These markers aren’t just labels; they broadcast values to citizens, visitors, and especially to our children growing up trying to understand who we are.

That’s why the debate over renaming Kotoka International Airport matters so much.

We celebrate Kwame Nkrumah as Ghana’s greatest president, a leader of independence, a visionary for African unity.

Across the continent, he’s lauded as one of the most influential Africans of the last millennium.

Yet at the same time, we honour Emmanuel Kotoka, a key figure in the military coup that overthrew Nkrumah in 1966, by naming our main international gateway after him.

Ask yourself: How does that square with our professed love of democracy?

How can we teach young Ghanaians that democratic governance is our core value when one of the first things visitors see on arrival is a celebration of someone who helped dismantle our first constitutional government?

Monuments and names are chosen for effect. They tell a story about what we admire, what we want others to know about us.

Naming our airport for someone associated with a coup is not a neutral historical footnote: it is a statement. And that statement clashes with the narrative we claim to hold dear.

Is Kotoka a hero? If he is, why? By what measure of heroism – strategic, moral, democratic – do we elevate him above others?

If he is not a hero, then why should everyone who enters Ghana be greeted with his name, prompting the inevitable question: “Who is Kotoka?” Only for the answer to be, “He overthrew Nkrumah”?

And here’s where it gets deeper: our own cultural logic already tells us that names carry weight.

In many Ghanaian traditions, children are named after ancestors, events, virtues, or aspirations.

A name is a blessing, a memory, a legacy. We don’t give a child a name that honours someone dishonourable — that could bring confusion or bad omen into the family.

Public monuments should follow the same logic. If we wouldn’t name a child after someone whose actions we regret, then why name a national asset after them?

We are teaching the next generation and, signalling to the world, something contradictory: that we hate coups, yet we are comfortable celebrating a coup maker in one of the most prominent ways conceivable.

That confusion isn’t just intellectual, it’s moral and symbolic.

This isn’t about erasing history. It’s about choosing which parts of history we elevate and why.

History can be taught without enshrining every actor in our physical landscape.

We can remember Kotoka in history books, in academic discourse, in balanced curricula, without making his name the banner under which visitors and returning citizens enter our nation.

If we truly value democracy and the legacy of leaders like Nkrumah, as we say we do, then it’s time to align our symbols with those values.

Renaming Kotoka International Airport isn’t an erasure of history; it’s an affirmation of the Ghana we want to be: democratic, consistent, purposeful, and clear about who we honour and why.

If we can’t commit to that, then perhaps the confusion is real. And perhaps that’s the problem we need to confront.

In a Facebook post after visiting Rev. Hesse at his residence, the Vice President said she was honoured to meet a man whose photographs captured some of the most defining moments of Ghana’s independence struggle and Pan-African history.

She noted that Rev. Hesse’s contribution remains invaluable, as his images continue to shape how successive generations understand the country’s political and cultural evolution.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang commended Rev. Hesse for his lifelong dedication to preserving historical negatives and safeguarding national archives, despite challenges including limited institutional support.

She also acknowledged the difficulties he encountered in ensuring that the nation fulfilled its responsibility to protect and preserve these important records.

The Vice President assured Rev. Hesse of the government’s renewed commitment to preserving and properly utilising Ghana’s visual heritage, stressing the need to accurately document and protect Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African legacy for both Ghana and the African continent.

Rev. Hesse, widely regarded as one of Ghana’s foremost cinematographers and filmmakers, served as Nkrumah’s personal photographer and documented major political and historical events across Africa, creating an archive of immense cultural and historical significance.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang concluded by thanking Rev. Hesse for his extraordinary service to the nation and wishing him continued strength and good health.

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Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, the former Manhyia South MP insisted that the public outrage that followed the comment did not reflect his intent.

Dr Opoku Prempeh, aka NAPO, said the statement was made in a specific political moment and should not have been interpreted as an attack on Ghana’s first President.

“At that time, you can’t go into the evidence, so I made a statement ‘mo Kwame Nkrumah’, and I subsequently had to go to Nkroful and speak to the Chiefs there and explain the contest in which the statement was made,” he said.

He explained that political communication can be easily distorted and that leaders must take responsibility when their words create confusion.

“Because in politics, if somebody misunderstands, misquotes, or you allow your communication to be misread or to be misunderstood, you have to own it. So I owned it, and that is why I issued the statement,” he said.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh compared his remark to football banter to underscore that he was not attacking Kwame Nkrumah.

“Not that the context was wrong. I’m a die-hard fan of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. So if I’m teasing Olympic supporters and I said ‘mo Oly fuo no’, I’m not really insulting Olympic fans. I’m just upping Kotoko fuo because I am one of them,” he explained.

He maintained that the Nkrumah reference had been “totally misunderstood”.

The NPP running mate acknowledged the strong reaction that followed.

“It generated a lot of uproar. Nkrumahists got furious, and I apologise to them,” he said. But he urged critics to reflect on Nkrumah’s own writings.

“They should go and read Kwame Nkrumah’s Last Days from Guinea and look at how he described his own Convention People’s Party (CPP). He said the CPP was dead. That’s Nkrumah’s own writing, so we don’t say these things out of lack of respect. You know me. I have friends everywhere,” he noted.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh’s comment in July 2024—stating that no president, including Kwame Nkrumah, had outperformed President Akufo-Addo—triggered widespread backlash when he was unveiled as the New Patriotic Party’s running mate.

Critics, including the Convention People’s Party, described his remark as disrespectful. The episode reignited concerns about what many opponents have called his “arrogant” public posture.

On PM Express, however, Dr Opoku Prempeh insisted that the debate was driven by misinterpretation rather than intent.

He stressed that the statement was political rhetoric, not an attack on Ghana’s founding leader.

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Speaking to Citi News on Tuesday, July 16, Mr. Azeem said it is historically and morally inappropriate for a major national asset to bear the name of Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kotoka, who played a key role in the 1966 military coup that ousted Nkrumah.

“We need to name important state institutions and assets after people who have contributed significantly to Ghana’s development. That is why I suggest renaming the airport after Kwame Nkrumah,” he stated.

His comments echo recent sentiments expressed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, who questioned the practice of memorialising figures associated with the toppling of democratically elected governments.

Mr. Azeem argued that such a change would be both symbolic and restorative, paying homage to Nkrumah’s legacy as a pan-Africanist and visionary leader.

“Nkrumah’s influence shaped not just Ghana but inspired liberation movements across Africa. Countries like Kenya and Tanzania have named their international airports after Jomo Kenyatta and Julius Nyerere. Why should Ghana be any different?” he asked.

He added that with the right political will and parliamentary support, the renaming process could be straightforward.

Lieutenant General Kotoka was part of the National Liberation Council (NLC) following the 1966 coup and later served as Commissioner for Health and General Officer Commanding of the Ghana Armed Forces. He died in 1967 during a failed counter-coup, after which Ghana International Airport was renamed in his honour.

Mr. Azeem’s call adds to the ongoing debate about national memory and who deserves to be commemorated in Ghana’s public spaces.

Source: Myjoyonline

In an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express, following his provocative lecture “Iniquities of Iniquity in Our Santa Claus Democracy,” Nsarkoh argued that many of Africa’s early leaders inherited broken structures, faced uncharted terrain, and became pioneers without predecessors—and it shows.

“You take someone like Nkrumah—who was he learning from?” Nsarkoh asked.
“Whose mistakes could he study? These people were pioneers. They were navigating terrain with no compass, no predecessors, and no playbook. And we’re still paying for that.”

He argued that the failure of post-colonial democracy in Africa stems from this fundamental void—an elite class forced to build nations from the ruins of colonialism while simultaneously battling for survival in a global system stacked against them.

“Our democratic project started not with the control of sovereign productive forces but with a flag, an anthem, and a dark-skinned president,” he said, referencing Kabral Blay-Amihere. “That is not independence.”

For Nsarkoh, the rot is both systemic and historic.
“The colonial hangover is real,” he said.
“The post-colonial elite simply took over the levers of the state and became new colonialists. They built nothing for the people—they just inherited power and used it to look after themselves.”

He added that African democracies were constructed on “distorted realities.” Unlike Western democracies that emerged after centuries of capital accumulation and institutional development, Africa was expected to implement a system it had no foundation to sustain.

“The West started modern democracy when they already had wealth to distribute. Africa was forced into democracy while still crawling from under the wreckage of colonialism. It’s not the same conversation.”

Nsarkoh dismissed comparisons between Ghana and countries like Singapore as misleading.
“The starting points were different,” he explained.
“Singapore didn’t have to carry the same weight of colonial distortion. They weren’t starting with GDPs below $3,000 per capita and broken institutional memory. We were.”

He lamented the collapse of local government structures in Ghana and described the country’s current democratic practice as little more than “a public auction for the highest bidder.”

“What we have is not participation—it is transaction,” Nsarkoh said.
“Citizens are no longer participants in democracy. They are ballots, bought and sold.”

At the heart of his critique is a profound disillusionment with the elite consensus and its role in sustaining the illusion of democratic progress.

“We celebrate elections like they are proof of democracy. But what we have is Santa Claus democracy—a system of gifts and giveaways, not accountability,” he said.

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“What are our parliamentarians doing? And that is why you see what is happening in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali,” she added, in apparent reference to recent revolutionary actions in parts of the continent.

“The African youth are not taking it anymore. The youth are saying they will replace the leaders if they do not do the right things.”

Ambassador Chihombori-Quao observed that African leaders had failed the younger generation due to poor leadership, leaving the continent to continue to languish in the firm grips of the Western world.

Delivering the 14th Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), she said a radical approach was required to change the status quo.

UCC instituted the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture series in 1974 to honour the memory of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.

The lecture is a platform to address issues of social, economic and political development of Africa and the black world in general.

The ambassador’s lectures, delivered in two series, were on the themes: “Imperialism, Colonialism, and Neo-colonialism – The three Axis of Evil for Africa,” and “African Youth Rising – The Revolution has Begun.”

She explored how imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism had been used to systematically undermine the continent’s development.

The ambassador, also the Founder and President of the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI), observed that imperialism and colonialism had transitioned into neo-colonialism where former colonial powers and multinationals continued to exert economic and political influence to keep Africa perpetually poor and hinder socio-economic development.

In view of that, she said the unfinished business of the revolution, which began in 1963 by Pan-African fathers like Dr Kwame Nkrumah purposely for a united Africa, must be completed to salvage the continent from the claws of the West.

“The leadership that is not awakened, the leadership that does not understand that imperialism no longer has room in Africa, neo-colonialism no longer has room in Africa, colonisation no longer has room in Africa, exploitation of Africa can no longer continue; a leader who doesn’t understand that, is a leader whose days are numbered,” she cautioned.

“Youth, make us accountable as your elders, make your leaders accountable. If your leaders are not accountable, replace them.”

Ambassador Chihombori-Quao cautioned Africans to accept that they were still suffering from the legacy of colonisation and slavery and would remain defeated if nothing was done to change it.

As a staunch pan-Africanist, she called on the leaders to unite Africa for expedited development, chastising African leaders for failing to stand up and denounce the draconian financial regime offered by the World Bank for instance, which had a toll on the economies of African countries.

