Mr Njie,

Thanks for forwarding this piece on Nkrumah.

Saul


>From: Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: How Nkrumah was lured to his end
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 13:44:02 +0100
>
>
>
>
>       DECEMBER 1999
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>       SLAVERY
>       COVER STORY
>       How Nkrumah was lured to his end
>       A new biography written by the woman who inherited Kwame Nkrumah's
>will, the Australian-born June Milne, throws more light on how Nkrumah met
>his end. June, now 79, met Nkrumah in 1957 and worked closely with him,
>first as his research assistant and then his publisher. She was with him in
>Romania when he died in 1972. Osei Boateng reports.
>       "Mr President, I have bad news. There has been a coup d'etat in
>Ghana", the Chinese ambassador in Accra who had gone ahead to Beijing to
>meet Nkrumah had the difficult task of breaking the news to the Ghanaian
>president soon on his arrival in the Chinese capital on 24 February 1966.
>
>       Nkrumah was on a peace mission to Hanoi, Vietnam, at the invitation
>of President Ho Chi Minh who wanted a peaceful way out of the war with
>America.
>
>       "Nkrumah was taking a brief rest after the long flight from Rangoon
>[Burma]. For a moment he thought he might have misheard the ambassador,"
>writes June Milne, in the just published Kwame Nkrumah - A Biography.
>
>       It was the first, and bloodiest, coup ever in the history of Ghana.
>No one knows the exact figures, but it is estimated that 1,600 were killed
>on both sides, and many hundreds more wounded. As June puts it: "whatever
>the exact figure, it was far from the 'bloodless coup' reported in the
>British press."
>
>       Though the coup took Nkrumah by surprise, the storm clouds had
>actually been gathering long before he left Accra. His belief in socialism
>and his radical pan-Africanism was hated in the West.
>
>       In hindsight, socialism was a mistake, especially after the fall of
>the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet empire. But in
>the heady days after independence, with the exploitation of colonial rule
>just behind them, and seeing how socialism had transformed the Soviet Union
>into a superpower in just 40 years of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the
>founding fathers of Africa could perhaps be excused for believing that
>salvation lay in socialism.
>
>       Nkrumah's other problem was his drive for an African union
>government. His setting up of training bases in Ghana for African freedom
>fighters and political refugees from South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique,
>Angola, Guinea Bissau, etc. - a programme which saw nationalist leaders
>such as Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Kenneth Kaunda
>(Zambia), Kamuzu Banda (Malawi), Franz Fanon (Algeria) and many more,
>either visiting or living in Ghana - added to Nkrumah's troubles with the
>West. A strong, united Africa with a strong voice in world affairs, and
>able to look after its own matters was considered bad news by the
>metropolitan powers.
>
>       As Nkrumah himself wrote after his overthrow: "They want to destroy
>me and Ghana for we are in the forefront of the African struggle for
>emancipation".
>
>       But the last straw, June Milne reveals, was the publication in 1965
>of Nkrumah's book, Neo-colonialism - The Last Stage of Imperialism in which
>he exposed the workings of international monopoly finance. "The US
>government regarded the book as a hostile, dangerous statement which
>justified instant retaliation. There were angry diplomatic exchanges ...
>and $35m of American aid to Ghana was cancelled."
>
>       From then on, Nkrumah's days in government were numbered. According
>to revelations in books written by former CIA operatives, the budget of the
>CIA station in Accra was increased so Nkrumah could be kicked out quickly.
>
>       They even changed the white American ambassador in Accra and brought
>in an African-American, Franklin H. Williams, to take his place. Ambassador
>Williams was Nkrumah's mate at Lincoln University (the class of 1941).
>After the coup, Nkrumah wrote critically in his book, Dark Days in Ghana,
>about the betrayal of his former school mate - an accusation which
>disturbed Ambassador Williams greatly.
>
>       On 21 July 1969, Dr Marvin Wachmann who was about to leave as
>president of Lincoln University, wrote to Nkrumah thus: "As I prepare to
>leave, I would like to write a word on behalf of Franklin H. Williams of
>the Class of 1941... Mr Williams is a very bouncy and vigorous individual,
>and I have never seen him so crushed as he has been, concerning your
>feelings that he was involved in some way in the episodes in Ghana. He has
>assured me, personally, that he had no knowledge of the coup."
>
>       Nkrumah was not very amused with the denial, and as he told June
>Milne, "it [is] extremely unlikely that Williams did not know what was
>going on in the embassy with CIA officers operating from there."
>
>       June herself adds in her latest book: "It is now generally accepted
>that the CIA was involved in planning the coup. This involvement has been
>confirmed in a book, In Search of Enemies, written by a former CIA officer,
>John Stockwell, published in 1978. He disclosed that the CIA station in
>Accra 'was given a generous budget and maintained intimate contact with the
>plotters as a coup was hatched... Inside CIA headquarters [in America], the
>Accra station was given full, if unofficial credit for the eventual coup.'
