Thursday 14 September, 2000
Kwame Nkrumah's
Vision of Africa
Last December, BBC
listeners in Africa voted Kwame Nkrumah, the first head of an
independent Ghana their "Man of the Millennium". But although
Nkrumah triumphantly led Ghana to independence in 1957, by
February 1966 he had been overthrown in a coup and spent the
remaining six years of his life languishing in exile.
Omnibus explores what lay behind the coup and
Nkrumah's untimely death.
Hero of Independence Nkrumah became an international symbol
of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to
shake off the chains of colonial rule.
As midnight
struck on March 5, 1957 and the Gold Coast became Ghana,
Nkrumah declared:
'We are going to see that we
create our own African personality and identity. We again
rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other
countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless
unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the
African continent.'
But over the next few years he
was increasingly regarded as an authoritarian and remote
leader. In 1964 he declared himself president for life and
banned opposition parties. Justifying his actions he wrote:
'Even a system based on a democratic constitution
may need backing up in the period following independence by
emergency measures of a totalitarian kind.'
Many
Ghanaians celebrated when their former hero was overthrown by
the police and military while he was on a visit to China in
1966. There was little response to Nkrumah's broadcasts
calling for the nation to rise against the coup leaders. He
died in exile in Romania in 1972.
An End to Colonialism Nkrumah was born Kwame Francis Nwia
Kofie in the south-west of the Gold Coast in 1909. In 1939 he
left to study economics and sociology in America. There and in
London he was active in the Pan African movement which was
demanding freedom and independence for the colonies.
Nkrumah returned to his homeland in 1947 and became
Secretary General of the United Gold Coast Convention which
was campaigning to end British rule. However, in 1948 he was
expelled from the organisation for leading a campaign of civil
disobedience. He responded by founding the Convention People's
Party in 1949, the first mass political party in black Africa.
Imprisoned by the British in 1950, he was released the
next year after the CPP's landslide election victory. In 1952
Nkrumah became the country's first prime minister. After
independence in 1957 Ghana became a republic in 1960. But
while Nkrumah worked to improve living standards at home his
ambitions extended beyond national boundaries to the creation
of a federal union of African states.
'Our independence is
meaningless unless it is linked up with the total
liberation of the African
continent' | | All For One and One For All Explaining his vision in his 1961 book,
I Speak of Freedom, Nkrumah wrote:
'Divided
we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest
forces for good in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely
that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate
respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our
heritage, the African race, united under one federal
government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to
flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose
greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear,
envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but
founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of
all mankind.'
However, few of the newly
independent African countries were persuaded of the need to
give up some of the power they had recently won, to a central
parliament for the continent. Ghana was one of 30 nations that
founded the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. But Nkrumah
regarded it as inadequate as it was not the United States of
Africa he longed for. |
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Letters to
Milne |
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Contributing to the
Omnibus report is June Milne, Kwame
Nkrumah's British Literary executrix. She was the
person who was closest to Nkrumah during his long,
bitter years in exile, visiting him no less than
16 times. They wrote intimate letters daily that
covered every conceivable topic form Ghana to jam,
from vests to Vietnam. She was by his bedside in
Bucharest when he died.
Immediately
following the coup in 1966 Nkrumah wrote to Milne:
'11th March 1966. You shouldn't worry
about me now June. I am safe and well. I did not
write earlier because I was trying to get myself
sorted out. I know very soon I shall be back in
Ghana and I don't think that you should bother
about the criticism, abuse, vilification and the
lies being told about me. The truth will out.'
Nkrumah died in exile five years
later. | |
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