So Kwame Nkrumah got to know of his overthrow on 24 th February 1966 in Peking, China enroute to Vietnam on a peace mission. Upon hearing the news he was obviously disturbed.
About what?
The fact that his vision and work on a United Africa, of which he was chief architect, had been truncated. His worry was obviously not necessarily about losing power in Ghana, a country which independence he had declared meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of the continent.
He was worried that the next generation of which his children were part, will not grow up to mention Africa as their nationality in their passports and other documents. Yes , his children will be torn between two countries of the same continent.
He was concerned that one day the Africans of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia would enter into peace agreements that would make them strangers in their own territories. Yes, because they would not negotiate with a United Africa as a party on the negotiation table.
He was also concerned about the fact that all his efforts towards industrialising an African territory, based on which other territories would adopt similar policies in order to halt the overwhelming reliance on foreign goods would come to an end. It eventually did come to an end.
He was probably concerned about the steadfastness of those who will come after him to continue the continental struggle. If that could happen to him then, how could his successors to the struggle cope with the sophistication of the oppressor as time passes? Decades later in 2011,Gaddafi proved him right.
He would possibly think about his vulnerable peers who were collaborating with the colonialists at the time and wondered what they will finally do with the continent. Were they going to allow the neocolonialists to still manipulate them or they could wake up from their slumber? The latter has not been the case.
He knew that many of his like minded peers had their days numbered. If he had been deposed, all others could go as well.
When he had finally settled in Guinea and been made co-president, he knew even if he was not to return to Ghana and continue the struggle, he could write for posterity. With his vision,
experience and intellect, he wrote as much as he could, so we don’t lose focus.
Let’s look for his ideas and read them. When history was sharing prophets we had Nkrumah.
Africa Must Rise!!! 🌍♥️🖤💚
Credit: Sir Fidel Amakye Owusu
