World Student Community for Sustainable Development

40 years ago on the 24th of February 1966, some officers of the Ghanaian armed forces ousted Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first post independence leader of Ghana and firebrand pan Africanist, whilst he was on his way to Hanoi mediate peace between America and Vietnam. That coup set the pace for the instability and underdevelopment that was to beset Ghana and the rest of Africa for the next 40 years. The damage the coup caused to Africa still remains irreparable. Nkrumah fought hard for political and economic independence for Africa. As we look back and learn from the lessons from the past, this article highlights the life and personality of Kwame Nkrumah, his dream for African unity, and outlines what can be done to fully realise this dream. Just as in the words of the late Julius Nyerere, first leader of Tanzania, “without unity there is no future for Africa.â€

* Description: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. (1909-1972)

Leader of the Ghanaian independence movement, first president of Ghana (1957-1966) (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org)

Nkrumah rose to prominence in the 1950’s when he won independence for the former Gold Coast (now Ghana). In 1957 he made her the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa country to win independence from European colonial rule. Nkrumah used the independence of Ghana as a platform to lead the fight for the total emancipation of Africa from colonial rule, and also to campaign for a political union of the newly independent states and the integration of their economies. Because of his anti-colonial struggle, he was given the name Osagyefo (the redeemer), although sadly the most prestigious recognitions of his struggle were granted after his death in 1972.

In 1978 the United Nations awarded him a posthumous gold medal during a special session of the UN Committee against apartheid. In 2000, BBC’s African listeners voted him as ‘African of the Millennium’, and in 2004 New African magazine’s worldwide readers voted him as the ‘Second Greatest African that ever lived’. But the greatest acknowledgment ever of his work and struggle was the transformation in 2002 of the former moribund Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to a more proactive African Union (AU) – modeled from his vision of United States of Africa.

Kwame Nkrumah also had his low points; his nine-year rule in Ghana was considered authoritarian and undemocratic. The renowned African commentator Professor Ali Mazrui described Nkrumah as a Great African but awful Ghanaian during a BBC interview in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of the 1966 coup.

Born Francis Nwia Kofie Nkrumah on 21st September 1909 in the village of Nkroful, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah got his early education in Ghana. In 1935, after training as a teacher at the government teachers college at Achimota (near Accra), he left for the United States. He spent the next 10 years in the US where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Economics and Sociology from Pennnsylvania’s Lincoln University in 1939, a Bachelor of Theology degree at the Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942, and a Masters degree in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943.

The Untied States greatly influenced Nkrumah’s personality, vision and ideology. He faced hard times in the US as his student days coincided with the great depression; he lived in abject poverty and did odd jobs to support his stay, which strengthened his character all the more. His vision of a United States of Africa was a replica of the US union. But what inspired him most was the works of Marcus Garvey, a black American, whose thoughts were published in 1923 in a book entitled ‘Philosophy and Opinions depicting the notion of ’Africa for Africans’; and Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement. Nkrumah was a founding member and first president the African Students’ Association of America, where he started his anti-colonial struggle.

Nkrumah later moved to London where he enrolled at the Gray’s Inn to study law and to start a PhD at the London School of Economics. He soon linked up with other pan-Africanists in the UK, for example George Padmore, and played a key role in the organising the Fifth Pan African Congress that took place in Manchester in October of 1945, and was appointed secretary of the organisation. In his 1957 autobiography, he described the Fifth Pan African Congress as ‘the outlet for African nationalism that brought about the awakening of African political consciousness’.

After the Fifth Pan African Congress he abandoned his law degree and doctorial thesis to set up the West African National Secretariat along with other nationalists to fight against British colonial rule in West Africa. When he returned to Ghana in November of 1947, he served as the General Secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention (U.G.C.C.). In the wake of boycotts and a general strike that spread through out the country, he was arrested and detained along with other U.G.C.C. leaders, and later singled out as the ringleader. After some leadership tussle within the U.G.C.C, Nkrumah broke away from the U.G.C.C. to form the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in 1949. After Nkrumah took over the leadership of the CPP he adopted the philosophy of Positive Action based on the principle of non-violence adopted by Mahatma Ghandi of India, and led calls for full self-government. The CPP soon took up nation wide strikes and protest actions that led to the arrest and imprisonment of Nkrumah for sedition.