“The World Bank must stop giving us frivolous loans, the World Bank must treat Africa fairly; an Africa that is treated equally on the world stage, an Africa that is free of racism, bigotry and hate,” she added.

The real problem was about the leaders who had failed to stop the onslaught being continually unleashed by the colonisers, multinationals, non-governmental organisations and embassies to make Africa poorer.

She referenced the situation where Namibians were required to pay about 170 dollars to get a visa to go to the United States, but it was free for Americans to go to Namibia.

She questioned what leadership was doing about that kind of cheating.

“The same people who are abusing us, taking advantage of us, and exploiting us are laughing at us because we are jokers,” she added.

Source: GNA

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During his official inauguration as the NPP’s running mate in Kumasi on July 9, Dr. Prempeh remarked that no President in Ghana’s history has performed better than President Akufo-Addo, including “their Kwame Nkrumah.”

These comments sparked controversy, leading to an official apology from Dr. Prempeh popularly known as NAPO.

During his campaign tour, he addressed the issue and rendered unqualified apology to the chiefs.

Dr. Prempeh said, as someone who values education and respect, he could never undermine Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions.

He acknowledged Nkrumah’s significant achievements, including being honoured as the Millennium President of Africa, and affirmed that his contributions to Ghana’s development are undeniable.

Source: Ernest Gyamerah Akowuah Twum

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His comment comes after President Akufo-Addo’s address to celebrate Founders’ Day on Saturday stirred debates.

The President highlighted the collective efforts of various individuals in the independence struggle.

While acknowledging the contribution of Dr. Nkrumah, he rejected the notion that Kwame Nkrumah alone founded Ghana.

“While Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions to our independence are undeniable, it is important to acknowledge that the struggle for our nation’s freedom was a collective effort spanning several generations,” President Akufo-Addo stated.

Critics have since described the suggestion by the president as self-serving and an attempt to distort the country’s history.

But speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Mr Akomea emphasised that the territory of Ghana, as it stands today, was already established at the time of the country’s independence on March 6, 1957.

According to him, it was Dr Nkrumah who gave himself the title Founder of Ghana even though he only played a role in the country’s fight to be a sovereign state.

“This business of who founded Ghana was started by Kwame Nkrumah. He gave himself the title of founder and did the coins with his image on it with the title founder. When you say you have found something, it means before you came that thing didn’t exist.

“But Ghana as we have it today, as of March 6, 1957, existed as it is. When we had independence on March 6, the state of Ghana as it is, which part of Ghana as we have it now was missing?” he quizzed.

Mr Akomea was therefore of the view that people who led the country to independence should be known as Independence Leaders, not Founders.

Similar to the President, Mr Akomea acknowledged Dr Nkrumah’s significant role in leading Ghana to independence, he however suggested a broader recognition of all contributors to the independence movement.

“I’d prefer independence leaders but if we want to call them founders that is fine. Now, my basic point is that, a lot of people contributed to our attainment of independence. Kwame Nkrumah played a leadership role. “So what is wrong if we select a day to commemorate all those who played a role in fighting for the country’s independence and choose Nkrumah’s birthday to celebrate him for his stellar job,” he said.

Source: Mjoyonline

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A statement signed by Mr Buah noted that the right to independence was not a spontaneous event but the result of years of agitation, activism, and political organisation.

The statement acknowledged that while various individuals contributed to the struggle, it was Nkrumah’s exceptional leadership and vision that paved the way for Ghana’s freedom.

It said: “Kwame Nkrumah was not just a participant in Ghana’s independence struggle; he was the architect and driving force behind the movement.”

The statement “recounted that Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s returned from the United States in 1947, influenced by Pan-Africanism and socialism, marked the beginning of a radical approach to the fight for independence”.

It said Nkrumah’s unique ability to mobilize the masses through strikes, protests, and demonstrations challenged colonial authority and inspired ordinary Ghanaians to demand for their rights.

“His unwavering dedication to unity within the nationalist movement and his advocacy for Pan-Africanism showcased his visionary leadership and commitment to a free Africa,” it added.

The statement said Nkrumah was at the forefront of the movement on March 6, 1957, when Ghana gained its independence from colonial rule, and his contributions as the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana solidified his position as the founding father of the nation.

It noted that: “No amount of political propaganda can ever diminish his legacy or alter the historical truth of his peerless contributions to our nation.”

He emphasised that the party, particularly through the contributions of its key historical figures, played a crucial role in embedding human rights into the nation’s constitutional framework.

Prof Oquaye claimed that during Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s tenure, there was minimal regard for the protection of human rights.

He suggested that, it was under the leadership of the NPP and its predecessors that significant advancements in human rights were made.

He expressed these views at a mentorship programme organized by the NPP Council of Elders.

The event, part of the 77th anniversary celebration of the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), aimed to educate young patriots on the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition and its contributions to Ghana’s political and social landscape.

Prof Oquaye highlighted that it was the late President Edward Akufo-Addo who first introduced a human rights chapter in the 1969 constitution.

According to him, this groundbreaking inclusion set the foundation for the protection of human rights, which has been carried forward and incorporated into subsequent constitutions.

“Our forebearers brought this kind of thing. Under Nkrumah, you could be detained almost indefinitely. Why? First of all, PDA [Preventive Detention Act] allowed your detention under the 1958 law for 5 years. When it got to 1964, he amended it and said after that, you could be given a renewal for another 5 years, almost indefinite.

“Nobody likes that today, nevertheless, they see a hero in the man who perpetrated it against the people of Ghana, it’s a contradiction. We must claim it, and we must know that if you love your freedom, you must love the NPP in Ghana today. Our people were developmental, selfless gentlemen, development-oriented and they spoke about it, all the time,” he stated.

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During his unveiling in Kumasi, Dr. Opoku Prempeh asserted that President Akufo-Addo has surpassed all previous Presidents in terms of development, including Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Following widespread condemnation, NAPO as he is popularly called rendered an unqualified apology.

However, addressing a press conference over the weekend, Nana Kwasi Kutuah V, speaking on behalf of the Nzema chiefs, insisted that Dr. Opoku Prempeh must personally apologize in Nkroful for denigrating the legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Nana Kwasi Kutuah V underscored the significance of Dr. Nkrumah to the Nzema people and Ghana as a whole, emphasizing that any disparaging remarks about the late President are deeply offensive.

He stressed that a formal apology made directly in Nkroful, Dr. Nkrumah’s birthplace and a symbolic site for his legacy, is necessary to appease the community and uphold respect for their revered leader.

“As chiefs, we believe that the statement Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh made was not supposed to be made. He has disrespected all Ghanaians including Nzema, Western Region, and Nkrofulman.

“We have heard that he has released a letter to apologize, but we believe he must come here in person to apologize to us the chiefs and the family,” he said.

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In a statement, Deputy Minority Leader and Western Regional Caucus Leader, Kofi Buah, emphasized that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy is sacred and any effort to undermine it will face strong opposition.

“The enduring legacy of the African of the Millennium and global icon, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, will always be safeguarded and will not be allowed to be distorted or diminished,” he asserted.

Mr Buah’s call for an apology follows comments made by the Manhyia South MP during his unveiling as the NPP running mate in Kumasi.

The MP’s remarks has sparked reactions among many. For Armah-Kofi Buah, these comments were embarrassing.

The Western Regional Caucus highlighted several achievements of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, noting the significant benefits and reliefs they provided to all Ghanaians.

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The CPP described Dr. Prempeh’s remarks about Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as “reprehensible” and “unbecoming of his stature.”

In a statement released on July 9, the CPP emphasized the enduring legacy of Dr. Nkrumah and his significant contributions, including the establishment of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where Dr. Prempeh studied medicine.

The CPP also noted the wise counsel of His Royal Highness Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, who had previously cautioned Dr. Prempeh against perceived arrogance.

According to the CPP, Dr. Prempeh ignored this advice and used “unprintable invectives” to denigrate Dr. Nkrumah.

The CPP therfore called for immediate action, demanding Dr. Prempeh’s resignation from all governmental and political positions within 24 hours, along with a public apology and retraction of his statements.

Should Dr. Prempeh fail to comply, the CPP urged President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to remove him from his ministerial and vice-presidential candidacy roles, respectively.

The party warned that failure to take swift action would result in nationwide protests by Ghanaians and Nkrumaists.

Read the full statement below:

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Hans Kofi Boni, recognised as the longest-serving Volta Regional Minister after Ghana’s independence in 1957, also served as the first Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ho West Constituency in the 1970s.

He holds the distinction of being the only surviving member of Dr Nkrumah’s cabinet from the Volta Region.

The delegation, led by Ing. Explo Nani-Kofi, spent time with the esteemed former minister, reminiscing and singing praises in honour of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. “Nkrumah never dies; he forever lives,” they sang, celebrating the enduring legacy of Ghana’s first president.

“We see this as necessary because today [July 1] is Republic Day. He (Hans Kofi Boni) is the only member of Kwame Nkrumah’s cabinet still alive, so we see him as the only representative of Dr Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana right now. We decided to come here as a way of marking Republic Day,” explained Explo Nani-Kofi.

Hans Kofi Boni’s political journey began with his appointment as Commissioner for the Volta Region by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He subsequently became the first MP for the Ho West Constituency and later served as the Minister for Food and Nutrition until the CPP government was overthrown in 1966.

His political career continued under President Hilla Limann, who appointed him as a presidential adviser, and he eventually became the national vice chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC).

At 96 years old, Hans Kofi Boni remains a vibrant figure with nine children and a vision to rekindle the ideals of the late Dr Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.

Reawakening CPP and Nkrumah’s vision

Explo Nani-Kofi emphasised the Pro-Nkrumah Unity Movement’s mission to revive the CPP and rejuvenate the spirit of Nkrumah’s followers. “Nkrumah’s vision and principles are unmatched throughout Africa. The only way forward for Africa is the resurrection of Kwame Nkrumah’s legacies. Without Nkrumah’s legacy, the African Union cannot hold,” he asserted.

Paul Nuwordu, the former Volta Regional CPP organiser, reflected on the profound impact of Dr Nkrumah, lamenting the 1966 overthrow. “The foundations that this man laid for this country, for Africa, and for black people not only in Ghana but across the continent and the diaspora were so great,” he said. “Those who overthrew this man still regret it today. We need to revisit all that he envisioned for this country and work to rebuild it.”

The gathering, which included Hans Kofi Boni, his family, and members of the CPP, also took the opportunity to extend condolences to the family of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s firstborn, Prof Francis Nkrumah, who recently passed away.

The event served as a poignant reminder of the enduring legacy of Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the continuing efforts to keep his vision alive in Ghana and across Africa.

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During the tour, the couple took time to reflect on the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and the impact of his leadership on Ghana and the African continent.

Additionally, they expressed admiration for Nkrumah’s vision and commitment to Ghana’s independence struggle.

In collaboration with the US non-profit organization Pencils of Promise, Ja Rule and Aisha Atkins are spearheading the construction of a classroom block at the Nuaso Anglican Primary School.

Check out some of the photos of Ja Rule and his wife in Ghana below:

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In a statement signed by the National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah on Saturday said that the day of Dr. Nkrumah’s ousting would forever be remembered as Ghana’s day of “shame.”