>The CIA station chief in Accra, Howard T. Bane, was rewarded with promotion
>to a senior position in the Agency."
>
>       But the success of the coup depended on Nkrumah being away from
>Ghana, and the Hanoi peace mission offered a perfect opportunity. The
>mission had first been broached by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers'
>Conference in 1965 but it fizzled out because the British prime minister,
>Harold Wilson, wanted to lead the delegation, instead of Nkrumah who was
>the only leader acceptable to Hanoi.
>
>       President Ho Chi Minh thus sent a personal invitation to Nkrumah to
>lead another delegation. Nkrumah had recently engineered almost
>single-handedly the expulsion of apartheid South Africa from the
>Commonwealth, and his stock as a world leader was quite high at the time.
>
>       As he prepared to go to Vietnam in July 1965, Ho Chi Minh informed
>him that his security in Hanoi could not be guaranteed unless the Americans
>stopped the bombing of Vietnam. In August, Nkrumah sent his foreign
>minister Quaison Sackey to Washington to ask President Lyndon Johnson to
>order a halt to the American bombing so he could go to Hanoi.
>
>       That was like Saddam Hussein asking American permission to invade
>Kuwait. The CIA was fast at work in Accra, and Nkrumah's Hanoi mission
>could not have come at a better time. To lure him away, President Johnson
>assured Nkrumah that he would be perfectly safe in Hanoi, and that Ho Chi
>Minh "was only making excuses".
>
>       Three weeks to Nkrumah's departure, according to June Milne,
>"President Johnson sent an emissary, Menon Williams, to Accra to encourage
>Nkrumah to go. The CIA plans for the coup depended on Nkrumah being out of
>Ghana at the time."
>
>       So off, Nkrumah went - on 21 February 1966. Two days later, the coup
>happened!
>
>       A few months later, the newspaper Egyptian Gazette revealed in Cairo
>that one Amihia, a man from Nkrumah's own Nzima tribe, who was the
>go-between for the CIA and the local coup plotters had been killed after
>the coup because "he knew too much".
>
>       "I have information from a highly reliable source," Nkrumah himself
>wrote on 2 November 1968 to Mrs Shirely DuBois, wife of W.E.B DuBois, who
>had sent him the cutting from the Eygptian Gazette, "that Amihia was killed
>by the NLC [the military junta] because he knew too much, and they feared
>he might speak out."
>
>       A year later when President Eyadema of Togo went to visit the NLC in
>Ghana, June Milne reveals that "he was shown the Volta Dam and factories.
>He asked: 'who did all this?' Everything they looked at, they had to reply
>that Nkrumah did it. Eyadema got angry and asked: 'Why then did you do this
>coup? There was no need for a coup'. Relations became strained, and the
>state dinner arranged in his honour was cancelled."
>
>       From Beijing, Nkrumah accepted an invitation from President Sekou
>Toure of Guinea to come and live in Conakry. He had received similar
>invitations from Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Modibo Keita of
>Mali and Abdel Nasser of Egypt, but he chose Conakry because it was nearer
>Ghana where he hoped to return to power soon.
>
>       "He had arrived in Conakry", writes June Milne, "with funds provided
>by the Russians when he passed through Moscow en route from Hanoi to
>Conakry. Later, the Chinese gave him some. Then Presidents Milton Obote of
>Uganda and Nyerere sent envoys carrying diplomatic bags containing cash.
>Both wanted to see Nkrumah back in Accra, and were realistic enough to know
>that this was unlikely to be achieved without money.
>
>       "Nkrumah had no funds in foreign bank accounts, and his account in
>Barclays Bank in Accra into which his presidential salary had been paid,
>was frozen by the NLC. He was therefore entirely dependent on the
>generosity of political friends...
>
>       "Apart from those who asked for money to carry out plans to restore
>[his] government...Nkrumah faced considerable expense in providing for the
>needs of his entourage. Board and lodging was provided by the Guinean
>government. But Nkrumah paid the Ghanaians a weekly wage, half of what they
>had earned in Ghana, the understanding being that they would receive the
>other half of their pay, made-up in full, on their return to Ghana."
>
>       But that was not to be. Nkrumah had stepped up his writing in
>Conakry, and had understandably attracted a lot of interest from Western
>intelligence agencies. His letters were interfered with, the ring of people
>around him was infiltrated with spies, his residence Villa Syli was
>attacked during a Portuguese invasion of Conakry and a boat full of
>Ghanaian would-be assassins sent from Accra was seized near Villa Syli.
>
>       Nkrumah survived it all, until his loyal cook, Amoah, who travelled
>with him everywhere, died on 20 July 1967.
