on TV3 to share some light. Will give update on time. Thank you for the Solidarity. Ras Aswad Nkrabeah
Actress Lydia Forson who equally felt offended by the action of the school reshared the post on her Facebook timeline along with this reactions;
“This right here is why our country isn’t moving forward. How is hair that grows out of your scalp not acceptable but judges are wearing white synthetic wigs? How aren’t grown people seeing the ridiculousness of all this?!!
So many of you in the comments talking about rules and regulations as if these same schools don’t have Caucasians and sometimes mixed-raced students allowed to keep and style their hair as they want?
Didn’t you all see that foreigner in school with her hair? Even in my own school, black students from other foreign countries could keep their hair as they wanted. And for people saying “ go and build your school” are you just being deliberately ignorant?
Because imagine everyone only allowed people from the same religion to their schools, or refused entry based on that; or a society where only people who had shared beliefs were permitted to enjoy facilities?
FYI rules were written by man and can be changed; if it couldn’t some of you would be working on plantation farms in the US.”
