As I was scribbling something in my dairy, trying to
list my schedule for the day, the Joy FM’s news jiggle started playing. This
signaled me that it was six o’clock AM already. I strained my ears to listen to
what the news had for me. As usual, I was expecting to hear something about the
vultures who are eating themselves up within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and
possibly, our struggling economy under the seemingly confused government. But
no, I heard more than that! Today was also the African Union Day. All of a
sudden, my thoughts were set in motion. Names of our great forbearers resounded
in my ears, names including: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere,
Haile Salasie, Sekou Toure, Abdul-Nasser and the rest.But the only one whose name re-echoed in my ears and swept me on my feet was Kwame Nkrumah. A man whose monumental achievement and effort gave birth to the African Union of today, and this bears testimony in his statute which stands magnificently at the edifice of the African Union building in Addis Ababa.
Growing up as little boy, the only name I could hear
was Nelson Mandela and in my naïve judgment, I perceived him as the greatest
African ever lived. But going through literature, it became apparent to me that
even though Nelson Mandela fought hard to end apartheid in South Africa, Kwame
Nkrumah lit the flames of the struggle of nationalism. As our sages advice “a
person whose corn matures first is the person who started stinginess” and
therefore no matter what Mandela did, he could not be compared to Nkrumah.
To our current generation and specifically Ghanaians,
when we talk of Nkrumah’s greatness we cite only the physical projects that he
left—Tema Harbour, Akosombo Dam, Tema Motorway, KNUST and my own alma mater,
the University of Choice, among others.
But Nkrumah greatness lay far, far beyond those
projects. This seems to vindicate the great academic, Charles Abugri’s
suggestion that “Dead politicians are different things to different people…Their
good is usurped, their failures exhumed and magnified as appropriate and in
accordance with creed”. Maybe this also explains why as a
little boy, Nelson Mandela’s name sounded more important in my ears than
Nkrumah.
The achievement of Nkrumah lay
deep like the roots of Odum tree, they are firmly stalk deep in the soil and
cannot be blown away even by the hurricane or tsunami. His achievements are
cast in iron and are well documented.
But our elders say, when we reach the cemetery, it
is prudent we remember the heroes of the past. This will help us make a
retrospective attempt to understand the origin of the current crisis. Kwame
Nkrumah’s legacies include his inspiring effect on the black man, his singular
contributions to the liberation of our continent and his hold on the masses
stemming from his brand of retail politics.
Having acted the Organizing Secretary of the 1945
Pan-African Congress in Manchester which included other great Pan-Africanists such
as W.E.B. Du Bois and Nkrumah's longtime friend, George Padmore, Nkrumah was
inspired about the need for Africa to be liberated and be united under one union government. His influence was inspired by the wealth and power
of the United States of America(USA) and the now defunct, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republic (USSR).
Having suffered racial discrimination during his
student days in the USA when the civil right movement was at its peak, Nkrumah
developed a non-violent yet a militant approach to the struggle for
independence when he returned to Ghana in 1947 upon his invitation by the
United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The UGCC leadership had already stoked the
fire for the liberation struggle, but they were reacting with kid gloves.
At a point, Nkrumah had to break away from the UGCC
and formed the Conventions People’s Party (CPP) which eventually won
independence for Ghana in 1957.
After Ghana’s independence, Accra became the mecca
of Pan-Africanism and all the liberation fighters trooped to the shores of Ghana
for the “baptism of fire” for the liberation of the continent. Nkrumah
forcefully preached the need for Africa to unite urgently to elude
neo-colonialists and imperialists from infiltrating within their ranks, but this
went unheeded by his compatriots who were still
enjoying their new found sovereignty.
As the elders say, “the sore that will kill the dog
starts from its head”. Nkrumah’s ideas were consigned into the dustbin, but
today, the bones of those leaders who opposed to Nkrumah’s ideas would be gnashing
and turning bitterly in their graves with regrets, but the ship has already
sank deep in the ocean.
Today, Africans are blaming their leaders. There
seems to be leadership crisis on the continent. “Dumsor” is suffocating and
roasting Ghanaians and businesses are folding up. Boko haram insurgency continued
to terrorize innocent people in Nigeria whilst their outgoing president, Goodluck
Jonathan, was busy doling out gold-plated iPhones at his daughter’s wedding. Thousands
of Burundians are mourning the murder of the opposition leader, Zedi Feruzi,
whilst their president, Pierre Nkurunziza is busy exhibiting his skills in
soccer. What a continent!
The continent is the richest in the world yet the
poorest in terms of human and infrastructural development. Millions are still
dying from common preventable diseases and our resources are being carted away
everyday by the imperialists and the neo-colonialists Nkrumah preached about.
Was Nkrumah not right in calling for African Unity?
Even though Nkrumah’s critics have always argued
that Nkrumah’s personal posture indicated that he was a new form of black
imperialist, the true must be told, Nkrumah’s ideas were superb but his
contemporaries were too naïve to interpret the rhythm of his tunes.
He introduced one party system, Preventive Detention
Act (PDA) and was also accused of assassinating Sylvester Olympio of Togo, as well
as masterminding to overthrow other leaders in Africa including the Nnamde
Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria and Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory
Coast.
His cynics often say, he should be nailed on the
cross because of these reasons, but they forget that the exigencies that raised
its ugly head in his attempt to Unify Africa called for a more radical and
brutal approach. The west imperialists were working on the backdoor to
overthrow Nkrumah for the mere reason that he was a socialist. They were using
their puppet governments and some selfish individuals to execute their plans.
Every person has his own flaws. Just like Mandela who
was hailed as a hero but today, we are witnessing xenophobia which I prefer to call “Afrophobia”
in South Africa, which many people would want to put the blame on his
doorsteps, Nkrumah had his own flaws because of the exigencies of his time.
Today, as we commemorate of African Union’s Day, I
see it as the celebration of the funeral of Nkrumah’s abortive ideas. The ideas
which continue to ignite lively debates among rational thinkers. Today, Africans would wish they could reverse the hands of time but that seems too late.
Nkrumah is indeed a great hero of Africa and his name and Africa Union are siamese twins which cannot be operated on by any surgeon.