The party contended that the inaugural coup in the country disrupted Dr Nkrumah’s transformative vision, which he had initiated for the accelerated development and industrialisation of the nation.

According to the NDC, the coup was executed by security personnel under the active orchestration of the forebears of current leaders, closely collaborating with their foreign paymasters.

“This nation-wrecking act was followed by a deliberate agenda by the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition to obliterate the memory of Nkrumah by attacking his works and legacy. Despite their determined efforts to rewrite history, the memory of Kwame Nkrumah lives on, and his legacy remains unparalleled,” part of the statement read.

The NDC stressed that the country should never again succumb to such actions of “treachery, that have set our nation back and rolled back the clock of progress by several years.”

The statement further urged Ghanaians to reject individuals whose mission is not to pursue the path of democracy for the upliftment of citizens but rather their selfish quest for historical revisionism and the recognition of their ancestors.

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On Friday, September 22, Princess Fathia Nkrumah was with several celebrities and notable public figures who led the protestors on a march towards Jubilee House in protest over economic hardships and subpar living conditions.

In a striking photo posted on her Twitter page, Princess Fathia Nkrumah held a placard with the bold statement, “Not even the rain could deter us!”

She also shared excerpts from the Police Service Act on her social media platforms to educate citizens about how to interact with the police.

Among the other prominent figures who participated in the protest were singer and actress Efia Odo, actor turned politician John Dumelo, talented artiste, Efya Nokturnal, popular singer Kelvynboy, and the influential content creator, SDK.

Check out the photos below:

Know your rights under the Police Service Act, 2012 (Act 849), in dealing with the police today as we continue the fight! #OccupyJulorbiHouse ✊?
Follow @Ghfixthecountry for protest updates and developments. pic.twitter.com/5y8noQojqK

— Princess .F. Nkrumah (@FathiaNkrumah) September 22, 2023

Not even the rain could stop us! #OccupyJulorbiHouse #FixTheCountry ✊? pic.twitter.com/68QdBkS5lo

— Princess .F. Nkrumah (@FathiaNkrumah) September 22, 2023

#OccupyJulorbiHouse #FixtheCountry @EugeniaLeads @_Princesss_AJ ✊? https://t.co/eEQ51Kj6aP pic.twitter.com/oamO8BFHKY

— Princess .F. Nkrumah (@FathiaNkrumah) September 22, 2023

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The party said Dr Nkrumah’s strategic investments in critical sectors of the economy and industrialisation drive put the country on the path of economic independence until his “painful” overthrow in 1966.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency ahead of the commemoration of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day on Thursday, the General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah said Dr Nkrumah should be the “yardstick of good governance.”

She urged the citizenry to reflect on the current state of Ghana’s economy and juxtapose it with the achievements of Dr Nkrumah, who made a determined effort to make the country a great nation after gaining her independence in 1957.

“Ghana was on the road of gaining economic independence, but Nkrumah was painfully taken out of power.

Kwame Nkrumah developed and industrialised this nation. He created a good healthcare system for the nation and was very prudent with the resources that we had and used it to build a lot of infrastructure, including the Akosombo Dam and the harbour,” she said.

Nana Yaa Jantuah said the present state of the Ghanaian economy, which was characterised by higher inflation, weak local currency, and unattainable debts, reflected the extent to which the dream to achieve total economic independence had fallen apart.

“It is time for us to arise to make our government accountable. Ghanaians should let governments who come into power understand that they cannot do what they like and that the yardstick should be what Kwame Nkrumah did,” she said.

Ghanaians will on Thursday, September 21, 2023, mark the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, with a Statutory Public Holiday.

The day is set aside to remember and honour Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who earlier was Prime Minister and Africa’s foremost champion of continental unity and liberation of the black race.

On March 6, 1957, Ghana gained independence after 83 years of British colonial rule – becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence from Britain.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana as “free forever” from colonial rule, marking a historic turning point in the governance of the country.

There are those who, however, see him as a dictator and question what Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy is. The debate is not exclusive to academics and other members of society.

Two of his children, Samia and Sekou Nkrumah also disagree on what their father exactly stood for and what his legacy must be.

Watch the video below:

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According to him, not even Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah was able to achieve what President Akufo-Addo has achieved in six years of being in power.

Speaking to fellow actor Kwaku Manu in an interview, Agya Koo said Kwame Nkrumah had only nine major projects in his name, unlike President Akufo-Addo who has countless achievements to live by.

He added that, he has been to many parts of Ghana, adding that, he has witnessed countless works and achievements that no one can praise themselves for apart from President Akufo-Addo.

“From Rawlings, to Limann to whoever, I will never lie, there is no past government that has worked more than Akufo-Addo. Kufuor tried, but there is none. I am old, and I play a music band, I have travelled far and when I get to anywhere, I see what Nana Addo has done,” he said.

According to the Kumawood actor, the communication team of the New Patriotic Party aren’t hammering hard on their achievements since they came to power.

The communicators aren’t helping the party. Ghanaians can say whatever they want. Kwame Nkrumah didn’t provide jobs. He only opened nine projects, and it was the whites who planned everything.

According to Agya Koo, Nkrumah cannot be Ghana’s best president because he just managed projects developed by the then colonial masters.

He also added that Nkrumah betrayed the Big Six and stole their success story.

“Ghanaians just don’t like to say the truth. Nkrumah was not in Ghana then. It was some people who called him to come and join them to fight for independence because he had extensive knowledge on how the whites were governing.

“Whites are not negative like blacks, they remember everyone in history. Someone had the dream and invited Nkrumah from abroad to come and support. He came to meet chairmen and presidents in the association already. That doesn’t mean he is the only one who won the independence,” Agya Koo said.

Watch the video below:

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Kwame Nkrumah had fast established himself as the people’s man in the country that he would lead to independence. The colonial administrators were not pleased.

So when Nkrumah got Isis Nashid, an Egyptian working for the colonial government, pregnant, he had to hide it.

In the little-known story revealed in 2015 by Souad El Rouby Sinare, Nashid had to leave Nkrumah and the Gold Coast to her native Egypt. Upon arrival, she quickly got married to avoid the shame of having a child out of wedlock.

Nkrumah continued with the freedom struggle.

But not long after the episode with Nashid, Nkrumah was convinced by Said Saleh Sinare, a businessman and personal friend, to look for a wife, preferably the woman who had his child in Egypt.

But instead of Nashid, Fathia was found available and ready.

Souad Sinare recounted: “When we informed Dr. Nkrumah of our find of a bride [to-be], he was very happy that he also informed the President of Egypt, Gamel Abdul Nasser, who was happy that his friend…had decided to marry from his [Nasser’s] country.”

Both had not met before. But she was also excited even if her mother did not like the idea of marrying a foreigner.

Her brother had already married an English woman in the 1950s and had gone away. Fathia tried to convince her mother that Nkrumah was like Nasser, a freedom fighter, but the older woman would have none of that.

Fathia effectively travelled to Ghana in 1957 to marry a man whom she did not know except for his reputation. And she did so with just one uncle but without her family’s blessings.

Gamel Nkrumah, her first son, would later say of his mother: “The new bride, who had cut herself off from her family and country by marrying Nkrumah, was isolated in more ways than one.”

She spoke little to no English and Nkrumah spoke neither French nor Arabic. She had to learn so that by the end of her first year, Fathia was delivering speeches in English.

Fathia was happy, not only about her marriage but also about Ghana which was not a conservative society just like Egypt.

The Ghanaian women Fathia knew in the early 1960s were fiercely independent, educated and wealthy.

She endeared herself to this wealthy category of women who were mostly retailers of wax prints and the famous traditionally woven cloth called kente.

By their wealth, these “market women” were powerful and influential. They named a kind of kente after the first lady, calling it “Fathia fata Nkrumah”, Akan for “Fathia is perfect for Nkrumah”.

But before they would accept her, the market women and wives of powerful men, were actually very angry with Kwame Nkrumah. He was going to marry a “white woman”.

The women’s wing of Nkrumah’s own Convention People’s Party (CPP), reacted in the harshest way possible, telling Nkrumah they were disappointed in him.

Nkrumah had to explain to them that in spite of her skin colour, Fathia was African. This tension is microcosmic of modern-day discussions around the Africanness of continental North Africans.

But Nkrumah’s determination to defend Fathia’s Africanness also raises questions about whether he thought of her as a tool of political expedience to his hopes of Pan-Africanism.

Gamel Nkrumah himself wrote: “It was not meant to be a marriage made in heaven. It was a political union between Mediterranean-oriented North Africa and the rest of the continent, often pejoratively termed sub-Saharan or Black Africa.”

Carina Ray writing in 2006, also said of the marriage: “The US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were rumoured to be primarily concerned with whether the marriage was intended to create a political union between Egypt and Ghana”.

Whether she was a tool in their game or a completely loved wife, Fathia Nkrumah found meaning for her role and she played it well.

Before going to Ghana, Fathia, it is said, spoke to Egyptian President Nasser. He wanted to be sure if the wife of a powerful man from a place she had no idea about is what she wanted to be.

The young woman reiterated her readiness, maybe naively.

Despite the culture shocks and noticeable temperature differences for an Egyptian in Ghana, Fathia would go on to play hostess to some of the world’s most powerful leaders; an unofficial envoy for her country, and the wife of a man whose life was constantly under threat.

In 1966, when Fathia’s eldest child was only seven, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup d’etat. She herself was 34, still youthful and energetic.

Fathia flew out of Ghana with her three kids to Egypt, from where she would once again be an outsider looking in. It is not known if she ever saw Nkrumah again until his own death in 1972.

That was not the end of her relationship with Ghana. She was invited to live in the country but in 1979, Fathia’s mother-in-law, Nkrumah’s mother Nyaneba, died in the arms of a bitterly sad Fathia, at the age of 102.

Feeling like those who loved her were no more, Fathia left Ghana again, this time by choice and not compulsion. She would return to visit in 1997 for the country’s 40th independence.

In 2007, she died in Cairo aged 75.

Fathia had been a young woman with convictions of grandeur but also the victim of political nastiness. Above all, she had dared to follow her dreams and that is what probably matters.

Kwame Nkrumah died on April 27, 1972, while battling cancer. Dr Nkrumah was 62 years old when he passed away.

His last breath was not in the country he fought to help attain independence from British colonial rule. Kwame Nkrumah died in Bucharest, Romania.

Dr Nkrumah was overthrown by a coup led by Col. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka on February 24, 1966. He was out of the country when his administration was sent to oblivion.

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Since the coup, he had been living in Guinea. Dr Kwame Nkrumah was also the country’s first Prime Minister.

Kwame Nkrumah was part of the founding fathers of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), popularly known as the “Big Six.”

The other members of the Big Six are Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori-Atta.

Today being a golden jubilee since his death, social media users have lauded Nkrumah for his remarkable achievements.

Today in History, On April 27, 1972, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister & President of Ghana and a Great Pan-Africanist died in Bucharest, Romania while being treated for cancer at the age of 62. He had been living in Guinea since his overthrow in a coup in 1966. pic.twitter.com/cLtiT5nRRf

— GHANA FACTS & HISTORY (@GhanaianMuseum) April 27, 2022

The dual carriage motorway has since served as one of the most prominent roads in the history of Ghana.

