GHANA: Going for Gold
“The Independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa.”
~ Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (6th March, 1957)
M. O. ENE
New Jersey, USA
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Fifty
years ago, specifically on March 6, 1957, something special surfaced on a small
spot in sub-Saharan Africa. The ripples of the wave of change on the Gulf of
Guinea, like the big bang, have affected the lives of many whose parents were
not even born in 1957. The wave marked the beginning of the end of crass
colonial misadventures in Africa.
Speaking before a huge crowd of distinguished dignitaries, including then US Vice President Richard Nixon and legendary Rev. (Dr.) Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), Dr. Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana “free forever.” Thus Ghana became the first country in Africa’s south of the Sahara to gain independence from European colonialism. Thus, March 6, 2007 marks Ghana’s 50 years of independence, the Golden Jubilee of free-forever Gold Coast, as the British colonist had christened the area.
NKRUMAH
While visiting any major city to which the train tracks led in Europe, I ended up one summer in Cluj Napoca, a city on Romania’s Transylvanian Mountain. A local informed me that the legendary Kwame Nkrumah was treated at the oncology unit of Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. I had read he passed in the capital city of Bucharest on April 27, 1972. Then again, he could have been using the same efficient train service to reach Cluj Napoca from Bucharest. Whatever, I recount this incident from the 80s because it was the first closest I came to walking on the grounds Nkrumah had walked.
The emergence of Ghana is linked with the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah. Born Francis Nwia-Kofi Ngonloma on September 21, 1909 in Nkroful, Ghana, a primary school teacher purportedly misspelled his last name. It stuck. He would change his first name to Kwame in 1945, for he was born on a Saturday. Nkrumah followed the footsteps of West Africans shut out of the elitist British education and ended up in the lug of legendary Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (later Nigeria’s first president) at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. After a stellar academic career, he tried to pursue a doctorate in London. One thing led to another and the waves returned him to then Gold Coast, where he made waves.
By 1951, Nkrumah was the leader of government business in Accra; by 1952, he became the prime minister of still colonial Gold Coast. Not one to wait for the Brits to make up their minds, he forced the issues. On March 6, 1957, he became the Prime Minister of independent Ghana and declared Ghana “free forever.” It has remained so since then, albeit through many political pains and some great gains. When Ghana became a republic in 1960, Osagyefo (Redeemer) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became President until he was overthrown in 1966 while on a state visit to the People’s Republic of China.
SAINT OR SINNER?
Saint or sinner, Nkrumah is a product and a victim of his time. Even his greatest opponents agree that he had great ideas and high hopes for not only Ghana but the entire Africa. He knew America too well and could not accept its concept of freedom. The alternative was to look up to Russia, warts and all. Next acts placed him on the platform of budding dictators, especially with the 1958 act empowering him to imprison anyone with subversive intentions! His support of militant anti-colonial movements saw him taking the sides of the likes of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba. His impatience with neocolonial regimes informed his alleged support of Nigeria’s opposition leader Obafemi Awolowo in a coup plot against Azikiwe-Abubakar administration in 1963. It is no wonder the leader of Nigeria’s first military coup of January 15, 1966 found sanctuary in Ghana.
When Ghana’s military struck, things fell apart. There was no regional power to counter the revolution. Guinea’s Sekou Toure merely hosted Nkrumah with a ceremonial co-presidency status to make him look good internationally, but the horse had already left the barn. A succession of military men followed, from Joseph Ankrah to Jerry Rawlings.
Nkrumah lived out his short but event-full life in Guinea. He died in April 1972, aged 62, while undergoing treatment for throat cancer. First buried in Guinea, his remains were reburied on July 9, 1972 in Ghana, where he remains to this day a hero of the people. He envisioned Ghana to be the “champion of excellence,” a guiding light, the Black Star of Africa. Alas, his tough approach to governance did not endear him to the elite, many of whom have not forgiven him for dictatorial deceptions and romance with communism.
GHANA@50.AFRICA
Ghana has gone through many ups and
downs since Nkrumah days. The Golden Jubilee will afford Ghanaians and friends
of Ghana (among whom I number myself) a time to reflect on the journey so far:
what worked, what did not work, and what to do with the experiences. A
fifty-year-old nation, no matter the size and resources, can no longer be a
banana republic, which Ghana never came close to being. However, the reign of
military musclemen -- as in neighboring Togo, Benin, and Nigeria -- must give
way to good governance and due process. Africans, of whom Ghanaians count,
produce best results in a climate of peace. Therefore, to ensure a progressive
and prosperous society in the next 50 years, Ghana must lay the foundation
today… well, after the yearlong activities.
