April 27th, 1972 ….On this date Dr. Kwame Nkrumah passed away. His death took many by surprise, all around the world. He was eulogized, offered
prayers from Cairo to the Cape/Azania for the sacrifices he made for
Africa and humanity. Elsewhere, in the diaspora Africans born in the
Caribbean, U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, South and Central America; Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim; all paid their respect to this great giant and
African Freedom Fighter. As his fellow freedom fighters and comrades
reminded the world and Africans to continue the struggle for dignity,
freedom, and liberation for the ultimate goal of ” One United States Of
Africa ” the ultimate solution. This year marks the 50th year of the founding of the OAU-now called the AU (African Union), of which he was the leading architech.
Thanks to him and many of the freedom fighters who help pave the way for us.
Perhaps one of his best critics, brother, and friend Mwalimu Julius Nyerere sums
it up best in an interview with the “New African” ….in the 2000 edition.
He noted : ” Kwame Nkrumah was {Ghana’s} leader, but he was our leader
too, for he was an African leader. People are not gods. Even the best have
their faults, and the faults of the great can be very big. So Nkrumah had his faults.
But he was great in a purely positive sense.
He was a visionary. He thought big, but he thought big for Ghana and its
people, and for Africa and its people. He had a great dream for Africa and
its people. He had the wellbeing of our people at heart. He was no looter.
He did not have a Swiss bank account. He died poor. Shakespeare wrote that
” the evil that men do lives after them”, but “the good is oft interred with their bones”.
Nkrumah helped Gambia, by bringing many to Ghana to further their education free of charge; many finished and went on to university in various parts of Africa and the world.
He fed them, gave them food and shelter, all for free – to the surprise of many citizens.
He did more to help in few years, than Britain did on education in fifty years as colonizer.
We may borrow some few moments about the day he declared Ghana’s political
independence, as witnessed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in March 1957.
For those who have not read King’s writings on the influence, Ghana’s Independence
and Nkrumah had on him and the U.S. Civil Rights Struggle; read up on one of his
biographers – Claiborne Carson – on the chapters on King and the African influence.
IN HIS OWN WORDS – AN INSPIRATION FROM GHANA HE NOTES:-
“ It seems this morning that I can hear God speaking. I can hear him
speaking throughout the universe, saying, “Be still and know that I am
God. And if you don’t stop, if you don’t straighten up, if you don’t stop
exploiting people, I’m going to rise up and break the backbone of your
power. And your power will be no more!” And the power of great Britain is
no more. I looked at France. I looked at Britain. And I thought about the
Britain that could boast, “ The sun never sets on our great empire.” And I
say now she had gone to the level that the sun hardly rises on the British
Empire.
AS DISTINGUISH GUEST AT GHANA’S INDEPENDENCE , MARCH 6th,1957 – He wrote
“ Ghana has something to say to us. It says to us first that the oppressor
never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for
it. Freedom is never given to anybody. Privileged classes never give up
their privileges without resistance.”
He notes further “The minute I knew I was coming to Ghana I had a deep
emotional feeling. A new nation was born. It symbolized the fact that a new
order was coming into being and an old order was passing away. So I was
deeply concerned about it. I wanted to be involved in it, be a part of it,
and noticed the birth of this nation with my own eyes. Struggling had been
going on in Ghana for years. The British saw that it could no longer rule
the Gold Coast and agreed that on the sixth of March, 1957, it would
release the nation. All of this was because of the persistent protest, the
continual agitation, of Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah and the other leaders
who worked along with him and the masses of people who were willing to
follow.”
M. L. King Jr. sums up his emotions thus: ” So that day finally came. About
midnight on a dark night in 1957, a new nation into being. That was a great
hour. As we walked out, we noticed all over the polo grounds almost a half
million people. They had waited for this hour and moment for years. People
came from all over the world —- seventy nations – to say to this new
nation : “We greet you and give you our support…..It was a beautiful
experience to see some of the leading persons on the scene of the civil
rights in America on hand: to my left was Charles Diggs, to my right were
Adam Clayton Powell and Ralph Bunche…..Mordecai Johnson, Horace Mann
Bond, A. Phillip Randolph.”