The one-minute video captures the beautiful ceremony that took place before the sod was cut by the then Ghana’s First Man.

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The video was posted with the caption:

On this Day in history, On 30 November 1965, Kwame Nkrumah opened Ghana’s first stretch of motorway- a broad highway which will speed traffic between the capital Accra, and the nearby port and industrial town of Tema. Nkrumah expressed his pleasure that work proceeded so well.

Check out the video below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GHANA FACTS & HISTORY (@ghanaianmuseum)

Meanwhile, one user, juices4lifee, who commented on the video said: Yet today’s road constructed by the so called modern government won’t even last for 6 months.

The photo was taken as far back as 1947, days after Mr Nkrumah arrived in then Gold Coast.

His first visit was to his mum’s home in Cape Coast where this seven-decade photo was taken in their front door.

The photo captured the late Elizabeth Nyaniba in her Kaba and Slit traditional wear with a cover and headscarf to go with, while her educated aspiring president sits leg-crossed in his corporate wear.

Madam Nyaniba nurtured Mr Nkrumah until his demise in 1972 before passing on five years later.

The football match took place circa August in 1962.

The post had the caption:

Real Madrid president Santiago Bernabeu pinning his club’s badge on the chest of Kwame Nkrumah (middle, all white) after the Spanish giants visited Ghana and were held by the Black Stars to a 3-3 draw in 1962. Ohene Djan (1st from left) looks on.

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Meanwhile, the historical match between Black Stars and Real Madrid didn’t take place at Madrid’s iconic Santiago Bernabeu or some other exotic arena, the match happened in Ghana – at the old Accra Sports Stadium, which resulted in a 3-3 score.

Read the original post below:

W.E.B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S. He was born, as he phrased it in his autobiography, ‘Dusk at Dawn,’ “with a flood of Negro blood, a strain of French, a bit of Dutch, but, thank God, no ‘Anglo-Saxon’.”

He was educated at Great Barrington high school . Du Bois graduated from Fisk University, a historically black institution in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1888.

By 1895, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois became the first African-American to earn a doctorate (PhD) at the Harvard University.

He published his doctoral dissertation in 1896, ‘The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870’, as the first volume of Harvard’s Historical Monograph Series. He was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a sociological study of the black population of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward.

In 1892, WEB Du bois was awarded a grant from the Slater Fund to study at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, working closely with Gustav von Schmoller, leader of the younger German Historical School.

Also, in 1894 he was denied further aid from the Slater fund. Unable to fulfill residency requirements for obtaining a doctoral degree from Friedrich Wilhelm University, he returned to Great Barrington and took an appointment to teach Classics at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio.

He resigned from the editorship of ‘The Crisis and the NAACP’ in 1934, yielding his influence as a race leader and charging that the organisation was dedicated to the interests of the black bourgeoisie and ignored the problems of the masses.

Upon leaving the NAACP, he returned to Atlanta University, where he devoted the next 10 years to teaching and scholarship.

Du Bois’s black nationalism took several forms—the most influential being his pioneering advocacy of Pan-Africanism, the belief that all people of African descent had common interests and should work together in the struggle for their freedom. Du Bois was a leader of the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900 and the architect of four Pan-African Congresses held between 1919 and 1927.

At the end of a globetrotting career that took U.S. civil-rights pioneer and author W.E.B. Du Bois from his home in America to Germany, the Soviet Union, China, and many other countries, he travelled to Ghana in 1961.

In 1960, WEB Du Bois visited Ghana after failing to honour an invitation to celebrate the country’s independence in 1957. But in 1961, he was convinced by Ghana’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, to move to Ghana and embark on a dream intellectual quest.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois long wanted to compile an encyclopedia on Africa and Kwame Nkrumah had the means to make it possible. When Nkrumah came back to Ghana after the Pan-African Congress, he was always in contact with Du Bois. After gaining independence, Nkrumah needed people to help him to push pan-Africanism. He said the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with total liberation of the African continent. He needed Du Bois to help push this agenda through.

WEB Du Bois had problems in the U.S. with renewal of his passport when he came to Ghana. Du Bois himself did not renounce his American citizenship. The US government simply refused to renew his passport after 1961, effectively leaving him stateless while in Ghana.

He accepted an offer of Ghanaian citizenship and naturalized as a Ghanaian in 1962. He wrote about what Ghana meant to him in the poem, “Freedomways”.

He accepted Nkrumah’s invitation because he had the intention of helping Africa liberate itself from colonial rule. He was able to work with Nkrumah on a number of pan-African initiatives in Africa.
The light had been lit by Du Bois and it was a matter of course that other countries follow. Certainly it was through Du Bois’s influence.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois died on August 27, 1963, a day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech day at the March on Washington — at the age of 95, in Accra, Ghana, while working on an encyclopedia of the African Diaspora.

Roy Wilkins announces Du Bois’s death at the March, remarking “that at the dawn of the twentieth century his was the voice that was calling you to gather here today in this cause. If you want to read something that applies to 1963 go back and get a volume The Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois, published in 1903.”

Du Bois’s final home, a sleepy bungalow in a leafy enclave of Accra, Ghana’s capital, still stands. The tombs of Du Bois and his second wife, Shirley, sit next to his former home, which is today a tiny, modest museum at the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Center for Pan-African Culture.

The centre, where he and his wife once lived, and where they are now buried, houses his personal library, a small museum with a handful of personal effects such as his graduation robes. The couple’s mausoleum is surrounded by Asante stools, a seminar room, a restaurant, a gallery, an amphitheatre and a research centre for Pan-African history and culture.

His first wife, Mrs Nina Gomer DuBois, whom he married in 1896, died in 1950, and a year later, he married Shirley Graham, a writer. He was surviving by his widow and a daughter, Mrs. Yolanda Williams.

Works

WEB Du bois shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and edited The Crisis, its magazine, from 1910 to 1934. His collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is a landmark of African American literature.

Some of his notable works are “Dusk of Dawn”, “The Souls of Black Folk”,Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880”.

Du Bois subjects of study was about Reconstruction and black nationalism.
He played a role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

He was the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Niagara Movement. Both in the Niagara Movement and in the NAACP, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois acted mainly as an integrationist, but his thinking always exhibited, to varying degrees, separatist-nationalist tendencies.

Little Asantewaa, despite surviving the attack, has not been the same after the incident as one of her legs was amputated, and has since lived on the other.

With shattered dreams and a disfigured face, Madam Asantewaa’s other leg is fast rotting by the day thereby compounding her woes.

She is, thus, pleading for help from President Nana Akufo-Addo and the general public after being abandoned to her fate.

Madam Asantewaa some 58 years ago, was tasked to welcome and present to Dr Kwame Nkrumah, a bouquet.

Unknown to her, the bouquet had been bomb laced and detonated as she presented it to Dr Nkrumah.

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Narrating the incident on that day in a video report by Joy News, she said, all she heard was a booming sound and a force which lifted and shoved her to the ground.

According to her, Dr Nkrumah supported her and the family after the incident but the support she was enjoying was curtailed by his overthrow.

I was at the hospital and in real pain when I was told that the President was there to visit me. I couldn’t believe it, but it was true; I saw him by my bedside and in our conversation, he started crying and I saw tears in his eyes. He promised to help me since I was only a victim of an attack on him. He sponsored my treatment in London, but after his demise, I haven’t received any help from subsequent governments, she said.

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She averred that life has become very challenging for her to the extent that sometimes she drinks water on an empty stomach when she has nothing to eat.

Sometimes when I am out of money, I only drink water and sleep. I am pleading with President Akufo-Addo to come and help me because he knows my story. I am also appealing to well-meaning Ghanaians to come to my aid, she said.

Watch short interview below:

Taking to his Facebook page, Dr Nkrumah wrote that, it was his siblings’ decision to revive their father’s political party, the Convention People’s Party without him despite being the first among them to enter the Ghanaian political space in 1989, a period in which they both weren’t even interested in coming to Ghana.  

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Read Sekou Nkrumah’s full post below:

Why are Nkrumah’s children politically divided?

Sadly we are: Gamal and Samia stand on one side, and Sekou on the other. As you have noticed I am leaving Francis our big brother (from a different mother) out of this because he never showed any real interest in politics.

Well, to begin with, I will say that when I returned to Ghana in 1989, my brother and sister were not interested in living in Ghana at all, and I was the only one determined to make Ghana my home at the young age of 26!

It was not an easy return, and I am not the easiest of persons to deal with. I tend to be very stubborn and independent-minded. But life has a way of teaching you things the hard way.

Anyway, I got involved in Ghanaian politics but because I belonged to the opposition and was very young and inexperienced at the time many people did not get to know me or know about me! As a country too we were also relearning the ways of party politics, and the multi-party system of democracy after almost a decade of military rule and a culture of silence.

The media too was fast-growing, and I was equally involved with it at different levels. Both in the print and electronic!

When my sister returned to Ghana after our mother’s death she clearly had an agenda and an ambition, and that is perfectly normal! The problem, however, was why she and my brother decided to keep me in the dark.

True they are both older than me ( five and four years almost) but that is no excuse to slight or disrespect their younger brother.

You see if they had shared their interest in reviving the CPP with me I believe things would have been done differently!

Even if I did not agree with them on for example socialism or the viability of the party in contemporary Ghanaian politics, we would have at least shared our experiences and knowledge, and kept a unified front in the public eye and I would not have been critical of my sister! At least not in public!

But that was not to be and their involvement in my son’s life and his subsequent death really made matters worse. Again the lack of communication between us in such serious matters brought out the worse in me and ended badly for my son, Alin.

Is there a path for reconciliation?

To begin with, they never showed any remorse up to this day concerning the death of Alin! I do not demand an apology, I just ask for a truthful recognition that they should have consulted with me first before deciding to facilitate his coming to Ghana!

Yes they might have had good intentions for him, but what they failed to see is that being his father I was aware of a lot more of what went on in his life! And I was definitely convinced that life in Ghana would not be easy for him! To put it bluntly, I did not want him to go through the struggles I went through in Ghana since my return and rather preferred him to find his purpose in life in Europe where he grew up anyway!

Well, that recognition of a failure in judgment on their part never came, so my reservations still remain.

I concede that people can see things differently, especially as we had grown apart since the early 1980s when I lived in Europe! But bad blood among siblings is not a good thing, especially for ones with a legacy as ours!

Mr Nkrumah‘s speech at the founding of the OAU has since become a classic, even iconic.

Here’s the First President of Ghana, Mr Nkrumah’s speech at the inaugural ceremony of the OAU Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963.

“Your Excellencies, Colleagues, Brothers and Friends,

At the first gathering of African Heads of State, to which I had the honour of playing host, there were representatives of eight independent States only. Today, five years later, we meet as the representatives of no less than thirty-two States, the guests of His
Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, the First, and the Government and people of Ethiopia. To His Imperial Majesty, I wish to express, on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana my deep appreciation for a most cordial welcome and generous hospitality.

The increase in our number in this short space of time is open testimony to the indomitable and irresistible surge of our peoples for independence. It is also a token of the revolutionary speed of world events in the latter half of this century. In the task which is before us of unifying our continent we must fall in with that pace or be left
behind. The task cannot be attached in the tempo of any other age than our own. To fall behind the unprecedented momentum of actions and events in our time will be to court failure and our own undoing.