While in prison, Nkrumah overwhelmingly won the seat for Accra Central during the 1951 general elections for the General Assembly. He was released from prison to take up his seat, and was later appointed Prime Minister on the 21st of March 1952. He used this position to table the motion for independence before the General Assembly, the motion generally known as the ‘Motion of Destiny’. When the CCP won the general elections of the 6th of March 1957, Nkrumah was pronounced Prime Minister of the Independent State of Ghana, named after the ancient Ghana Empire that was located around present day Mauritania. In declaring Ghana’s independence, he stated the independence of Ghana was meaningless without the rest of Africa also becoming independent, and spent the rest of his life fighting for this.

Kwame Nkrumah’s rise to the premiership of the former Gold coast marked a distinct milestone in the realisation of the ideals of the pan Africanist and African nationalist. He also used his leadership position to propagate his philosophy of African Unity and his blueprint for Africa’s economic development through several publications and landmark speeches. Moreover, he lead by example. Sam Nujoma, the founding president of Namibia, described him in a recent article in New African magazine as a practical revolutionary and a prophet.

Just after Ghana gained its independence, he organised a Conference of Independent African States in 1957, to in order to mobilize support for other liberation struggles. In his first step to actualize unity on the continent, Nkrumah along with President Sekou Toure of Guinea, formed the Ghana-Guinea Union in 1958. This was followed by the All African People’s Conference of December 1958 with the theme “Hands off Africa! Africa Must Unite†. In a symbolic move to bridge the divide between the Arab north and black sub-Saharan Africa, he married an Egyptian woman, Fathia HalenRitzk, on the 30th of December 1957, in a wedding that was facilitated by President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.

On the economic front, Nkrumah was passionate in his belief that Africa’s future development lay with rapid industralisation. In his book Africa must Unite he wrote, “In the industrial sphere our aim has been to encourage the establishment of industries where we have the natural advantage in local resources and labour†. He initiated the process of industralising Ghana in one generation as a guide for the continent, and by the time he was ousted in 1966 he had already established 68 state-owned factories, an achievement that was noted in the Guinness Book of Records. His other remarkable legacies are the huge Aksombo hydroelectric plant, Ghana’s major source of electricity supply, and the motorway linking the capital Accra and the port town Tema.

In spite of the huge investments, Nkrumah’s industralisation did not yield the economic dividend he had hoped for. His government became heavily indebted in the mid 1960’s from the short-term development loans it undertook for his costly infrastructure development projects. The fall in world cocoa prices in the mid 1960’s severely affected the country’s balance of payments, which made debt servicing very difficult. These problems were exacerbated by the West’s skepticism over his socialist tendencies. Perhaps Nkrumah initially underrated the extent to which the West would go to thwart his effort at building an African Union with socialist ideals at the height of the cold war.

According to Baffour Ankomah, editor of New African magazine, the CIA started monitoring Nkrumah after Ghana’s independence in 1957, an effort that was followed by a series of sabotage in collaboration with other Western governments – finally climaxing into the 1966 coup. The involvement of the CIA in the 1966 coup still remains controversial however. Even the widely acclaimed Declassified National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency documents, and the British national archives on Nkrumah remain ambiguous about the role of the CIA and British intelligence in the coup of 1966. But despite this, several scholars and people who have been following up on the Nkrumah saga have put strong arguments about the West’s direct involvement in the coup.

June Milne (Nkrumah’s former white research and editorial assistant, and later literary executrix) in a recent article to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the coup, wrote that former US president Lyndon Johnson called Nkrumah on the first week of February 1966 to assure him of his safe landing at Hanoi on his peace mission to Vietnam. Milne questioned: “Why were the American so anxious for Nkrumah to leave Ghana- especially when he had suggested peace talks could be held in Accra?†She went further to say “… a coup to remove him was in the final stages of planning. For it to succeed, it was imperative that he was out of the country, and as far as possible to ensure he would be unable to make a quick return.â€

Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, wrote in his autobiography Sowing the Mustard Seed that: “There is now evidence to show that the frustration of [Nkrumah’s African unity project] had the backing of American and British imperialism.†Former president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, described the 1966 coup as an imperialist-inspired-and-supported coup that disrupted the march of the African people towards genuine freedom and independence. Perhaps these claims could be substantiated by the action of the coup leaders to burn books associated with Nkrumah, socialism and communism, and the expulsion of other African freedom fighters from the liberation training camps in Ghana.