>
>       Nkrumah liked his fufuo, the staple food of most Ghanaians. But when
>Amoah died, according to June Milne: "Nkrumah was obviously exposed to
>greater personal danger... Madame Sekou Toure recommended a cook to replace
>Amoah, but it was not long before he left, and after that there was a
>succession of Guinean cooks... When I did go [into the kitchen one day], I
>realised the hopelessness of ever being 100% certain that his food was
>safe. Apart from the cook, there were so many men working there, and others
>wandering in and out all the time... At times when Nkrumah occasionally
>seemed to suffer from digestive trouble, I began to fear for his health."
>
>       June continues: "Towards the end of one of my visits to Conakry,
>when I had shared all meals with Nkrumah, I developed severe stomach pains
>and fever. For over six weeks on my return to London, I was seriously ill
>with typhoid-like symptoms which mystified my doctor. Exhaustive tests at
>the London School of Tropical Medicine failed to produce an explanation.
>Health officers visited my home to inspect taps and drains, but could find
>nothing to identify my illness."
>
>       Nkrumah's health deteriorated gradually. First it was a Russian
>doctor who treated him. He said Nkrumah was suffering from acute lumbago (a
>disease that causes pain in the lower back, the region between the lowest
>ribs and the hipbones).
>
>       President Sekou Toure and other friends implored Nkrumah to go
>abroad for medical treatment, but he was reluctant to go lest he
>discouraged the Ghanaians working for his return to power.
>
>       But later, in 1969 and 1970 when his health worsened, he asked the
>Soviets twice to allow him to come over for medical treatment. They
>wouldn't allow him, instead they sent two specialists to Conakry to examine
>him. "They advised that there was no cause for concern, and that it was
>politically an 'inopportune' time for him to leave Guinea," writes June
>Milne.
>
>       "I was not in Conakry when the specialists arrived," she continues,
>"but Nkrumah wrote the day they left to tell me the outcome of their
>visit... Whether or not on the specialists' advice I do not know, but there
>followed a course of injections administered by a Bulgarian doctor.
>
>       "The nature of the injections is unclear, but in 1971 when Nkrumah
>was in hospital in Bucharest [Romania], the consultant there [Dr Maderjac]
>told me that he had been given the 'exact opposite' of the treatment he
>required, causing whatever he suffered from - they would not give it a name
>- to 'spread to his whole body'. Nkrumah's [first] son, Francis, a
>highly-qualified doctor, told me when I visited Ghana briefly in 1972, that
>there was 'inexplicable medical bungling in Guinea'.
>
>       "It seems inconceivable that the Russian specialists did not know
>that Nkrumah was seriously ill when they examined him in 1970," June Milne
>adds. "I suspect they did not want to offend the Busia regime in Ghana by
>inviting Nkrumah to the Soviet Union. The Russians had recently reopened
>their embassy in Accra. At that time they probably did not want him to
>return to power in Ghana. They disapproved of [Nkrumah's] Revolutionary
>Handbook, and his ideas on the need for armed struggle. For some time, even
>before 1966, they were concerned about what they saw as Nkrumah's leaning
>towards the Chinese and Vietnamese. There was much tension then between the
>Soviet Union and China."
>
>       By the beginning of 1971, Nkrumah's health had become so bad that he
>had to go abroad for treatment. "When at length, in August 1971, he was
>finally compelled to go," says June Milne, "he was carried on a stretcher
>into the curtained-off front section of the Aeroflot plane which was to
>take him to Bucharest."
>
>       Dr Maderjac who treated him in Bucharest told June that "if Nkrumah
>had been in his care two years earlier, a simple operation could have cured
>him".
>
>       Finally, the end came at 8.45 am on 27 April 1972. The man who in
>good health had weighed 75 kilos had been reduced to under 57 kilos by the
>disease. And he died.
>
>       "There was no post-mortem," June Milne reveals. "One thing is,
>however, certain: he would not have died when he did, in his 60s, if it had
>not been for the 1966 coup in Ghana. If that had not occurred, he would not
>have been subjected to the strains, and exposed to security risks, for
>example over the preparation of his food while in Guinea. His doctors in
>Ghana would have detected any early signs of illness, and he would have had
>instant treatment of the highest quality."
>
>       In 1992, after 20 years of dithering by various Ghanaian
>governments, a massive mausoleum was finally built in Accra for Nkrumah by
>the Rawlings government, shaped like "a giant tree with a fluted base, the
>top cut off like a half-felled tree". At last, Nkrumah, "the tree cut
>short", had been accepted by his own people.
>
>       The mausoleum stands on the very same spot where on 6 March 1957, he
>had proclaimed Ghana's independence.
>
>
>
>       Copyright © IC Publications Limited 1999. All rights reserved.
>
>

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