A whole continent has imposed a mandate upon us to lay the foundation of our Union at this Conference. It is our responsibility to execute this mandate by creating here and now the formula upon which the requisite superstructure may be erected.

On this continent it has not taken us long to discover that the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence. Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs; to construct our society according to our aspirations,
unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and
interference.

From the start we have been threatened with frustration where rapid change is imperative and with instability where sustained effort and ordered rule are indispensable. No sporadic act nor pious resolution can resolve our present problems. Nothing will be of avail, except the united act of a united Africa.

We have already reached, the stage where we must unite or sink into that condition which has made Latin America the unwilling and distressed prey of imperialism after one and a half centuries of political independence. As a continent we have emerged into independence in a different age, with imperialism grown stronger, more ruthless and experienced, and more dangerous in its international associations. Our economic advancement demands the end of colonialist and neo-colonialist domination in Africa.

But just as we understood that the shaping of our national destinies required of each of us our political independence and bent all our strength to this attainment, so we must recognize that our economic independence resides in our African union and requires the same concentration upon the political achievement.

The unity of our continent, no less than our separate independence, will be delayed if, indeed, we do not lose it, by hobnobbing with colonialism. African Unity is, above all, a political kingdom which can only be gained by political means. The social and economic development of Africa will come only within the political kingdom, not the other way around. The United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were the political decisions of revolutionary peoples before they became mighty realities of social power and material wealth.

How, except by our united efforts, will the richest and still enslaved parts of our continent be freed from colonial occupation and become available to us for the total development of our continent? Every step in the decolonization of our continent has brought greater resistance in those areas where colonial garrisons are available to colonialism.

This is the great design of the imperialist interests that buttress colonialism and neo-colonialism, and we would be deceiving ourselves in the cruelest way were we to regard their individual actions as separate and unrelated. When Portugal violates Senegal’s border, when Verwood allocated one-seventh of South Africa’s budget to military and police, when France builds as part of her defence policy an interventionist force that can intervene, more especially in French-speaking Africa, when Welensky talks of Southern Rhodesia joining South Africa, it is all part of a carefully calculated pattern working towards a single end: the continued enslavement of our still dependent brothers and an onslaught upon the independence of our sovereign African States.

Do we have any other weapon against this design but our unity? Is not our unity essential to guard our own freedom as well as to win freedom for our oppressed brothers, the Freedom Fighters?

Is it not unity alone that can weld us into an effective force, capable of creating our own progress and making our valuable contribution to world peace? Which independent African State will claim that its financial structure and banking institutions are fully harnessed to its national development? Which will claim that its
material resources and human energies are available for its own national aspirations? Which will disclaim a substantial measure of disappointment and disillusionment in its agricultural and urban development?

In independent Africa we are already re-experiencing the instability and frustration which existed under colonial rule. We are fast learning that political independence is not enough to rid us of the consequences of colonial rule.

The movement of the masses of the people of Africa for freedom from that kind of rule was not only a revolt against the conditions which it imposed. Our people supported us in our fight for independence because they believed that African Governments could cure the ills of the past in a way which could never be accomplished under colonial rule. If, therefore, now that we are independent we allow the same conditions to exist that existed in colonial days, all the resentment which overthrew colonialism will be mobilized against us.

The resources are there. It is for us to marshal them in the active service of our people. Unless we do this by our concerted efforts, within the framework of our combined planning, we shall not progress at the tempo demanded by today’s events and the mood of our people. The symptoms of our troubles will grow, and the troubles themselves
become chronic. It will then be too late even for Pan-African Unity to secure for us stability and tranquillity in our labours for a continent of social justice and material well-being. Unless we establish African Unity now, we who are sitting here today shall tomorrow be the victims and martyrs of neo-colonialism.

There is evidence on every side that the imperialists have not withdrawn from our affairs. There are times, as in the Congo, when their interference is manifest. But generally it is covered up under the clothing of many agencies, which meddle in our domestic affairs, to foment dissension within our borders and to create an atmosphere of tension and political instability. As long as we do not do away with the root causes of discontent, we lend aid to these neo-colonialist forces, and shall become our own executioners. We cannot ignore the teachings of history.

Our continent is probably the richest in the world for minerals and industrial and agricultural primary materials. From the Congo alone, Western firms exported copper, rubber, cotton, and other goods to the value of 2, 773 billion dollars in the ten years between 1945 and 1955, and from South Africa, Western gold mining companies have drawn a profit, in the four years, between 1947 to 1951, of 814 billion
dollars.

Our continent certainly exceeds all the others in potential hydroelectric power, which some experts assess as 42 percent of the world’s total. What need is there for us to remain hewers for the industrialised areas of the world?

It is said, of course, that we have no capital, no industrial skill, no communications and no internal markets, and that we cannot even agree among ourselves how best to utilise our resources.

Yet all the stock exchanges in the world are preoccupied with Africa’s gold, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ores. Our capital flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economy. Fifty-two percent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the U. S. A. stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from our shores. Africa provides more than 60 percent of the world’s gold. A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries – the basic economic might of the foreign Powers – come
from our continent.

Experts have estimated that the Congo basin alone can produce enough food crops to satisfy the requirements of nearly half the population of the whole world.

For centuries Africa has been the milk cow of the Western world. It was our continent that helped the Western world to build up its accumulated wealth.

It is true that we are now throwing off the yoke of colonialism as fast as we can, but our success in this direction is equally matched by an intense effort on the part of imperialism to continue the exploitation of our resources by creating divisions among us.

When the colonies of the American Continent sought to free themselves from imperialism in the 18th century there was no threat of neo-colonialism in the sense in which we know it today. The American States were therefore free to form and fashion the unity which was best suited to their needs and to frame a constitution to hold their unity together without any form of interference from external sources.
We, however, are having to grapple with outside interventions. How much more, then do we need to come together in the African unity that alone can save us from the clutches of neo-colonialism.

We have the resources. It was colonialism in the first place that prevented us from accumulating the effective capital; but we ourselves have failed to make full use of our power in independence to mobilise our resources for the most effective take-off into thorough going economic and social development. We have been too busy nursing our separate States to understand fully the basic need of our union, rooted in common purpose, common planning and common endeavour. A union that ignores these fundamental necessities will be but a shame.

It is only by uniting our productive capacity and the resultant production that we can amass capital. And once we start, the momentum will increase. With capital controlled by our own banks, harnessed to our own true industrial and agricultural development, we shall make our advance. We shall accumulate machinery and establish steel works, iron foundries and factories; we shall link the various States of our continent with communications; we shall astound the world with our hydroelectric power; we shall drain marshes and swamps, clear infested areas, feed the under-nourished, and rid our people of parasites and disease. It is within the possibility of science and technology to
make even the Sahara bloom into a vast field with verdant vegetation for agricultural and industrial developments. We shall harness the radio, television, giant printing presses to lift our people from the dark recesses of illiteracy.

A decade ago, these would have been visionary words, the fantasies of an idle dreamer. But this is the age in which science has transcended the limits of the material world, and technology has invaded the silences of nature. Time and space have been reduced to unimportant abstractions. Giant machines make roads, clear forests, dig dams,
layout aerodromes; monster trucks and planes distribute goods; huge laboratories manufacture drugs; complicated geological surveys are made; mighty power stations are built; colossal factories erected all at an incredible speed. The world is no longer moving through bush paths or on camels and donkeys.

We cannot afford to pace our needs, our development, our security to the gait of camels and donkeys. We cannot afford not to cut down the overgrown bush of outmoded attitudes that obstruct our path to the modern open road of the widest and earliest achievement of economic independence and the raising up of the lives of our people to the highest level.

Even for other continents lacking tile resources of Africa, this is the age that sees the end of human want. For us it is a simple matter of grasping with certainty our heritage by using the political might of unity. All we need to do is to develop with our united strength the enormous resources of our continent. A United Africa will provide a
stable field of foreign investment, which will encourage as long as it does not behave inimically to our African interests.

For such investment would add by its enterprises to the development of the
national economy, employment and training of our people, and will be welcome to Africa. In dealing with a united Africa, investors will no longer have to weigh with concern the risks of negotiating with governments in one period which may not exist in the very next period.
Instead of dealing or negotiating with so many separate States at a time they will be dealing with one united government pursuing a harmonized continental policy.

What is the alternative to this? If we falter at this stage, and let time pass for neo-colonialism to consolidate its position on this continent, what will be the fate of our people who have put their trust in us? What will be the fate of our freedom fighters? What will be the fate of other African Territories that are not yet free?

Unless we can establish great industrial complexes in Africa – which we can only do in united Africa – we must have our peasantry to the mercy of foreign cash crop markets, and face the same unrest which overthrew the colonialists? What use to the farmer is education and mechanisation, what use is even capital for development; unless we can
ensure for him and a fair price and ready market? What has the peasant, worker and farmer gained from political independence, unless we can ensure for him a fair return for his labour and a higher standard of living?

Unless we can establish great industrial complexes in Africa, what have the urban worker, and all those peasants on overcrowded land gained from political independence? If they are to remain unemployed or in unskilled occupation, what will avail them the better facilities for education, technical training, energy and ambition which independence enables us to provide?

There is hardly any African State without frontier problem with its adjacent neighbours. It would be futile for me to enumerate them because they are already familiar to us all. But let me suggest to Your Excellences, that this fatal relic of colonialism will drive us to war against one another as our unplanned and uncoordinated industrial development expands, just as happened in Europe. Unless we succeed in arresting the danger through mutual understanding on fundamental issues and through African Unity, which will render existing boundaries obsolete and superfluous, we shall have fought in vain for independence. Only African Unity can heal this festering sore of boundary disputes between our various States.

Your Excellencies, the remedy for these ills is ready to our hand. It stares us in the face
at every customs barrier, it shouts to us from every African heart. By creating a true political union of all the independent States of Africa, we can tackle hopefully every emergency, every enemy and every complexity. This is not because we are a race of superman, but because we have emerged in the age of science and technology in which poverty, ignorance and disease are no longer the masters, but the retreating
foes of mankind. We have emerged in the age of socialized planning, when production and distribution are not governed by chaos, greed and self-interest, but by social needs. Together with the rest of mankind, we have awakened from Utopian dreams to pursue practical blueprints for progress and social justice.

Above all, we have emerged at a time when a continental land mass like Africa with its population approaching three hundred million are necessary to the economic capitalization and profitability of modern productive methods and techniques. Not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development.
Certainly, in the circumstances, it will not be possible to give adequate assistance to sister States trying, against the most difficult conditions, to improve their economic and social structures. Only a united Africa functioning under a Union Government can
forcefully mobilize the material and moral resources of our separate countries and apply them efficiently and energetically to bring a rapid change in the conditions of our people.

If we do not approach the problems in Africa with a common front and a common purpose, we shall be haggling and wrangling among ourselves until we are colonized again and become the tolls of a far greater colonialism than we suffered hitherto.

Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big or small, we can, here and now, forge a political union based on Defence, Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy, and a common Citizenship, an African currency, an African Monetary Zone and an African Central Bank. We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent. We need a common Defence system with an African High Command to ensure the stability and security of Africa.