After the coup Nkrumah got messages of support and invitation form presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Modibo Keita of Mali, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Sekou Toure of Guinea, but choose to Sekou Toure with whom he had a brotherly bond. Sekou Toure even offered to step down as President for Nkrumah, an unprecedented move which is grossly under reported by history, but he refused and only accepted to serve as co-president. Back home in Ghana the coup did not face much resistance as the weak Ghanaian economy was adversely affecting standards of living. Moreover most Ghanaians saw Nkrumah as sacrificing their needs and rights at the expense of his ambitious white elephant African liberation and unity projects.

Whilst life was getting tough for Ghanaian students, Nkrumah kept providing scholarship places for other African students, particularly those from Southern Africa where white minority rule was still prevalent. What battered Nkrumah’s popularity the most was his poor human record. He transformed Ghana in to a republic under a new constitution which gave him, as the new president, wide ranging executive powers. He went further to declare Ghana a one party state and adopted the Prevention Detention Act, under which he imprisoned several of his opponents including his old colleagues and comrades with whom he had started the independence struggle like J.B Danquah. Baffour Ankomah, editor of New African magazine, in an attempt to explain the reasons behind Nkrumah’s actions in his article on the 40th anniversary of the coup, wrote: “In hindsight one could perhaps find some mitigating circumstances for him [Nkrumah] as the ‘psychological warfare’ waged against him by the Americans and their allies, which included five assassinations attempts on his life via bombs and bullets, made him lose focus and part from his democratic credentials.â€

What made Kwame Nkrumah an exceptional African was his desire for African unity and his foresight. Even when it had become clear to him that other African heads of states were going to reject his proposal for continental unity, particularly those from the pro Western Monrovia bloc, he still found time to deliver his speech on the way forward for Africa at the founding conference of the OAU in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on 24th May 1963. A speech which has stood the test of time. In his speech he warned his fellow heads of states that they must unite or sink like the Latin Americans who still remained the unwilling and depressed prey of imperialism after one and a half centuries of independence. He admonished them to use their power of independence to mobilize the resources of Africa for the economic and social development of the continent rather mortgaging them to the Western world. In his example he said: “Fifty-two percent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the USA stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from our shores.â€

Nkrumah reaffirmed his belief in the infrastructural development of Africa when he said; “ We shall accumulate machinery and establish steel works, iron foundries and factories; we shall link the various states of our continent with communication by land, sea and air. We shall cable one place to another, phone from one place to the other and around the world..†On the economy, he said the different economic zones and trading barriers will continue to hinder the establishment of internal markets for local industries and the retention for capital for development. He lamented at the appalling economies of the newly independent states, and the manner in which they had to run back to their former colonial masters for help. He proposed the following as his blue print for unity and development on the continent.

1. A commission to frame a constitution for a Union Government of Africa.
2. A commission to work out a continent-wide plan for a unified or common economic and industrial programme for Africa; this should include proposals for setting up.
   • A common market for Africa.
   • An African currency.
   • An African monetary zone.
   • A continental communication 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 defense.
5. A commission to make proposals for a common African citizenship.

His proposal faced resistance from leaders like Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. Apparently most African leaders then did not want to relinquish their national sovereignty to a supreme African government, as it was against their personal political interest. At the end of the day they got the OAU which enshrined in its charter the principle of non interference in the internal affairs of member states- a principle which apparently gave the heads of states the ‘free hand’ to suppress political decedents and set the pace for instability in many African states.