Several activities have been earmarked to commemorate the Golden Jubilee. Besides the emergence of numerous “Golden Jubilee” names, from Golden Jubilee hair salons to Golden Jubilee institutions of higher learning, monthly themes have been worked out to commemorate various aspects of the national journey. In June, “Heroes of Ghana” will remember those that played major roles in Ghana’s 50-year-old journey from Nkrumah to Kufuor: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (1957–1966); General Joseph Ankrah (1966-1967); General A. A. Afrifa (1967–1969 ); Dr. Kofi Abbrefa Busia (1969 – 1972) with President Edward Akuffo Addo (1970–1972); General Ignatius Kutu Akwaso Acheampong (1972–1978 ); General Frederick W. A. Akuffo (1978–1979); Dr. Hilla Limann (1979–1981); Flight Lt. Jerry John Rawlings (June 4, -September 24, 1979; December 31, 1981–2000), and John Agyekum Kufuor (January 7, 2000–present)
GHANA AMERICANA
The US has had a soft spot for Ghana, probably a direct result of the funneling of numerous slaves from then Gold Coast. Besides delegating Dick Nixon, the Eisenhower administration maintained a sensitive relationship with the new regime in Ghana. Imagine the embarrassment of October 10, 1957: Ghana’s finance minister Komla Agbeli Gbedemah was refused service in a Dover, Delaware, restaurant simply because he was African. President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited him to breakfast at the White House and apologized. This incident influenced his strong reaction to the Little Rock, Arkansas, racial incident. Also, the first batch of Peace Corps members went to Ghana. In essence, Ghana’s independence empowered African Americans. In some estimation, Ghana’s elimination of the US soccer team from the World Cup 2006 by 2-1 was a belated “apologies-accepted” payback for the insult dished out to the honorable finance minister in 1957.
Besides the documented impact on MLK, in 1961, Massachusetts-born and Harvard-educated Black American philosopher W. E. B. Dubois moved to Ghana and renounced his American citizenship. He died in Accra on August 27, 1963. In 1974, the United States appointed delectable Shirley Temple, whose childhood movies were still a stable of African television, as its ambassador to Ghana. She served only to 1976, but the impact is indelible. With a 2006 population pegged at over 22 million, Ghana still packs a superpower punch. On Dec 17, 1996, the United Nations unanimously acclaimed the elevation of Ghana’s Kofi Annan as the 7th Secretary-General.
AFRICA TODAY
Nkrumah’s dream of a united Africa did not happen in his lifetime, but the dream lives on in the new African Union (AU) championed by the likes of Libya’s Moammar Abu Minyar Al Qadhafi, Nigeria’s Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, and South Africa’s Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki. The lessons to learn include the transient nature of power. African leaders must find it in themselves to do their best and leave the scene while the ovation is loudest. By forcing their personal destiny on an entire nation, even their good intentions become the scourge of nations. There is no better example to emulate than that of Matiba Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere. These brethren are Nkrumah’s contemporaries. The big difference between them and Nkrumah and many other African leaders is that they left when their time was up, not a day later.
President John Kufuor has served seven years of what many consider a bridge between the long-drawn-out military-civilian regime of J. J. Rawlings and the future. Luckily, he is not copying the hardheaded attempt of his Nigerian counterpart to elongate his term in office. God has blessed Kufuor to preside over Ghana at its Golden Jubilee. It is a blessing many would die for. If the only thing Kufuor achieves is the successful celebration of the Golden Jubilee, a free and fair election on December 7, and a peaceful handover on January 7, 2008, then he would have achieved a whole lot.
Just as Ghana’s independence marked the beginning of the end for colonialism and as Nkrumah’s dreams marked the beginning of the end for neocolonialism, Ghana’s Golden Jubilee must mark the beginning of a new Africa--the United States of Africa--where continental dynamics extinguish senseless ethnic enmities as in bloody Biafra, callous Congolese crises, ravages of Rwanda, devastation of Darfur, slaughters of Sudan, etc.
CONCLUSION
There will be no present without the past, and there will be no future without present. May the events in Ghana bode well again for Africa as it did in the late 50s and early 60s; may the Black Star shine and summon Africans to their native senses. In keeping with the ancient Sankofa philosophy, may Ghana go for gold with Africa in mind--as it did in 1957; may our Africa, one continent, unite in peace, progress, and prosperity for all our peoples and rejoice in the golden rays of the Black Star of Africa. In the glorious given names of our glorious ancestors, we pray again and again; one great God forever and ever. Amen.
Ghana is 50! Long live Africa.