We have been charged with this sacred task by our own people, and we cannot betray their trust by failing them. We will be mocking the hopes of our people if we show the slightest hesitation or delay by tackling realistically this question of African Unity.

The supply of arms or other military aid to the colonial oppressors in Africa must be regarded not only as aid in the vanquishment of the freedom fighters battling for their African independence, but as an act of aggression against the whole of Africa. How can we meet this aggression except by the full weight of our united strength?

Many of us have made non-alignment an article of faith on this continent. We have no wish, and no intention of being drawn into the Cold War. But with the present weakness and insecurity of our States in the context of world politics, the search for bases and spheres of influence brings the Cold War into Africa with its danger of nuclear warfare. Africa should be declared a nuclear-free zone and freed from cold war exigencies. But we cannot make this demand mandatory unless we support it from a position of strength to be found only in our unity.

Instead, many Independent African States are involved by military pacts with the former colonial powers. The stability and security which such devices seek to establish are illusory, for the metropolitan Powers seize the opportunity to support their
neo-colonialist controls by direct military involvement. We have seen how the neo-colonialists use their bases to entrench themselves and attack neighboring independent States. Such bases are centers of tension and potential danger spots of military conflict. They threaten the security not only of the country in which they are situated but of neighboring countries as well. How can we hope to make Africa a nuclear-free zone and independent of cold war pressure with such military involvement on our continent? Only by counter-balancing a common defence force with a common defence policy based upon our desire for an Africa untrammelled by foreign dictation or military and nuclear presence. This will require an all-embracing African High Command, especially if the military pacts with the imperialists are to be renounced. It is the only way we can break these direct links between the colonialism of the past and the neo-colonialism which disrupts us today.

We do not want nor do we visualize an African High Command in the terms of the power politics that now rule a great part of the world, but as an essential and indispensable instrument for ensuring stability and security in Africa.

We need a unified economic planning for Africa. Until the economic power of Africa is in our hands, the masses can have no real concern and no real interest for safeguarding our security, for ensuring the stability of our regimes, and for bending their strength to the fulfilment of our ends. With our united resources, energies and talents we have the means, as soon as we show the will, to transform
the economic structures of our individual States from poverty to that of wealth, from, inequality to the satisfaction of popular needs. Only on a continental basis shall we be able to plan the proper utilization of all our resources for the full development of our continent. How else will we retain our own capital for our development? How else
will we establish an internal market for our own industries? By belonging to different economic zones, how will we break down the currency and trading barriers between African States, and how will the economically stronger amongst us be able to assist the weaker and less developed States?

It is important to remember that independent financing and independent development cannot take place without an independent currency. A currency system that is backed by the resources of a foreign State is ipso facto subject to the trade and financial arrangements of that foreign country. Because we have so many customs and currency barriers as a result of being subject to the different currency systems of foreign powers,
this has served to widen the gap between us in Africa. How, for example, can related communities and families trade with, and support one another successfully, if they find themselves divided by national boundaries and currency restrictions? The only alternative open to them in these circumstances, is to use smuggled currency and enrich national and international racketeers and crooks who prey upon our
financial and economic difficulties.

No independent African State today by itself has a chance to follow an independent course of economic development, and many of us who have tried to do this have been almost ruined or have had to return to the fold of the former colonial rulers. This position will not change unless we have unified policy working at the continental level. The first step towards our cohesive economy would be a unified monetary zone, with, initially, an agreed common parity for our currencies. To facilitate this arrangement, Ghana would change to a decimal system.
When we find that the arrangement of a fixed common parity is working successfully, there would seem to be no reason for not instituting one common currency and a single bank of issue. With a common currency from one common bank of issue we should be able to stand erect on our own feet because such an arrangement would be fully backed by the combined national products of the States composing the union. After all, the purchasing power of money depends on productivity and the
productive exploitation of the natural, human and physical resources of the nation.

While we are assuring our stability by a common defence system, and our economy is being orientated beyond foreign control by a Common currency, Monetary Zone and Central Bank of Issue, we can investigate the resources of our continent. We can begin to ascertain whether in reality we are the richest, and not, as we have been taught to
believe, the poorest among the continents. We can determine whether we possess the largest potential in hydroelectric power, and whether we can harness it and other sources of energy to our own industries. We can proceed to plan our industrialization on a continental scale, and to build up a common market for nearly three hundred million people. Common Continental Planning for the Industrial and Agricultural
development of Africa is a vital necessity.

So many blessings must flow from our unity; so many disasters must follow on our continued disunity, that our failure to unite today will not be attributed by posterity only to faulty reasoning and lack of courage, but to our capitulation before the forces of imperialism.

The hour of history which has brought us to this assembly is a revolutionary hour. It is the hour of decision. For the first time, the economic imperialism which menaces us is itself challenged by the irresistible will of our people. The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity. The people of Africa call for a breaking down of boundaries that keep them apart. They demand an end to the border disputes between sister African States – disputes that arise out of the artificial barriers that divided us. It was colonialism’s purpose that left us with our border irredentism that rejected our ethnic and cultural fusion.

Our people call for unity so that they may not lose their patrimony in the perpetual service of neo-colonialism. In their fervent push for unity, they understand that only its realization will give full meaning to their freedom and our African independence.

It is this popular determination that must move us on to a Union of Independent African States. In delay lies danger to our well-being, to tour very existence as free States. It has been suggested that our approach of unity should be gradual, that it should go piece-meal. This point of view conceives of Africa as a static entity with “frozen” problems which can be eliminated one by one and when all have
been cleared then we can come together and say: “Now all is well. Let us unite”. This view takes no account of the impact of external pressures. Nor does it take cognizance of the danger that delay can deepen our isolations and exclusiveness; that it can enlarge our differences and set us drifting further and further apart into the net
of neo-colonialism, so that our union will become nothing but a fading hope, and the great design of Africa’s full redemption will be lost, perhaps, forever.

The view is also expressed that our difficulties could be resolved simply by a greater collaboration through cooperative association in our inter-territorial relationships. This way of looking at our problems denies a proper conception of their inter-relationship and mutuality. It denies faith in a future for African advancement, in
African independence. It betrays a sense of solution only in continued reliance upon external sources through bilateral agreements for economic and other forms of aid.

The fact is that although we have been cooperating and associating with one another in various fields of common endeavour even before colonial times, this has not given us the continental identity and the political and economic force which would help us to deal effectively with the complicated problems confronting us in Africa today. As far
as foreign aid is concerned, a United Africa would be in a more favourable position to attract assistance from foreign sources.

There is the far more compelling advantage which this arrangement offers, in that aid will come from anywhere to Africa because our bargaining power would become infinitely greater. We shall no longer be dependent upon aid from restricted sources. We shall have the world to choose from.

What are we looking for in Africa? Are we looking for Charters, conceived in the light of the United Nations example? A type of United Nations organisation whose decisions are framed on the basis of resolutions that in our experience have sometimes been ignored by member States? Where groupings are formed and pressures develop in
accordance with the interest of the group concerned? Or is it intended that Africa should be turned into a lose organization of States on the model of the organization of the American States, in which the weaker States within it can be at the mercy of the stronger or more powerful ones politically or economically or at the mercy of some powerful outside nations or group of nations? Is this the kind of association
we want for ourselves in the United Africa we all speak of with such
feeling and emotion?

Your Excellences, permit me to ask: is this the kind of framework we desire for our United Africa? And arrangement which in future could permit Ghana or Nigeria or the Sudan, or Liberia, or Egypt or Ethiopia for example, to use pressure, which either superior economic or political influence gives, to dictate the flow and the direction of
trade from, say, Burundi or Togo or Nyasaland to Mozambique? We all want a United Africa, united not only in our concept of what unity can connote, but united in our common desire to move forward together and dealing with all the problems that can best be solved only on a continental basis.

When the first Congress of the United States met many years ago at Philadelphia, one of the delegates sounded the first chore of unity by declaring that they had met in a “state of nature” in other words, they were not at Philadelphia as Virginians, or Pennsylvanians, but simply as Americans. This reference to themselves as Americans was in those days a new and strange experience. May I dare to assert equally
on this occasion, Your Excellences that we meet here today not as Ghanaians, Guineans, Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans, Malians, Liberians, Congolese or Nigerians but as Africans. Africans united in our resolve to remain here until we have agreed on the basic principles of a new compact of unity among ourselves which guarantees for us and future a new arrangement of continental government.

If we succeed in establishing a new set of principles as the basis of a new Charter or Statute for the establishment of a Continental Unity of Africa and the creation of social and political progress for our people then, in my view, this Conference should mark the end of our various groupings and regional blocs. But if we fail and let this grand and historic opportunity slip by then we should give way to greater dissension and division among us for which the people of Africa will never forgive us. And the popular and progressive forces and movements within Africa will condemn us. I am sure therefore that we should not fail them.

I have spoken at some length, Your Excellences, because it is necessary for us all to explain not only to one another present here but also to our people who have entrusted to us the fate and destiny of Africa. We must therefore not leave this place until we have set up effective machinery for achieving African Unity. To this end, I now
propose for your consideration the following:

As a first step, Your Excellences, a Declaration of Principles uniting and binding us together and to which we must all faithful and loyally adhere, and laying the foundations of unity should be set down. And there should also be a formal declaration that all the Independent African States here and now agree to the establishment of a Union of African States.

As a second and urgent step for the realization of the unification of Africa, an All-Africa Committee of Foreign Ministers be set up now, and that before we rise from this Conference a day should be fixed for them to meet. This Committee should establish on behalf of the Heads of our Governments, a permanent body of officials and experts to work out a machinery for the Union Government of Africa. This body of officials and experts should be made up of two of the brains from each Independent African State. The various Charters of the existing groupings and other relevant document could also be submitted to the officials and experts.

A presidium consisting of the Head of the Governments of the Independent African States should be called upon to meet and adopt a Constitution and others recommendations that will launch the Union Government of Africa.

We must also decide on allocation where this body of officials and experts will work as the new Headquarters or Capital of our Union Government. Some central place in Africa might be the fairest suggestion either at Bangui in the Central African Republic or Leopoldville in Congo. My colleagues may have other proposals. The
Committee of Foreign Ministers, officials and experts should be
empowered to establish:

1. A Commission to frame a Constitution for a Union Government of African States;
   2. A Commission to work out a continent-wide plan for a unified or
   common economic and industrial programme for Africa; this plan should
   include proposals for setting up:
   • A Common Market for Africa
   • An African currency
   • African Monetary Zone
   • African Central Bank, and
   • Continental Communications System;
   3. A Commission to draw up details for a Common Foreign Policy and Diplomacy;
   4. A Commission to produce plans for a Common System of Defence;
   5. A Commission to make proposals for Common African Citizenship.

These Commissions will report to the Committee of Foreign Ministers who should, in turn, submit within six months of this Conference their recommendations to the Presidium. The Presidium meeting in Conference at the Union Headquarters will consider and approve the recommendations of the Committee of Foreign Ministers.

In order to provide funds immediately for the work of the permanent officials and experts of the Headquarters of the Union, I suggest that a special Committed be set up now to work a budget for this. Your Excellences, with these steps, I submit, we shall be irrevocably committed to the road which will bring us to a Union Government of
Africa. Only a united Africa with central political direction can successfully give effective material and moral support to our Freedom Fighters in Southern Rhodesia, Angola, Mozambique, South-West Africa, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Basutoland, Portuguese Guinea, etc., and of course South Africa.”

Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was a passionate believer in African unity, and a living link with the historic Pan-African movement which had promoted solidarity among people of African descent everywhere against colonialism and racism.

Kwame Nkrumah Speech categorically linked Ghana’s independence to the continent’s own, recognizing that “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the continent.” Nkrumah therefore established a series of conferences hosted in Accra between 1958 and 1960 with the aims of assisting countries still under colonial rule, fostering cultural and economic ties between countries and considering the issue of world peace.

Well, to begin with, I will say that when I returned to Ghana in 1989, my brother and sister were not interested in living in Ghana at all, and I was the only one determined to make Ghana my home at the young age of 26!

It was not an easy return, and I am not the easiest of persons to deal with. I tend to be very stubborn and independent-minded. But life has a way of teaching you things the hard way.

Anyway, I got involved in Ghanaian politics but because I belonged to the opposition and was very young and inexperienced at the time many people did not get to know me or know about me! As a country too we were also relearning the ways of party politics, and the multi-party system of democracy after almost a decade of military rule and a culture of silence.

The media too was fast-growing, and I was equally involved with it at different levels. Both in the print and electronic!

When my sister returned to Ghana after our mother’s death she clearly had an agenda and an ambition, and that is perfectly normal! The problem, however, was why she and my brother decided to keep me in the dark.

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True they are both older than me ( five and four years almost) but that is no excuse to slight or disrespect their younger brother.

You see if they had shared their interest in reviving the CPP with me I believe things would have been done differently!

Even if I did not agree with them on for example socialism or the viability of the party in contemporary Ghanaian politics, we would have at least shared our experiences and knowledge, and kept a unified front in the public eye and I would not have been critical of my sister! At least not in public!

But that was not to be and their involvement in my son’s life and his subsequent death really made matters worse. Again the lack of communication between us in such serious matters brought out the worse in me and ended badly for my son, Alin.

Is there a path for reconciliation?

To begin with, they never showed any remorse up to this day concerning the death of Alin! I do not demand an apology, I just ask for a truthful recognition that they should have consulted with me first before deciding to facilitate his coming to Ghana!

Yes they might have had good intentions for him, but what they failed to see is that being his father I was aware of a lot more of what went on in his life! And I was definitely convinced that life in Ghana would not be easy for him! To put it bluntly, I did not want him to go through the struggles I went through in Ghana since my return and rather preferred him to find his purpose in life in Europe where he grew up anyway!

Well, that recognition of a failure in judgment on their part never came, so my reservations still remain.

I concede that people can see things differently, especially as we had grown apart since the early 1980s when I lived in Europe! But bad blood among siblings is not a good thing, especially for ones with a legacy as ours!

Mr Nkrumah arrived in Conakry, Guinea after being invited by Sékou Touré just after the Military Coup that unconstitutionally ousted his Government from Power.

The death of one of Africa’s most prominent personalities normally would have occasioned a dignified reaction from the two major parties concerned:

Colonel Ignatius Acheampong desired that Mr Nkrumah ’s body be returned to Ghana where, he said, the former President would be given a dignified burial.

Madam Elizabeth Nyaniba, aged mother of the deceased President, made an impassioned plea to President Sékou Touré to allow the body to be returned to Ghana: “I want to touch the body of my son before he is buried, or I die.” She also indicated that she would like her son’s body embalmed and kept permanently on public display the way Lenin’s body is preserved.

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Sékou Touré would not consent, however—at least not until he had extracted from the Ghanaians important concessions which would redound to his personal profit. And, since the Romanians had sent the body to Conakry, the Guineans were in a strong position to dictate terms.

Press reports shortly after Mr Nkrumah’s death announced that Toure had attached four conditions to the return of the ex-President’s body to Ghana:

1. Nkrumah’s complete rehabilitation in the eyes of the Ghanaian people (lifting all charges that had been pending against him).
2. Liberation of all of Nkrumah’s partisans still held in Ghanaian jails.
3. Removal of the threat of arrest which hung over all of Nkrumah’s followers who had chosen to remain with him in exile.
4. An official welcome by the Ghanaian government of Nkrumah’s remains, with all the honors due a deceased chief of state.

On May 20, 1972, it was revealed that Touré had imposed even more conditions. He now insisted that Mr Nkrumah’s tomb be placed in front of Ghana’s Parliament building, and that all of the men who had occupied ministerial appointments and high positions in his civil service be restored to their former posts. Touré sought, in other words, to re-impose Nkrumah’s discredited government—minus only Nkrumah—on the Ghanaian people as the price for recovering the former President’s body.

Barring acceptance of these terms, Touré implied the body would be kept in Guinea. Not unexpectedly, Colonel Ignatius Acheampong refused to negotiate on such a basis and continued to urge the Guineans to allow the body to be brought back to Ghana.

Sékou Touré based Guinea’s right to keep Nkrumah’s body on Nkrumah’s having been granted asylum in Guinea and having been declared co-President of the Guinean Republic in 1966 when he was “betrayed” by the Ghanaian officers who overthrew him.

He claimed that Mr Nkrumah had actually been co-President of Guinea as far back as 1958, when the two countries had formed the Guinea-Ghana Union. He even insisted that this important decision—which automatically made each man co-President of the other’s country, in addition to being head of his own state-had been officially communicated at the time to all the countries and to all the international organizations with which the Republic of Guinea had diplomatic relations.

Touré obstinately refused to assent to the pleas of Nkrumah’s family and the Ghanaian people, and to the demands of the Ghanaian government and press. When Guinea’s leader appeared to have no moral justification for retaining Nkrumah’s body, African public opinion began criticizing Touré’s intransigence with increasing severity.

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The Daily Nation of Nairobi, in an editorial titled ‘A Cruel Refusal,’ stated:

« Though he now denies it, President Sékou Touré is believed to have asked for the impossible before allowing Kwame Nkrumah ’s body to be taken to Ghana to be buried in his home town of Nkroful… The people of Ghana cannot be dictated to as to where Nkrumah’s mortal remains should be buried… Guinea should not fear loss of face. Facing realities is more important. It should reverse the decision and thus fulfill and honor a dead man’s wishes. »

The Daily Times of Lagos editorialized:

« President Sékou Touré should see reason to release the corpse as he had earlier promised… If he remains adamant, he would not be depriving the military Junta in Ghana of anything. It is the common people of Ghana who would be deprived of paying their final respects to their bereaved leader.

The quarrel, now attracting attention from the non-African press as well, continued unabated.

Finally, several African leaders, notably Presidents William Tolbert of Liberia, Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, and General Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria, tried to persuade Sékou Touré that it was in the best interests of African dignity, and Africa’s image abroad, that the body be returned to Ghana.

The West African press reported that Toure finally gave in to these appeals but this proved to be unfounded. As events were to show, Touré determined to squeeze every possible propaganda advantage from Nkrumah’s demise.

Dr Nkrumah played a pivotal role in the formation of the African Union (A.U) previously called the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U) and led his country to independence in 1957.

President Nkrumah was unconstitutionally ousted from office through a military coup. The Coup was launched by the National Liberation council with the code name ‘Operation Cold Chop,’ on February 24, 1966 while he was in Peking (today’s Beijing) en route to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, with plans to end the American war in Vietnam.

Dr Nkrumah arrived in Conakry, Guinea after being invited by Sekou Toure just after the Military Coup that unconstitutionally ousted his Government from Power.

In distant Bucharest (Romania), April 27, 1972, far from his green and lovely native land and from his own people, Mr Nkrumah died of cancer.

His death, of cancer, was announced by President Seim Toure of Guinea, one of the militant nationalist’s closest friends. Mr Nkrumah had been living in Guinea since his overthrow in a military coup in 1966.

Several African Heads of State and the representatives of 25 other countries paid their last tributes to Ghana’s former President, on Saturday, May 13, 1972 after a funeral ceremony in Conakry, the Guinean capital.

Also represented at the funeral ceremony was Ghana’s new ruling military body, the National Redemption Council. But in Accra, there was no word of when his body would be flown back for burial — and there were some misgivings that it would not be returned by the Guineans.

The return of his body to Ghana followed lengthy negotiations between Ghana’s military rulers and the government of Guinea. Dr Nkrumah, was buried at his home town of Nkroful, 240 on Sunday July 9, 1972. While the tomb still remains in Nkroful, his remains were transferred to a large national memorial tomb and park in Accra, Ghana.

Today, the place is known as Dr Nkrumah’s Mausoleum and has become a tourist destination for Ghanaians and those in the diaspora.

The idea of erecting a monument in honour of Nkrumah dates back to 1972, when the African Students Union sent a memorandum asking the Government of Guinea, then under President Sekou Toure, to send the mortal remains of the Ghanaian leader to Ghana only if the military leaders at that time denounced coup d’état and re-erected the statue of Nkrumah which was destroyed during the 1966 coup.

Although the remains were later returned to Nkroful, his birthplace, it was not until 1992, that the image of Nkrumah was restored on the Old Polo Grounds during which the erstwhile Provisional National Defence Council, decided to build the Kwame NKrumah Mausoleum.

The operation was code named “Guitar boy.”

In the early hours of February 24, 1966, a group of officers and men of the Ghana Army, led by Lt. C B (later General) Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Major (later General) Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, with the active support from the Police in an operation code named “Operation Cold Chop” removed President Kwame Nkrumah from power while he was on a peace mission to Hanoi at the invitation of premier Ho Chi Minh.

On the morning of 17th April, 1967, Ghanaians were rudely shaken out of a contented sleep by the voice of a young Lieutenant, S.B. Arthur, announcing over Radio Ghana that he had taken over the administration of the Country.

The attempted counter-coup against the NLC was instigated by three junior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces: Lt. Samuel Arthur, Lt. Moses Yeboah and 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku.

With the support of several senior officers, including Warrant Officer George Ofosu, and 119 soldiers of the 2nd Recce (Reconnaissance) Regiment, the coup-makers plotted to overthrow the NLC government.

Arthur failed in the attempt and Ghanaians were soon able to heave a sigh of relief but they were to learn, to their horror, a few hours later that Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka had been captured in the night by Arthur’s men and murdered in cold blood at the then Accra International Airport which today has been christened Kotoka International Airport in his memory.

Operation Guitar Boy was the code-name for the attempted coup d’état on April 17, 1967 in Ghana.

Although unsuccessful, the coup resulted in the assassination of Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka.

The operation was named “Guitar Boy”, after a popular song by Nigerian musician Victor Uwaifo, in which the West African water goddess, the Mami Wata, had given him a guitar and asked him to make good music.

After the attempted coup, “Guitar Boy” was banned by the NLC from radio airplay in Ghana.

Lt. Samuel Arthur attempted to gain access to the ammunition depot of the 1st Recce Regiment.

In a struggle for the keys, Captain Avevor – the depot’s quartermaster – was shot and killed.

For their role in the deaths, Yeboah and Arthur were executed by firing squad at a military range near Labadi Beach.

The other conspirator, Osei-Poku, received a thirty-year prison sentence, and the other members of the regiment also received prison terms.

In 1969, the Accra International Airport was renamed Kotoka International Airport in memory of the late Lt. General E.K. Kotoka.