Nkrumah used his time in exile to write books in order to sustain the flames of the pan-African touch. Although he had offers of military assistance to return him to power, he chose to use the political means. Most of his important books were written during his years in exile, the include; Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, Class Struggle in Africa, Dark Days in Ghana, and a freedom fighter’s edition of Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah, Voice from Conakry, Challenge of the Congo along with four pamphlets. The Revolutionary Path and Rhodesia File were published posthumously. He died on 27th of April 1972, in Bucharest, Romania where he had gone for medical treatment.

Time has shown that Nkrumah’s dream of African unity was not just an ideally romantic idea. Since then Europe via the EU has adopted his entire proposal apart from the one on a union of government. The current AU structure was modeled on his proposal.

Julius Nyerere was later gracious enough to apologise to Africans for the failure of their generation to attain continental unity, when he was delivering a speech on the occasion of Ghana’s 40th Independence in 1997. In acknowledging Nkrumah’s greatness he said); “Kwame Nkrumah was [Ghana’s] leader but he was also our leader too, for he was an African leader.†In expressing his admiration for Nkrumah, Nyerere declared: “He [Nkrumah] did not have a Swiss bank account. He died poor.†Nyerere said they failed to establish a union of government for the whole of Africa, because Nkrumah crusading passion had created suspicion among a substantial number of his fellow heads of state, coupled with a vested interest to keep Africa divided. Nyerere admitted that nobody else was willing to take up the challenge after Nkrumah was overthrown. His confession and plea was that they [the first generation of leaders of independent Africa] did not pursue the objective of African unity with the vigour, commitment and sincerity that it deserved. He urged the younger generation of Africans to reject political and economic division into Anglophones, Francophone and Lusophones as they only serve the interest of the former colonial masters.

The work and struggle of Nkrumah and other African nationalists positively affected the lives of Africans both at home and abroad. They brought self dignity and confidence in the African after years of humiliation through slavery, colonialism and racism. The provided the moral and political support to civil rights activist in the US. Malcolm X transformed himself from a militant member of the Nation of Islam to a more liberal civil rights leader and pan-Africanist, mainly because of his admiration for people like Nkrumah and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. There were even rumors that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr were planning to work together on a pro African Agenda shortly before Malcolm X’s assassination.

No sooner the ripples of black empowerment started reaching the shores US than the US government started to act against it. According to secret State Department documents declassified on January 2001. President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 made efforts to dissuade the American Negro Leadership from having a different view of foreign from the US government on African affairs. One of the memos read; “They[Negros] shouldn’t become a special interest group but should be interested in the totality of US policy as Americans. In short, I get it loud and clear that the President wants to discourage emergence of any special Negro pressure group (a la the Zionists) which might limit his freedom of maneuver.†Another memo states that: “While the President recognizes the American Negro Community’s natural interest in African affairs, he doesn’t think they should make it their special province. Rather than becoming a special interest group, they should be interested in the totality of US policy as Americans.â€

However, it is still not late for African Americans to pull their resources together for the development of Africa, just as the Jews have done for Israel through the Jewish lobby. Recent events around the Katrina disaster in Southern United States have demonstrated that African Americans are still seen like any other African. Until the fortunes of Africa change, blacks world over – irrespective of status- would not always get the most of what the deserve.

Nkrumah has left a legacy we must build on. Unity. “Unity will not end our weakness, but until we unite, we cannot even begin to end that weakness”, says Julius Nyerere. As Sam Nujoma, stressed in a recent article in New African magazine, “We must, therefore, mobilize all the African people to work shoulder to ensure the realisation of the total socio-economic integration of the African continent.â€

Our answer is neither with the Blair Commission nor the World Bank or any other like institution, it is with us. Technology, industralisation and trade, not aid lifted China and several other Asian countries out of poverty. It can work for us. To end in Julius Nyerere’s words, “unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African people to be disregarded and humiliated. And it will therefore, increase the effectiveness of the decisions we make and try to implement for our development.â€

References

New African Magazine, February 2006, No. 448. IC Publications, 7 Coldbath Square, London EC1R 4LQ.

Rugamba, M. (2004). F. N. K. Kwame Nkrumah : profiles. Contemporary Africa Database. The Africa Centre, London.