A handsome black man walked out on the platform, and he was followed by
eight or ten other men. He stood there and said, “We are no longer a
British colony. We are free and sovereign people.” “When he uttered those
word, we looked back and saw a flag coming down and a new flag coming up.
That new flag going up is the symbol of a new age coming into being” ” I
could hear people shouting all over that vast audience “Freedom! Freedom!
Freedom !”…” Before I knew it , I started weeping. I was crying for
joy. And I knew about all of the struggles, all of the pain, and all of
the agony that these people had gone through for this moment.”
After Nkrumah made that final speech, we walked away, and we could hear
little children six years old and old people eighty and ninety years old
walking the streets of Accra crying: ” Freedom1 Freedom!” they were crying
it in a sense that they had never heard it before. And I could hear that
old Negro spiritual once more crying out: Free at last, Free at last,
Great God Almighy, I’m free at last.” ” The thing that impressed me more
than anything else that night was when Nkrumah and his other ministers who
had been in prison with him walked in. They didn’t come in with the crowns
and all those garments of kings. They walked in with prison caps. Nkrumah
stood up and made his closing speech to parliament with the little cap he
wore in prison for several months and the coat he wore in prison for
several months. The birth of this new nation renewed my conviction in the
ultimate triumph of justice. And it seemed to me, this was fit testimony to
the fact that eventually the forces of justice triumph in the universe.”
Here are some observations by Sam Nujoma, 1st President Of Namibia.
Here is a brief account of his encounters and experience as young freedom
fighter in interview the “New African” several years ago in 1997 on Ghana’s 40th Independence anniversary, and remembering Nkrumah’s legacy and contributions to Africa’s freedom. He notes “ Ghana’s fight for freedom inspired and influenced us all, and the greatest contribution to our political awareness at that time came from the achievements of Ghana after its Independence.It was from Ghana that we got
the idea that we must do more than just petition the United Nations to bring about our Independence, and thus on 19 April 1959, we formed our own liberation movement, the Ovamboland People’s Organization (OPO), which was transformed into South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) one year later in 1960.”
“ At the time of Ghana’s Independence, I was a young man of 29 years, and
this historic Independence celebration had a tremendous enduring impact on
my life. It provided a ray of hope for the future of our own liberation,
and from that day on I decided that come rain or shine, hell or high
water, joy or pain, life or death, we will liberate our motherland Namibia
as it was done in Ghana !”
“ After the brutal killing of our people on 10 December 1959, during the
Windhoek Old Location Massacre, I decided to flee the country of my birth.
My journey into exile took me through several African countries, most of
them still battling the yoke of colonialism, and I finally arrived in a
free and Independent Ghana in April 1960. This was like a breath of fresh
air, and I found myself in the centre of the campaign for African
Independence and unity.”
“ There was a Positive Action Conference in progress , organized by
President Kwame Nkrumah, and I met African leaders from different
liberation movements in Africa, including Nkrumah himself, Patrice Lumumba
and Josef Kasavubu of the then Belgian Congo, and the legendary Frantz
Fanon who was representing the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). I
gave an eyewitness account of the Windhoek Old Location Massacre. To this
day, I remember vividly Nkrumah’s words at the Positive Action Conference,
the central message of his speech being that “ the continent was awakened:
the giant that had been asleep was aroused”. I held personal talks with
Nkrumah on several occasions, and he always urged to “Keep On! The Ghana
government is behind you.”
I need to mention that perhaps the most important practical contribution
Ghana made to Namibia in particular, was the fact that in 1966, Ghana’s
permanent representative to the UN proposed Resolution 2145, which
effectively terminated the South African mandate and placed South West
Africa under the direct responsibility of the UN. This Resolution…culminated in the independence of Namibia on 21 March 1990.”
Nkrumah will always be remembered for the good contributions he made for
the emancipation and liberation of Africa and Africans worldwide. his words will
always remain one of our battle cries “Africa Forward Ever, Backwards Never …
You Have Nothing To Loose But Your Chains.”