General Emmanuel kotoka, 40 years old at the time, was the father of six children, was the NLC member responsible for defence, health, labour and social welfare as well as commanding the armed forces.

A year before his death, he led the military coup which removed president kwame Nkrumah from power.

Read full speech below:

“At long last, the battle has ended!  And thus, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever!

And yet again, I want to take the opportunity to thank the people of this country; the youth, the farmers, the women who have so nobly fought and won the battle.

Also, I want to thank the valiant ex-service men who have so cooperated with me in this mighty task of freeing our country from foreign rule and imperialism.

And, as I pointed out… from now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds.  We must realize that from now on we are no longer a colonial but free and independent people.

But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work.  That new Africa is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.

We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our foundation – our own African personality.

As I said to the Assembly a few minutes ago, I made a point that we are going to create our own Africa personality and identity.  It is the only way we can show the world that we are ready for our own battles.

But today, may I call upon you all, that on this great day that let us all remember that nothing can be done unless it has the support of God.

We have won the battle and again rededicate ourselves … OUR INDEPENDENCE IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS IT IS LINKED UP WITH THE TOTAL LIBERATION OF AFRICA.

Let us now, fellow Ghanaians, let us now ask for God’s blessing for only two seconds, and in your thousands and millions.

I want to ask you to pause for only one minute and give thanks to Almighty God for having led us through our difficulties, imprisonments, hardships and sufferings, to have brought us to our end of troubles today. One minute silence.

Ghana is free forever!  And here I will ask the band to play the Ghana National Anthem.

Reshaping Ghana’s destiny, I am depending on the millions of the country, and the chiefs and the people, to help me to reshape the destiny of this country.  We are prepared to pick it up and make it a nation that will be respected by every nation in the world.

We know we’re going to have difficult beginnings, but again, I am relying on your support….  I am relying upon your hard work.

Seeing you in this…  It doesn’t matter how far my eyes go, I can see that you are here in your millions.  And my last warning to you is that you are to stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance, he can show the world that he is somebody!

We have awakened.  We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now one, there is a new African in the world!”

Happy Independence Day.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah in his ‘consolation letter’ to the newly overthrown Dr Busia, spoke about criticisms he (Dr Busia) fueled leading to his overthrow as the same criticisms led to Dr Busia’s overthrow.

“I am sure that you now realise that those who criticize other people without bothering to assign good reasons for their reasons eventually end up as victims of their own circumstances. After you have finished spoiling other people, you will be surprised to find out that you have spoiled yourself,” an excerpt of the letter read.  

Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the letter describing Dr Busia as a political weakling, revealed the role he played in the overthrow of Dr Busia’s government.

Read full letter below:

Ghana was left under the control of a three-man Presidential Commission.

On his entourage were his Foreign Affairs Minister, Alex Quason Sackey, his Trade and Industry Minister, Ambassador Kwesi Armah and among others.

Consequently, the CIA-backed coup in Ghana was carried out at the dawn of February 24, 1966, while Nkrumah was still on a peace mission in Asia.

His overthrow was communicated to him by the Chinese Ambassador at the time.

Reports say Dr Nkrumah could not believe the news of his overthrow.

The Ghanaian political doyen died exactly 55 years ago on February 4, 1965, after being detained without trial by the Convention People’s Party (CPP) government led by Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

J . B. Danquah was first arrested and detained under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) on October 3, 1961 and released on June 22, 1962.

He was re-arrested and detained on 8th January 1964 for his alleged involvement in a plot against the President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

His arrest came against the backdrop of his alleged participation in Police Constable Seth Ametewee’s failed assassination attempt on Kwame Nkrumah on January 2, 1964 which got the Body guard of Nkrumah, Salifu Dagarti Killed.

On February 4, 1965, Dr J.B Danquah suffered a heart attack and died in a condemned cell at the Nsawam Prison at age 69.

According to extracts from the report of the Commission of Enquiry into Ghana Prisons, 1967-1968, “The life of Dr. J.B Danquah in the cells was regimented in the same manner as that of a condemned prisoner awaiting execution … his cell was subjected to frequent rigid searches, he was chained and made to sleep on the bare floor.”

Background and Life

Dr J.B. Danquah was born on December 21, 1895 at Bepong-Kwahu. Educated in law and philosophy in London.

He established a private law practice after his return to the British Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1927.

He founded a newspaper, the Times of West Africa, in 1931 and served as secretary-general of the Gold Coast Youth Conference (1937–47).

During his political career, J. B Danquah was one of the primary opposition leaders to Ghanaian president and independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah.

In 1960, J.B. Danquah was nominated as the United Party’s presidential candidate to contest the April 1960 elections against Nkrumah but lost the election.

United Party’s Dr.J B Danquah won only 11 percent of the vote and CPP’s Kwame Nkrumah became president with 89 percent of the votes cast.

THE EVENT:

At about 1.15 pm on Thursday, January 2nd, President Nkrumah of Ghana left his office at Flagstaff House to return to Christianborg Castle for lunch. As he moved towards his car, across the courtyard, he was accompanied by two security guards – one Salifu Dagarti, a veteran British-trained police professional, the other an amateur provided by the President’s own party, CPP.

A rifle shot rang out. It had been fired from behind some sort of cover – perhaps about 50 yards away – by Constable Ametewee, one of the policemen on guard at Flagstaff House who had been transferred for duty there only a day or two previously. The driver of the President’s car immediately disappeared. The CPP security guard hid for his life behind the car. The President and Salifu dived for cover.

A police constable on guard outside the residence of Ghana’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, fired five gunshots at him in an assassination attempt. Seth Ametwee invaded The Flagstaff House in Accra and missed with his first shot. Nkrumah’s bodyguard, Salifu Dagarti, shielded the President with his body and was mortally wounded.

Two more shots were fired. One or both of them ripped through the President’s shirt but were apparently deflected by his bullet-proof vest.

Constable Ametewee then attempted to fire his fifth and last round, but the bullet was accidentally ejected. The President, perhaps seeing what had happened, got up and ran. The distance he covered was considerable. And, as he ran, he shouted for help. A number of armed policemen apparently watched with interest to see how the incident would end but did not move.

Senior officials similarly watched from the windows of nearby offices, one of them confining himself to the single comment: ‘They’ve bungled it again’.

As the President approached the kitchen of Flagstaff House, the Constable caught up with him and tried to club him with his rifle butt, but the rifle slipped from his hands. Inside the kitchen, the President and the Constable finally got to grips.

The Constable bit the President’s cheek. The President kicked the Constable in the groin and the latter momentarily collapsed. At that stage, other policemen arrived on the scene and decided the time had come to intervene.

Constable Ametewee was quickly knocked out and left lying on the ground. The President, having changed his shirt and had his cheek dressed by a Russian doctor, had his photograph taken crouching over his assailant, as he might have done had he just overpowered him. He then left for the Castle.

According to the veteran actor, he learnt how to direct, produce and shoot films in Ghana in 1960.

He explained that, ex-President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, championing the importance of movies in developing a nation, set up the Ghana Film Unit to take over what the British colonial masters had established as the Gold Coast Film Unit in 1957.

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Mr France added that, the Ghana Film Industry Corporation was the only film Industry Corporation in Black Africa, hence was duly recognised in the Sub-region and beyond.

With the skills he attained from Ghana, he travelled to Nigeria which was then looking up to Ghana in the film space.

Explaining further, he said, “I started learning how to film in 1969, it’s been 50 years when we shot Kwaw Ansah’s film. And you come back to this county where Nkrumah established GAMA films in 1960s and we are still where we are. It took only four Osofo Dadzie stories and that is Nollywood today, so I don’t think we are doing too well because we don’t want to spend money on entertainment.”

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“Goodluck Jonathan paid 3 billion Naira for entertainment in Nigeria and now just four Osofo Dadzie’s stories have made over 2 million filmmakers in Nigeria, so I think Ghana should wake up,” he said.

Watch the video above:

Source: Adomonline.com | Dennis K. Adu

You may not be aware, but our continent Africa is actually going through a new phase of colonialism – referred to as neo-colonialism. Nkrumah defined neo-colonialism as a situation of infringed and compromised national sovereignty where foreign interest remains economically – and hence politically – dominant in strategic decision making.

On July 10, 1953, the then head of government business of Gold Coast, Kwame Nkrumah, moved the “motion of destiny” in the British Parliament to legally succeed in leading Ghana to independence in 1957. Subsequently, he actively pursued the independence of almost two-thirds African states in the 1960s. However, this was plummeted by a CIA-sponsored coup in 1966, in no small but largely due to the publication of his work in 1965 condemning neo-colonialism in Africa as “the last stage of imperialism.”

Consequently, colonialism left Africa through the political door; but, playing possum, it has veered back through the economic door calling itself neo-colonialism. The blight of Africa’s freedom and independence is her economy. It has become a cliché that Africa has all the resources to develop, yet, they have become a source of exploitation stumbling her path to development.

TOWARDS AFRICA’S ECONOMIC FREEDOM

The prescient knowledge of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah outlined four stages to achieve the task of complete freedom and independent for Africa, which are: first, the attainment of political freedom and independence; second, the consolidation of that freedom and independence; third, the creation of unity and comity between the free African states, and fourth, the economic and social reconstruction of Africa.

The competition for sources of raw-materials by the most advanced and industrialized economies makes continental Africa the focus of imperialists. China has been the latest with her “debt-trap diplomacy” or “debt-colonialism” – offering enticing loans to countries unable to repay, and then demanding concessions when they default.

So the question arises: what is Africa’s alternative to the Euro-America-China economic association which had had deadly implications to Africa’s independence and progress? The answer lies in an African Common Market.

AFRICAN COMMON MARKET

According to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, it is an African economic community in which we can all pull our production and trade to a common advantage. For example, Africa produces more than 62% of cocoa in the world – 35% from Ivory Coast, 21% from Ghana and 5% from Nigeria. Harnessing these productions together in an African Common Market would build a global cartel to determine cocoa prices in the world market.

Nkrumah elaborated in his work on “Africa Must Unite” that the proposed Inga hydroelectric dam on the trans-boundary Congo River cannot go beyond the blueprint stage without the co-operation of other African states. Indeed, no single African state can afford to build it. The dam, when completed, would be the largest hydro-electric power generating facility on earth providing 25 million kilowatts of electricity capable of electrifying the whole of the African continent.

In the agricultural sector, Africa holds 60% of the world’s arable lands. However, farming in Africa is mostly faced with multiple challenges. The most important include inadequate funding on farming equipment and machineries, poor storage facilities and rural infrastructure, inadequate land and water resources. UNICEF projects that Africa will be home 2 to 5 children by 2050. The youngest population yet the most starving. Leadership demands that African youth are empowered in this area of the economy to provide the much needed manpower to support the backbone of Africa’s economy.

We have seen that since independence, the fragmentation of Africa into series of small states has left the states with little or no resources to provide for economic integrity and viability. Without the means of to establish their own economic growth, they are compelled to return to the colonial framework of economic bondage bolted in neo-colonialism. In the eternal words of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, “a state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace. The forward solution is for African states to stand together politically, to have a united foreign policy, and a fully integrated economic programme for the development of the entire continent.”