The English lady sitting next to me on the plane was speaking eloquently about her just completed fourth visit to Ghana. The British Airways stewardess and I were listening and agreeing with what was said. Then the lady made an innocent comment that led to my reminiscing on the seven years my wife and I lived in the West African country, seven years that began almost a quarter of a century ago. "There's nowhere else you can go in West Africa," said the English visitor. "Ghana is the only stable country."

Two decades ago, exactly the opposite was true. Ghana at that time was in the midst of a 20-year period of chaos and instability that seemed to be without end. When my wife, Diane, and I first arrived there in May 1978, the country was led by an incompetent military government that had presided over severe shortages of just about everything and an inflation rate of roughly 600 percent.

Six weeks after our arrival, a palace coup removed the head of state from power and replaced him with another military figure. A few months later, a bloody revolution overthrew one military government and replaced it with another, led by junior officers in the air force. Anger was so great that all Ghana's previous presidents were publicly executed, a bloody act of revolutionary finality that was to inspire similar events elsewhere in Africa.

A promised election led to the establishment of the Third Republic, which lasted a little over two years before another military coup toppled a corrupt civilian government and ushered in a period of unrivaled chaos and total economic collapse, including a man-made famine. It seemed then that Ghana's troubles would never end.

Now Ghana is a ray of hope in a continent that sorely needs a good role model. In the 10 years since my last visit, Ghana's two main cities have doubled in size, new hotels adorn the skyline, everything you could possibly want is for sale in the stores and there is food aplenty. Modern communication centers enable most people to make phone calls to anywhere in Ghana or overseas, mobile phones are ubiquitous and Internet cafes have sprung up in even the most remote towns. Two decades ago, the only way to communicate was by sending somebody with a written message to deliver.

What changed? What was it that Ghana did that has led to this reversal of fortune?

A study in contrasts

Before I answer that question, I want to update readers on the situation in another African nation, the one we lived in before transferring to Ghana in 1978. That nation is the southern African Republic of Zimbabwe, which until 1980 was the white-ruled nation of Rhodesia, originally colonized by British settlers in the 1890s.

When we left Rhodesia, it was in the middle of a civil war. The economy was sound and the government, by African standards, quite stable, but the minority white government was beleaguered. The country was ostracized at the international level and subject to United Nations' sanctions that made trading difficult. African guerrilla forces backed by Moscow, Havana and Beijing, based in neighboring countries, were increasingly effective at disrupting life and terrorizing the native population into supporting them.

The war was not the simple black-white conflict it was often made out to be overseas. About 78 percent of the "white" army was black, while black African casualties were primarily victims of African nationalism. The African death toll was in the tens of thousands; the white, a few hundred.

Africans were the ones who suffered the most. Their suffering was not to end with what was touted as "victory"-the establishment of the newly independent African nation of Zimbabwe in April of 1980.

Now, 20 years later, Zimbabwe is in a state of economic ruin. After inheriting a thriving economy in 1980, Zimbabwe has suffered increasingly incompetent economic mismanagement. It now faces total collapse and massive food shortages (another man-made famine), as pressure is put on the European farmers to leave the country.

While Zimbabwe falls apart, Ghana progressively moves forward. What lesson is there here for other African nations?

Interestingly, while Ghana was the first former British colony in sub-Saharan Africa to receive independence, Zimbabwe was the last. In a cycle that was repeated throughout Africa, Ghana was the "first" English-speaking African nation to experience a series of negative developments.

Ghana was the first to receive independence from Great Britain, the first to abolish the tie with the British Crown and become a republic, the first to abolish parliament and declare the president "President for Life," the first to suffer complete economic collapse, the first to experience a military coup, the first to attempt a restoration of democracy, the first to see its Second Republic overthrown by the military, the first to see junior officers overthrow their seniors, the first to experience a man-made famine and, finally, the first to turn to outsiders for help. Recently, it became the first nation in postcolonial Africa to see one democratically elected government replaced by another of an opposing political party.

Other nations are at different stages of the cycle. Perhaps Zimbabwe has to go through the same cycle before it, too, can improve and move ahead.

Turning to outsiders

The single most important decision made by the leaders of the military coup that overthrew Ghana's civilian government at the end of 1981 did not come easily. With a revolutionary government that was inspired by Libya's Colonel Gadhafi, Ghana sought allies in Eastern European communist nations and Cuba. Nonetheless, after 18 months of severe hardship, there was no sign of any improvement in Ghana's situation. A decision was made to seek help and advice from international organizations and Western governments. Foreign investment and expertise were to come later.

The prescribed medicine was not easy to take. It was controversial and meant some compromising with idealistic notions of "independence." But slowly, gradually, it worked. Now 18 years later, Ghana is the most stable and progressive nation on a continent that badly needs to take the same medicine.

Interestingly, this same medicine was prescribed thousands of years ago in the pages of your Bible. As a result of Abraham's obedience, God promised that He would make of him "a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you" (Genesis 12:2-3).

Abraham and his descendants were to receive unsurpassed blessings as a result of God's promise. Those blessings could be extended to other nations as they, in turn, blessed and cooperated with Abraham's descendants, the 12 tribes of Israel through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob (Israel).

The tribe of Joseph, modern Britain and America, were to receive particularly great physical blessings in the "last days" (see Genesis 49:1, 22 and the free booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy). Ghana, called the Gold Coast prior to 1957 when it was a British colony, became the most prosperous of all African colonies when it was a part of the prophesied "multitude of nations" descended from Joseph's son, Ephraim. Not only was the Gold Coast blessed, but also Britain itself received a blessing back as soldiers of the Gold Coast volunteered to serve Great Britain during World War II. It was a mutually beneficial partnership.

Friends I was with on my recent visit to Ghana told me of a conversation they had with some of the hotel staff members. The staff members were lamenting the upheavals that had befallen Ghana since independence and expressed the opinion that the people had not been ready to rule themselves. Corruption had become the norm among the ruling elite, leaving the common people far poorer than they had been under colonialism. They made it clear that they did not want to be servants to the British, that a change was necessary and desirable at the time of independence, but they had not wanted to sever the tie with the British. Ghana today is a member of the Commonwealth and receives positive benefits from that relationship.

Blessings available

Zimbabwe is still going through the anti-British phase of its cycle that Ghana was going through two decades ago. The angry rhetoric of its president blames all of the country's problems on the nation that once presided over the greatest empire in history. The descendants of the British and other European settlers are subject to violent attacks and constant threats that their land will be taken and they will be expelled from the country. Sadly, such actions will only worsen Zimbabwe's plight. God said He would "curse him who curses you [Israel]."

At some point, Zimbabweans will come around to seeing what Ghanaians already see—the need for a close working relationship with the physical descendants of Abraham, the people best placed to help them prosper in today's modern world. The promise made to Abraham was not just for a minor nomadic people thousands of years ago, but also for all nations today. WNP